# Sing nonsense syllables to a melody "Song frees the voice from any burden of saying anything meaningful," says ethnomusicologist Lisa Decenteceo.[^1] Sam Beam says, "I find that a lot of times I'll come up with the seedlings of a song just by fooling around with the guitar or the piano and muttering nonsense, you know, just syllables at random. Sometimes you stumble upon a word or a phrase, and it's like a coat hanger. All of a sudden, you have something to start hanging other phrases and stuff on.[^2]" [^1]: [Why We Listen to Music With Lyrics We Don’t Understand](https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5q3gm/why-listen-music-lyrics-dont-understand-sound-songs-foreign-language-macarena-despacito?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits) [^2]: [Iron And Wine: Words Like Seedlings | WJCT News](http://news.wjct.org/post/iron-and-wine-words-seedlings)