Spoken word = speaking with intention. 

You might have already heard of Spoken Word poetry - this usually means poetry which is written especially to be read out loud and performed. 

So what is a spoken word song?

Good question. Well… it's no secret that music and words go together like toast and peanut butter. They always have. People have been putting words to music for hundreds of years. 

Most of the time, when we think about songs, we think about singing. Singing happens when we use our voices like a musical instrument, we push it physically, change it from high to low (its ‘pitch,’) all to create melody - a tune. 

When we speak, we don't really make much of a tune. Instead, we focus on making rhythms, and the words we choose can have more impact when spoken. 

When we write songs, we have the choice whether to speak or sing, (or a little bit of both) just like we would choose between playing a song on the guitar or piano, or drums...