Writing a Cowboy Ballad:

A ballad is a story told in song which usually includes repetition, four-line stanzas, and a rhyming pattern. Common rhyming patterns are abac, aabb, or acbc. Repetition can be entire lines or stanzas.

Check out the excerpt from "Little Joe, the Wrangler" below. Notice the rhyme pattern for this verse is abcdec.

Learned him to wrangle horses (a)

An' try to know them all (b)

Get them in at daybreak, if he could (c)

An't follow the chuck wagon (d)

An' always hitch the team (e)

An' help the cocineros rustle wood (c)