What's the difference between ballad and ditty?

Ballad


Definition:

  • (n.) A popular kind of narrative poem, adapted for recitation or singing; as, the ballad of Chevy Chase; esp., a sentimental or romantic poem in short stanzas.
  • (v. i.) To make or sing ballads.
  • (v. t.) To make mention of in ballads.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "Celtic fans still regularly belt out The Ballad of Willie Maley," writes Mark Sheffield.
  • (2) His father, who was fond of humming the popular ballad Keep Right on to the End of the Road, lost his job in the great depression of the early 1930s.
  • (3) The band wanted to talk about their adventurous musical policy more than their lyrics (they mix brassy banda styles with accordion-based norteno ballads) but agreed that narcocorrido was crucial for their success.
  • (4) On at least one occasion he was persuaded to pick up a gusle , the single-stringed fiddle of the region, and perform an epic Serb ballad under a framed portrait of himself at the height of his power.
  • (5) "I feel like I could bring out a ballad next or I could bring out a techno song.
  • (6) Leaving a Murdoch-dominated media landscape with shows where, each week, shrieking irradiated cannibals sing power ballads as they compete for the right to die?
  • (7) After The Ballad was published in 1986, I spent two years in my room.
  • (8) Instead, Miliband's choices were often full of personal meaning, such as Paul Robeson's rendition of leftwing anthem The Ballad of Joe Hill, which he selected in memory of his father Ralph.
  • (9) I popped in for a nightcap but end up staying for two hours, serenaded by locals murdering everything from Japanese power ballads to cheesy Brazilian pop and Bohemian Rhapsody.
  • (10) Polydor signed her in 2009 and she might easily have released a debut album of unadorned guitar ballads, the sort of stuff she'd been touring around London pubs and bars.
  • (11) Rock's lingua franca remains the post-Oasis, post-Radiohead big stadium ballad, replete with keep-your-chin-up lyrics, usually suggesting you "hold on".
  • (12) Yet one one of the most moving moments of the night came when the choir from Parrs Wood High School in south Manchester duetted with Grande on her ballad, My Everything .
  • (13) His dad had liked Paul Robeson, hence Ballad of Joe Hill; the South African national anthem reminded him of an inspiring South Africanhe had known who was murdered by the secret police.
  • (14) The norteño band Los Tigres del Norte cancelled a planned appearance at an awards ceremony at a government-owned auditorium in October after organisers allegedly asked them not to perform a drug ballad.
  • (15) Jon Morter, 35, a part-time rock DJ and logistics expert from South Woodham Ferrers, near Chelmsford, decided it would be a bit of a giggle to start a campaign to encourage people to buy a record with pretty much the opposite vibe to the X Factor winner's ballad.
  • (16) It also inspired a Johnny Cash hit, The Ballad of Ira Hayes, with lyrics touching on a bitter legacy that is the source of many of the reservation’s problems to this day: The water grew Ira’s people’s crops ’Til the white man stole the water rights And the sparklin’ water stopped.
  • (17) Despite the jail's grim exterior, the regime is fairly liberal and inmates earn extra cash by selling food, handicrafts - and drug ballads.
  • (18) The trailer is book-ended by Tyson quoting Oscar Wilde's The Ballad Of Reading Gaol: Yet each man kills the thing he loves By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!
  • (19) Official Charts Company data shows Noel Gallagher’s band High Flying Birds had both the best-selling vinyl single and album in the first three months of the year, with Ballad Of The Mighty I and Chasing Yesterday , respectively.
  • (20) After university in Cambridge, he toured revolutionary Europe and then set up home briefly in the West Country with his sister Dorothy, where he met Coleridge, his collaborator on their early popular volume, the Lyrical Ballads .

Ditty


Definition:

  • (v. t.) A saying or utterance; especially, one that is short and frequently repeated; a theme.
  • (v. t.) A song; a lay; a little poem intended to be sung.
  • (v. i.) To sing; to warble a little tune.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "They were mildly offensive," says Shapiro of their ditties.
  • (2) 12.22am BST The other politics ditty being shared rather widely at the present time is this one.
  • (3) There's a scene in Friday Night Dinner when Adam, a jingle writer by trade, gathers the family around a radio to hear his ditty for a car-insurance company.
  • (4) 'Marx had a soft spot for entrepreneurs,' Jeremy told me Once these sessions started Jeremy would also usually insist on at least one round of that rather repetitive ditty – One Man Went to Mow about farming a meadow.
  • (5) National anthem report: The Brazilian ditty skips along at pleasing pace, and all the players sing along.
  • (6) What you got a big booty,” is how the chorus to Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea’s derriere-themed ditty goes – over and over.
  • (7) The conceit – that he needs another rider so he can drive in the HOV lane in LA’s notoriously awful traffic – puts him in the car with pop superstars, singing along to both their own songs and classic pop ditties.
  • (8) But allow me to leave with one final recollection: at the Isle of Wight Festival, John Sebastian performed the song Darling Be Home Soon, a sentimental little ditty about friendship, self-understanding and hope.
  • (9) But of course, like most football harangues, this well-worn little ditty is as one-eyed as it gets.
  • (10) This silenced the home support and had the City fans singing their favourite ditty.
  • (11) LL Cool J is hosting the ceremony for the third consecutive time – two years after his respectful hosting job in the wake of Whitney Houston’s unexpected death and less than a year after the April 2013 release of his remarkably questionable song Accidental Racist, the country ditty he made with Brad Paisely.
  • (12) Of course, like most football harangues, this well-worn little ditty is as one-eyed as it gets.
  • (13) It’s basically a remake of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s relatively harmless early 90s ditty, Baby Got Back , a musical romp celebrating women who carry what Mix-a-lot referred to as “healthy butts”.
  • (14) So it’s no great surprise that he’s hooked up with UK pop producer MNEK, who, along with creating his own forward-­thinking, R&B-­infused pop ditties, has produced and written for the cutting edge of UK pop (and the Saturdays).
  • (15) He might not be better than Zinedine Zidane, as the terrace ditty has it, but he has just upstaged a few of his contemporaries.
  • (16) Berlusconi, meanwhile, owner of Italy's three biggest private television channels, sought solace in the arms of Francesca Pascale , a former television showgirl famed for co-singing a ditty with the memorable catchphrase: "If you show a bit of thigh, the ratings go up."
  • (17) He is also known for his musical talents, performing musical theatre numbers at the Proms in 2012 and of course hosting the Oscars in 2013, attracting controversy for such ditties as We Saw Your Boobs.
  • (18) Or allergic to winsome ditties sung-spoken to primitive ukulele accompaniment.
  • (19) The Norwegians, singing 13th, scored no marks at all, for a very gentle ditty that sounded like, "By gum, jah no high dog", but apparently meant, "Never in my life will I think of leaving until I join the wind."
  • (20) He shoulder dances as he sings a little ditty: "The government sucks."