Song Writing
Songwriting , understanding how to write a song, involves several disciplines. Harmonizing through Chord Progression and form, writing Melody, writing lyrics, and establishing time or a rhythmic pattern.
These are 4 separate disciplines that all come together in one creative work. A songwriter may choose any one of these as a starting point to begin the process of writing.
How to Write a Song
There are guidelines the process, but not necessarily rules. If you are writing the song for yourself, then there are no rules at all. Go where your creativity takes you. However, if you are writing for the general public, there are certain sequences of sound and rhythm that all of us are more comfortable with. That is not a bad thing, it’s just the way it is. We have all been conditioned by what we have experienced up to this point. Familiar sound, harmony flow, and rhythm structure is comfortable because it is “familiar”.
An example of a common song form would be: Intro, verse, verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, outro.
There are helpful composition techniques, or observations such as: Once the listener has heard the solo, they are anticipating the song to end quickly after that.
Melody usually falls within a key center. The chords will be harmonized with the melody. If it is a story song, listeners will naturally default to the melody rather than the lyrics if the melody is strong. Consequently, many songwriters will limit the scope of the melody in sections where lyrics are important.
Some chord types have a tendency to lead the ear in one direction.
Here are some examples of common song form:
*intro before each
1. Preamble tell about the song before you sing it (not too common)
2. V C V C V C solo C out or V C VC solo C out
3. V C V C Bridge C out
*(the V&C tell the story….the bridge is the “what if”…by this time there is nothing left to say)
4. V lift (six lines which precede chorus) C (hook) V lift C Bridge out
5. AABA depicts a passage of time: A1 in the beginning A2 now
B what if A on down the road (no chorus in this form)
6. C V C interlude bridge C out (starts with hook….no story to tell)
7. V V C V solo C out
I would be glad to email you some more examples if you like. Contact me at: JimSuttonISG@gmail.com and request “How to Write a Song”.
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