Structuring Songs

OK, so you have hauled in all of your ideas from your very own brain. What now? Now it is time to structure your sentences for the song. (when i say example, it means you should do the same with your work)

What you will need:
-Concentration
-To have completed the article: 'Where can i get my song ideas'
-Imagination
-Pen
-Paper

Following on from the last post, I asked you to create some sentences for your songs verse out of the unedited keywords you found. So you should have in front of you a piece of paper with lots of well structured sentences that have relation to the story you are trying to tell in your song. Yes? Great! So lets begin structuring verses and chorus'!

In this case I will use my example from the last post which was me in a forest. OK, so i had myself lying in a forest, surrounded by trees, wind blowing through my hair, leaves swooping across my cheek and birds tweeting in my notes. Here are some structured sentences i made into a verse:

Notice how i ordered the sentences into a short paragraph to create a verse that makes sense. This structure tells the listener that the writer was lying in the woods, far away from people. The he goes on the describe more of his surroundings and tells us what the birds are doing and that its windy with leaves blowing about.
Chorus:
You should now have two well put together verses, that make sense one after the other. It's time to add in your chorus. Usually in pop songs, choruses stay the same and repeat throughout the song. The chorus is the heart of your song and should be catchy, snappy and have a 'easy-to-remember' tune. A dull chorus impacts a dull finish to your work.

The chorus should be put together in the same way as the verses. The only difference is that you want to make sure that the chorus puts across the main message you want the listener to hear.

So if the message you want to get across in your song is that, for example: your going to 'miss' a loved one, you should include something along the lines of ''And i will really miss you when your gone'' or if your songs about hate you could do ''And you can never be forgiven!''. But bear in mind that these are only examples and you should use your own mind to make an even better creation!

A last note is that, choruses tend to be more appreciative in the way that they normally stand-out more, and change key to give dramatic effects. (Which will be explained in later posts!)

After your chorus has been assembled, add it after your second verse. Now lets not let those left-over structured sentences go to waste, construct another verse or two out of your leftover sentences and add them after your chorus.

Your structure should look along the lines of this:

Looking good so far? Yes? Perfect!

Carry on reading to find out how to end your master piece!







Ending the song:
You have finally made it to have written your very own song. Hang on though, you haven't finished just yet! You need to somehow bring your musical adventure to a close!

Depending on the style of your song and how YOU want it to be should determine the ending. For an example we will take two already written songs, one love and one thats a bit more aggressive in a style of rock.

Love - Can you feel the love tonight - Elton John:
The ending is soft, and finishes the song in a nice way. Usually songs like this repeat the last line of the chorus softly to gently add a finishing touch.

Aggresive - Beverly Hills - Weezer:
The ending in this type of song usually finishes off in a very powerfull line of lyric. The lyric is often the last of a chorus.

So depending on which mood your song is, choose a good way to end it gently or powerfully. Although this is highly reccomended, it's your song and you can take it anywhere you please.

So now you song should be complete with the following:

Verse 1 - Introduces
Verse 2 - Provides Information
Chorus - Gets across the main message
Verse 3 - Provides Even more emotion and Information
Final Chorus - Uses a finishing touch bases on the type on song.

If you have successfully accomplished this then your ready to start adding instruments. You can find further tutorials later on on adding instruments to your peice of work!

Any questions: Mrdeano3000william@hotmail.co.uk

--Fair comments and improvement suggestions are welcome--