How Bad Song Form Hurts Your Music: Micro Versus Macro

Problems with form can be hard to identify, and are responsible for many failed attempts at writing songs.

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In music we’re talking about form when we talk about the various sections of a song: intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, etc. Form is also a word we use when we look closely at the details of any one section of a song. For example, we might look at the rhyming scheme of the lyric and label it as ABAB. That examination of the lyric is also a formal issue.

As composers of music, we sometimes spend so much time looking at the details within a song’s section (the “micro” level) that we’re less aware of how one section might be helping or hurting another (i.e., the “macro” level).

When there is a problem on the micro level, you notice issues with how a melody sounds within a section, how a lyric doesn’t feel right at any given moment, how a part of the verse chord progression feels stilted or awkward.

But when there is a problem on the macro level, you notice issues with how one section relates to another. The verse on its own may seem fine, and you may love your chorus, but together there seems to be something not working. These kinds of macro problems usually make themselves obvious by providing a very uneven sense of momentum and energy from one section to the next. Some of them are songwriting issues, while others may be production-level problems, such as with instrumentation.

Here are some thoughts to keep in mind.

1. Keep harmonic rhythm relatively consistent throughout the song. The harmonic rhythm is the frequency of chord changes. In most songs, you’ll change chords every 4 or 8 beats. fast-tempo songs might hang on to a chord for 16 beats, and some songs change chords every 1 or 2 beats. In any case, choose one as the main feel for your changes, and allow slightly faster or slightly slower changes once in a while. For example, if you mainly change chords every 4 beats, allow for 2 or 8 once in a while throughout the song.
2. Let the chorus lyric respond to things that happen in the verse lyric. It’s an important feature of pulling the various sections of a song together.
3. Ensure that the key of various song sections relate to each other. Some song sections will connect well even though they don’t do this (like “Layla” by Derek & the Dominoes), but that’s the exception rather than the rule. Most of the time, it’s preferable to have verse, chorus and bridge sections relate. For example, a verse in A minor, a chorus in C major, and a bridge in D minor.
4. Provide contrast — but not too much — for the melodies of your various song sections. If all your song’s melodies sit in and around the same 4 or 5 notes, the listener gets bored without necessarily knowing why. So choose a range for your verse melody that’s low and a chorus range that’s higher. Having said that, if the range of verse and chorus are too different, it can cause an unpleasant bump in song energy. One way to more smoothly connect a verse and chorus if it needs is to insert a pre-chorus.
5. Add and subtract instruments between sections, rather than completely changing instrumental sound. In other words, think of what the ideal instrumentation is for the loudest parts of your song, and then scale it back for the quieter parts. An example of a problem might be using a string quartet for the verse and then a trio of distorted guitars, bass & drums for the chorus. Find a way to make a better connection throughout the song.

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Written by Gary Ewer. Follow on Twitter.

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