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If you have an interest in starting an argument that seems to have no good solution, try asking two people to define what “good music” is. It’s especially entertaining if the two people love different kinds of music – metal and country, say.
It’s understandable that we tend to define good in terms of whatever it is that we happen to like. In my high school days I was totally blown away by the music of Genesis and Yes. So ask my teenage self what “good” is, and I’d probably have been describing prog rock.
But there’s a better (one might say more mature) way of defining that word “good” when it comes to musical composition, and it’s going to involve looking at what good music does, rather than what good music is.
No matter what your favourite genre of music is, a song is good if it takes you on an interesting journey. Like literal journeys, a good song starts, takes you somewhere, and then brings you back home. More specifically, a song:
- has to start in a way that holds promise for something great happening, even if on a small scale;
- has to generate its own energy, where one interesting thing implies another interesting thing that’s going to happen very soon;
- has to finish in a way that feels satisfying, where most of the important questions (literally or figuratively) have been answered.
So far, we’re just talking in metaphors. The first point might be easy to grasp, since we know that a song intro needs to sound interesting enough to compel people to keep listening.
But that second part – generating its own energy – how is that done?
Song energy is not a quantifiable measurement, since some songs sound very calm and “un-energetic”, and succeed very well. Song energy is what we might otherwise call momentum – whatever keeps a song moving forward, and keeps a listener captivated, wanting to hear more. Its a subtle but tremendously important quality. How is it achieved?
Generally speaking, energy is created when ups and downs are juxtaposed in the design of a song. Here’s more about what that means:
- Melodic Up and Down: Song verses should be pitched lower than chorus melodies. So when you look at an entire song, you see low moving to high (verse moving to chorus), back to low (2nd verse), back to high (2nd chorus), and so on.
- Chord Progression Up and Down: There is a sense of musical tension that comes from chords that are less focused on the tonic chord, wandering about a bit ambiguously. That tends to describe verse progressions. But chorus progressions usually tighten up, becoming shorter, more tonic-chord-focused, and simpler. In that sense, we perceive up and down in harmonic energy.
- Lyrical Up and Down: Tension increases as questions are asked but not answered, or if emotional situations are described, requiring some kind of emotional release. That’s the verse’s job. The chorus is where the emotion is finally liberated and flows forth. That tension-and-release approach to lyrics is tremendously important in keeping listeners hooked.
- Instrumental Up and Down: As songs move from verse to chorus you hear energy increase as instruments are added, and the rhythmic interplay become busier.
Songwriters often use the verse-chorus format as a natural way to contour song energy, since the up and down of melody, chords, lyrics and instrumentation is part and parcel of that formal design. But there is no rule that says that you can’t control the energy of your song without a standard form. And in fact, the progressive rock composers are experts at showing that verse and chorus is not necessary for generating song energy.
If you find your music is missing something that’s captivating or otherwise exciting your audience, try the following:
- Record your song.
- Listen several times for specific design issues. Listen the first time while focused only on melody. Listen again focused only on chords, and so on.
- Look for a moment later in the song where melody, chords, lyrics and instrumentation all seem to come together to produce a climactic high point for your song.
Remember that we’re not talking about a quantity of energy, but merely that the sense of low to high is present and carefully controlled. The ups and downs of song energy, even if present in only a subtle way, are what keep listeners interested in the musical journey.
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Written by Gary Ewer. Follow on Twitter.
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