It’s easy to understand why a song uses verses and choruses. The chorus tells the listener the essence of the song. The verse explains the situation behind the emotions of the chorus. That part is usually pretty cut-&-dried.
But there are other miscellaneous sections your songs might use. And a commonly-used section (also a commonly-misunderstood section) is the pre-chorus. It’s sometimes hard to know if your song needs one, and then how to get it working properly.
If your latest song has a pre-chorus, but it’s hard to get it to play nice with the other sections of your song, there are any number of possible reasons. Check out this list of 5 reasons your song’s pre-chorus isn’t working properly:
- The verse is plenty long without it. A song that uses a pre-chorus typically has a shorter, not-so-adventurous verse. If your verse is lengthy, a pre-chorus delays the actual chorus, and that’s a problem for the energy of your music. SOLUTION: Songs with long verses don’t usually need a pre-chorus, so try getting rid of it.
- The pre-chorus isn’t building musical energy. That’s the main reason you’d use a pre-chorus — to build up some musical excitement. The main way it does this is by using a melody that moves upward. SOLUTION: If your pre-chorus melody is languishing around lower notes, rework it to move higher (Example: “Firework” (Katy Perry et al))
- The verse is making a good connection already to the chorus. One of the reasons you use a pre-chorus is to bring the notes up to the range of the chorus. If your verse is already doing that, you simply may not need a pre-chorus. SOLUTION: Remove the pre-chorus.
- The pre-chorus lyric seems aimless or unnecessary. You should treat a pre-chorus lyric like an extension of a verse lyric — in other words, have it continue the verse’s job of describing people, events, situations, etc. SOLUTION: As it nears the chorus, increase the emotional content, and it should all work for you.
- The pre-chorus chords aren’t connecting properly to the chorus. Depending on the chord that start your chorus, your pre-chorus needs to connect smoothly to it. SOLUTION: If your chorus starts on a I-chord, try having the final chord of your pre-chorus be a V or IV-chord.
I believe songs — especially pop songs — work well when clutter is kept to a minimum. A pre-chorus can simply be confusing to the listeners if it’s not serving any real purpose.
And in that regard, the most important reason you’d consider a pre-chorus relates to how the verse is constructed. A pre-chorus works well in songs where:
- the verse is short; or
- the verse uses a simple 1- or 2-chord progression; or
- the verse ends on a note much lower than the start of the chorus; or
- the verse and chorus use very similar melodies; or
- the verse needs a more intense build-up to let the chorus sparkle.
My advice, if you find it hard to get a pre-chorus to work properly, is to try removing it and seeing if you can rework the end of your verse to connect to the chorus. If that’s proving difficult, that’s when a pre-chorus can be useful, as long as you consider the five solutions above.
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
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