If you’ve written a song that seemed to start with great promise, but now that it’s finished it sounds downright boring, it may be hard to put your finger on exactly what the problem is.
But solving the problem is crucial, because it’s possible that you’re doing something wrong that’s been affecting all the songs you write. And unless you can identify the problem, you may find yourself repeating the error, and killing any chance for building a fan base.
Words and music need to act as partners in a song, but how do you make sure your melody is helping your lyric? That’s what Chapter 5 of “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” deals with. Get that eBook as part of the 10-eBook Bundle, or purchase it separately.
If you find that all your songs lately are leaving you feeling a bit disappointed, it’s best to choose one song to diagnose, and then look to see if that cause is showing up in others that you’ve written. In other words, don’t try to diagnose a dozen songs. Focus in on one, at least as a starting point.
Here’s a little checklist to get you started, one you can use to help you figure out why that one song is failing. Is there something on this list that applies to your song?
- The chorus doesn’t have a catchy hook. Not every song will have a powerful chorus hook, but if you’re writing in any of the pop genres, it’s likely going to be an important feature.
- The chorus melody doesn’t have a climactic high point. In pop songs, that high point is often the start of the chorus hook. But even if it’s elsewhere in your chorus, a high point serves as an important point of musical focus.
- The melodies just aren’t interesting. Every song will have at least two separate melodies (e.g., verse and chorus), and some will have more. Most of the good melodies will have a noticeable contour — an enticing shape — that partner well with the chords underneath. If all your song’s melodies seem to sit around the same three or four notes, that could be a problem.
- The lyrics seem unfocused. Some lyrics are complex, and the meaning may not be obvious. But complex lyrics aren’t unfocused, certainly not to the writer of them. As you read through your lyric, one line should lead logically to the next. Read your lyric aloud, and see if it’s all making sense to you.
- The emotional content of the lyric is haphazard. Lyrics should fluctuate between unemotional, narrative style (verse) and emotional response (chorus). All emotional, or songs devoid of emotion, means that you are missing an important opportunity to connect powerfully to your audience.
- The chords are boring. You don’t need complex chords to make a good song, but sticking always to the same three or four chords will start to sound a bit too predictable, and can also make for boring melodies.
- The chords don’t seem to have a strong sense of structure. Verse and bridge progressions can be wide-ranging and of a wandering quality, with chorus chords sounding tonally stronger and shorter. But even a wandering verse progression needs to have a tonic chord (even if it’s just a temporary tonic) as an anchor. If your progressions are simply wandering about, with no real target, audiences will get confused and bored.
There are other reasons why songs can sound boring or lacking in musical energy: bad accompaniment or production, the wrong tempo, and being too long… these are just a few of what can cause a song to miss the mark.
Do your best to identify the cause(s) of this one song’s problems. Once you’ve done that, you can then turn your attention to the next song on your list that you identify as having problems, and then see if that problem is applicable.
The good news would be if all your songs are showing the same deficit. That means that finding ways to solve that one problem will make all your future songs better, and the time you’ve spent on analysis will have paid off.
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
“Hooks and Riffs: How They Grab Attention, Make Songs Memorable, and Build Your Fan Base” shows you how a good hook can make the difference between songwriting success and failure. With great examples from pop music history.