Writing Songs That Are More Easily Remembered

If, after listening to your song, a listener can’t really recall much about it, they’re far less likely to seek your song out to listen to it again. What makes music memorable can be a bit complex, but there are certainly things you could be doing as you write your next song to make it more likely that people will want to hear it again.

And the problem with making memorable music is that it’s often a double-edged sword.

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For example, making melodies simple and repetitive means that listeners will more reliably remember it. But a simple melody may not convey exactly what you want — it may not match the tone or mood of your lyric, making it detrimental to the success of your song.

So like most things in songwriting, the choices you make about any aspect of a song can have positive and negative consequences. It’s all about getting the balance right.

Here’s a list of things that you should at least be thinking about that pertain to how easily a melody is remembered:

1. Create melodies that use patterns. No one remembers actual notes when they recall melodies. They usually remember patterns. Most good melodies that you can think of will use repeated melodic ideas — patterns — that are easy for people to hum afterward.
2. Create an engaging hook. A hook is something short, usually a simple melodic idea supported by a tonally strong chord progression. The success of a song often comes down to the success of the hook. If you’re not sure exactly how this works, or how to write a good one, check out “Hooks and Riffs: How They Grab Attention, Make Songs Memorable, and Build Your Fan Base.“
3. Keep the range of your song’s melody from being too wide. The range of a melody is the distance between its highest note and its lowest one, and you’d probably be surprised that most songs use a range less than an octave. This is part of making melodies easier for listeners to hum.
4. Write a lyric that addresses universal themes, and helps listeners generate emotions. Listeners, sometimes without really knowing it, just want to feel something when they hear a song. The lyric plays a vital role in generating these all-important emotions. Use words that would probably be used in casual conversation.
5. Try to keep songs from getting too long. In my own work with songwriters, the most common problems I help with are dealing with songs that simply go on for too long. There are some well-known examples of songs that were successful while also being unusually long (“American Pie”, “Hey Jude”, “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”), but for songs that you hope keep bringing people back, it’s better to work in the 3-to-4 minute timeframe, unless you’ve got a strong feeling that your longer song is going to work for you.

Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.

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