You can spend a lot of time worrying about how to get a verse and a chorus to work well together, but don’t forget the other option: consider writing a song that doesn’t use a chorus at all. Sometimes the melody for that kind of song will end with a kind of repeating refrain, like […]
I’ve always liked R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion,” but there’s something odd about it. Because most of its melodies and melodic fragments dwell on the 3 notes A-B-C, in the key of A minor, it sounds very much like a drone. Normally, that just doesn’t work all that well for a song; you normally want to hear […]
You can define a multi-part verse melody in many ways, but the kind of melody I’m talking about is the kind you might find in a song like Eagles’ “Take It Easy” (Jackson Browne/Glenn Frey), which is a verse-only song where the verse consists of several short phrases joined together to make one complete melody. I’ve been thinking […]
Writing a song with a 2-part verse means creating a short musical journey that moves away from – then back toward – the tonic chord. ______________ It’s time to get serious about your songwriting. Buy “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 10-eBook Deluxe Bundle, written by Gary Ewer. Includes “From Amateur to Ace – Writing Songs Like a Pro.” Time […]
The most common song hook is found in the chorus. But in verse-only songs, what role does the hook play? ____________ Download “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle, and increase your song’s HIT potential. _____________ A song’s hook is, theoretically, that thing that keeps bringing listeners back and building an audience base. As the specifics of a song […]
