Confession To You

HOW TO WRITE SONGS.2 ~~

Part 2 of 6: Understanding Common Structures

1) Understand the parts of a song. There are several parts of a song. Your song can include all of them or none of them. It really all depends on you. There are standard layouts of these parts that are used in most songs, however, so in order to understand how most songs sound, you'll need to understand the parts. They include:

An Introduction - this is the section at the beginning which leads into the song. Sometimes it might sound different from the rest of the song, might be faster or slower, or it might not exist at all. Many songs do not have an introduction, so don't feel like you have to use it.

A Verse - This is the main part of the song. It is usually 50% to twice the number of lines as the chorus but it does not have to be. What gives away a section of a song as a verse is that the melody is the same but the lyrics are different between the different verses.

A Chorus - The chorus is the part of the song that repeats without changing: both the lyrics and melody are unchanged or nearly unchanged. This is usually where you try to fit the catchiest part of your song (usually called the hook).

A Bridge - The bridge is a part that exists in some songs but not all. Usually coming sometime after the second chorus, the bridge is a part of the song that sounds completely different than the rest of the song. It is usually short, just a line or two of lyrics, and will sometimes lead into a key change.

2) Start with the AABA structure. The AABA structure is probably the most common structure of a song in modern popular music. In the study of song structures, A usually signifies a verse and B usually signifies a chorus. In other words, in this structure there are two verses, a chorus, and then a final verse. Experiment with this basic structure before moving on to more complex ones.

3)Experiment with other structures. There are of course, many different standard song structures. You can try AABB, ABA, AAAA, ABCBA, ABACABA, and so on.

C usually signifies a bridge, other letters that you see cited elsewhere likely just mean that that section of the song is none of the traditional parts and is unique to itself (sort of like taking a verse from a different song and putting it in).

4) Try free form songs. Of course, if you want to challenge your skills, you can try to write something that breaks from traditional forms and does not follow a standard structure. This can be very challenging though and is not the best way to get started.

- BHABYPANGET