Song structuring

[Nishy_p]

well I know verse chorus bridge ect. But I want to know how to make each part and understand the parts.

I know it doesn't sound clear but I can tell each part apart but I want to understand how to make each part and make them intertwine.



So, if anyone can help me i'd appreciate it.

[Ogg Vorbis]

well I know verse chorus bridge ect. But I want to know how to make each part and understand the parts.

I know it doesn't sound clear but I can tell each part apart but I want to understand how to make each part and make them intertwine.



So, if anyone can help me i'd appreciate it.

This seems like one of those questions where the ultimate answer is simply to analyze 15,000 songs.

I like going through my stack of fake books and looking at phrases, harmonic structures, lyrics (hooks), and bar lengths. It's really invaluable to start to understand what's come before so I can start to absorb it into my imagination. I think that this allows a songwriter to put your own personal extension to the framework.

There is no one recipe that can be typed out in a forum posting. There are zillions of recipes and there are commonalities sometimes. Sometimes the chorus is in a different tonality than the verse. Sometimes the chords are exactly the same as the verses.... etc., etc., etc.

I guess I am assuming that EDM songwriters care about the songs of the past. Maybe the general feeling is that the previous writers are irrelevant.

[psenior]

Along the lines of what the previous poster mentioned, there is a website called jazzstandards.com that gives detailed musical analysis of the top 100 jazz standards. You can go there and get a real good education about the structure of these songs which have stood the test of time. I think you should also understand blues song structure as well. I'm sure there are lots of resources explaining that if you Google it.

How to make each part of a song? Well, the chorus usually gets repeated a few times and is the main emphasis of the tune, since the lyrics, melody and chords are pretty much exactly the same each time it's repeated. A bridge only occurs once in a song and is usually has a different feel to the melody, lyrics and chords as compared to the verses or the choruses in order to break up the repetitiveness of the tune a little bit. The verse also gets repeated but it's not exactly the same every time since the lyrics change from verse to verse. The melody can change a bit from verse to verse but the chords are usually the same from verse to verse.

As far as how to get all these parts to intertwine smoothly, that's where your own personal creativity and musical influences come in. I don't think anyone can really teach you that on an internet forum. The most I can do is listen to a musical example that you give and try to analyze it for you so you can get some clues as to what the composer did. I think most musicians, consciously or subconsciously, copy musical bits and pieces from their influences and create songs that they can call their own without blatantly plagiarizing.

[Nishy_p]

Yeah the plagirism is true its happened to me and i didn't notice until i got told...

But hey i try to make unique stuff but the things you listen to does influence what you make.

I understand now what you mean about the stuff being impossible to get taught i just wanted to try my luck, but hey i'll figure it out.

[chardin]

You might want to check out Alan W. Pollack's analysis of the entire Beatles catalog: http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DAT ... s_on.shtml

Here's a partial sample from "A Hard Day's Night":

Code: Select all

Notes on "A Hard Day's Night"
by Alan W. Pollack
       Key: G Major
     Meter: 4/4
      Form: Intro | Verse | Verse | Bridge | Verse |
                  | Verse  (solo) | Bridge | Verse | Outro (fade-out)
        CD: "A Hard Day's Night", Track 1 (Parlophone CDP7 46437-2)
  Recorded: 16th April 1964, Abbey Road 2
UK-release: 10th July 1964 (A Single / "Things We Said Today")
US-release: 26th June 1964 (LP "A Hard Day's Night")
  	
General Points of Interest
  	
Style and Form
  	Though much less directly blues-derived than either "Can't Buy Me Love" or "You Can't Do That", "A Hard Day's Night" bears close comparison to both of those songs. At the very least, all three of them share the same long form, with two bridges and an instrumental break. Of course, the more interesting connection is the manner in which "A Hard Day's Night" takes one step further the concept, seen in the other two songs, of a style borne of the fusion between traditional blues elements and those more recognizable as the Beatles' own trademarks.

[jancivil]

best thing to do IMO is play,,, many songs, in some performing context. now in your, or your band's style, which should be emerging, *arrange* the songs...

rather than read about what happened, get your hands dirty and find out how it works.

[tapper mike]

There is nothing wrong writing in established forms.

This is a good series on songwriting.