How Do You Go About Writing A Song?
Part 6, The Finale!
OK, we have effectively written a song. Albeit,
it's fairly simplistic. Actually, we wrote one
verse of a song. But the steps to write other
verses are the same.
I want to mention something before we get too
far into this last section. There's a huge dif-
ference between "writing a song", and producing
a finished recording. If you're a guitar strummer,
you might write the lyrics, sing the melody, and
play the guitar chords. And you ARE playing your
song!
But some of you also produce music. Maybe you're a
proficient MIDI sequencer, and plan to write ALL of
the parts! Bass guitar, drums. Maybe add strings,
horns, additional percussion. That's all a part of
song writing as well.
For those reading this, who are not "producers",
you won't need some of what I include here, But
for those of you who are, I'll include some tips
and tricks for you as well!
That being said, generally there's more to a
song than just a few verses. Sometimes, sure!
But pretty much at least most songs have more.
Now, true enough there are many songs in some
styles that have nothing more than verses.
Blues and folk tunes. A lot of old Country tunes.
But even they usually, or often have more "parts"!
So, let's talk about song parts.
Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Outro, Tag
INTROS: How do you want your song to begin?
There are a kazillion ways to do an intro. Sometimes
you just . . . Start!
1 2 3 4 PLAY! But without a lead-in, it can be difficult
to start off singing the right note. Not everyone can
do that. So sometimes we use an intro just for that
reason. And one very common way to do that is to just
play the end! The last bar would be the absolute simplest
way to do that, but I wouldn't use that a lot!
Here's an example. Never Been To Spain using a 1 measure
intro.
Also note, all songs don't start on the ONE chord, the 1st,
or root chord of the key. Never Been To Spain starts on the
4th chord of the key. So instead of playing E B7, to que the
vocalist to start singing over the E, we play E A, and the
song melody starts over the A chord!
Click the play button below to play a sample MP3
You can also play more of the ending. It's common to
play the last four measures of a Blues, Country, Folk
or Gospel song. Something like this . . .
Let's take a basic 12 bar progression in G.
Your intro could simply be . . .
1 2 1 2 3 4 D ''' C ''' G ''' D7 '''
Another approach is to build the mood, rather than just
serve as a que for the singer. You can do this different
ways. You could play the 1st chord of the song a couple
measures. Or the last chord in the progression a couple
times. In the above progression, you'd play the G, or
the D7 a couple times.
It really depends on the mood of the song. Strumming a G
is a bit boring. But it works. I like to do something that
builds the mood! For instance . . .
If I'm writing something moody, or maybe ambient, I like
to "build up" to the beginning.
Let's say I'm writing something with an Am cadence. I'll
use this progression as an example.
[Am '''] [G '''] [F '''] [E ' E7 ']
OK, it's a cool progression. And something like this,
quick, with a short repeating cadence, I'd probably
just play it twice as my intro.
But what if I like that chord progression, but want to
make it more ambient! Slower, moody! I could just slow
it down. I could still just play the progression for my
intro. Or I could build it up!
There's an old Blues tune by Grand Funk Railroad I love
to play. Heartbreaker. For the intro, they just play the
lead in chord, E to lead into the 1st Am. But they add a
twist! They play Esus4 '' Esus4 '' E7 '' E7 ''
I might just play an Am for "a while". Just slower.
Sweep the chord. Maybe finger pick it. Arpeggiate it.
I might even talk during this part in performances.
One thing I do commonly, in my backing tracks, or have
the keyboard or bass player do . . . play a long, droning
low A note while I play that long Am.
Here's an example. We often play a cool Rocker song from
the 60s, Gimme Some Lovin' by the Spencer Davis Group.
The song has an intro. And it's cool enough. But let's
say I want to build up to the regular intro. I like to
bring people into the mood. So if I wanted to add a
cool, moody, ambient intro, maybe talk a bit to the
crowd, get them pumped up! I'd so something like this!
The intro chords to the song, in the key of E, are
E ''' G ''' A ''' C ''' % So here's how we'd start it!
I start our track with a LOW E note. An octave below the
low E on a bass guitar. I cut the tempo down about a third
slower. And play each chord twice, not once.
After a measure or two, I'd bring in the kick drum.
Usually just on the ONE for a couple measures. Then on ONE
and THREE for a couple measures. And I'll start playing an E
when the kick starts playing on each count, probably the 7th
measure. Or start playing some solo fills. Like this . . .
This would be for a show starter, for sure!
So think about how you want the song to start. The intro
is part of your song!
VERSES: I don't need to spend much time on this part.
We covered it a lot in the previous tutorials. The verses
tell the story.
PRE-CHORUS: The primary function of a pre-chorus is
to create a smooth transition from the verse to the chorus,
building anticipation and excitement for the chorus.
A great example of a pre-chorus is "Sweet Caroline" by Neil
Diamond:
The pre-choruses commonly have different lyrics. They can be
the same. Depends on the writer!
CHORUS: The chorus is the part of the song everyone
remembers! It usually has the same repeating lyrics. Again,
that could vary some. But generally, it has the same lyrics.
Again, Sweet Caroline! EVERYBODY KNOWS THE CHORUS!
Probably because, well, you know. Because it's . . .
SO GOOD - SO GOOD - SO GOOD! (Sorry, I had to do that! LOL)
BRIDGE: The bridge is a strange beast! It's used to
connect two parts of the song. Like build a bridge between
2 choruses. Sing one chorus, go into the bridge, then come
back to another chorus. Or sometimes from a verse to the chorus.
Similar to a pre-chorus in this case. But a bridge is usually
very different from the rest of the song. Commonly in a
different key! Usually a different mode! Maybe even different
timing, or tempo.
A good example would be a song in Am. In this example, let's
say plain old Am, key of C. The bridge might be in a MAJOR
key! Or in THE major key the Am is in!
I could have said if you're song has an Am cadence, or chord
progression, use the Relative Major, C to start your bridge.
But if you're in a different mode, the major one chord will
not be C!
This isn't hard. If your song uses the chords in the key of F,
for example, then F would be the ONE chord!
F Gm Am Bb C Dm Edim F
I won't get into modes and theory except for this point! Am
can be in 3 different keys! C, F & G! So just because the song
starts with Am doesn't mean it's in any one of those 3 keys!
It depends on the other chords in the progression!
Key of C: C Dm Em F G Am Bdim C 6th degree. Aeolian
Key of F: F Gm Am Bb C Dm Edim F 3rd degree. Phrygian
Key of G: G Am Bm C D Em F#dim G. 2nd degree. Dorian
So, let's keep it simple. Our song is in Am, key of C.
So the bridge might be in C, using a different chord
progression than the verse or chorus.
A good example of a bridge is in Dock of The Bay.
The D7 brings us back to the G in the verse.
There's an old expression, I cant remember who
said it first. A jazz guy! He said . . .
The best way to write a brige is to pick a chord
that doesn't fit in the key, play it. Then try to
figure what chords to play to get back to the key!
OUTROS and TAGS: Creating an outro is pretty
much like creating an intro. How do you want to end
the song! And there are way too many ways to list them!
Sometimes you just . . . end it! An abrupt ending is cool
sometimes. But usually, you do something a little more
dramatic. Basically doing something similar to the intro.
You might end the song with a single chord strum. Ideally,
one with a different voicing. Like if you strum a G chord
for the last word in the song, you could end by strumming
a single GmMaj7. Or a Gm instead of a G major. Or maybe
play the G as an open chord, then end playing a D chord
on the 7th fret and just sweep it! Or a G9 on the 10th fret!
Here's a Blues song I'm working on right now. Just the ending.
It's in Am, key of C. It has a tagged ending (more about tags
below.) and plays an Am7 as the last chord in the song.
Followed by an ending "period!". A long held Am9.
Am9 is an Am (ACE) with a flatted 7 (G) and an added 9 (B)
A C E G B
You could also play the Relative Minor of the major
chord. Like G ''' Em sweep hold. It sounds really cool!
Another common ending would be something like G ''' Gm ''' G
You most likely wouldn't use that Gm if you're in G. What
you would do is play the IV chord, 4th in G, which is a
C major. You could end the song like this. (last measure
G, then add the end)
C ''' Cm ''' G ''' G hold . . . This is called a Plagal
cadence, often referred to as the Amen Cadence.
Probably the most common ending, or outro is the TAG
ending. You "tag" the last 4 measures, or repeat them.
Tag them onto the last measure. A Double Tag is also
pretty common! Just play the last 4 measures, then
repeat them 2 more times. You could also do a triple
tag. Just depends on what you want.
Here's the last verse of an 8 bar Blues, with a tag,
and a tacit, or "hit" on the 2nd measure in the
tagged ending.
Along these lines, another common way to end a song
is to do a double tag, but play the last one, slowing
down gradually! Ending much slower than the original
tempo. A ritard. Short for ritardando!
OK, I'm just going to cover one more topic for this
workshop. If you have other ideas or requests, just
let me know!
So, remember how the mood dramatically changed when
I increased the tempo, drums and bass line for Let's
Take A Walk In The Park?
I used the identical lyrics, same exact melody! But it
was like two different songs!
Well, I just made a couple more examples of the song
for you! Using different CHORDS! A different chord
progression entirely! In fact, it's in a different
key! AND it's now in a MINOR MODE!
So I also changed the key of the melody from G to Am.
I kept the exact same syllables, but had to tweak the
melody a bit because I made it into a minor song.
Instead of a 12 bar, or 24 bar I IV V (1 4 5), it's
now an Am vamp that's been used for a bazillion songs.
Am ''' G ''' F ''' E7 ''' Plus I added a short bridge.
The short bridge connects the verse to the outro. I
also added a tag to the 2nd one!
Both versions are in the following MP3.
Click the play button below to play a sample MP3
So that wraps it up for this workshop! I hope you got
a bunch from it!
Hey, I want to ask you a favor. If you got this far, and
did the whole workshop, would you drop me a line, just so
I can see how many are doing this workshop! I'd really
appreciate it!
You can email me, or PM me on Facebook. The links are below!
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