Songwriting Zen

Songwriting 101 – The Hook

To me, the hook is the most important aspect of  song construction. It’s the very thing that captures the attention and the imagination of your listening audience the most.

It’s that something in a song that enables your brain to keep remembering it. It digs its claws into your psyche and refuses to let go.

Have you ever had a song spinning around in your head that you just can’t get rid of? Has anyone mentioned a name of a song and all of a sudden you’re humming along a section of it in your head?

If this has happened to you (as it happens to me all the time) then you’ve been influenced by the almighty hook.

In the first instance, the songwriter determines what the hook is. What the listening audience determines as the hook of the song may be a completely different thing.

However, if you write a hook that both you and your audience gravitate to then your halfway there in creating a song that people want to listen to over and over again.

I have found an article by John Braheny on the TAXI website titled “Where’s The Hook?” which pretty much sums up why hooks are important in a song and more importantly the types of hooks that can be used.

Other articles that I have read about the same subject tend to be very loose in their definitions or give musical examples to demonstrate their real power but this article describes four types of hooks.

Structural
Instrumental
Story
Production

For me, reading this article opened my eyes a little bit more to song construction as a whole and I’ve been writing songs for years.

It just goes to show that we are never too old to learn anything new.

The reason why I say that the hook is the most important aspect of songwriting is that as songwriters we want our creations to be remembered, played and listened to over and over again.

The hook is the very thing that will achieve this goal for us. If you give your listener something to remember your song by, it will be with them for a very long time.

A hook can be the chorus line that is repeated many times for effect or a really cool bridge section that makes the listener say to themselves “yeah!”.

A hook can be a lyrical or a musical motif that once heard will never be forgotton or it can also be something that is added to in the studio as the song is taking shape.

Sharpen up your hooks and catch a few listeners with them.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting idea, songwriting 101, songwriting resource, songwriting help, songwriting blog, corey stewart

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Songwriting 101 – Intro’s and Outro’s

If you break a song down to it’s most basic structure you’ll find it’s just like any other type of writing. There is a beginning, a middle and an end.

How a song starts and finishes is just as important as what happens in the middle (especially if you’re performing your song live).

Today I want to write about Intro’s and Outro’s. Let’s start with the Intro.

The introduction sets up the vocal melody and the primary musical arrangement of the song. It shouldn’t be too long otherwise it will ‘overstay it’s welcome’ with the listener.

An average song intro is four to eight bars in length.

There are of course exceptions to every rule. Led Zepplin’s “Stairway To Heaven” has a sixteen bar introduction however, this is needed to map out the complex (and timeless) musical arrangement of this epic.

An intro can happen once or can appear a number of times.

It can double as the breathing space between verse and chorus, it can form the basis of your bridge section or, it can be the bridge between a major and minor tonality.

For instance, your introduction maybe in A minor and your verse is in it’s relative major key which is C.

Now for the Outro.

An “outroduction” (not sure if this is a real word or not but I like it anyway) is a section that signifies the end of a song is approaching.

It can be as simple as a repeating of the chorus, of the hook-line or it can be just like a bridge, a departure giving the listener one last surprise before the end of the song is upon them.

An example of an outro would be the repeated “sending out an SOS” line at the end of “Message In A Bottle” by The Police.

It’s always good practise to let the listener know where the beginning, middle and the end of your songs are. Intro’s and outro’s are a good way to let the listener know where their ears are taking them.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, songwriting zen, songwriting tip, songwriting help, songwriting idea, songwriting blog, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, Creativity, lyrics, music, song, Songwriter, Songwriting, songwriting blog, songwriting tip, Songwriting Zen, writing, zen

Songwriting 101 – The Bridge

I love a good bridge.

There’s something about how a bridge takes you to somewhere else in a song and then gently back to the familiarity of a verse or chorus that makes it a very important piece of your songwriting armoury.

Good bridges are hard to find and are even harder to write. It’s not enough to just write a departure from what you’re creating with your verses and choruses.

The departure has to be purposeful. It needs to have some sort of meaning and reason behind it.

Lyrically a bridge can introduce another point of view, be an extension of the song story or even be a devils advocate to it.

Musically it can be whatever you want it to be however there are a couple of things to consider:

1. Make sure the entry and exit points of the bridge are seamless.
Take into consideration the melody, rhythm and flow of the song. This is what I mean about the bridge being purposeful

2. Dont make the bridge too long.
This is not a time to introduce a second movement to your song. Generally bridges are between eight and sixteen bars in length (if its eight bars in length it can also be called a ‘middle eight’)

Bridges add character and uniqueness to your songs. They break up monotony and pleasently surprise the listener or possibly prepare them for a key change.

A great example of a great bridge is the one in “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. Sting is a master at writing bridges.

His solo hit “Fields Of Gold” is another great example of a simple tonal shift making all the difference.

If you want your songs to spring into life, now is the time to start learning the art of a good bridge.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: sting, songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting zen, songwriting help, songwriting idea, songwriting blog, corey stewart

Tags: Corey Stewart, Creativity, lyrics, music, song, Songwriter, Songwriting, songwriting blog, songwriting tip, Songwriting Zen, writing, zen

Songwriting 101 – The Chorus

This is the start of a series of posts about song structure. All this week I’ll be writing about the different elements that make up a song.

Please bear in mind that these are my definitions and interpretations of the different parts of a song structure. There are no hard and fast rules determining which part of a song goes where.

However, there are generally accepted guidelines.

Think of this Songwriting 101 series as the ‘nuts and bolts’ of writing songs. You’ve been refining your songwriting process and you’ve come up with some great ideas. Now you are ready to put them all together.

Your journey starts now…

Today, I want to write about the all important chorus. The chorus is generally the focal point of the song.

It’s what the listener usually remembers long after the song has finished. It is where the hook, the title or the main story idea of the song usually resides.

Don Walker, keyboard player and principal songwriter of seminal Australian band Cold Chisel once said “the quicker you get to the point the better”.

It’s like the chorus is the destination and the rest of the song is the journey towards it.

A chorus is meant to be uplifting, standing out from everything else and powerful enough to get people to sing or hum along to.

Most songwriters come up with the chorus before anything else. I think this is because the chorus is like the synopsis or the summary of the song.

From my experience, the songwriting ideas I come up with today become the choruses of tomorrow.

I’m amazed though at how many songwriters don’t pay enough attention to the chorus.

When I’m judging songwriting contests it’s often that I see on the printed lyric sheet a section marked as the chorus that, when you listen to the song, sounds almost or exactly the same as the verse.

That to me is a wasted opportunity to really grab the listeners attention.

Choruses, more than any other part of a song will be less effective if there are too many words in them, are melodically monotonous or the rhythm of the whole section is clumsy and lacking in flow.

Songs can be saved by a cracking, stirring chorus.

I’m not going to tell you how many bars a chorus should run for or how dynamic the melody should be, that’s up to you to experiment with the ideas that you create. All I’m doing is outlining some characteristics that you, the songwriter should be mindful of.

Afterall, isn’t observation and mindfulness part of your songwriting process?

Listen to songs that you’ve grown up with and love and pay close attention to the choruses of those songs. Chances are they are the very things that you sing along to.

There are lots of songs from my “child of the 80′s” past that float around in my head however, in most cases, the chorus is the only part of the song that I recognise.

Have you ever had a song that enters your head and it just wont go away? How annoying is that?

What is the part of the song that is stuck in your mind? Yes, THE CHORUS!!!

I’d love to know what you consider to be a great chorus. Let me know.

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

Keywords: songwriting, songwriter, songwriting tip, songwriting idea, songwriting technique, songwriting blog, songwriting help, corey stewart

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