This type of mentality locks staff songwriters at many publishing companies into robotic wordsmiths just to please the publisher, who, in turn, will gladly shop a song because it's the type of song an artist is looking for and it fits the perfect mold. Meanwhile, the talented songwriter is emptily left wondering , "What if I could have extended the end of the first and second verse by two bars for added suspense like I originally wanted to?"
It's time to take a songwriting
Some music publishers and industry insiders will have you believe that songwriting dictates you should stick to the most common verse-chorus forms and number of bars used in each section so you can "give them what they want", referring to what the public expects. This happens often with newly-signed young songwriters as well as songwriters trying to break in. Please Bookmark This Site
" stand! There's nothing wrong with a commonly structured song, but if all of your songs fit a certain formula, shame on you!
Trust your six senses while songwriting, make the listener feel the full impact of your creations, and really stand out among the rest! Think outside the songwriting box! Music publishers, artists, and listeners will thank you.
Here are but a few suggestions to inject some originality into your songwriting. Many have been done before but all are rarely used these days:
1. Jump right into the first verse of the song (vocals) without any intro.
2. Use an odd number of bars in the intro instead of 4,8, 12, etc., or in any section of a song for that matter.
3. Jump immediately into the verse with vocals, then work in an awesome melodic and harmonic intro immediately after, before continuing the first verse. Your listener will not know what hit them if done tastefully!
4. Rhyme every single line in any section or the first four lines in a section.
5. Use only inner rhymes in any section, including the chorus!
6. Use a low melody in the chorus and a higher one in the verses.
7. Follow the first verse with a pre-chorus, then when everyone expects the chorus,go into the second verse, pre-chorus, then finally, the chorus. Your chorus will explode with tremendous impact! This one's called the obvious-verse/pre-chorus foreplay!
8. Start a song with the chorus. Wow, why didn't we think of that? This one's been used successfully time and time again but yet, it's rarely used these days.
This should be enough to get your juices flowing for now. Keep thinking of new ways to bring freshness and originality into your songs. Oftentimes one small change of a section in a song can change its complexion as well as the listener's response for the better.
Songwriters grow and benefit from sometimes saying, "Hey I'm just gonna go for it," while songwriting, ignoring common songwriting structures and principles.
