Song Structuring..

[DJ Chris-D]

will eh bekannte Arrangements meinte ich!

 

[grimtraveller]

Keine gute Idee. Um eigene Musik zu vermarkten braucht man Struktur! [Not a good idea.You need structure to market your own music!]

Nein, keine Schlagzeugmuster, die kann man natürlich variieren! Aber die allgemeine Struktur eines Songs - da würde ich mich schon an erfolgreichen Songs orientieren! Ist eh nicht schwer, der Hörer will eh bekannte Arrangements! [No, no drum patterns, of course you can vary them! But the general structure of a song - I would orientate myself on successful songs! It's not difficult anyway, the listener wants familiar arrangements anyway! ]

will eh bekannte Arrangements meinte ich! [I meant well-known arrangements anyway!]

Sprechen Sie Englisch mein freund.

 

[Xenon 6]

Anyone asking this question will be looking for guidance on song structure, so starting with guidelines would be good only to know they can go their own way once they have built confidence.

One technique I have recommended to singer song-writers is to take a song they like, follow its structure, intro - verse - pre-chorus - chorus etc. Then look at the singer's melody including length of line, rhyming scheme, the meter of the song, rhythm of the melody, and very importantly when the melody repeats (I can't believe how many beginner song writes use a different melody with each verse). and copy that with your lyric and melody.​

Once you have your melody, how is it harmonised?​

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Next, find a bass riff similar to the one in the song you are using for inspiration. Now find a matching drum line noting the arrangements elements of the original song. Finally fill in other instruments.​

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I have found this technique produces some of the best songs the client has ever produced. After they do it for a while they learn from their favourite artists.​

There is a reasonable video on song structures that can be found here:



If you really want to learn about music find and do a course on Composition and Arrangement. You can do whole college degrees on Composition and Arrangement or or many books on it or simple online courses. Bite off as much as you can chew.

Consider this: What is the difference between a sound engineer and record producer? Look at the song credits in Wikipedia for hit songs credits. The producer is often given a credit for signwriting. In a home recording environment you don't normally have a production team. To some people home recording is about just putting a suitable microphone in front of an instrument or singer, setting the levels correctly and pressing record. Whatever comes out is what you record. To others it is about helping their artist to realise his or her vision for the finished product. This can mean anything from helping with signwriting; to hiring suitable session musicians; to vocal coaching; to helping them sign up for Distrokid; to relationship therapy for the band.

How To ACTUALLY Make A Hit Song (based on science)
5 Melodic Elements

• Repetition
• Simplicity - easy to sing along
• Familiarity - Steal from other songs
• Resolution - End on root note.
• Unexpected variations - Violate expectations.

See video here:


There are also a bunch of YouTube videos on Max Martin's signwriting formula. Search for them.

I hope people find my contribution helpful.

 

[markmann]

Nothing wrong with structure if you can make it interesting. Same thing for no structure.

 

[TalismanRich]

Sprechen Sie Englisch mein freund.

I just found out that Firefox has a translate function! I told it to translate from German to English, and BINGO! All the posts on that page were in English. That's going to come in handy. I won't need to copy and paste stuff into Google Translate.

As for using the formula for creating a song, I don't know that the formula is what makes the song good, it's a catchy melody, and a hook that people can remember. They might only remember the words to one or two verses, but the hook will always be there.

Do you think that the AI bots will take the formula system to the nth degree? Pick the tempo and time signature that's most popular, throw in what it calculates to be a hook, put it in a key that most people can sing.

 

[Seafroggys]

I love it when a post I made 14 years ago gets quoted

Man, back in 2010 I was still a prolific songwriter/composer. After I wrote my Norse musical in 2011, all my juice was spent. I went from writing 15-20 songs a year to, like, one and a half.

 

[DM60]

I love it when a post I made 14 years ago gets quoted

Man, back in 2010 I was still a prolific songwriter/composer. After I wrote my Norse musical in 2011, all my juice was spent. I went from writing 15-20 songs a year to, like, one and a half.

That means you should have an albums worth now

 

[Ally-007]

I thought it would be good to have a thread where everyone could discuss how they structure their songs..I know there is several discussions on this already, but they are interweaved throughout other threads titled for other queries and easily lost.

Hopefully, this will help keep much of it concentrated in one thread for a quick reference on structuring ideas and helps..dos and donts.



I will, eventually gather up relevant posts already existing on this subject and merge them in this thread.

Feel free to discuss here...

i don't have a fixed formula. I just compose as I go along, and make many changes before I'm satisfied. The main rules for me are to make sure things stay interesting and repetition is not overdone.