CREATING LYRICAL SONG DYNAMICS - Part 2
An excerpt from Write Songs Right Now
by hit songwriter and songwriting coach Alex Forbes
CreativeSongwriter.com
AHHH, THE PAYOFF AT LAST!
By one minute in (or less!), your killer Chorus ideally delivers a breathtaking thrill of intense gratification. After the lead-up of a well-written Verse, the Chorus feels inevitable, yet not predictable. Weigh these elements of your Chorus, to see if it’s got the goods:
The clarity of your song’s message.
In your Chorus, your moment of truth has arrived, so don’t squander it. Work to discover the strongest possible way to convey your song’s deepest conviction. To continue the roller coaster metaphor, make this first peak moment steep enough and dramatic enough to take their breath away.
Your song’s Hook.
Have you condensed the essence of your song into a diamond-like nugget of lyrical truth? Does it effectively provoke thought, emotion, laughter, or spiritual uplift? A great Hook unifies the mind, the body, and the heart in one really short, sharp shock of recognition. It’s like universal shorthand, capturing a uniquely human experience in a few brief words.
A high level of stickiness.
Is your Chorus like gum on your shoe? Is the lyric singable and simple, pithy without being ponderous? Ask yourself, “Does my Chorus, and especially my hook, contain enough substance to bear repeating?” If all goes according to plan, a great Chorus is repeated for ages!
A palpable contrast with the Verse.
Bend over backwards to amplify the contrast between your songs’ sections, using different rhythms and rhyme schemes, lyrical densities and line lengths, patterns and styles of repetition, types of sentences (declarative, narrative, questions, commands, fragments, non-verbal sounds), etc. Otherwise, your listeners will get that sinking “been there, done that” feeling.
(To be Continued...) Stay tuned for the final part of this article later this week!
Read more about Alex and all of this year's contest judges here
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