Once you have the "big idea" for what your song's going to be about, it's usually a good idea to decide what you want each section of your song to be about to keep your song focused as you develop it. I'll show you what I mean with an example.
Let's say an idea for our song is: It's Amazing What You Can Learn Over a Cup of Coffee. It could be an interesting concept, so let's assume our song structure will be: verse / chorus / verse / chorus / bridge / chorus. From there we'll figure out what each section will do.
We'll start with our choruses, since that'll let us think big picture, and we already have the big idea for our song. This is the easy part. The chorus idea is the same each time, plus it basically comes from the overall idea of our song. So we can start with this:
Verse 1-?
Chorus- It's Amazing What You Can Learn Over a Cup of Coffee
Verse 2-?
Chorus- It's Amazing What You Can Learn Over a Cup of Coffee
Bridge-?
Chorus- It's Amazing What You Can Learn Over a Cup of Coffee
Look at that! We're halfway done with the layout the ideas for each section! Note that I notated the verses as "verse 1" and "verse 2," while the choruses are simply labeled "chorus." This is just to remind me that the verses will not only be different from each other, but they'll be advancing my story, while the chorus information will stay the same.
Now for the hard part. What are the verses going to say? When you're coming up with an idea for each verse, make sure the story advances from verse to verse. If you say the same thing in both verses, it won't be as interesting to your listeners.
I like the idea of learning something intricate over a simple cup of coffee. Let's make this song about a dad talking to his daughter. They're talking because they haven't seen each other in a while and they need to catch up.
As I ponder ideas for my first verse, I like the idea of the daughter dropping excited news on him. I'd like that news to be that she just got her first job out of college and she wants to let him know that he's been her inspiration the whole time. He's her hero and she wants to approach life just like he has.
It's a cool idea, but now that I think about it, that'd be a lot of information for a first verse. Where would I go from there? If that was my first verse, I'd pretty much had dropped the bulk of my information, and might not have anywhere else to go with it.
Sometimes when you think you wrote your first verse, you should try it out as your second verse. Just because you write it first, doesn't mean it has to come first in your story. If I make verse two about the daughter letting her dad know that he's been her inspiration all along, then I can make the first verse about the dad getting filled in on all the little things going on in her life. Things that seem mundane, but since he hasn't spoken to her in a while, he's happy to hear them. Both of those verses would play into the whole "It's amazing what you can learn over a cup of coffee" idea well. So let's go back and check out how our ideas for each section are flowing now:
Verse 1- A dad hasn't seen his daughter for a while, so now he's getting filled in on all the little things going on in her life. They might seem mundane to most, but since he hasn't spoken to her in a while they're big news to him
Chorus- It's Amazing What You Can Learn Over a Cup of Coffee
Verse 2- The daughter reveals that not only does she have her first job out of college, but the dad's been her inspiration the entire time. The dad is brought to tears by this information.
Chorus- It's Amazing What You Can Learn Over a Cup of Coffee
Bridge-?
Chorus- It's Amazing What You Can Learn Over a Cup of Coffee
Okay, so we're getting there. The only section we need a concept for is the bridge. A bridge is typically a departure from what we've heard in a song, previously. It's our chance for a new perspective, instead of simply moving the story forward the same way we did in our verses.
With that in mind, let's use this opportunity to have the daughter learn something from this conversation with her dad. After all, the verses were about the dad learning things from the daughter. Since we have a chance for a new way to look at things in the bridge, we'll let it be the daughter's turn to learn something interesting.
We can have the bridge be about the dad returning his daughter's nice words by letting her know that raising her to be who she's turned out to be is his biggest accomplishment. It'll be a nice "full circle" notion to the song. Plus, now the chorus will refer to what the daughter learned instead of what the dad learned. The phrase "It's Amazing What You Can Learn Over a Cup of Coffee" doesn't specifically apply to the dad, so we can use it to cover what the daughter learns too. That's one reason it's good to leave your choruses fairly open-ended.
So finally, we get to this:
Verse 1- A dad hasn't seen his daughter for a while, so now he's getting filled in on all the little things going on in her life. They might seem mundane to most, but since he hasn't spoken to her in a while they're big news to him
Chorus- It's Amazing What You Can Learn Over a Cup of Coffee (referring to the dad)
Verse 2- The daughter reveals that not only does she have her first job out of college, but the dad's been her inspiration the entire time. The dad is brought to tears by this information.
Chorus- It's Amazing What You Can Learn Over a Cup of Coffee (referring to the dad)
Bridge- The dad reveals to his daughter that she is his biggest accomplishment
Chorus- It's Amazing What You Can Learn Over a Cup of Coffee (referring to the daughter)
Now we have a great roadmap for what our song should do. If you plan out each section's objective in this way before you write your actual lyrics, it'll help keep your ideas focused. You'll be less likely to lose your listeners by writing a convoluted story. This is a great, organized way to get your songs moving in the right direction.
To learn more, download my free EBook here: http://www.SuccessForYourSongs.com/freeoffer/
Anthony Ceseri is the owner of http://www.successforyoursongs.com/, a website dedicated to the growth and development of songwriters of all skill levels. Anthony's writings appear as examples in the book "Songwriting Without Boundaries: Lyric Writing Exercises For Finding Your Voice" by Pat Pattison, an acclaimed lyric writing professor at Berklee College of Music.
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