Have you ever been listening to a song, or not really, because it is so monotonous that you don't even know where the chorus starts?
Even though repetition is an important device for driving home the central idea or hook in a song, making the song memorable, repetition has it's limits. It can be carried too far and the song loses it's power to grab the attention of the listener. At this point, the song doctor orders a dose of contrast.
Contrast can be applied to a number of song elements to accomplish a "heads up" from the listener as an enticement to keep listening.
An important rule in song structure is to keep the meter (rhythm of the lyric), rhyme scheme, melody and chord progression the same from verse to verse, however, all of these elements should change when moving to another section of the song, a chorus or bridge.
Here are some ways you can apply contrast.
Vary your melodic and lyrical meter by:
- Having short note durations in the verse and long note durations in the chorus or vise versa.
- Changing the length of your lines from one section to another,. For example, long in the verse, short in the chorus and then maybe two medium lines and a long line in the bridge.
- Changing the length of your sections. For example, say you have an eight line verse, then have a four line chorus and a three line bridge.
- Changing the rhythmic accents or stresses on the syllables in your lyric.
- Changing the feel of your sections. For example, if you have a more rhythmic and less melodic verse, then create a strong soaring melody that is less rhythmic for your chorus.
Vary your rhyme scheme by:
- Changing your rhyme pattern for each section. For example if you have common meter (Mary Had A Little Lamb nursery rhyme) in your verse (xa xa xb xb), use couplets (Eenie Meenie Minie Moe nursery rhyme) in your chorus ( aa bb) or vice versa.
Vary your melody by:
- Keeping your melody in low to medium range in the verse and moving to the highest melodic range of the vocalist on the chorus, or vice versa
Vary your chord progression and keep them interesting by:
- Changing your progression for each section.
- Modulating in the bridge and returning to the same key.
- Modulating to a new key.
Another important contrast to consider is emotional intensity. Just as `in a novel, movie or any other story telling media, your three minute song story should have a scene setter (who, where & when), a conflict with rising action, a climax, and falling action with an outcome. Try drawing a graph of the emotional intensity of your song. Is it a dead flat line or does it have some wavy lift to it, culminating in a peak point for your climax?
©2009 Barbara McMillen _ All rights reserved.
