Step #2 of Writing Great Melodies – Create a 4 Note Melody
Songwriters commonly assume that using as many notes as possible in your melody is a great thing to do. However, the truth is that when you first start composing a melody, it’s best to limit yourself to using 4 notes from the scale. In this blog post, we’ll discuss creating a 4 note melody as part of the melody writing process.
There are 3 main reasons to limit yourself to 4 notes. They are as follows:
Encouraging creativity: By imposing limitations, you encourage yourself to work within those limitations. Thus, you also encourage yourself to be more creative with limited materials.
Avoid sounding like an exercise: When you use all 7 notes of the scale, it often tends to sound like you’re just running a scale. This makes melodies boring and sound like exercises.
Reserve material for other parts of the song: It’s important to leave some of the notes for you to use in other parts of the songs. Having somewhere to go is what gives melodies a sense of purpose and a journey to follow.
How to Use 4 Notes to Create a Melody
Before trying to create a melody with 4 notes, be sure that you’ve picked your scale, key and chord progression.
If you need some help, click here to download a free PDF eBook containing all the diatonic chords written out in 6 different keys titled “Diatonic Chords in 6 Different Keys”:
A really important thing to establish at this point is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. In further steps, we’ll be refining and creating different iterations of this melody to work with. Start by singing the 4 notes you’ve chosen over the chord progression you’ve chosen. Experiment with different combinations of the notes and remember to try and keep it simple, as simplicity at this point is key.
Conclusion: Step #2 of Writing Great Melodies – Create a 4 Note Melody
By limiting yourself to four notes initially, you create a foundation upon which you can build an engaging melody. Through experimentation, you’ll be able to compose great melodies that work well over your chord progression.
Songwriting Tip #3 – Moving the Story Through a Timeline
A common problem that songwriters face is not knowing how to structure our verses. Through analysing Queen’s hit song “We Will Rock You”, we’ll learn one of the ways we can develop the storyline of a song.
Sometimes when we write songs, we’re simply describing a specific moment. In the case of “We Will Rock You”, they’ve instead opted to describe the different phases of a character’s life. Observe the first line of each of the verses of the song, as below:
Verse 1 “Buddy, you’re a boy, make a big noise”
Verse 2 “Buddy, you’re a young man, hard man”
Verse 3 “Buddy, you’re an old man, poor man”
From this, we can see that the verses take us through different stages of Buddy’s life. Verse 1 describes him as a boy, Verse 2 describes him as a young man and Verse 3 then describes him as an old man.
If you’d like to learn more about how you could plan your song sections out, click here to download a free “Song Map Template” PDF now:
The Effect This Has
This chronological storytelling approach evokes a sense of nostalgia and reflection.
By assigning each verse to a different era of Buddy’s life, this allows listeners to contemplate the various stages and challenges we all face throughout our lives. The lyrics suggest that despite growing older, Buddy’s circumstances and struggles remain unchanged, creating a sense of constancy and a never-ending cycle of hardships.
While “We Will Rock You” is often seen as a confident and empowering anthem, this storytelling technique adds depth and complexity to the narrative. It portrays a character who persists in the face of adversity, regardless of the challenges that life presents.
It’s to be noted that as with any song, interpretations may vary, and listeners may find their own meanings and connections within the narrative. This is just one of many potential interpretations, but it’s not necessarily the only one that there is.
Conclusion: Songwriting Tip #3 – Moving the Story Through a Timeline
“We Will Rock You” is a great example of the power of storytelling in songwriting. It’s important for us to learn from this song and remember that a song doesn’t necessarily have to be about just a moment, but can take us through the timeline of a story instead.
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Step #1 of Writing Great Melodies – Figure Out the Scale
Many songwriters often wonder where they should begin when trying to write melodies. In this blog post, we’ll demystify the first step to creating great melodies – figuring out the scale.
Imagine composing a song as preparing a recipe. You begin by deciding on the essential ingredients. When melody writing, your ingredients are the notes of your scale. Common scales used for melodies include the major and minor scales. By determining the scale, we narrow down the number of ingredients we could possibly use in our recipe i.e. our song.
For instance, let’s take a look at the scale of the key of G Major:
G A B C D E F# G
By deciding on our key as G Major, we can narrow down the notes our melody uses to the notes in the scale.
Using the Scale to Compose Melodies
There are a few ways we could go about using the scale to start composing our melody. We could simply sing up and down the scale, randomly picking notes to combine with one another. However, an approach that tends to be more intuitive for beginner songwriters is to pick 3 or 4 chords from the key, and write a chord progression.
Click here to download a free PDF eBook containing all the diatonic chords written out in 6 different keys titled “Diatonic Chords in 6 Different Keys”:
By using chords and notes from the same key, any melodies that we create will naturally sound good over the chord progression we’ve chosen.
Conclusion: Step #1 of Writing Great Melodies – Figure Out the Scale
Starting the processof writing melodies doesn’t have to be daunting. Through deciding on our key and scale, we provide ourselves with a framework to create melodies on. In this manner, we won’t feel lost or overwhelmed when trying to begin the melody writing process.
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Songwriting Tip #2 – Using the Voice as a Percussive Instrument
Usually when we write songs, we focus a lot on using a good amount of variation between our verses and choruses. This is so that we can create a build-up of tension, followed by resolution in the chorus. However, it’s entirely possible to place very little emphasis on pitch movement to create a release of tension. Here, we’ll discuss how Freddie Mercury uses his voice as a percussive instrument in Queen’s song “We Will Rock You”.
Similarly to a lot of great anthems, Queen’s hit song is largely about the refrain line i.e. the line that goes “We will rock you”.
So, the verses are there to take us on a lyrical journey and provide a build-up for the song’s narrative. This build-up in tension can then be released when the refrain line lands. The unusual thing about the lyrical phrasing in the verses of this song is that there’s very little emphasis on pitch movement and a lot of emphasis on rhythmic movement.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can build tension and release in a song, download this free PDF entitled “Functions of Chords in a Diatonic System”:
How Is this Achieved?
If we break-down the melody of the verses, we’ll notice that Freddy Mercury focuses on one repeated note that he hits in a short staccato rhythmic way, before then descending at the end of the phrase down the pentatonic scale. Take a look at the first verse of “We Will Rock You”, as below:
Buddy, you’re a boy, make a big noise Playing in the street, gonna be a big man someday You got mud on your face, you big disgrace Kicking your can all over the place
The sections highlighted in yellow are approximately where the melody starts descending down the pentatonic scale. From this, we can see that a large portion of the verse doesn’t have much melodic variation at all.
The Effect this Has
By limiting the melodic movement, and instead opting to focus on rhythmic movement, this creates a verse that’s extremely tribal in nature, as well as being easy for anyone to sing along to.
Even if we remove the lyrics, the melody line still feels like it’s driving the song because of the way it’s been phrased rhythmically. As a result, the verses feel punchy, and really help drive home the point of the song. This also has the effect of making the refrain sound like a huge event that we’ve all been waiting for, and further emphasises the release in tension that occurs.
Conclusion: Songwriting Tip #2 – Using the Voice as a Percussive Instrument
From Queen’s song “We Will Rock You”, we can clearly see how using the voice as a percussive instrument can be used to great effect. By limiting melodic movement and instead emphasising rhythmic movement, it’s possible to build tension in an entirely different way, thus helping us to create anthems that truly stand out.
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Writing great melodies often feels like a mysterious art. In this blog post, we’ll break down the melody writing process into 7 simple steps. Of course, there’s no one right way to write a melody and these steps are just designed to show you the essential elements of melody writing. So, you’ll be able to write songs better and faster.
Choosing the right scale is like selecting the key ingredients for a recipe. When you know your scale, you’ll be able to narrow down the choices of notes you have to build your melody from. Common scale choices are usually either major or minor.
For example, if we choose the key G Major, we’ll automatically know that the following are notes we have to build our melody from:
G A B C D E F# G
From here, you could just sing the notes of the scale and combine them till you form a melody. However, a more intuitive method for most beginner songwriters is to pick 3 or 4 chords from the key you’ve chosen, create a chord progression and sing over it. This makes it really easy for you to form a melody from the scale, and always have it fit over the chords you’ve chosen.
Click here to download a free PDF eBook containing all the diatonic chords written out in 6 different keys titled “Diatonic Chords in 6 Different Keys”:
Step 2 – Create a 4 Note Melody
Limiting the number of notes you use from the scale is important, because of a few reasons:
Imposing limitations forces you to be more creative with less material.
Using all 7 notes will result in a melody sounding just like an exercise.
You will be able to save some notes for use in other parts of the song.
At this stage, it’s not necessary for the melody you create to be perfect. This melody will be refined and you’ll create different iterations of it in later steps.
Step 3 – Use Steps and Leaps
Before we discuss how to use steps and leaps to add variety to your melody, we must first understand what they are. Below are the definitions of both:
Steps: When the notes are all next to each other, this is called a step melody. For example, a melody composed of G A B would be considered a step melody because all of the notes are next to each other in the G Major scale. The largest interval possible with a step is a 2nd.
Leaps: If the melody skips over notes in the scale, this is called a leap. For example, a melody composed of G B D would be considered a leap melody because all the notes aren’t next to each other in the G Major scale. The smallest interval possible with a step is a 3rd.
A well-written melody should have a good balance between leaps and steps. Using only leaps results in a melody sounding chaotic, whilst using only steps makes it boring and monotonous. The placement of your leaps is also important, as a leap denotes a sense of drama and emotion. By using leaps to highlight specific moments, we can create memorable moments in our songs.
An example of good usage of leaps in melodies in the classic tune “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.
Step 4 – Create Rhythmic Interest
Rhythm plays a vital role in melody writing. The placement of notes within the beat pattern can drastically change the feel of a melody. Beginner songwriters tend to make all of their phrases come in on beat one. This can make the melody feel cluttered, giving the feeling of all of the space being occupied.
We can liken rhythm in a melody to body language. Coming in on beat one is extremely forward body language. When we mix up phrases coming in on and after beat one, we get a sort of push-pull body language that makes our melodies dance. Varying the rhythm of our melodic phrase in different ways allows us to get more use out of the 4 notes that we’ve chosen. This way, they can be used differently in different sections of the song.
It’s also worth remembering that long melodies are often made up of smaller motifs that are repeated using different variations. A song that demonstrates this beautifully is Billie Eilish’s song “When the Party’s Over”, where the same melodic motif is moved up the scale four times in the verse.
Step 5 – Repeat the Phrase
We’re going to call our phrase the combination of our melodic motif plus its rhythmic variation. For an example, view the picture below:
What we can do is repeat the melodic phrase that we’ve come up with again. However, ensure that we vary the repeat in some way, whether that be going up the scale, moving the notes around slightly or changing the rhythm.
During this process, you may realise that you find other chords which work well with your melody, that are different to the initial 3 or 4 you picked to start out the song with. This is entirely natural because the first few chords we pick are just to establish the key and keep ourselves grounded. They by no means have to be the only chords we ever use.
Step 6 – Introduce Some Variation
Once you’ve managed to build up a fairly long melodic phrase – which you can think of as a part of a section – we should start thinking about how we can introduce variation to provide the element of surprise to our listeners. The best way to do this is to break the pattern that you’ve been using.
When you regularly create small changes to your melodic motifs, you keep your listeners interested. Great melodies are made out of a well-balanced combination of repetition and variation. The secret is to try and ensure that every melodic motif that you write slightly varies from the others in some way.
Step 7 – Write More Melodies
After writing enough melodic material for one section of a song – say a verse – you need to write more melodies for the other sections of your song such as the chorus, and bridge. One of the easiest ways to do this is to look at the contour of the melodic material you’ve created so far. Contour is just a very fancy word to describe the shape and direction of the melody.
For example, if your melody was ascending, then you could change it to be descending instead. However, a great melody doesn’t just change the contour – it also varies the starting note. You could also decide to simplify the melody instead, as some melodies can benefit greatly from restraint. After all, the key to writing great melodies isn’t complexity, but contrast.
Another important thing to think about is where the most important moment in your song is, and try to place the highest note in your song there to highlight it. You can also try to refrain from using the root note of a key in a build-up, till you need to deliver a message with a punch. This is a common strategy used when writing a pre-chorus.
Finally, remember that throughout the process of composing melodies, you don’t have to worry about your lyrics. What we’re really focusing on here is finding some nice melodies – lyrics can come later.
Conclusion: Writing Great Melodies in 7 Steps
Crafting great melodies doesn’t have to be an overwhelming or daunting process. By following these steps, you’ll be able to compose amazing melodies in a systematic and consistent manner.
If you would like more details, explanations and examples, then be sure to check out the video now.
Level up your songwriting with five radically practical exercises used by professional songwriters around the world:
As songwriters, we try hard to distinguish ourselves and create memorable songs. Unfortunately, many songwriters often feel as if things need to be complicated in order to stand out – this is inaccurate. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the power of simplicity through studying Queen’s classic rock anthem “We Will Rock You”.
“We Will Rock You” begins with the drums playing a classic rock groove, predominantly using the kicks and snares. However, what differentiates this groove and really makes it stand out, is that the kicks and snares are being accented with foot stomps and claps.
Although all of this sounds extremely simple, it’s actually very difficult to execute it well because the reality of it is that simple is hard to do. The fewer elements there are, the harder those elements have to work to stand out. Otherwise, the simplicity of it could backfire and instead result in the song sounding boring. As Chopin eloquently says, “Simplicity is the final achievement”, and in the case of “We Will Rock You”, simplicity equals powerful.
If you’d like to learn more about how you could plan your song sections out, click here to download a free “Song Map Template” PDF now:
Why Does this Work?
The drum groove that is created feels tribal and primal. Even though it’s so simple and uncluttered, it still manages to drive the song forward from that very first beat because the general arrangement of the song is so sparse. When Freddie Mercury’s voice comes in, we’re hyperfocused on his delivery because of the very few elements that are in the mix in the first place.
This is where the power of simplicity really shines, as it allows us to draw the listener’s attention to a few specific elements and really make those elements land emotionally with the listener.
How Is this Achieved?
This powerful groove couldn’t have been achieved without layering the kicks and snares. There are a few ways we could go about this:
Get other people to join in: You could record other people stomping their feet and clapping, and then use those recordings to layer with the kicks and snares. This creates a really cool natural variation to the layers.
Record yourself: If you aren’t able to record other people, you could always record yourself stomping and clapping. This way, you’ll still be able to create a more natural feel, even without recording others.
Using samples: You could also layer using different samples of people stomping and clapping. There are loads of free sample libraries online, and even Logic Pro X’s stock library has ample amounts of samples to work with. Through manipulating these audio files, you’ll be able to create lots of different layers and textures without needing to record anything live.
Conclusion: Songwriting Tip #1 – The Power of Simplicity
In conclusion, “We Will Rock You” teaches us that simplicity can be a potent tool in songwriting. By focusing on a few key elements, you can create a powerful impact and draw your audience’s attention to the core message of your song.
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The magic chord modulation is a powerful songwriting tool that can help us establish key changes and special moments in our songs. Here, we will learn what is the magic chord modulation, examples of songs that use it and how we use this in our own songs.
For us to understand the Magic chord modulation, let’s take a look at the bridge of “Something” by The Beatles. There is a part where a G Major chord is followed by an A Major instead of C Major, which is what it would normally go home to. After this, A Major becomes our new key centre instead. In this situation, G Major is being used as the magic chord, and is also known as the pivot chord.
A magic chord is basically a flat seven major chord. If we take a look at all of the chords of A Major, we’ll find that the seventh chord will always be a vii dim chord. And it turns out that in any Major key, it is fine to swap out the vii dim chord with a flat seven major chord instead.
Flat seven means that we take the diatonic root of the seventh chord, and flatten it by a semitone. So, in the case of the key of A Major, that would result in G# being flattened to G Natural. From there, we can either choose to use G Major or G Dom 7 as our magic chord.
It doesn’t matter whether you choose a Major or Dom 7 as your Magic chord, as both are fine, and the choice is just a stylistic one.
Click here to download a free PDF containing major and minor line cliches in 2 positions, that you can use to experiment with magic chord modulation on:
How to Use the Magic Chord in Your Songs
One method of using the magic chord is of course to just simply chuck it into your chord progressions. In this instance, this wouldn’t be modulation, but it would just be us using the magic chord in a progression.
However, another thing that we can do is that we can try starting in a different key from our reference song. So, for example, we could choose to start in the key of D Major. The first thing that we’ll do is that we’ll plan out our chord progression by finding out the V of our key. In the key of D Major, our V is A Maj, and thus our V7 is A Dom 7.
From here, we need to find a key that has A Dom 7 as it’s flattened seventh chord. We can do this by counting a whole tone up from our V7 chord, which in this case would be B. Thus, we now know that B Major is our new key centre that we will modulate into from D Major, using A Dom 7 as our pivot chord.
Conclusion: Discovering the Magic Chord Modulation
The magic chord modulation is a powerful technique that allows songwriters to introduce captivating key changes into their music. By understanding the concept of the flat seven major chord and its relationship to the original and target keys, you can create magical and surprising moments in your compositions.
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Songwriting Tips to Learn from Queen’s “We Will Rock You”
“We Will Rock You” by Queen is arguably the greatest rock anthem of all time. In this blog post, we look at some of the songwriting secrets buried within its seemingly simple form.
“We Will Rock You” begins with a deceptively simple drum groove that packs a powerful punch. Brian May’s clever use of hand claps and foot stomps to emphasize the snare and kick drums gives the song a tribal and primal feel. This uncluttered and straightforward arrangement allows listeners to be hyper focused on Freddie Mercury’s vocals once they come in.
Whilst the groove is really simple, the power of it really comes from the layers used to create it. From this, we can see that simplicity allows us to draw our listeners attention to a few sparse elements in a song, thus helping to ensure that they land emotionally with the listener.
Using the Voice as a Percussive Instrument
Similarly to most great anthems, this song is mostly centered around the refrain line, which is “We will rock you”. The verses are meant to build tension, thus creating a satisfying release once the refrain hits. However, unlike most songs, the verses use variations in rhythm rather than pitch to achieve this.
By using his voice as a percussive instrument, Freddie Mercury creates an infectious rhythmic drive that keeps the song moving forward. Even if we remove the lyrics, just listening to the short, staccato, and rhythmic melody in the verse allows us to feel the bounce, rhythm and drive of the song.
To learn more about writing catchy hooks, click here to download a free 30-minute masterclass entitled “Hook Writing: Making Memorable Melodies”:
Moving the Story Through a Timeline
The lyrical structure of “We Will Rock You” moves the story through a character’s life journey, instead of just a particular moment or day in their life. Each verse represents a different phase in the character’s life, showcasing the progression from a boy to a young man and eventually an old man. This narrative style invokes a sense of nostalgia in listeners, and prompts them to relate and think back to phases that we all go through in our own lives.
Each of the verses also features a play on the line “You got mud on your face, you big disgrace”. This makes us feel as if nothing has changed, and that the character is always struggling, even up till the very end. When this is combined with the refrain “We will rock you”, we get an extremely relatable story of a character who’s always struggling but still chooses to continue to fight.
Turning the Chorus into an Anthem
If we observe the lyrics of “We Will Rock You”, we’ll notice that the lyrics go from being very busy in the verse, to being less busy as the song heads towards the refrain line in the chorus. This is a technique known as phrasal deceleration. When we go from having lots of notes in a bar, to having less notes in a bar, it results in us feeling deceleration even though the tempo is the same.
In addition, the refrain lands entirely on downbeats. Since downbeats are extremely stable, this further reinforces the central message of the refrain. This technique adds to the chant-like quality of the chorus, inviting the audience to participate and creating a memorable anthem that compels listeners to sing along.
Listening to Your Audience
The story goes that “We Will Rock You” was written after Queen had played a show at Bingley Hall in Stafford 29th May 1977. At the end of that show the crowd began to sing what is known as a classic football anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone. Brian May was really moved by this experience and wanted to write an anthem of their own that the crowd could sing along with, as well as stomp and clap to.
Instead of dismissing the experience as just him having an easily excitable crowd, he took it and used it to create a song that he could use to actively engage the audience with. As songwriters and musicians, we’re often very focused on details, and our own creative process. However, consider that one of the most famous rock anthems of all time was written to allow the audience to participate regardless of an instrument, and feel like they belonged to the band.
From this, it’s clear that it’s important for us as songwriters to listen to our audience as well, rather than just serving ourselves in our songs.
Keep It Short
At just over two minutes and two seconds, “We Will Rock You” is short and to the point. A question that often comes up at this point is “How long should my song be?”. Unfortunately, the answer is rather philosophical, which is as long as the song needs to be. To do that, we need to decide what the purpose of our song is, and ponder upon why it was created.
In this instance, Queen’s goal was to create an anthem that the crowd could sing along to and clap with. To achieve that goal, the song has 3 refrains, thus providing the crowd 3 opportunities to join in. Once that’s been done, the song has served its purpose. If the song had been even 30 or 40 seconds longer, we might have felt that it was dragging rather than memorable.
There is no exact formula for how long a song should be but in the case of “We Will Rock You”, it being short and sweet helped it to serve the purpose of the song well.
Using Unconventional Song Forms
Instead of following the typical verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure or other popular song forms such as AABA, “We Will Rock You” consists of three refrain lines and three verses, followed by a soaring guitar solo at the end. What makes this even more unusual, is that the entirety of the three refrains and verses is done acapella with only drums as accompaniment.
The contrast between these sections creates a delightfully surprising and charming song. In addition, Brian May’s guitar solo focuses mostly on the A Major chord, even though up till this point, the song has mostly centered around the E Minor chord. The guitar lick he plays is essentially a country lick, played on the 14th fret with lots of distortion.
The important thing to take away from this, is that there’s so much crossover between blues, country, folk, rock, R&B, and soul, and we can often find so much inspiration from other forms of music. Even if we don’t play them, these concepts can transfer over beautifully to the style that we’re making music in.
Conclusion: Songwriting Tips to Learn from Queen’s “We Will Rock You”
There are lots of aspects of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” that make it a memorable song. The important part is for us to adapt what we learn from this classic rock anthem into our own music. This way, we too can create songs that captivate our audiences and withstand the test of time.
If you would like more details, explanations and examples, then be sure to check out the video now.
Turn your inspiration into beautiful songs with step-by-step guidance through two professional songwriting methods. By the end of this course, not only will your tool belt be stocked; you’ll have a plan and a method for finishing your songs – all of them:
Although the “secondary dominant chords” may sound intimidating, it’s a simple concept to grasp once you understand the formula behind it. In this blog post, we’ll discover what secondary dominant chords are, have a look at some song examples and learn how to make this technique our own.
Toexamine what secondary dominants are, let’s have a look at “Something” by The Beatles. Halfway through the verse, there is a section where the chord progression goes from D7 to G. The relationship between D7 and G is what is known as a secondary dominant relationship.
For secondary dominance to occur, the following three conditions must be met:
A dominant chord must always precede the target chord. Specifically, it must be a dominant seventh chord, which is characterised by Major chord with a flattened seventh on the top.
The root of a secondary dominant chord must always be a perfect fifth above the target chord. For example, if the target chord is G, you must count up a perfect fifth, which is D. Hence, D7 is the secondary dominant of G.
The secondary dominant must always directly precede the target chord. There must be no chord in between the secondary dominant and the target chord or else the effect of secondary dominance would be disrupted (or interpolated).
Click here to download a free PDF eBook with 3 great chord progressions to try in your next song, that you can use to experiment with secondary dominants on:
How to Make Secondary Dominants Our Own
Instead of starting the secondary dominant from the V chord, you could try starting from other chords in the key. For example, in the key of C, the vi chord is A Min. Counting a perfect fifth up from A, we get E. Hence, we could make a chord progression featuring E7 followed by A Min. This introduces a more melancholic sort of feel to a song, and can be quite interesting to use.
You can make a secondary dominant for any chord in the scale, except for the vii dim chord. The reasons involve esoteric music theory explanations that we won’t go into at the moment. However, as long as you stick to this rule, you’ll be able to come up with all sorts of secondary dominant combinations.
Conclusion: Learning About Secondary Dominant Chords
By incorporating dominant type chords that precede target chords, secondary dominants can create tension, anticipation, and captivating progressions. They add sophistication to regular diatonic chord progressions.
The importance of studying your heroes is often overlooked by most when learning the art of songwriting. Through this blog post, you will learn why studying your heroes is important, as well as how to use what you’ve learnt from them in your own writing.
Merely learning how to play your favourite songs is a great start to your songwriting journey, but that doesn’t mean you should stop there. You also need to actively pick them apart and observe why the songwriters make the choices that they do. Examples of aspects which are useful to analyse in particular, are chord progressions and melodies.
To illustrate this, let’s have a look at the song “Someone Like You” by Adele.
By observing the chord progression of the song, we can see that she avoids the tonic chord in the pre-chorus of the song. This makes sense, as it’s the job of the pre-chorus to build tension. Through only bringing back the home chord in the chorus, Adele really makes it bloom and stand out.
In addition, if you learnt to sing the song or picked apart its melody, you’ll find that she never sings a note in her verses that’s higher than the first note of the chorus. She does hit a high note later on again in the chorus in order to build it up, but she never allows the melody notes of the verse to go higher than the chorus. This helps build anticipation and really put a spotlight on the chorus.
This active process of taking things apart and putting them back together allows us to grasp the components that make a song unique and memorable.
You can find out more about other exercises to improve your songwriting in the free PDF ebook, “The 5 Best Songwriting Exercises for Writing Great Lyrics.” Click on the image to download:
Turn Imitation into Emulation
After analysing songs from your heroes, it’s important to graduate from imitation into emulation. This entails not only mimicking the surface aspects of our heroes’ work but also seeking to understand their thinking and perspective. In short, we should not seek to merely look like our heroes, but instead seek to see like our heroes do.
As we embrace their artistic mindset, we begin to cross-pollinate ideas from various songs and generate our own unique artistic voice.
If you’re interested in looking for some specific examples on how we can emulate instead of just imitate, then check out our video entitled ‘6 Ways to Steal Great Chord Progressions’
Conclusion: Study Your Heroes
Becoming a great songwriter is a process that requires lots of determination, hard work and persistence. Studying your heroes is one of the great ways you can improve your songwriting, and ensure you get closer to your vision of your creative aesthetic.
