During quarantine this summer, I had the opportunity to attend a webinar put on by Seth Mosley and the rest of Full Circle Music–a famous Christian songwriter/producer and his record label based out of Nashville, Tennessee. This was super exciting for me because though I’d been writing songs for many years, I had never put much thought into the standard way the music industry encourages artists to put together their music.
What I learned over the course of this webinar was that the music industry is a LOT more specific about what types of songs are produced than I thought they were. The rule-breaking singer/songwriter jams I listen to on a daily basis are definitely not the norm. In fact, as Seth said a few times, many producers and labels won’t even give a song a chance if it doesn’t meet certain specific criteria.
To help explain the most basic song structure, here is a rough draft of a piece I was working on last year. This particular song was about living far away from home. It applies to long-distance relationships, going to school out of state, or any other situation in which you are physically far from someone or some place which means a lot to you.
Songs start with a verse–each verse follows a similar (if not identical) melody:
Verse 1:
Dreaming comes easy since I’ve been gone
I close my eyes and the lights all come on
I see your face in the back of my mind
When I close my eyes there’s no doubt what I’ll find
Then comes the PreChorus. This is a short turn which builds to the chorus.
PreChorus:
It’s hard as hell to wait
Feeling the worst kind of pain
Followed by the chorus: the refrain which will be repeated multiple times. It should be clear when this starts and ends. This is often the ‘catchy’ part of the song.
Chorus:
Take hold of me
And show me the distance
From your porch to mine
Make it seem small
And save me the pity
As you write me a letter
Show me the distance
Like its nothing at all
Verse 2 follows the same pattern as Verse 1:
Making believe like you’re just down the road
A quick walk away if I want to go home
Fooling myself into living a lie
No it’s not working, but I thought that I’d try
PreChorus again…
And It’s hard as hell to wait
Feeling the worst kind of pain
Chorus:
Take hold of me
And show me the distance
From your porch to mine
Make it seem small
And save me the pity
As you write me a letter
Show me the distance
Like its nothing at all
Then comes the bridge: a short section of the song that differs from all the rest. This is often where a song in a major key will include a few minor chords, or where a quick-paced song will slow down for a few moments.
Bridge:
Oh the miles how they add up on the dashboard of my car
One too many state lines to cross to where you are
Then comes the Chorus again, but twice. The first is ‘down,’ played with less oomph, and the second is ‘up:’ the climax of the song.
Chorus (X2)
Take hold of me
And show me the distance
From your porch to mine
Make it seem small
And save me the pity
As you write me a letter
Show me the distance
Like its nothing at all
Finally comes the outro. This sometimes includes lyrics and sometimes doesn’t. In the case of this song, the outro was strictly musical on my guitar.
If this information was helpful for you, or if it piqued your interest, I recommend looking into more song structure information online!
To hear more specifically from Grammy winner Seth Mosley, and to hear a bunch more of his personal songwriting tips, check out this video! This advice applies to most popular genres on the radio, not just Christian rock! (Also disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Seth, I simply have learned a lot from him 😊)
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