{"id":14348,"date":"2020-11-02T19:03:17","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T00:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=14348"},"modified":"2021-01-04T09:22:59","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T14:22:59","slug":"what-is-song-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2020\/11\/02\/what-is-song-structure\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Song Structure?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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Seth Mosley: Image from Centricity Publishing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Songs start with a verse–each verse follows a similar (if not identical) melody:<\/p>\n

Verse 1:
\nDreaming comes easy since I\u2019ve been gone<\/em>
\nI close my eyes and the lights all come on<\/em>
\nI see your face in the back of my mind<\/em>
\nWhen I close my eyes there\u2019s no doubt what I\u2019ll find<\/em><\/p>\n

Then comes the PreChorus. This is a short turn which builds to the chorus.<\/p>\n

PreChorus:
\nIt\u2019s hard as hell to wait<\/em>
\nFeeling the worst kind of pain<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nTake hold of me<\/em>
\nAnd show me the distance<\/em>
\nFrom your porch to mine<\/em>
\nMake it seem small<\/em>
\nAnd save me the pity<\/em>
\nAs you write me a letter<\/em>
\nShow me the distance<\/em>
\nLike its nothing at all \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Verse 2 follows the same pattern as Verse 1:
\nMaking believe like you\u2019re just down the road<\/em>
\nA quick walk away if I want to go home<\/em>
\nFooling myself into living a lie<\/em>
\nNo it\u2019s not working, but I thought that I’d try<\/em><\/p>\n

PreChorus again…
\nAnd It\u2019s hard as hell to wait<\/em>
\nFeeling the worst kind of pain<\/em><\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nTake hold of me<\/em>
\nAnd show me the distance<\/em>
\nFrom your porch to mine<\/em>
\nMake it seem small<\/em>
\nAnd save me the pity<\/em>
\nAs you write me a letter<\/em>
\nShow me the distance<\/em>
\nLike its nothing at all\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Bridge:
\nOh the miles how they add up on the dashboard of my car<\/em>
\nOne too many state lines to cross to where you are<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Chorus (X2)
\nTake hold of me<\/em>
\nAnd show me the distance<\/em>
\nFrom your porch to mine<\/em>
\nMake it seem small<\/em>
\nAnd save me the pity<\/em>
\nAs you write me a letter<\/em>
\nShow me the distance<\/em>
\nLike its nothing at all\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

If this information was helpful for you, or if it piqued your interest, I recommend looking into more song structure information online!<\/p>\n

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 😊)<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=g9-grJlZkt8<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2227,"featured_media":14189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14348"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14350,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14348\/revisions\/14350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}