It’s probably obvious to everyone that if we want to write a slow song, we have to choose a slow tempo. But are there any more differences between faster songs and slower songs? Actually, there are some distinctive differences between slow songs and fast songs, but I will also write about what are the tools that both slow and fast songs have. So if you want to learn how to write slow songs, this article is for you.
The chorus is obviously the most important part of your song. You want people to remember the song by remembering the chorus, and you want them to sing it. So it’s evident that we want to emphasize it, we want to make it sound big. Now, I saw many people talk about this topic online, and almost everyone wants to deal with this issue in the mixing phase when the song is already written and recorded. And of course, there are some ways you can enhance the chorus at the last phase in the studio, but the truth is, I believe that we can make the chorus sound bigger at the songwriting AND arranging phase. In fact, it’s even more important to compose your song in a way that the chorus is relatively bigger than any other part of the song. So let’s see some examples of how you can make your chorus sound bigger from a songwriting perspective.
Regardless of the genre, the bass is an essential part of any song. There is no music (in modern popular genres) without a bass. Many people think that writing a bassline is the role of the music arranger or the producer, but I believe that all songwriters need to have a basic understanding, and ideally, all songwriters should know how to create a bassline because a good bass can make a huge difference in how the final song will sound.
This post will be in connection with the topic of music arrangement. So let’s take a look at some of the basics you need to know to start writing basslines.
No doubt that melody is the most important part of a song. Especially a vocal melody. We know that melodies are the most memorable parts of any music. The melody is what most people remember from a song. But many songwriters struggle with writing good vocal melodies for their songs.
I know how hard it is when you just start to write your first songs, and you don’t know how to start. That’s why I collected a lot of useful info to help you get started with writing vocal melodies. So if you want to write better melodies, this article is for you.
When we talk about vocal pitch correction, most people know only the famous-infamous autotune plugin. Autotune (or auto-tune) is an audio processor software introduced in 1997, but the truth is, there are many other similar or even better vocal pitch corrector plugins out there for a long time now. For example, I’m using Melodyne for 10 years now.
While these two plugins have a very similar purpose, Melody is actually a “manual-tune”, because of how we use it.
If you have never used Melodyne before, it can be intimidating to see all the functions, and it can seem complicated. But you just need to learn some of the basics and they are not complicated at all.
I hear many times that “there is no formula for a hit song”. But I would add the word “YET” at the end of this sentence. After analyzing more than 2000 hit songs, and reading all the books and courses on songwriting, I found many answers to this question. For example, I discovered the hidden rhythmical system behind ALL hit songs, which I call the “Rhythm Code”.
So here are some of my answers to the question: “how to write a hit song”. Keep in mind that this is not a step-by-step instruction, but more like a cross-section of most of the hit songs. You can always experiment and deviate from any of these if you want to write a unique song.
I always say that looking at the chord progression is not the best way to determine the genre of a song. And you can use any chord progression in any genre. In fact, “stealing” musical elements (like chord progressions) from other genres can make your music more unique than other songs in our genre.
But still, there are certain chord progressions that are somewhat suited better for certain genres. That’s why I created this series here in our blog that elaborates on this topic.
Previously I wrote about chord progressions in reggae songs, and also about the doo-wop chord progression, now we will take a look at what chord progressions you can use if you write an r&b song.
There are many different ways you can start to write a song, and every songwriter has their own process. Personally, I always follow an order which works best for me, and by the way, this is exactly the same order as John Legend writes his songs.
1. Chord progression
2. Arrangement (including a drumbeat, a bass groove, other rhythms)
3. Melody
4. Lyrics
But there are many other ways you can start a song, so let’s take a look at what other ways you can start to write a song.
In our last blog post, we were talking about how long should a chorus be in terms of the number of bars, and the number of seconds. We were looking at several different songs to get the answer to that question, so we will take a look at the same songs in comparison.
In the 1940s, 50s, and in the early 60s, a new genre emerged from rhythm and blues, which is called doo-wop. Doo-wop groups typically sing with little or no instrumentation (acapella), with a big emphasis on vocal harmonies. The funny name came from the fact that these vocal groups were singing meaningless syllables, for example, to imitate a bass sound.
Most doo-wop songs are written by using the very same chord progression, which is called the “doo wop chord progression”, or also known as the “50s progression”.
