Everyone asks for songwriting tips. I recently bought a book about songwriting tips and it had some great advice. You know what the best songwriting tip is? It’s from an ad jingle…..just do it. Just write songs. I know it sounds simple, but the best thing you can do is just write. In fact writing songs is no greater than imitating what you hear. A really good songwriter is the person who is able to HEAR a great song and THEN imitate it. 90% of songs on the radio don’t qualify as ‘good’ songs. You must first understand what makes a good song. However, if you’re after the cash and not the credit then you’ll quickly learn to 1) give in and write mediocre songs (and be a GREAT salesman), 2) carefully balance musical greatness with commercial music, or 3) just become a great song writer. Of course you will always continue working on your songwriting technique as you grow. Consider taking various songwriting classes, attending songwriting workshops and songwriting camp.

Now that you know the greatest songwriting tip (just write songs), one question remains. How do you make money with music and songwriting?

Royalties
Royalties are your songwriting money. You get paid from the use of your song. There are four types of royalties earned from songs - mechanical, performance, synchronization and print. The publisher of your song (whether it’s you or someone else) collects the mechanical, synchronization and print royalties, and the performing rights organizations such as BMI, ASCAP and SESAC (or SOCAN in Canada) distribute royalty checks for performances a few times a year.

Mechanical Royalties

Mechanical royalties are what you call the money you make from sales of physical records, tapes, CDs, DVD’s, etc. There is a fixed rate per song that you will get paid. For example, at the time of writing the rate is 8 cents. Let’s say you have one song on a CD and it sells 100,000 copies then you’ll make $8000. If you wrote 10 songs on that CD, you would have $80,000. Unless you self publish it is traditional to split that 50% with the publisher. So quickly learn about publishing and become your own publisher!

Now let’s say you wrote one song on an album that sold a million copies - $80,000 in mechanical royalties. Then they released a CD single of your song and it sold 100,000 copies (not to mention hit the airwaves for performance royalties - discussed below). The CD single contained the original version of the song plus 4 dance remixes. That’s 8 cents for every remix version of that song on every album sold - another 8 cents times by 5 versions = 40 cents x 100,000 copies = $40,000. You can see how this can add up fast. It’s compounded for each song you have on that album or single and this continues as long as the song is selling albums, years down the road. At the end of the year some merchandiser like Time Life does a ‘Best of 200x’ CD, advertises it all over television and in comes more money. Five years down the line someone covers your song, or it crosses over to country, or it winds up on a tv show or ad commercial. Big money my friend. It is to your advantage to work on your songwriting technique and introduce yourself into the songwriting market fast. Check out some of the recommended books found on this site.

Performance Royalties

Here’s another big one. This is a major source of money for any writer. This typically pertains to the money you will earn from radio airplay, television, jukeboxes, music services and live performances.

Radio and television stations pay yearly license fees to the performing rights organizations and are typically negotiated as a percentage of their advertising revenue. Performance royalties can include cable tv, concerts, health clubs, museums, airlines, music on hold, restaurants, trade shows, internet radio, and anyone else required to pay fees to play music.

So how do they know when your song is played? It varies based on the performing rights society. I used to work in radio and every three months we were asked to log every song we played for a certain period of time, usually one week. Luckily we were already computer generated so we just printed off the play list hour by hour, marked songs they were interested in, noted the song, artist and society responsible for the copyright, and then fill in by hand any information that got played manually, like request shows. The performing rights society then used this information as a ‘sampling’ of what was being played in similar markets. Then they apply statistical formulas to determine how much money each songwriter that was played during that period received. Keep in mind that this assumes what was played during that sampling week was the same thing played for the entire 3 month quarter!

Radio Airplay Secrets

As an artist, a good thing to do after writing your own songs, working on your songwriting technique, and getting a good understanding of the music business, is becoming friendly with the music directors at some radio stations, and make sure your song is getting played in regular rotation during a reporting period. It’s not unheard of for a nobody artist with two turntables and a microphone to get a $300 check from airplay at one college station during a reporting period. That money can buy a fancy new microphone…..and the publicity gained is probably enough to capture a few gigs. Multiply that by a few songs over time, a few radio stations, bigger markets that pay more fees to the performing rights societies, etc.

Live ‘in studio’ appearances for local radio shows during a reporting period is another great earner. Let’s say you know a DJ who features local bands. You’ve got a CD. Find out when the reporting period is and have him interview you during his 60 min show and play a few cuts off your CD. Maybe he will go on vacation and replay that interview tape during the next reporting period. Money in the bank.

As time goes on, there are systems being put into place that will capture each song played and therefore give a more accurate royalty payout for those artists that deserve it, instead of just those getting aired during the sampling period. In which case ANY airplay you get is as good as cash.

Synchronization Royalties

Synch royalties can be substantial but they are a little different from the others. Synch typically means licensing the right to record the music or songs in synch with the pictures of film or TV movies. How much you get for this is usually negotiated between the publisher and the producer of the flick.

If cranking out instrumental music is your thing then this may be a market for you to break into. Background music in a movie would be a good example (not necessarily film scoring). Unless you have a previously popular song there’s a good chance that you’ll work for a flat fee plus screen credit, foregoing the synch royalties for the chance to do it again.

Songwriting Craft and Business
Even if you only intend on being a singer or band member, by participating in songwriting and getting your name at least as a co-writer you will increase the money you make in music. If you are seeking a record deal this information will help you in negotiating rights to your music.

To delve further into how to get paid for songwriting, or other lucrative career options that we won’t go into here (like print music options, religious music or children’s music), I highly recommend you pick up a copy of The Craft and Business of Songwriting, Third Edition by John Braheny. That’s my songwriting tip to you. The book is FULL of great songwriting tips, and is split about 50/50 on songwriting technique and the business of songwriting. I don’t think any other book covers as much pertinent information to your songwriting success as this one. He also has some great stories and examples from his friends in the industry and from his time spent in the Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase. Although I have many music books on my shelf, this is the one that I refer to most and I recommend it as the book you both start and finish with.

http://www.moneyinmusic.com/song-writing.html

Typically not. You already own all of your publishing rights from the song’s inception. People typically start a publishing company when they get a song “cut” and need a mechanism or company to which they can have the income flow. One word of advice, it’s often a better idea to have another company administer your publishing when you have your own publishing company. That means that they will take care of all the business of collecting and disseminating the money that is generated by the song. Many small or individual publishers aren’t expert enough to do that on their own.

http://www.taxi.com/music-business-faq/publishing/

Ever wonder why some songwriters get the cool, sweet, make-yourself-famous deals while others, with incredible talent, style and know-how, never even get the slightest nod from industry professionals? As if talent and know-how weren’t enough, today’s writers are faced with the ever increasing challenge of partitioning their writing styles from the endless barrage of production makeovers of what would otherwise be mediocre songs at best. Read on to learn how to get your songs published!

Read Article At: http://www.wikihow.com/Write-and-Sell-Your-Songs

Software for writing music has to be fast, intuitive to work with and should keep you focused on your work

There are as many different ways to write music as there are composers out there. Some write their ideas with musical notes on paper, some prefer to record them on tape (or HD these days…) while others use Software to get them down in reality.

In the Computer world it mainly depends on what kind of producer you are. If you are already working with a fully fledged recording package like Logic Pro or Cubase with built in notation, you might not need an extra Notation Software for writing music.

If you want to write a musical score for an orchestra as a movie score maker. you may need an extra software that is easier to write scores with. Let’s start with…

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A song needs to do three basic things to impress a listener. I call it the songwriting triangle. A song needs to draw the listener in with an interesting lyric. A song needs to be “catchy”, as a song must please the ear rather than just reading it like a poem. Lastly a song needs to have good sound structure.

Below I will explain some of the basics of good structure and some common songwriting terms. If you have all three sides as strong as possible from the songwriting triangle, you will give your song it’s best chance at success.

If you have a weak side of the triangle or more, generally your song does not have a very good chance at pleasing listeners. It is suggested that you always continue improving your writing in those three areas.

Study songs and look at those three areas within songs that are successful. Now, lets go over some basic songwriting terms and structure fundamentals.

A song is composed of several items. A stanza is similar to a paragraph in a book. A stanza is a section of grouped lines. Usually a song will have multiple verses and a chorus. A verse is a stanza, or two of lines that give the details of the song. The chorus is a section of lines that generally contain the catchiest part of the song. Usually the chorus contains a songs hook.

A hook is a phrase of words or music that catches the listeners ear and if the listener remembers anything of the song, it’s usually that part. The hook is often the title of the song and is similar to a slogan for a company.

In most cases, a song contains a chorus that is the same or has only very small changes to it’s content each time it’s repeated. Some songs have no chorus, but most do.

A song format of AAA would mean three verses with no chorus for instance. Some songs use a bridge as well. A bridge is usually of different length than a verse and usually has different music accompaniment. A bridge usually will “sum up” a songs message, or flash forward or backwards in time or often give a different perspective or surprise twist to a song.

Here we’ve mentioned “usually” and “generally” and words like that because there are no rules in songwriting. There are guidelines or principals though that we will continue discussing here.

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1. Chord progression power I often take a simple chord progression, either one that I find just noodling around or even one from a song that I like — say, Em/C/G/D — and keep playing it over and over, in different rhythms at varied paces, and see if it sparks something.

2. Pick a phrase — any phrase I did this great exercise once while camping at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival with Carolann Solebello, her husband Mark Berube, and a bunch of their pals. They had several people put a phrase into a hat and then you had to pick a phrase from the hat and write a song using that phrase — in just an hour, no less. For example, one phrase was “She swept it all behind the door,” and another that I put in was “Your gentle soul surrounds me.” Believe it or not, several fabulous songs came out of that exercise. Try doing the same, though of course you can give yourself more than an hour!

3. Get your thesaurus out Sometimes I’ll get song ideas just from noodling through an online thesaurus such as www.thesaurus.com. Just seeing all the synonyms for love, guilt, light, or whatever word you’re thinking about can get your juices flowing.

4. Turn your friends’ lives into tunes Does your life seem too boring to crib from for your latest song? Turn to your friends…what are they going through? What challenges are they facing in their lives? Any good love/loss story, for example? You don’t have to get so detailed in the song that they feel exposed…it can just spur some good ideas that you can build on.

5. Have a deadline One of the reasons I’ve enjoyed being part of a bi-monthly songwriting group for the past six years (full disclosure: I’ve been sorely lacking in attendance over the past several months) is that it creates a solid deadline for coming up with a song idea. Even if it’s the night before, I know I’ll have to come up with *something* or else I’ll feel bad. The deadline forces creativity to come, instead of just waiting for it to appear.

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The Beatles are known as the most successful music group in music history, selling over a billion records worldwide. The songwriting partnership between Lennon and McCartney is legendary. The Beatles collectively were also songwriting Ninjas, but they employed many tricks that anyone can add to their songwriting tool box. Here are 5 less obvious examples:

1. Mutate Your Chorus As well as starting songs with the chorus, some of The Beatles’ greatest hits open with a chorus hybrid that previews the title and hooks. The intro to Help has the same chord progression as the chorus but moves twice as fast and features the title 4 times (to the chorus’s 3). Use this trick and by the time you reach your chorus the listener will be hooked by the reassuring feeling that they’ve heard your song somewhere before.

2. Bluesify Your Melody We expect to hear blue notes like the b3, b5 and b7th in rockers like Back In The USSR but the Beatles often added these notes into more melodic material too. In Blackbird the final phrase uses the b7 on inTO the LIGHT and the b3 on dark BLACK night. Tricky to pull off if you’re not a confident singer — you might want to insert the blue note into your chord until you’ve learnt to pitch it correctly. Using it will add a soulful edge to your melodies. Also used on: Ticket To Ride, From Me To You.

3. Delay The Root Chord Starting a song on the tonic chord is a rut the Beatles managed to avoid a surprising number of times. Eleanor Rigby starts on C major (the bVI of Em) before heading to the home chord. It’s one of the many things that gives the track such an immediate sense of tension. Using this trick will give your progressions more forward momentum. Also used on: All My Loving, Hello Goodbye.

4. Utilise The Outside Chord Many of us employ ‘out of key’ chords (whether we realise it or not!). But out of 186 Beatles compositions only 22 remain in key! In Strawberry Fields Forever, Lennon pulls the rug from under the Bb major tonality by replacing the F major chord with an F minor . Bb Let me take you down ‘cos I’m going Fm to… It’s like the stomach drop you experience on the crest of a rollercoaster. Later he creates a disorientating momentary high by replacing the Gm with a G major. Eb Nothing to get G hung about Outside chords will surprise your listeners and freshen your melodies. Also used on: I Am The Walrus, Fool On The Hill.

5. Restate Your Lyrics The Beatles didn’t make their lyrics memorable just by repeating sections wholesale. They also repeated and adapted words, phrases and sentence structures. Take A Day In The Life. 4 verses, a middle 8 and only one repeated line. And yet it’s memorable (in part) because of lyrical links like these - I read the news/saw a film today, oh boy and though the news was rather sad/holes were rather small found my way downstairs/coat/way upstairs I just had to laugh/look Using this subtle trick will make your lyrics sticky and give a sense of unity to a track.

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Most songs have several climactic moments, and where you place them can be crucial to a song’s success.

A song’s climactic moment is hard to define, but it’s usually fairly obvious when you hear it. That’s because a climactic moment isn’t just a melodic issue. In fact, a climactic moment may actually occur when a melody isn’t at its highest point. In reality, climactic moments in music happen as a result of interplay between melody, harmony and lyric. Once you’ve got a song working well, you’ll notice that the climactic moment often plays a big role in its success.

A climactic moment can actually be happening when the melody is quite low in pitch. Basically, you can make the case that the end of every major section of a song (the end of the verse, the chorus, etc.) represents a climactic moment, even if it’s a small one. Again, this is a difficult thing to define, and it’s often best to listen to an example.

One of Frank Sinatra’s biggest hits, recorded more recently by Michael Bublé, “Come Fly With Me,” is a great example. Written by Jimmy Van Heusen, with lyrics by Sammy Cahn, the melody demonstrates a shape that’s not all that common in popular music styles: a melody that keeps descending as it progresses. The song is in ABA form (a melody is presented (“Come fly with me, let’s fly…”), then moves on to a new melody (“Once I get you up there…”) before returning to the original melody (“Weather-wise it’s such a lovely day..”)). Interestingly, the verse melody of “Come Fly With Me” ends with its lowest notes. But that’s not to say that the verse (the A-section) ends unsatisfactorily. You hear a coming together of a melody with great structure, chords that move enticingly back to the tonic chord, and the lyrics offer symmetry with the return to the “Come fly with me” line.

But that’s not the song’s main climactic moment, so ending melodically low won’t cause problems. And in fact, the melody ending low as it does seems to create a sense of expectation; you want to hear more. You can tell the song has more to offer, because you subconsciously are looking for some sort of move into the upper register. That movement upward happens at the end of the return of the A section, when the melody jumps up an octave and finishes with the song’s highest notes. Because the same moment in the first A-section was low, it creates a very satisfying moment to have that upper octave appear as the melody ends.

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Unfortunately, in real life most listeners use equipment that is far less extraordinary—cheap earbuds if you’re lucky, bass-deficient laptop speakers if you’re not. As basement-based artists/producers/engineers, it’s our job to account for these audio deficiencies at the point of origin. If your target audience primarily relies on social-media or other online music-distribution platforms, with a little finesse you can ensure that your sound is up to snuff for that particular environment. Despite the ramp-up in web-based music, however, there are still a vast number of traditionalists who prefer conventional medium such as broadcast radio as well as CDs or even vinyl. So while making mixes for the iPod people, you’ll also want to ensure that the music sounds just as good through the side panels of a Buick.

Hence, the importance of using a variety of playback medium—including both large and small speakers, different sized rooms, listening in a car, on a boombox, through a digital player, etc—when making your new mix. The problem with relying exclusively on top-shelf reference monitors (such as the aforementioned Tannoys) is that they tend to make everything sound great—even stuff that doesn’t deserve to sound great. To hear how a finished mix would sound in a “normal” environment such as in a car or on a portable radio, engineers have often kept a set of inferior-sounding speakers atop the console. For years the undisputed champ of chintzy sound was the infamous Auratone 5C “Super Sound Cube,” a puny pair of wood-paneled monitors specifically designed to reproduce music without any artificial flavoring (hence their nickname, “Horror-Tones”). The point being that if the mix sounded good on a set of Auratones, it would sound good just about anyplace else.

Unfortunately, Auratones are no longer manufactured and, oddly enough, fetch top dollar online. However, you can accomplish the same purpose by wiring in any cheap set of speakers for your listening station, or by copying the music to a CD or digital player and running the mix through your laptop/PC speakers, car-audio speakers, a boombox or other lo-fi device.

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Selling a song can be a difficult task, even for people already established in the music industry. Finding the perfect home for the perfect song takes time, confidence and patience. However, selling an original song is less about the song itself and more about getting the song to the right people. Learn how to sell an original song and climb your way to the top of the music industry ladder.

1) Start by writing an original song that you are extremely confident in. Sing the song yourself or have a musician who is adept at singing or playing music perform your song. You want it to be something record executives or artists will find viable.

2) Cut a demo for your song in a well-made recording studio or at least ensure that it is of the highest quality. Invest a good deal of money in the demo because it will be your first impression to interested prospects. If you aren’t capable of performing your songs up to your vision, then find an artist who is willing to record. Perhaps you can find a singer who is trying to establish a career, as well.

3) Establish a solid connection with someone in the recording industry—an agent, a producer, an artist or even a secretary would be good. Find someone who will listen to your song and give it a chance. Make sure your song is ready to be heard or viewed by others. The lyrics should meet industry standards and be free of grammatical errors and properly composed.

4) Contact a music publishing company through letter or email and ask whether they will grant you permission to send your song for possible publication. Remember that you are not really selling your song, but rather licensing the song to a manufacturer, artist or publishing company to be performed. You make your money through licensing the song, since selling it will relinquish your legal rights to royalties and proceeds.

5) Be persistent, and remember that you must record a commercially viable song that can easily be distinguished by record or publishing executives. Send your demo to multiple music publishing and record executives in order to gain the most possible exposure.

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As passionate as we are about our songwriting, the reality is that sometimes it’s difficult to motivate ourselves to write. Whether it’s the fear of plumbing our emotional depths or just good old fatigue after a long day, there are often obstacles to overcome when it’s time to write. While flashes of inspiration are great, we can’t always count on the muse showing up on our schedule. Instead, we’ve got to make our own inspiration. I’ve put together a list of a few things that should help you keep your creative fires lit.

1. Set up a place at home to write. As simple as it sounds, having a place to go where you can focus and be creative can be motivating. Even if it’s just a small desk and chair in a corner of your living room, the fact that you’ve dedicated it to your art will serve as that little push you might need to write. Keep your writing tools — rhyming dictionary, guitar, laptop, etc. — out and easily accessible. It’s amazing what a difference putting your guitar on a stand versus keeping it in a case can make. Make things as easy as you can for yourself and you’ll be much more likely to dig in.

2. Set up a time of day to write. Routine can be a good thing even for something as artistic and creative as songwriting. If, for example, you know that every day at 7 p.m. you’re going to write for half an hour, then you’re more likely to do it. They say it takes a few weeks of consciously making yourself do something before it becomes a habit. Setting up a daily time to write will go a long way towards the healthy habit of songwriting.

3. Keep a file of unfinished songs. One of the hardest things about writing is starting with a blank page. By keeping an organized file of your unfinished lyrics and rough recordings, you won’t have to climb the mountain from the bottom every time you sit down. While sometimes it feels good to start with a fresh idea, don’t forget to check your unfinished ideas from time to time. It’s remarkable how a few days or weeks can add the perspective you need to see a partially finished song in a new light and finish it.

4. Find a co-writer. Nothing motivates more than accountability. If someone is counting on you to show up and work, you’re more likely to do it. Not only that but halving the burden can make writing a much more approachable pursuit. This is one of the many benefits of co-writing. Other advantages include having someone whose songwriting gifts complement your own in such a way that you both get a better song than you would have separately. If you haven’t co-written yet, this is as good a time as any to give it a try. Even if it’s not a perfect experience, we all benefit from observing firsthand someone else’s writing process.

5. Give yourself an assignment. Sometimes the idea that you can write about anything offers too much freedom. Often, it’s easier to write if you have some guidelines. If, for example, you tell yourself you’re going to write a song with one chord you’ve never used or a song about a topic you’ve never covered, you’ll find it’s easier to get to work. Anything you can do to give shape and structure to what you’re attempting to write will make the task that much simpler.

6. Tell yourself you’ll only write for five minutes. This is one of my all time favorites. On days where you’re really struggling to make yourself write, tell yourself you’ll sit down for five minutes. That way, if nothing is happening after five minutes, at least you’ve tried. It’s astonishing how often those days are the days where the breakthroughs happen. Taking the pressure off of yourself may be all that you need to get on a roll. That being said, if it’s just not coming, stop. There’s no point in making yourself miserable. There’s always tomorrow.

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Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime.
Didn’t you?
People’d call, say “Beware doll,
You’re bound to fall,” you thought they were all
Kidding you.

Remember that song? I’ll bet you do. What’s the melody? Pretty much one note from the beginning to the end of the phrase, with a lift at the end. Is it a cool song? Yes, very. It’s Bob Dylan — “Like A Rolling Stone.” A classic. As classic as “My Way” by Frank Sinatra or anything by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

How about this one?

Holly came from Miami Fla
Hitch-hiked her way across the USA
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She says, hey babe
Take a walk on the wild side
Said hey honey
Take a walk on the wild side.

That’s Lou Reed, “Walk on the Wild Side.” It’s another classic. What’s the melody? A couple of notes here and there in close proximity to each other.

Imagine either of those songs with wide intervals and sweeping melody lines. I don’t think so. Both are served up the way they are meant to be. And they are great songs. So a great song does not need a well-crafted, “memorable” melody to work. There are a million examples of this — blues songs, folk songs, three-chord rock songs, rock poetry, rap music. So what is a melody for? I used to think of a melody as a kind of serving tray for the lyrics and the story within the song.

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Songwriting uses the chord progression as the setting for the song, kind of like the set and scenery in a play. Just like the actors move and speak and have their being upon the stage, set, and scenery, so do the words and melody dance on that very stage that is created by the progression of chords. If you have a deep understanding of how the lyrics, the melody, and the chords interact, and you can select the chords to elicit the same mood that the words are depicting and the melody conveys, then you have a great shot at creating a powerful song.

If you’re very observant, you will notice that a whole lot of songs use very similar if not identical progressions. That similarity is what allows the songs to lock into their genre and styles and be seen as in the pocket of the style they are competing in. Some progressions have a harder edge and are perfect for hard rock, metal, and strong blues. Others are way more relaxed and support strong, singable melodies, and as a result, are more pop and light rock sounding, even folky sometimes, although that depends more on the arrangement than the song itself.

We have cycled through the use and borderline overuse of several main progressions over the years. The I-vi-IV-V progression was everywhere in the 1950s and 60s. In addition there were hundreds, maybe thousands of songs written to the I-IV-V-IV progression , like Twist And Shout, La Bamba, Good Lovin’, Hang On Sloopy, Summer Nights (from Grease), Louie, Louie (with a modified V chord making it minor), and a whole lot more. I’ve included a video here by the Axis of Awesome demonstrating the current popularity of the I-V-vi-IV progression in today’s music. There’s a little bit of swearing, but it makes the point really well about how many songs can very creatively use the same progression, and yet sound completely original.

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1. Cut your intro in half. One of the most important things to remember if you’re writing songs for the commercial market is how very little time you have to get the listener’s attention. We, as songwriters, necessarily give our songs our full, loving and undivided attention, which is why a long, winding musical intro feels perfectly natural as a way to set the stage for the song to come. The reality, though, is that our listeners rarely give a song they’ve never heard their full attention, which is why you, as the songwriter, have to go and get it. Quickly. A short, to-the-point intro that leads directly into the verse of the song is the first step towards pulling your listener in.

2. Put more concrete details into your verses. The verses in your song are there to, more or less, tell the story. While feelings are an important part of any story, so are the actual details. In other words, give people images to hold on to so they know what your song is about. Since you’re the one writing the song, you already know the story, so it’s easy to forget that your listener doesn’t. While you’re at it, I’m a big believer in the “show ‘em, don’t tell ‘em” approach. This means if you can use an image rather than a long explanation to describe a situation, do it. Whoever wrote “a picture is worth a thousand words” had it right.

3. Your chorus should be what your song is about. In another effort to help you keep the big picture in mind while you’re writing, I’d suggest making sure that your chorus really drives the point of your song home. This is the place where your message becomes clear and memorable. Ideally, the listener should be able to start singing along after they’ve heard your chorus once or twice. Another, less delicate way of putting this is to think of your chorus as the equivalent of tying the theme of your song to a baseball bat and beating the hell out of people with it.

4. Make sure similar sections have similar structures. In general, it’s a good idea to keep similar sections in your song similar in structure. In other words, your first verse should match your second verse in number of lines and rhyme scheme and your choruses should have the same length and lyric. There are always exceptions to this approach but here’s the reasoning behind it: The simpler and clearer your song is, the more memorable it will be. Memorable is a good thing. I’m in no way suggesting not to tackle complex topics or musical themes, I’m simply saying that “complicated” and “different” don’t, in and of themselves, mean success. The real challenge is to tell your story, whatever it may be, in the simplest, most effective way possible.

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