Techniques for Tying Up the Chorus
Posted on | October 13, 2008 |
Have you ever started writing a song, gotten a decent verse and prechorus down, then moved into the chorus and felt yourself losing steam as you tried to figure out how to tie up the section? Or, do you sometimes feel like your songs start strong, but somewhere in the middle of the chorus they lose their impact?
Perhaps we’ve all run across this problem – I know that I have, and still do from time to time as I’m moving through the writing process. Sometimes we end our chorus section with the title, which also functions as the first line of the chorus. This is a very common and effective structure for bringing the song to a sharp point. But, sometimes our first line of the chorus isn’t the title, but merely a developmental line. The chorus section delivers the main idea of the song, and the last line of the chorus is what we call a ‘power position’, a spotlighted line in which we can give the listener that ‘ah-hah’ moment that is so powerful in many songs. I’d like to share with you one technique I’ve found to work, giving the last lines of my chorus immense purpose and connection with the rest of the tune.
Because the last line of the chorus is often set over melodic cadences and harmonic cadences, we feel it like the punchline of a great joke, the ‘hook’ that sums everything up. If that punchline feels disconnected to the point of the song, or fails to provide the rest of the song with purpose, then the listener can feel as if the tune is unresolved. It’s as if we’re not quite sure what point we’re getting at. As the listener, you can imagine how that decreases your interest in the song. After all, if the songwriter’s thoughts are all over the place, why shouldn’t the listener’s be also?
I often find that within the verse of my lyric are clues as to what the punchline could be. Within the first two lines of the song are phrases and single words that can supply my chorus with that last encompassing thought. This technique is used in many popular songs, and I’ll show you a few here. This is the first verse and chorus of ‘On A Bus To St. Cloud,’ sung by Tricia Yearwood, written by Gretchen Peters, using the first line of the song as the last line or hook line in the chorus:
On a bus to St. Cloud, Minnesota
I thought I saw you there
With the snow falling down around you
Like a silent prayer
And once on a street in New York City
With the jazz and the sin in the air
And once on a cold L.A. freeway
Going nowhere
And it’s strange, but it’s true
I was sure it was you
Just a face in the crowd
On a bus to St. Cloud
The first line of a song is so exposed, that we easily form the link between that last chorus idea and the developmental ideas of the song.
Here is another example, from my own catalog, using the first ideas of the verse to supply the chorus with the hook idea:
There’s a crayon line down the hallway
right at 2 feet tall
and so far no-one’s claimed it
but I’ve been told to ask the dog
well it’s days like these it’s hard to see
why everybody says we’ll want ‘em back
There are raisins in the cat food
and no sign of the cat
and all our conversations lately
sound like green eggs and ham
I can’t remember sleeping in
past the crack of dawn at 6 a.m.
and tomorrow it all starts again
but hey who’s keeping track…‘cuz it’s
Chorus:
Not at all like the life we planned
and it’s sometimes crazy, a little less than grand
but we were always waiting for something big
to come and change it all
I just never thought
it’d be two feet tall
Now, there is another technique that I used here to make that last line really pop. The idea of ‘two feet tall’ was merely the second line of my verse section. What gives it an extra bit of interest is the collision I’ve got in the set-up with ‘something big’. The trick here is to use opposites. Think of the characteristics of your hook line - here the major characteristic of ‘two feet tall’ is something that is ‘small.’ So, to contrast with that I need to employ the idea of something ‘big’ just before that last line. I could have talked about any number of things here, not only ‘something big to come and change it all.’ Perhaps the ‘big’ idea was the extent to which our lives were actually changed by this little person. Perhaps the ‘big’ idea was about the mess that such a small person can create, despite his/her size. The important element here is the contrast, where several background ideas would work and all depend on the point I’m really trying to get at in my entire chorus section. Because my first few lines of the chorus were about imagining a more grand life, I figured the content led directly into ‘something big’ regarding success and adventure.
Try this technique in your own songs, examining how the first lines of your verse section could supply the final idea for the chorus. I hope you’ll feel it book-end your song with more clarity and impact, enabling you to move forward with the second verse with more ease and confidence.
Happy writing,
Andrea
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