Songwriters

Cookbook
Recipes for songwriting success


SONGWRITING METHOD
Songwriting is complex, a methodical approach will help you write
better songs
"I managed to finish a song in a day. That wouldn't have
happened without this method."

SARAH
Musician

What is this recipe?

There are lots of ways to write a song, but it helps to have a methodical approach that works.
This recipe is a structured songwriting method based on the experience of professionals. 
 FOUR STEPS TO A SONG
1. Understand songwriting
- The job of a songwriter
- Songwriting mindset
- Songwriting is an iterative process
- What makes a hit
- Where to start

2. Ideas and plans

- Find great song ideas
- Be audience centered
- Say it in a new way
- Collect the ingredients of success

3. Song layout
- Song forms
- The role of each section
- How to create contrast

4. How to...
- Write lyrics
- Write music
- Create contrast

GET STARTED
LETS GO
 SONG WRITING
Essential perspective on songwriting
Overview
Reading this page will give you a clear understanding of the following:   

 Where to start

 Your job as a songwriter

 Songwriting mindset

 Songwriting is an iterative process

 What makes a hit

Where to start
There’s an age-old question in song writing “Where do I start?”. Do I write a riff, come up with
some chords, a rhythm or a lyric? This is the wrong question to ask. A better question is “How
will I make decisions?”. 

You see the truth is it doesn’t much matter where you start. You might like the sound of a riff
you have found or a beat you have created and that’s great. You also might be inspired by some
words you have written, again great. Start somewhere. Each of these elements will suggest
others. A beat suggests a melodic rhythm and the feeling suggests some harmony choices. A
lyrical phrase prompts a melody or a musical idea. These sparks are great but if you want to turn
them into complete songs you need more. Decide who the song is for and the emotion you want
them to feel. If you do that every subsequent decision will be easier. 

Your job as a songwriter

Your job as a songwriter is to create a song that is emotional, memorable, useful and is fun
to perform. Let’s take each of those four things in order. 

1. Emotion

Great songs help the audience experience a strong emotion. If you analyze the lyrics to
popular songs, you will find four feelings pop up again and again:
Powerful – Anything by Rage against the machine, “Eye of the tiger” by Survivor,
“Respect” by Aretha

Romance – “let’s get it on” by Marvin Gaye, “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran

Sadness/loss – “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division, “You Oughta Know” by Alanis

Morissette, “thank u, next” by Ariana Grande

Like dancing – “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, “Groove Is in The Heart” by Deee-Lite, “Can’t
stop the feeling” by Justin Timberlake

In fact, two researchers at North Carolina State University found the top 12 lyrical
themes from five decades of No. 1 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Pain, loss,
desperation and Rebellion were consistently top of the list. 

2. Memorable 

Your audience need to learn your song in less than three minutes. Pop songs are designed to be
“ear worms”, they have repeated phrases that hook into your memory and won’t let go.
Remember that this means we can’t overload the listener with too much information.  

3. Purpose

Great songs do a job for their audience. “Hey Jude” picks you up when you feel down. Dancing
Queen helps people get over their nerves and start dancing. Figure out where your song will fit in
the soundtrack of your audiences’ lives.  

4. Performance

The song needs to be easy to sing. Both by the artist that performs it and the audience.
If it’s easy to sing it’s easy to remember. Ideally it should also fit into a performance
well. There’s a reason why most songs are written in direct voice (Use the pronouns I
and you), they turn the performer and audience into the characters in the song. 

Songwriting mindset
If you want to succeed at songwriting you need to adopt a productive mindset. 

Songwriting is a job, work at it. 

Lots of people play at songwriting and then wonder why they don’t have the success
they hoped for. If you put in the work however you will produce good songs. 
Songwriters are made not born 

There are a set of essential skills that you can learn, it’s not about talent. Lots of people
think that you have to have some sort of inbuilt talent. It’s simply not the case. Learning
the craft requires you to understand the effect your choices have on your audience. 

Plan your songs

If you want to write a hit plan to write a hit. If you want to create an artwork that a select few
will love plan it out. The next page in this recipe will show you how to plan effectively. 

Hunt ideas 

You need to hunt for ideas, chase them down and develop them. Don’t wait for
inspiration. Great songs don’t emerge from the ether, they are carefully crafted. Almost
all songs start off as bad songs. You job is to turn them into good songs with work and
analysis. 

Put your audience first

Put your audience at the heart of your decisions. Think about what you want them to
experience. You are writing the song for them and it’s their response that will make you
successful.   

Never settle for OK

Make the song great or dump it. Most songs go through multiple iterations before they
are ready. It’s all too easy to think this will do, it’s good enough. If you can see a way to
improve it it isn’t good enough, keep pushing and make it the best song you have ever
written.    

Songwriting is an iterative process

Plan

You planning you will define what your song will do and outcome you want. You can
also set out criteria that you want your song to meet. Doing this makes it easier to know
when your song is done and when to keep working. For the sake of this exercise let’s
imagine you want to make a song that everyone will dance to. 

Create

You can’t bring all of the elements of the song into being at once. As you write a lyric or add a
chord you change how the song is working. It’s helpful if you can do this with the aid of a DAW
(digital audio workstation) such a Garageband, Ableton, Logic or Reaper. They make it easy to
pull your song around and try different options. 
Analyze 

As you work through the song you need to ask yourself if it is working. Is it telling the story you
want to tell? Are heads nodding as you play the groove? If it isn’t you need to think about what
to change. 

Options

At each step you have lots of options. Sometimes you need to let go of things you liked in order
for the song to work as a whole. If the groove isn’t working, it may mean removing or slimming
down a part to provide space. This can be tough if you had fallen in love with the riff it was
playing.  

Complete

You need to know when to stop. This is a difficult thing to do. That’s why planning your song
helps. If you have planned to make a dance hit, you might have to cut back on the clever lyrics
and keep it simple. Once the song makes you and everyone else who hears it want to boogie you
know it’s ready. 

You can optimize this process with techniques and practice. Our recipes provide lots of ways to
do this.  

What makes a hit

There’s no formula for a hit but we do know what works:

1. Strong feelings

Songs that express a feeling that many people have tend to connect with large
audiences. Many songs make you feel powerful, romantic, sad or like dancing. That’s
because people need those feelings.

2. Express the Zeitgeist

Fans make hits. A “hit” song is one that a great many people identify with. You can have
music and lyrics that deserve to be a hit and still not achieve the desired outcome. Most
hits connect to a movement and a feeling that many people have. This is why successful
artists are often those who have built a following. Lady Gaga demonstrated great skill in
tapping into a subculture. If you are a writer, composer or a music artist it pays to find
or create your fan base.
3. Optimal differentiation

Research shows that hit songs strike the right balance between accessibility and novelty. The
researchers call this ‘optimal differentiation’. This is where a song is familiar enough to be easy
to engage with and different enough to be new and stimulating. Often songwriters overvalue
originality and undervalue cliché. In fact, the term cliché has negative connotations where it
shouldn’t. 

If you want a piece of music to belong to a genre for instance you need to use some of the norms
of that genre. These clichés allow us to access the piece of music. I’m not suggesting you rip of
other people’s songs but it’s helpful not to worry too much about originality. Where your song
sits on the accessible to original continuum is just another artistic choice you need to make.

NEXT UP
IDEAS AND PLANS
LETS GO
HOW TO FIND SONG IDEAS
You don’t need to suffer from writer’s block. There are lots of
great ways to find something to write about.

The challenge
It’s sometimes tough to find a song idea. You’re not alone if you are struggling. We hear the
following from would be songwriters all the time:

 I don’t know what to write about

 I’ve got writers block

 I don’t feel confident writing lyrics, I feel I will be judged

The solution

Anytime you find yourself stuck for a song idea use some of the following proven methods. 

 Develop the habit of spotting ideas

 Recognize good song ideas

 Find ideas with free writing

 Test ideas with sensory writing  

 Strategize with the Song Planning Canvas

 Develop audience centered ideas using the Song Idea Canvas 

 Spark new ideas with different approaches

Develop the habit of spotting ideas

Spotting song ideas is a habit you need to develop. There are many ways to proactively find
ideas but after a while you will find that they jump out at you during the day. Be ready to catch
them. Here’s how: 
 
 1. Know that there’s no reason to have writers block. Using the following approach (or

similar) has worked for lots of writers

2. Stop being too hard on yourself. We all have a brutal inner critic that stops us pursuing

anything that looks unlikely to succeed. Turn the inner critic off till you need them

3. Focus on your audience rather than on ego centric writing. This helps turn off the inner

critic. 

4. Know what you are looking for. If you don’t know what you are looking for you won’t

find it easily

5. Keep a song idea book, catch those ideas as they pop up

6. Use any of the following recipes to generate lots of song ideas

Recognize good song ideas

If you know what makes a great song idea, it’s easier to spot potential. This is hard because great
song ideas seem to hide their potential. 

Abstract concepts like love and freedom are really hard to write about. It’s often better to focus
on tangible experiences. The things many people do in day to day life are ideal. The best songs
about big ideas often come from describing simple everyday things. There are no rules in
songwriting, and you can find exceptions to every case but if your song idea has the following
it’s more likely to work.

1. A clear main message (that you can express in less than 10 words)

2. Powerful emotional (potential)

3. Story (potential)

4. Connection points (situations and feelings the audience knows)

1. A clear main message

If your song has a strong, clear message it will be easier for you audience to identify with and for
you to write the song in the first place. Let’s look at some existing songs as examples. 
Giant by Rag n bone man and Calvin Harris: The main message is “With your support I
am strong”. 

Respect by Aretha Franklin says “I’m an equal in this partnership”

2. Powerful emotional potential

Giant makes me feel powerful, it’s an uplifting feeling. Together we are great and can achieve
anything we need to.

Respect also conveys a feeling of personal power. We all feel empowered as Aretha demands
what she’s entitled to.

3. Story potential

Stories in songs are usually very simple. Both of these songs have implied characters and we can
read into them filling the void with our own experiences. They have just enough story to keep us
interested.

Who is the other person in giant who holds the singer up? Who was their unrequited love? We
don’t know but we are intrigued.

We don’t know the couple in Respect, but we can imagine…

4. Connection points

The audience can connect with these songs. We can all relate. They are singing about situations
we can recognise and feelings we know. They are about home, pills and money. These are topics
that turn up in everyday life for many people. 

Find ideas with free writing

This is a great technique to unpack things that may be in your head. A great deal goes
on below the surface and free writing can unlock some of our best ideas. Read how here

Test ideas with sensory writing

This is one of the most powerful methods in the songwriters use. It generates language that
prompts feelings in the audience. It can transport you to a place and time or convey
emotion. It allows us to show the audience not tell.

It’s also a great way to find out if an idea has legs. If you’re drawing a blank when
sensory writing, you might want to try another topic.
Give it a try with our sensory writing recipe. 

Strategize with the Song planning Canvas

Use this canvas to intentionally target an audience with your song. Here’s how to use it: 

1. Download the canvas 

Clicking this link to download a PDF of the canvas (interactive version coming soon)

2. Print it out

 A3 or A4, or US letter paper should work. I find larger versions helpful, however.   

3. Fill in the purpose box 

What is your song for? Is it a pop song, a piece of music in a video game? Part of a film score.

4. Fill in the outcome box

Imagine the song is a great success. What would that success look like? Millions of streams on
Spotify? National press taking about it? Be as specific as you can about what you would
like to achieve. 

5. Think about the audience

Fill in the right-hand side of the canvas. Describe your audience. Experiment with different ways
to fill this out, this could mean: 

 Describing their personal style and interests. E.g. A person who feels like and outsider.

That likes to dress differently to show they aren’t like everyone else.   

 It might mean describing a situation they are in: A tired worker, heading home on the

long train ride, feeling drained from another day dealing with difficult people and

problems

  Anyone who wants to escape their in laws during the holidays

Think about where they might be and how that place looks and feels

6. Find a theme 

This could be as simple as “falling in love” it might be an activity like “working nine to five”.
Write that theme down on the left-hand side. 

7. Find the the key message of your song

Try to summarize the main message in less than ten words. This is not the plot or action
of the song. Main messages are often very simple statements. They are direct and to the
point. Write it into the spot on the left. If you need more help on this read our find the
key message of your song recipe. 

8. Define the job your song will do for your audience

This is essential, if your song is delivering the right emotion at the right time for the right people
you are bound to be onto a winner. Write down what you want the audience to feel and what you
would like them to do as a result of hearing your song. 

9. Make some decisions 

Now you know what job you are trying to do and for whom you can start to make better
decisions about your song. What style should it be in? Are there any guiding principles you will
use as you make it? How will you know when you have succeeded? 

10. For extra credit

Analyze a few of your favorite songs using the canvas: 

 Who is their audience?

 What job does the song do for their audience?

 What musical and lyrical choices are helping them achieve their aim?

Expand your ideas using the Song Idea Canvas

Use the song idea canvas to flesh out audience centered song ideas.

1. Download the canvas

Download a PDF of the canvas by clicking this link (interactive version coming soon)

2. Print it out

 A3 or A4, or US letter paper should work. I find larger versions helpful, however.

3. Write in your main message and strong emotion

If you have used the song planning canvas this should be easy. Alternatively, read our find the
key message of your song recipe. 
 

4. Find connection points

Familiar experiences help transport your audience into the song. This is a good time to
use sensory writing. Dive into the topic and try to describe authentic sensations connected to
your songs theme. Write the best of them into the connection points box. 

5. Story and characters

What is happening in your song and who is this song happening to? Describe this but
remember to keep it simple. If you read lyrics from some of your favorite songs, you will find
that the stories are often very simple indeed. 

Spark new ideas with different approaches

Hopefully the above methods have given you plenty of ideas to work with. If they didn’t work
for you or if you have been using them for a while and have run dry, then it’s time to try
something else. Each of the following techniques can yield interesting results and give you lots
of songs to write.  

Babble technique

Words carry meaning but they are also sounds. Sometimes an idea for a song emerges from
babbling along to an existing piece of music or a riff you have created. Try it out.

Write a sequel

Find a song that already exists and extend its story. You can choose the refute the message of the
original or take it further. This is a great fun way to create songs. Method coming soon

Practice active listening

Listen to conversations, discreetly. Use this method to find inspiration in things people actually
say. Method coming soon

Turn any experience into a song

Any experience no matter how mundane can become material to work with. Nine to five by
Dolly Parton, working at the carwash anything can spark ideas. Method coming soon

Force connections

Smashing together unrelated ideas and topics can yield remarkable results. Use this method to
create colorful metaphors. Method coming soon

Find ideas in other media

Book titles, newspaper articles, movie scenes and even racehorse names can all provide the spark
you need to find great ideas. Method coming soon

Use locations to spark ideas

Visit locations and use techniques to find ideas. Method coming soon

Cut-ups and serendipity

David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Thom Yorke and possibly John Lennon have used this technique for
finding great ideas and even lyrics. Method coming soon

Write a contrafact

A contrafact is a new melody composed over another song’s chords. Doing this can be a great
way to evoke a mood. Method coming soon

Find lyric ideas in existing music

If you have already written some music, you may be looking for words to complete it. Use these
methods hear what the music suggests. Method coming soon

Now what?
If you have tried some of the above methods, you should now have more song ideas that you can
handle. That’s great, select the best of them and move on to song layout.  
 NEXT UP
SONG LAYOUT
LETS GO
 SONG LAYOUT
We Can Work It Out

Method
Now you have the main idea it’s almost time sketch out a high-level overview of the song. To do
that you need to have a structure in place and understand the job each section does.

Song form
There are lots of different ways to structure a song. As with every other decision in song writing
the only “correct” choice is the one that fulfils your artistic goal. 

For this exercise, we are going to focus on the most commonly used structure in contemporary
pop, rock, funk, reggae and Soul. If you want to try something else you can read more about your
options here. 

Here’s the form we are using:

 Intro (4bars) – optional 

 Verse 1 (16 bars)

 Pre-chorus (4 bars)

 Chorus (8 bars)

 Verse 2 (8 bars)

 Pre-chorus (4 bars)

 Chorus (8 bars)

 Bridge (optional)

 Chorus (8 bars)
  Chorus (8 bars)

 Outro (4 bars) – optional 

Intro and outro

These sections are optional and are often kept short in order to get the listener to the chorus
quickly. Only you can decide if you need them based on your creative intent. 

Verses 

The verses are the sections of the song where you tell the majority of the songs story. Most of the
content lives here. This is the place where you use sensory words to “show not tell” the listener
what is happening and help them feel what you intend them to feel.

Pre-chorus

This provides a link between the verse and the chorus. If often set’s up the chorus sometimes
building tension that the chorus will release. Lyrically it’s often a way to connect to the repeated
message in the refrain. Sometimes this is done using linking words such as “but” or “and”.

Chorus

This is the main emotional point of the song. The lyrical message of the chorus usually takes one
of these three forms:

 Call to action – “Get into the groove”

 Statement – “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”

 Question – “Do you really want to hurt me?”

If your chorus isn’t one of these three, ask yourself why.

Choruses typically uses repetition to drive the message home. Look up the words to songs you
like, note how often the chorus message is repeated. There are different types of repetition used
including but not limited to: 

 Sandwich repetition – the main message starts and ends the chorus wrapping up anything

that’s in the middle 

  Internal repetition – Repetition inside a line itself e.g. If we sing “what do you care” and

then repeat “do you care, do you care, do you care”

 Complete repetition – the chorus says the same thing over and over. This is taken to an

extreme by Daft Punk. The lyrics of their song “Around the world” are simply the phrase

“Around the world” repeated 144 times.

Bridge

You should only use a bridge if you need one. It’s a place where you put new lyrical content. It
should be tangential to the rest of the song. Sometimes a bridge will re-frame the rest of the
content making you change your view of the rest of the lyrics. In contemporary music the bridge
is a place to bring in new musical ideas as well preventing the song from becoming too
repetitive.

Sketch out the song

Now you know what each section of the song should do you are ready to sketch out your song.
Don’t try to write lyrics just yet. Draw on the ideas you have developed to outline the shape of
the song from a lyrical perspective. Just put down the main message of each section. You should
end up with something like the below example:

 Verse 1: I’m alone but I’m happy

 Pre-chorus: but now I’ve met you 

 Chorus: I can’t do without you

 Verse 2: why is everything different now?

 Pre-chorus 2: but the more I know about you

 Chorus: I can’t do without you

 Bridge: Do you need me as much as I need you, I hope you do because

 Chorus: I can’t do without you

When you are happy with your outline write it into the story section of the song idea canvas and
the top boxes of the song structure canvas. Congratulations! You have created a lyrical outline
for your song.
Now what?
Now you have created an outline of your song it’s time to write some music. 

ONWARD TO WRITE THE MUSIC

LETS GO
 WRITE THE MUSIC
Act Naturally

Write the music

Now that we have outlined the song from a lyrical perspective, we need to create an outline from
a musical perspective.

Use the bottom boxes of the song structure canvas to describe the feeling you want to create in
each section. Try to capture it in a few descriptive words. The sensory writing exercise you did
earlier may be useful to you here. 

For example, you might decide that you want your verses to create tension that the chorus will
resolve. Do you want the section or whole song to sound dark and spooky or light and happy like
a summer’s day? Do you want people to dance to the song or do you want them to be relaxed by
it? Make sure that the feeling you want to evoke compliments the lyrical outline for each section.

If you find this difficult, listen to songs that you like and think about they make you feel. How
does the feeling of the verse support the message of their lyrics, how does the feeling change
when they reach the pre-chorus.

Practice deconstructing songs in this way. Once you have analyzed a few you should be able to
describe your own.

Before we move on…

This recipe is focused on song writing and can’t cover all the musical topics required without
expanding to become a full-blown music course. We have tried to keep things simple and easy to
do but you need to have access to a digital audio workstation (DAW) such as Garageband (free if
you have a Mac) or Reaper (https://www.reaper.fm) which has a free trial and costs a $60 dollars
for private individuals to use. 

It’s really going to help if you: 

 Have the ability to play a chordal instrument

 Are familiar with creating music using a digital audio workstation

  Know what major scale is and how to play it

 Understand what a key is and the basics of functional harmony 

 Know the roman numeral system for identifying chords

If you don’t have these skills, you can still follow the recipe, but you might find it easier to
partner with someone who does.

Sign up for free and let us know in the comments if you would like us to add recipes on each of
these topics. 

Start from scratch or write a contrafact

If you are new to songwriting and music, you might wish to make things a little easier by writing
a new melody over another song’s chords. This is called writing a contrafact. In certain styles of
music such as Jazz it’s a common thing to do. Doing this can be a great way to sharpen your
melody and hook writing skills without having to start from zero.

If you want to write a contrafact find a song that has a similar feel to the one you are going for.
In most cases you will be able to look up the chords online. Play them on your instrument or plug
them into your digital audio workstation. You will be able to follow the rest of this recipe and
simply skip sections that no longer apply.

Establish the basics

The next step is to define some essentials for your song. Remember each of these musical
choices will influence what your audience feels.

Pick a tempo

If you want people to dance choose a tempo between 117 and 126 BPM. If your song is a sad
ballad, select a slower tempo to evoke this feeling. Songs faster than 126 BPM are common in
certain styles of music like speed metal and EDM.

Pick a key and a mode

If you are writing a contrafact use the key of the song where you are borrowing the chords from.

If you are uncertain choose A major.

If you have a deeper understanding of scales and modes, feel free to mix things up to create
different feelings
Pick time signature

4/4 is called common time for a reason. You might want to start out with 4/4 but don’t be scared
to add in bars of other time signatures or to mix things up. 

If you are writing a contrafact you can use the time signature of the song where you are
borrowing the chords from.

Chords first?

Next we are going to dive straight into writing chord progressions for each section of your song.
We are starting there in order to make this recipe coherent. As you become more experienced
feel free to experiment with writing melodies or rhythms first. There are no rules and each
element you decide upon influences the others.

Find chords for each section

NB: Skip this activity if you are writing a contrafact.

Chords and harmony are a key component in creating the feel of your song. You need to find a
sequence of them for each section of your song. You can use the same ones throughout the song
or vary them. Understanding how harmony works is a very deep topic. This recipe will give you
just enough to find and choose some chords.

Keep the feeling you want to create in mind as you make your choices. Refer to the song
structure canvas and ask yourself if the sequence of chords you are hearing fits the feeling you
are after. 

Use one of the three methods below to create a chord progression for each section of your song.

Enter or import the chords you have chosen into the digital audio workstation. Make sure each
section matches the number of bars defined in the song layout section above. If in doubt add the
chords on the beat at the beginning of each bar. Feel free to play around with other rhythms.
Keep in mind the feel you want to create. We will discuss rhythm later in the recipe. 

1. Use standard progressions

It’s good to remember that you don’t need to know everything about harmony to get started. If in
doubt use one of our standard chord progressions. Play with them. Feel free to change them, mix
them up and swap chords out of them. Listen to the feeling they create and use them like colors
in a paint box. Using these progressions alone could provide enough songs for a whole career.
Here’s a short list of winning progressions: 
I, V, vi

IV, I, V, vi

IV, I6, ii

I, ii, vi, IV

I, iii, vi, IV

I, V, vi, IV

I, V, ii, IV

ii, IV, I, V

I, V, ii, IV

I, VI, ii V

iii, VI, ii, V

ii, V, I(4), iv

2. Generate chords with software

You can use tools like chordchord.com to automagically generate a chord progression. You can
then export/import those that you like into your digital audio workstation. This is a great way to
spark your creativity but keep in mind the guidance above. Tools like this one can lead you in
new and unexpected directions but you must decide if the result expresses your musical idea. 

3. Use this chart to build your own progressions

If you haven’t studied music theory, it can be hard to know where to start. This chart makes it
easy to create progressions that sound consonant (smooth).

It’s based on what theorists call functional harmony, that’s the idea that chords in a key have
different jobs to do. There are three types of job or function.

Tonic function chords create a feeling of rest, they make it feel like the progression has returned
“home”.

Sub-dominant function chords create the feeling that the music is going somewhere.
Dominant function chords point back to the Tonic or back “home”. 

We can make a set of chords from the notes in a scale. We say that these chords are “in the key”.
We label all the chords in the key with roman numerals to make it easier to compare
progressions between keys. If the roman numerals are uppercase the chord is major if they are
lower case the chord is minor. This is called roman numeral system. Here are all the three note
(triads) and four note chords (sevenths) in the key of A major with their Nashville numbers and
the notes they are made of.

I – A major, A major seventh (Amaj, Amaj7)

ii – B minor, B minor seventh (Bm, Bm7)

iii – C sharp minor, C# minor seventh (C#m, C#m7)

IV – D major, D major seventh (D, Dmaj 7)

V – E major, E dominant seventh (E, E7)

vi – F sharp minor, F# minor seventh (F#m, F#m7)

vii° – G# diminished, G# minor seventh flat five (G#°, G#m7b5)

You can look up how to play them on a piano here http://www.piano-keyboard-guide.com/key-

of-a.html.

How to use the chart

Start with any chord on the chart and move to the right as much as you wish. Only move left
along the arrows. This will create progressions that sound “smooth”. Notice how the musical
phrase feels completed when you travel along one of the arrows.

 
The iii (minor three) chord is a chameleon. It can do different jobs. If you play it after a I (One)
chord it will sound at rest. If you play it after a vii° (dim seven) chord it will sound sub-
dominant.

Create your melodies

Follow these steps to build melodies for each section of your song. Try to create contrast
between the sections and make sure the melody matches the intended feel of the section. As you
do these steps enter the melody into your digital audio workstation.

1. Start with melodic rhythm

A large part of what moves us in a melody is its rhythm. Listen to some melodies you like and
clap out the melodic rhythm. This will give you an idea of the type of thing that works. 

Clap out a rhythm of your own along with your chords. Experiment until you find something you
like. Remember to keep it simple, the song needs to be easy to sing.

Melodic rhythm is a good place to start because building a melody rhythm up rather than from
notes and intervals down tends to produce hookier results. Rhythm is fundamental.

2. Add pitches
Make sure you sing the melody you are creating as you add pitches and intervals to your melody.
It’s important that your melody stays within most people’s comfortable vocal range (also known
as the Tessitura). Keep singing the melody as it evolves. Add notes and phrases from the key of
your song. Use any note from the scale in any order you like. Pay attention to how some notes
seem to “rub” against the chords more than others.

If you are in the key of A Major the notes in that key are as follows: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A.
They look like this on a keyboard.

You can look up the notes for other keys here https://www.pianoscales.org/major.html.

3. Shape/contour

Decide on the shape of your melody. There are 6 basic melody shapes. Linear, ascending,
descending, arch, inverted arch or zigzag. It’s useful to think about the overall shape of your
melody. One way of writing melodies is to draw a curve or contour line on a piece of paper and
then enter that into a piano roll editor in your digital audio workstation. <make it obvs what to
do>

4. Decide how your melody moves  

A melody can move in one of four ways:

Static

Where the melody sticks to one note or almost one note. This puts the focus on the rhythm of the
words and can make it easier to deliver more words than the other forms

Step

A melody that moves up or down the scale playing each note. This feels controlled and
connected but small and limited

Skips

Moving by anything larger than a step, feels more open and freer. I think of skips as thirds and
fourth but that’s just my system. The barrier between skips and leaps isn’t well defined. 

Leaps
Anything larger than a perfect 4th interval. Moving in leaps tends to feel powerful and energetic. 

Often sections of a song move in contrasting ways. If the verse is largely static, then the chorus is
likely to move by step or leap. A single motif can use more than one type of motion, however.
Over the rainbow leaps up an octave and then slowly comes back down to earth using steps. 

5. Follow or avoid root notes of chords

Chords are made by picking a note from the scale and adding other notes on top. 

If you are using the well-known one, five, six, four (I, V, vi, IV) progression in A Major. The
chords are A major (I), E major (V), F minor (vi), D Major (IV). If our melody plays the root
note at the same time as the chord the melody is following the roots.

Following roots tends to feel heavy, simple and stable. It feels unsophisticated but resolved.

Choosing other notes from the chord or other notes from the scale can create a wide range
of other feelings.

6. Ensure the melodies can be sung

You should now have singable melodies alongside the chords for each section of your song. Sing
(la la) along with the track to ensure that they work and aren’t too busy. In general, the verses
should have more/shorter notes and be denser than the choruses. This will enable you to get more
lyrical content across in these sections. Let’s move on and add some lyrics. Once they are in
place you will revisit the musical element later in this recipe. So, don’t worry about making
things too perfect at this stage.

Now what?
Now you have the chords and melody in place it’s time to turn ideas into real lyrics.

ONWARD TO WRITE THE LYRICS

 WRITE THE LYRICS
Tell Me What You See

Write the lyrics

Before we move on…

This recipe is focused on giving you the absolute essentials on how to write lyrics. This is by no
means every trick in the book or way to think about lyric writing. It will however get you
through writing lyrics for this song and start you thinking about more advanced approaches.

Person and tense

I’ve chosen to write my lyrics in direct voice that means I’m going to use the pronouns “you”
and “I”. That turns the singer and listener into the people in the story. The singer is directly
addressing the audience. I suggest that you do the same if this is your first song. Once you have
written a few you can start to experiment with third person.

You also need to decide which tense to use. Is the song happening now, in the past or in the
future? In most cases you should pick a tense and stick with it. I’m going with the present tense.

Start from your outline

Let’s start from the outline you wrote earlier. You need to expand the outline you wrote earlier
into lyrics that fit the music and convey the right message and feeling.

Here’s the outline I wrote earlier:

 Verse 1: I’m alone but I’m happy

 Pre-chorus: but now I’ve met you 

 Chorus: I can’t do without you

 Verse 2: everything is different now?

 Pre-chorus 2: but the more I know about you

 Chorus: I can’t do without you

  Bridge: Do you need me as much as I need you, I hope you do because

 Chorus: I can’t do without you

Expand the message of the first verse into draft lyrics. Write between three and four lines of five
to six words. Write yours before reading on.

Here’s what I ended up with:

I’m free to do anything I want

No one to hold me down

I can stay at the party as long as I want

Or drink margaritas in my night gown

When I try to sing this, it doesn’t fit the music I’ve made. Let’s take a look at why that is and
how I can fix it.

Form and syllables

When I look at the melody, I can see it’s made of three phrases. The first two phrases are the
same. They are made of five notes. The last phrase starts the same but ends with a walk up the
scale and it is nine notes long.

This means there’s an AAB structure to my melody. Two identical phrases followed by a
variation. I need to write lines that fit to this structure. I’ll use one line per phrase. Each line must
have one syllable per note. Here’s how it looks if I use “ba” to represent a syllable.

A: ba ba ba ba ba

A: ba ba ba ba ba

B: ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Count the syllables in your lines. I use Rappad to https://www.rappad.co/editor to make this
quick and easy.

9 I’m free to do anything I want,

6 No one to hold me down

12 I can stay at the party as long as I want

10 Or drink margaritas in my night gown

Now we can see why the lyrics don’t fit. There are too many syllables and the structure doesn’t
match. Oops!

Meter

There’s another reason my lyrics don’t fit the music. There’s an inherent rhythm hidden in the
words I’ve written, and it doesn’t match the rhythm of the melody. We call these
rhythms metrical feet.

English words and phrases have patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. Stressed syllables
are louder, longer, higher in pitch and pronounced more clearly. 

The pattern of strong and weak beats in my melody doesn’t match the stress pattern of my lyrics.

If I use “ba” for the weak beats and “Bom” for the strong beats, you can see the rhythmic
pattern.

I found this pattern by singing “bom, bom, ba, ba, bom” along with the melody. When the
pattern of bas and boms fits I know I have the stresses in the right place.

A: Bom bom ba ba bom

A: Bom bom ba ba Bom

B: Bom Bom ba ba Bom Bom ba ba Bom

You can see the first two beats of the melody are emphasized and the following two aren’t. This
rhythm is called a Spondee which is one of the six basic rhythms used in English poetry and
lyrics. I’ve written a reference guide for all six of those rhythms/feet, you can see it here. 

Analyze your melody and find out which stress pattern/metrical foot will match. If you struggle
with this look up the foot in the reference and at literarydevices.com/. Note that you may have to
mix and match different stress patterns.
Now let’s change the words to fit. To do this we need to know where the stress is in the words
we want to use. Here’s a handy guide.

How to find the beat in your words 

1. For longer words, find which syllable is stressed using a dictionary. For example, searching
google dictionary for the word banana returns this pronunciation string /bəˈnɑːnə/.  

This small character ˈ appears before the stressed syllable. So, in banana the middle syllable is
stressed. 

2. Use the form. Count how many syllables are in each line if you haven’t already. This gives
you an idea of the pattern you are dealing with

3. Think about the meaning of what’s being said. The logic of the sentence determines where
stress will be placed. e.g.  “I SAID she told the truth.” verses “I said SHE told the truth.”

4. Single-syllable nouns, pronoun, verbs, and adjectives tend to be stressed. This isn’t a hard and
fast rule but it’s a good place to start. 

5. Single-syllable articles (a, an, the), and prepositions (by, of, with) tend to be unstressed.

6. Remember that stressed syllables are longer, louder, higher and clearer.

Reworking my lyric

Here’s my first attempt at making the lyrics fit:

A: I do what I want

A: No one hold me down
B: I drink mar ga rit ta in my gown

There’s a problem though “Margarita” doesn’t fit the stress pattern of my lyrics. I’ve got three
choices, change the word, change its placement or ignore the fact it doesn’t fit and live with the
odd emphasis. I’ve decided that I’m going to use “Margarita” anyway. I like the way it sounds
and the image it conjurers.

The next problem is that I can’t fit the whole sentence to the melody.

Looks like I have to find something else to fill that line that expresses the same sort of idea.

I want the last word of the last line to rhyme with the last word of the line above. There are
several of types of rhyme not just so called “perfect rhymes” like “down” and “gown”. So, I have
a lot of choices. I can use rhymezone.com to help me find matches for down and see if that
sparks something with my lyric. I’ve also written a guide to different types of rhyme that you can
see here.

I’ve collected a few rhyming words that seem to jump out at me.

comedown, town rundown, meltdown, hometown, around,

clampdown, profound, rebound, unbound, unsound. Let’s try it again:

A: I do what I want

A: No one hold me down

B: I drink mar ga rit as in the town

Sounds OK I’ll live with the slightly imperfect meter of the last line as it’s sounding OK.

A: I do what I want
A: No one hold me down

B: head in a cloud, feet on the ground

I’ve completed my first verse. Here’s what the song sounds like so far.

As you can hear, I’m not much of a singer but I’ve managed to represent the idea. Complete your
verse in the same manner.

Once you are done you should have a first verse that flows well with your song’s melody.

Repeat this process for the other verses. Subsequent verses should use the same form, rhyme
scheme and meter as the first verse. Remember that each verse should advance the story of the
song.

Write the chorus

The chorus is your main message, the emotional truth of your song. It’s critical that you get the
message across and help your audience remember it. Look at you canvases; some form of your
main message may be the chorus line. Look at the song outline you created and think about how
the pre-chorus will connect the refrain.   

Choose a type of chorus. If your chorus isn’t one of these three, ask yourself why:

 Call to action – “Get into the groove”

 Statement – “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”

 Question – “Do you really want to hurt me?”

You only have three minutes to teach the audience your song. Choruses frequently use repetition
to drive the message home. Look up the words to songs you like, note how often the chorus
message is repeated. Use one or all of these types of repetition.

 Sandwich repetition – the main message starts and ends the chorus wrapping up anything

that’s in the middle 

 Internal repetition – Repetition inside a line itself e.g. If we sing “what do you care” and

then repeat “do you care, do you care, do you care”

  Complete repetition – the chorus says the same thing over and over. This is taken to an

extreme by Daft Punk. The lyrics of their song “Around the world” are simply the phrase

“Around the world” repeated 144 times.

If you analyze popular songs you will find they often use fewer words and longer, higher notes.
This helps make this section distinct from the other sections of the song.

Apply the same techniques that we used for the verse to make the message fit the chorus melody.
Don’t be afraid to change the melody to fit the words.

My chorus is:

“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t do without you”.

Write the pre-chorus

Use everything you have learned so far to write the pre-chorus. Look at the song outline you
created and the chorus you have just written. How will the pre-chorus connect verse and chorus?

Remember that its ok the vary the pre-chorus lyrics to make the connection as long as the form
and melody don’t change.

Write a bridge if you have more to say

If you find, there’s additional story content that will add to the song you can write a bridge.
Don’t feel pressured to write one unless you have something compelling left to say. A musical
bridge that expands on the melodic theme or adds a new musical element might do a better job of
keeping the audience interested. 

Now what?
Now you have the lyrics in place it’s time to reflect on what you have done and make
improvements.

ONWARD TO FROM GOOD TO

GREAT
 FROM GOOD TO GREAT
Getting Better

Method
Congratulations! You have written the melody, harmony and lyrics to your song. You are
about halfway through the songwriting process.

If you haven’t already done so, record the vocals you have written using your DAW. If you
aren’t a great singer, you might want to get a friend to sing or use pitch correction on your own
vocals.

Constructive self-criticism

Analyze your lyrics

Listen to the lyrics of your song and take notes on them. It’s important to be able to reflect on the
lyrics you have written and evaluate them. This is hard because the only “correct” choice is the
one that fulfils the creative intent. There are some general guidelines, however. Great lyrics tend
to be:

 Singable – if they aren’t easy to sing, they aren’t easy to remember 

 Conversational – are the lyrics in normal conversational language? If not, why not?

 Believable – write what you know, we can all spot a fake

 Easy to understand – if you have to explain it, think about changing it

Look up the lyrics to one of your favorite songs. You may be shocked by how few words there
are and how simple they seem. Reflect on your own lyrics and simplify them if necessary.

Analyze the music

How does the song sound? Is it doing the job you set out to do? If it’s a dance track does it make
you want to dance? If it’s a ballad does it evoke the right feelings? It’s most likely that it’s not
yet doing the job. Use the song structure canvas to notes on how each section of the song feels
and refine your descriptions of how it should feel.
Revisit the music and make your track awesome

The first thing you need to do is check that there’s enough variation between the sections of your
song. Use the following techniques to ensure you have melodic and rhythmic contrast between
the sections. 

Create melodic variation

Review the choices you have made so far

Do all the melodies use root notes? Do they all have the same contour or shape? Are they all
using the same kind of motion? Create contrast by making different choices in different sections.

Chord tones vs non-chord tones

Compare your melody to the chords Using notes that are part of the chords underneath makes for
a stable feeling. Using tones that aren’t makes for a significantly different feel. If you use chord
tones in the verse, try using non chord tones in the pre-chorus or chorus.  

Use functional pairs to think about the feel of the melody

Look at the notes you are using in your melody. We can group all twelve notes by their
relationship to the current chord or the key of the section. They change the feel of the music in
the following ways:

The stable notes A and E sound resolved and like the melody has gone “home.

The Modal notes C# and C make the melody sound major (lighter) or minor (darker).

The Hollow notes don’t tend change the feel much, they are useful as part of a phrase but can
sound a bit “vanilla”.

The Unstable notes make it feel like the melody needs to go somewhere else.

The Leading notes make the melody want to resolve to the root or 5th

The Uncanny notes mostly rub really hard against the chords and sound out of key in most cases

Vary the choices you make between song sections. 

Functional Pairs example in A Major

 Stable Modal Hollow Unstable Leading Uncanny
Root 5 3 ♭3 6 ♭7 2 4 7 ♭6 ♭2 ♯4
A E C♯ C F♯ G B D G♯ F B♭ E♭
Question/Answer and resolutions

Create question and answer phrases. This is where one sequence of notes sounds like a question
and the following phrase sounds like an answer.

You can create a question phrase by making it sound unfinished relative to the answer. The
question phrase might end on an offbeat. The answer phrase will then finish on the beat making
it sound more final. If the second phrase finishes higher than the first it tends to feel like and
answer.  Phrases that finish on the stable “tonic” note of the key tend to feel like answers.

Try this out in your song and listen for examples of this in your favorite songs.

Raise or lower the pitch between sections

This is a very simple and widely used technique to make change between sections. Take the
pitch up or down. You will notice that this technique is often used in pop and rock. The chorus
usually hits the higher notes in the song.  

Create harmonic variation

Switch the order of the chords

A super simple but effective thing to do is change the order of the chords you have already been
using. Just try changing the cycle and see what it means for the song. 

Use unexpected chords like a spotlight

An “unexpected chord” is one that isn’t in the key of the song. Doing this is often called “chord
substitution” or using borrowed chords. There are lots of ways to find them, but I don’t want to
turn this recipe into a deep lesson in harmony. Try making a major chord in your progression
minor or vice versa. It may sound weird or it might sound interesting, you need to decide if it
works for your song. Unexpected chords draw the listeners attention. You can use them to
underline the most important phrase of your lyric or signal a change between sections of the
song. 

Add or remove chords

Adding (or removing) a chord early in a section tells us right away that something else is
happening. It draws attention so consider adding a chord underneath a key word, message or
moment in the song.

Change harmonic rhythm

If we change chords more frequently there’s an injection of energy into the song. We can also
slow the rate of change. Hold onto the five (V) chord a little longer or reduce the number of
chords. Perhaps the section would be just find with one chord? Consider the rate at which your
chords change and how many chords you use in a section. Experiment with it and see what it
does for your song.

Use storytelling to guide your choices

Imagine that the notes of the melody are the characters in your story. Harmony tells us about
their character traits and actions. Listen to the way different chords change the feel of the notes
in the melody. Trust your judgement about what works and what doesn’t.

Pay attention to cadences

We use the term cadence to describe the feeling that a musical phrase has finished. They tell us
there’s no more music to do for that section. The cadence typically resolves all the tension that
may have been built by other sections of the music. The arrows in the build your own
progressions chart represent cadences. Listen out for when they happen. You will note that some
feel more finished than others. You can use this to make sections of your song feel like they have
come to an end.

Melodic Rhythm Contrast

1. Straight/syncopated

Does the melody start on or off the beat? Using syncopated off beat patterns in your main
melody or chords transforms the feel of the song. Straight notes sound connected and grounded
but less exciting. Just enough syncopation makes us want to move with the music. Too much
syncopation leaves us lost. Mix and match these between sections to create change.

2. Longer shorter notes

Try out using shorter notes in the verse and longer notes in the chorus. Note what it does to the
feel of the section. Notice the difference it makes to the amount of words in the section. If you
analyze pop songs, you will find that many use longer notes and fewer words in the chorus. 

3. Melody placement: before on or after downbeat

You can start your melody in three different places: 

1. On the first or down beat: this feels very stable and connected but can also feel overly

simple and boring for the audience

 2. After the down beat of the bar: This adds some drama, the moment of silence builds a

little tension in the listener which is released when the melody starts on beat two or three

3. Before the first beat: this is sometimes called a pickup line or upbeat. The melody or lyric

starts before the bar of music leading us into the line.

Use a mixture of these in your song sections. See what difference they make to the composition.

4. Change the length of phrases

Try halving the length of your phrases in the chorus compared to the verse. How about doubling
the length of the phrase? Listen to the way that distinguishes the sections from one another. 

5. More or less rest space

Give the listener some rest space. You don’t have to have melody or lyrics all the time. Give the
listener time. Change the density between sections and see what that does for my composition. 

Create your groove

So far, we have focused on chords, melody and lyrics. You need to create a groove. In music,
a groove is the propulsive rhythmic “feel” or “swing” of the music. It’s often a persistent
repeated pattern that underpins the song. In a traditional band it emerges from the interplay of the
rhythm section such as drums, bass, guitar or keyboards. Groove is a huge part of what makes
songs successful. 

Add drums and bass

If you know what to do skip the section below. If you don’t now is a great time to learn or get
assistance from someone who does.

Explaining how to create a great drum and bass groove is beyond the scope of this recipe but the
below will show you ways to add drums and bass using your DAW.

Drums

In Garageband has a built-in robot drummer and loops that you can use. These are a great way to
get started. You can also learn to program drums yourself using the built-in drum kits.

Reaper can also be used to create custom drum tracks. There are free plugins like this
one powerdrumkit.com available that will allow you to create drum patterns. There are also lots
of free drum loops available for download from the internet. Find something that you like and
add it to your track.
Bass

A baseline can be added using the built-in bass sounds available in both Reaper and Garageband.

Basslines are often simple musical motifs that are repeated. Add a baseline that is made from the
notes in the chords of your song. For example, if the current chord is A Major your bassline
might play the root note (A), the third note (C#), or the fifth note (E).

Align the rhythm of the bass to the drum pattern you have selected. Once you have constructed a
baseline in this way you can add in other notes from the key/scale of your song. Listen actively
and trust your judgement on what sounds good.

Syncopation makes space for dancing  

Consider adding syncopation. Syncopation is where the pattern of strong and weak beats is
disrupted.

If you want people to dance to your song you need to make space for them in the rhythm. When
we breakup the exact rhythmic patterns used in music, we create that bit of space. The music
becomes slightly harder to follow but we feel the need to move to fill the space. Beware
however, too much syncopation and the music becomes too hard to to follow. Off the Wall by
Michael Jackson is a case study in getting this balance right.

Lyrical Contrast

Change Meter

Make a change in the melodic rhythm. It transforms the feel of the song. Look back at the section
on how to write lyrics for guidance on how to do this. 

Line length and density (number of syllables)

It’s common to have longer lines in the verse. This allows the writer to add more story or more
images. But because lyrics imply melodic rhythm longer lines typically mean shorter notes. This
is often contrasted with longer notes and shorter lines in the chorus.  

Type of repetition

Changing the amount and type of repetition used between sections of your song can help create
contrast. If you aren’t using repetition in the chorus, ask yourself why. It’s your creative choice
but bear in mind that you are asking your listener to take in a lot of information. The chorus is
where we teach the listener the main message of the song. Check out other people’s lyrics and
you will find that repetition is very frequently used.  

The two most common types of repetition used in song are whole phrase and internal repetition.  
As you might expect whole phrase repetition repeats the whole statement. Happy by Pharrell
Williams repeats the phrase “Because I’m happy” four times in each chorus.    

Abstract metaphors vs direct conversational language

“I want you back” is a direct conversational statement. In message in a bottle, Sting uses being a
castaway as a metaphor for a lonely life “Just a castaway, an island lost at sea”. Using a mixture
of these approaches can help make your songs compelling. As you write more songs you may
realize that often songs balance both of these approaches. Metaphors and abstract language
enable you to summarize an idea, this often happens in choruses.

Direct and conversational language is often used in the verse to transport us. It helps us
experience the story of the song ourselves.

Conclusion

I hope this guide has made writing your song easier and provided some valuable insights. I’d
love to hear the songs you have written. Feel free to share links to them in the comments. 

About this recipe

I’ve taken three months to analyze how to write songs. I’ve researched, interviewed professional
songwriters and experimented. The result is this step-by-step songwriting recipe that I’m sharing
with you.

I hope you find it useful and I’d love to hear constructive feedback. 

The method is designed to address common challenges that songwriters face. It’s an end-to-end
method that covers planning, ideas, writing lyrics and music. If you follow it all the way through
you will end up with a song. I can’t promise that the result will be a hit, but it should make
creating the song easier.

ONWARD TO ALL RECIPES

 RHYTHM FIRST MELODIES
Animate your melodies with rhythm

Problem
 You want to create distinct melodies for different song sections, but they are sounding

similar whatever you try 

  You want to create hooks or melodies that catch the listeners ear but are unsure where to
start

 Marrying words and melody is proving difficult 

 You need to create a different feeling in the music when compared to other sections of

your song

Method
Rhythm is a huge part of melody. It’s easy to get caught up in the intervals and chord tones
considerations when writing a melody. Striping it all back to the rhythm can help in the
following ways: 

 Easy to compare rhythm content and create contrast between song sections

 Break out of melody writing habits

 Make it easier to integrate lyrics and compare with the meter of the section 

 Create rhythmic hooks on which to build your melody

 

Do the following: 

1. If you already have lyrics look at the meter used and rhythm it may imply. If not skip to

step two
 2. Clap out a rhythm, experiment and find something you like

3. If you don’t have lyrics at this point you can figure out which meter is compatible 

4. Keep structure in mind, such as AABA lines. You might wish to have one pattern for the

A section and another for the B section. 

5. Now is good moment to compare this section with other parts of your song if they already

exist. Clap out the melodic rhythm for those sections and compare it with the verse. If

you are using a DAW you can program a shaker or other piece of percussion to give you

a reference. 

6. Start to add pitches to your rhythm to complete your melody. Think about melodic form

and shape.

Now what?
Now you have built a melody from the rhythm up. It should match the meter of your lyrics and
be rhythmically distinct from other sections of your song. 
 CREATE CONTRAST
Give song sections a distinct sound

The challenge
 You want a section of your song to sound different from the others 

 You need multiple ways to create the distinction

Melodic Contrast
Creating melodies is simultaneously really simple and very complicated. There’s a lot to be said
for keeping it simple and trusting your ear/how it feels. That said however there are really useful
ideas that can help you up your melody game.

Here are the five most important melody considerations when you want to create contrast.

1. Follow or avoid root notes of chords

Let’s imagine we are using a well-known one, five, six, four (I, V, vi, IV) progression in A
Major. Our chords are A major (I), E major (V), F minor (vi), D Major (IV). If our melody uses
lots of the root notes of those chords (AEFD) we can be said to be following the roots.

Following roots tends to feel heavy, simple and stable. It could feel unsophisticated but resolved.

Choosing other notes from the chord or other notes from the scale can create a wide range
of other feelings. One way to think about the notes available to you is the notion of functional
pairs. Try this for yourself. How do these different note choices make your melody feel?

Functional Pairs example in A

Stable Modal Hollow Unstable Leading Uncanny

Root 5th 3 ♭3 6 ♭7 2 4 7 ♭6 ♭2 ♯4
A E C♯ C F♯ G B D G♯ F B♭ E♭

2. Change the melody shape

If the melody in your verse is going down perhaps the pre-chorus should go up. Lets imagine that
there are 6 basic melody shapes:
 1. Single note (static)

2. Up

3. Down

4. Arch

5. inverted arch

6. zig-zag
Try out what happens when you use different shapes in different song sections. Additionally, pay
attention to what the melody does in relation to the bass movement in the song. Are they moving
in the same direction or different direction? Try this out and see how it changes the feel of the
song or composition.

3. Chord tones vs non-chord tones

NB: If you don’t have any chords in your song yet don’t worry come back to this one when you
have.

Compare your melody to the chords or harmony. Using notes that are in the chords underneath
makes for a stable feeling. Using tones that aren’t makes for a significantly different feel. If
you use chord tones in the verse, try using non chord tones in the pre-chorus or
chorus.  
 4. Steps, skips, leaps and static motion

How your melody moves make a big difference to the feeling it creates. See the table below for a
description of your options. Try using steps in one section and leaps in another.

  Static motion Steps Skips Leaps

Description The melody stays on The melody moves to The melody moves by The melody moves
one note. Perhaps with notes directly above or jumping over a note or further up or down the
an occasional outing to below the current note two in the scale scale. Typically,
the note above or below in the scale  anything larger than a
in the scale 3rd might be a leap.

Feeling Modern, emphasizes Connected, stable and Energetic and dynamic Powerful and dramatic
the rhythmic content controlled even neat

Example Many Tailor Swift Much baroque classical Pop chorus The Imperial March
songs music   Star Wars. Superhero
themes

5. Lower or raise pitch in comparison to other sections

Lastly a very simple and widely used technique to make change between sections. Take the pitch
pitch up or down. This technique is often used in pop and rock. 

Harmonic Contrast
1. Use the same chords or don’t
You don’t always have to make a change. I mention this here as it such a common technique in
modern music. Sometimes the change is more subtle. Add tensions to the same chords or make
change in another way. You don’t always have to use changes in chords to make the difference. 

2. Add or remove chords

Adding (or removing) a chord early in a section tells us right away that something else is
happening. Changing a chord draws attention so another great thing to do is add a chord
underneath a key word, message or moment in the song. This is even more impactful when the
chord is unexpected. This might mean it’s a borrowed chord or other chord from outside the key.

3. Change harmonic rhythm

If we change chords more frequently there’s an injection of energy into the song. We can also
slow the rate of change. Hold onto the five (V) chord a little longer or reduce the number of
chords. Perhaps the section would be just find with one chord? Consider the rate at which your
chords change and how many chords you use in a section. Experiment with it and see what it
does for your songs. 

4. Switch the order of the chords

A super simple but effective thing to do is change the order of the chords you have already been
using. Just try changing the cycle and see what it means for the song. 

5. Pay attention to cadences

We use the term cadence to describe the feeling that a musical phrase has finished, that there’s
no more music to do for that section. The cadence typically resolves all the tension that may have
been built by other sections of the music. You can learn more about them in our harmony
overview. 

Rhythmic Contrast
1. Straight/syncopated
Does your melody predominantly fall on or off the beat? Using syncopated off beat patterns in
your main melody or chords transforms the feel of the song. Straight notes sound connected and
grounded but less exciting. Just enough syncopation makes us want to move with the music. Too
much syncopation leaves us lost. Mix and match these between sections to create change.

2. Longer shorter notes

Try out using shorter notes in the verse and longer notes in the chorus. Note what it does to the
feel of the section. Notice the difference it makes to the amount of words in the section. If you
analyze pop songs you will find that many use longer notes and fewer words in the chorus. 

3. Melody placement: before on or after downbeat

You can start your melody in three different places: 

1. On the first or down beat: this feels very stable and connected but can also feel overly

simple and boring for the audience

2. After the down beat of the bar: This adds some drama, the moment of silence builds a

little tension in the listener which is released when the melody starts on beat two or

three

3. Before the first beat: this is sometimes called a pickup line or upbeat. The melody or

lyric starts before the bar of music leading us into the line.
Use a mixture of these in your song sections. See what difference they make to the composition.
4. Change the length of phrases

Try halving the length of your phrases in the chorus compared to the verse. How about doubling
the length of the phrase? Listen to the way that distinguishes the sections from one another. 

5. More or less rest space

Give the listener some rest space. You don’t have to have melody or lyrics all the time. Give the
listener time. Change the density between sections and see what that does for my composition. 

Lyrical Contrast
1.  Change Meter
Make a change in the melodic rhythm. It transforms the feel of the song. Look back at the section
on how to write lyrics for guidance on how to do this. 

2. Line length and density (number of syllables)

It’s common to have longer lines in the verse. This allows the writer to add more story or more
images. But because lyrics imply melodic rhythm longer lines typically mean shorter notes. This
is often contrasted with longer notes and shorter lines in the chorus.  

3. Type of repetition
Changing the amount and type of repetition used between sections of your song can help create
contrast. If you aren’t using repetition in the chorus, ask yourself why. It’s your creative choice
but bear in mind that you are asking your listener to take in a lot of information. The chorus is
where we teach the listener the main message of the song. Check out other people’s lyrics and
you will find that repetition is very frequently used.  

The two most common types of repetition used in song are whole phrase and internal repetition.  

As you might expect whole phrase repetition repeats the whole statement. Happy by Pharrell
Williams repeats the phrase “Because I’m happy” four times in each chorus.    

4. Abstract metaphors vs direct conversational language

“I want you back” is a direct conversational statement. In message in a bottle, Sting uses being a
castaway as a metaphor for a lonely life “Just a castaway, an island lost at sea”. Using a mixture
of these approaches can help make your songs compelling. As you write more songs you may
realize that often songs balance both of these approaches. Metaphors and abstract language
enable you to summarize an idea, this often happens in choruses.

Direct and conversational language is often used in the verse to transport us. It helps us
experience the story of the song ourselves.
Now what?
Now you have explored melodic, harmonic, rhythmic and lyrical differentiation. Now you
can:

 Let us know what you think of this song method

 Take a look at the other recipes in the songwriter’s cookbook

 Send us links to your songs we would love to hear them

 CREATE MELODIC
DIFFERENTIATION
Give song sections distinct melodies

Problem
 You want a section of your song to sound different melodically 

 You need multiple ways to create the distinction

Method
Creating melodies is simultaneously really simple and very complicated. There’s a lot to be said
for keeping it simple and trusting your ear/how it feels. That said however there are really useful
ideas that can help you up your melody game.

This recipe is focused on the five most important melody decisions of melody with regard to
making a section of music distinct from others. Read more about melodies and learn some
additional tips and tricks.

Five ways to make change with melody  

1. Follow or avoid root notes of chords

Let’s imagine we are using a well-known one, five, six, four (I, V, vi, IV) progression in A
Major. Our chords are A major (I), E major (V), F minor (vi), D Major (IV). If our melody uses
lots of the root notes of those chords (AEFD) we can be said to be following the roots.

Following roots tends to feel heavy, simple and stable. It could feel unsophisticated but resolved.

Choosing other notes from the chord or other notes from the scale can create a wide range
of other feelings. One way to think about the notes available to you is the notion of functional
pairs. Try this for yourself. How do these different note choices make your melody feel?
Functional Pairs example in A

Stable Modal Hollow Unstable Leading Uncanny

Root 5th 3 ♭3 6 ♭7 2 4 7 ♭6 ♭2 ♯4
A E C♯ C F♯ G B D G♯ F B♭ E♭
2. Change the melody shape
If the melody in your verse is going down perhaps the pre-chorus should go up. Let’s imagine
that there are 6 basic melody shapes:

1. Single note (static)

2. Up

3. Down

4. Arch

5. inverted arch

6. zig-zag
Try out what happens when you use different shapes in different song sections. Additionally, pay
attention to what the melody does in relation to the bass movement in the song. Are they moving
in the same direction or different direction? Try this out and see how it changes the feel of the
song or composition.

3. Chord tones vs non-chord tones

NB: If you don’t have any chords in your song yet don’t worry come back to this one when you
have.

Compare your melody to the chords or harmony. Using notes that are in the chords underneath
makes for a stable feeling. Using tones that aren’t makes for a significantly different feel. If
you use chord tones in the verse, try using non chord tones in the pre-chorus or
chorus.  
4. Steps, skips, leaps and static motion
How your melody moves make a big difference to the feeling it creates. See the table below for a
description of your options. Try using steps in one section and leaps in another.

  Static motion Steps Skips Leaps

Description The melody stays on The melody moves to The melody moves The melody moves
one note. Perhaps notes directly above by jumping over a further up or down
with an occasional or below the current note or two in the the scale. Typically,
outing to the note note in the scale  scale anything larger than a
above or below in the 3rd might be a leap.
scale

Feeling Modern, emphasizes Connected, stable Energetic and Powerful and

the rhythmic content and controlled even dynamic dramatic
neat

Example Many Tailor Swift Much baroque Pop chorus The Imperial March
songs classical music   Star Wars. Superhero
themes

5. Lower or raise pitch in comparison to other sections

Lastly a very simple and widely used technique to make change between sections. Take the pitch
up or down. This technique is often used in pop and rock. 

Now what?
Now you have explored melodic differentiation take a look at making change using rhythm,
harmony and lyrics.  
 FIND SONG IDEAS
Here, There and Everywhere

How to find song ideas

Now that you have defined your creative intent you need to find ways to fulfil it. As we have
seen there’s rarely anything unique or surprising about the emotions we are trying to elicit. You
need to find a song idea that helps you get your message across in a new way. Fortunately, you
don’t have to wait for inspiration to strike, there are lots of ways to hunt song ideas.

Abstract concepts like love and freedom are really hard to write about directly. It’s often better to
focus on tangible experiences. The things many people do in day to day life are ideal. The best
songs about big ideas often come from describing simple everyday things.

For your song to work you need to find:

A theme, the thing you are going to write about. This could be a simple everyday activity such as
riding the bus or a personal topic like trust.

A clear main message, typically this is something that can be expressed in less than ten words.
It’s often the message used in our chorus.

A simple story. Read the lyrics to some of your favorite songs. You will likely notice that the
stories within them depict simple situations.

Sensory descriptions to use in our lyrics. Songs describe sensory perceptions to transport the
listener into the story or situation.

The following techniques will help you find your message, story and sensory words. Pick a
theme based on the answers you have given so far and do the following.

Find ideas with free writing

This is a great technique to unpack things that may be in your head. There is much below the
surface of the mind and free writing can unlock some of our best ideas. 

Find something to write with. Many people find paper and pen best for this exercise as it doesn’t
impede the flow of ideas. But you can use a phone or word processor if you prefer.

1. Write the subject or spark phrase at the top of the page.

2. Set a timer for 25 minutes

 3. Write down anything that comes into your mind in relation to the topic

4. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar

5. Don’t edit yourself, put every thought down no matter how silly or disgraceful

6. Resist the temptation to write lyrics. If rhymes or Lyric like lines emerge that’s fine but

don’t try to create verses

7. Don’t stop writing, write “I can’t think of anymore” or similar phrases if you can’t think

of anything else but keep the words flowing

8. Write for the full 25 minutes nonstop

Review the thoughts you have written down. A main message and story may have emerged, if so
write them into the song planning canvas. If they haven’t tried the next activity. 

Sensory writing

This is one of the most powerful methods in the songwriters use. It generates language that
prompts feelings in the audience. It can transport them to a different place and time. Sensory
language allows us to show the audience what we feel rather than tell.

It’s also a great way to find out if an idea is worth writing about. If you’re drawing a blank when
sensory writing, you might want to try another topic.

1. Select a concrete object or a location to write about, this can be anything you have direct

experience of. E.g. an apple, Kings Cross Station London

2. Set a timer for 25 minutes

3. Consider the following seven senses sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste, body and

movement. Body sense refers to your perception of internal bodily processes e.g.

heartbeat, sweat, pulse, tension, breathing, twitching muscle etc. Movement refers to your

perception of movement such as a train rocking side to side or dizziness

4. Write down all of the sensory perceptions about the place or object. Don’t worry about

spelling or grammar, don’t worry about complete sentences  

5. Don’t edit yourself, put every thought down no matter how silly
 6. Resist the temptation to write lyrics. If rhymes or Lyric like lines emerge that’s fine but

don’t try to create verses

7. Write for the full 25 minutes nonstop

Review the thoughts you have written down. If you have found a main message or story write
them into the song planning canvas.

If you have sensory words or phrases you like write them into the “connection points” box on the
song idea canvas.

If this hasn’t produced a main message and story, try using one of these nine ways to find your
song idea. Once you have them write them into the song planning canvas. 

Nine ways to find a song idea

1. Write a sequel

Find an existing song that targets the same mood or moment and extend its story. You can
choose to refute the message of the original or take it further. This is a great fun way to create
songs.

2. Babble technique

Words carry meaning but they are also sounds. Sometimes an idea for a song emerges from
babbling along to an existing piece of music or a riff you have created. Try it out and write down
the result no matter how silly.

3. Practice active listening

Listen to conversations, discreetly. Use this method to find inspiration in things people actually
say. Try to collect statements connected to the mood or moment you are writing about.

4. Turn any experience into a song

Any experience no matter how mundane can become material to work with. Nine to five by
Dolly Parton, working at the carwash anything can spark ideas. Pick experiences from your daily
life and find a way to connect them to your topic.

5. Force connections
Smashing together unrelated ideas and topics can yield remarkable results. Use this method to
create colorful metaphors. A simple way to do this is to generate a random list of verbs and a
random list of nouns. Pair them up and try to make sense of what they may mean.

6. Find ideas in other media

Book titles, newspaper articles, movie scenes and even racehorse names can all provide the spark
you need to find great ideas. Seek out interesting phrases and try to find connections to your
theme.

7. Use locations to spark ideas

Take a notebook with you as you go about your daily life. Use sensory and free writing to
capture your thoughts and observations of the place. Use a few words to sketch out the people
you meet. They may become characters for your stories. 

8. Cut-ups and serendipity

David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Thom Yorke and John Lennon have used this technique for finding
great ideas and lyrics. Take words you have written or “found” in magazines and papers. Cut
them up into short phrases at random. Put them in a pile or box and draw then out at random.
Combine them into sentences and paragraphs. 

9. Find lyric ideas in existing music

If you have already written some music, you may be looking for words to complete it. You may
find some instrumental music and use it as stimulus. Listen to the music with your eyes closed
and imagine it’s the soundtrack to a movie. What is the movie about? What’s happening in the
scene? Try to let the music transport you into the scene. Write down what is happening in the
imaginary movie scene.

Now what?
Now you have explored melodic differentiation take a look at making change using rhythm,
harmony and lyrics.  
 FIND THE KEY MESSAGE
Identify the main creative idea that will drive your song

Problem
Writing and composing a song or instrumental requires us to make many decisions. If you are
unclear about the message you are trying to convey it’s easy to get lost.

Method
1. If you haven’t already done so, map out the creative territory of your song or

composition. You can do this using free writing or another of the find song ideas recipes. 

2. Try to summarize the main message in less than ten words

3. This is not the plot or action of the song

4. Main messages are often very simple statements. They are direct and to the point

5. Use the examples below to get a feel for what constitutes a key message
Examples

Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran – the main message is “I will love you forever”
Superstition by Stevie Wonder – main message is “Don’t be superstitious”
 
Why less than ten words
Simple messages are powerful, the ten-word limit forces us to be succinct. Ten words is a human
cognitive limit. To quickly recall a message of more than ten words we have to summarize. 
 
Now what?
Now you have a ten word statement of you key message you are ready to layout your song or
add color using sensory writing. 

METER
The rhythm hidden in words
Problem
 Your lyrics don’t seem to scan properly, they don’t seem to fit the music

  Somehow the lyrics seem unmusical

Method
1. Words have rhythms hidden inside them. English and many other languages have

patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. Stressed syllables are: 

 Louder 

 Longer 

 Pronounced more clearly 

 Different in pitch  
English poetry employs five basic rhythms of varying stressed and unstressed syllables. 

Name Stress pattern/rhythm

Iamb Unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable
Trochee A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable is a trochee

Spondee Two stressed syllables is a spondee

Anapest Consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable

Dactyl Consists of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables

Pyrrhic Two unstressed syllables

You can find out which syllable of a multi-syllable word is stressed using an online or
physical dictionary. Searching google dictionary for the word banana yields the following. 

banana
/bəˈnɑːnə/
 
Note the pronunciation string /bəˈnɑːnə/ this small character ˈ appears before the
stressed syllable. 
 
 

Do the following

1. Use this knowledge to understand the rhythms inherent in the lyrics you have
written. 

2. Actively write lyrics with a particular meter

3. Match the rhythm of your words to your music

Read more on the subject to use meter in advanced ways in rap

Now what?
Now you know how to uncover the rhythm within your words you can play with these ideas and
create tension or consonance between your lyrics and music.  

LAYOUT YOUR SONG

Plan where you will place your lyrics using the Song Structure
canvas
Problem
 You have a section of song or a loop and don’t know how to progress. 

 You have lots of words and ideas for your song, but you are having trouble making sense

of where each piece goes

 You need to think through which musical devices you use where in your song e.g where

to use static melody vs steps or leaps

 You want to ensure contrast musically and lyrically between sections of your song or

instrumental

Method
Find something to write with. Many people find paper and pen best for this exercise as it doesn’t
impede the flow of ideas. But you can use a phone or word processor if you prefer.

1. Download and print the Song Structure canvas. Please note: This work is licensed. 

2. Set a timer for 25 minutes

3. Write down anything that comes into your mind in relation to the topic

4. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar

5. Don’t edit yourself, put every thought down no matter how silly or disgraceful

6. Resist the temptation to write lyrics. If rhymes or Lyric like lines emerge that’s fine but

don’t try to create verses

7. Don’t stop writing, write “I can’t think of anymore” or similar phrases if you can’t think

of anything else

8. Write for the full 25 minutes nonstop

After the 25 minutes are up review the thoughts you have written down. This method It produces
raw, often unusable material, but helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and self-criticism.
Many writers use the technique to collect initial thoughts and ideas on a topic.
Now what?
Once you have a page full of ideas, see if you can find the key message of a song amongst them.

KNOW WHAT A SONG IDEA

LOOKS LIKE
 Recognize great song ideas when you see them

Problem
I you don’t know what a good song idea looks like you will:

1. Waste a lot of time on things that won’t work

2. Ignore ideas with potential

Method
If you know what makes a great song idea, it’s easier to spot potential. Abstract concepts like
love and freedom are really hard to write about. It’s often better to focus on tangible experiences.
The things many people do in day to day life are ideal. The best songs about big ideas often
come from describing simple everyday things. There are no rules in songwriting, and you can
find exceptions to every case but if your song idea has the following it’s more likely to work.

1. A clear key message (that you can express in less than 10 words)

2. Powerful emotional (potential)

3. Story (potential)

4. Connection points (situations and feelings the audience knows)

Some examples from existing songs
Giant by Rag n bone man and Calvin Harris
Respect Aretha Franklin

A clear key message

Giant’s message is “Your support makes me strong”
Respect says “I’m an equal in this partnership”

Powerful emotional potential

Giant makes me feel powerful, it’s an uplifting feeling. Together we are great and can achieve
anything we need to.

Respect also conveys a feeling of personal power. We all feel empowered as Aretha demands
what she’s entitled to.

Story potential
Stories in songs are usually very simple. Both of these have implied characters and we can read
into them filling the void with our own experiences. They have just enough story to keep us
interested.

Who is the other person in giant who holds the singer up? Who was their unrequited love? We
don’t know but we are intrigued.

We don’t know the couple in Respect, but we can imagine…

Connection points
The audience can connect with these songs. We can all relate. They are singing about situations
we can recognize and feelings we know.

Now what?
Try out some other recipes from how to find song ideas

HOW TO WRITE MUSIC

From nothing to something
Overview
Contents 
This recipe is designed to: 

 Help you create music for your song

 Highlight the most important musical decisions to take when song writing
Below you will find:  

 How to make musical choices

 Five ways to think about melody 

 Five ways to think about harmony

 Three ways to think about rhythm  

Prerequisites
This recipe can’t cover everything on how to write music or all of the decisions you may need to
take. It assumes that you:   

 Know what major scale is and how to play it

 Understand what a key is and the basics of functional harmony 

 Know the (Nashville) roman numeral system for identifying chords

 Can play chords and melodies on an instrument or program them using a digital

audio workstation like GarageBand or Reaper. 

 Have the means to record your music

Please let us know in the comments if you would like us to add recipes on each of these
topics. 

Problems this recipe solves

  You want to create the music for your song and don’t know where to start

 You have a riff or section of music and need to build it out into a song

How to make musical choices

Think about what you are trying to achieve. The musical choices you make directly influence
what your audience feels. As you create the music for your song this consideration should always
be at the front of your mind. 

Do you want people to dance? If so between 117 and 126 BPM is likely to be the right sort of
pace. A syncopated bassline might help. If you want people to feel sadness, slower tempos tend
to evoke this feeling. Darker, more tightly grouped intervals could help.

You can start with melody, harmony or rhythm. Each of these musical element’s
interplays with the others. A rhythm suggests a feeling and melody. Harmony suggest
melody and rhythm. Melody implies harmony and rhythm. If you have already written
lyrics you might start from the rhythm implied by the meter. The important thing is to
start somewhere and keep your creative intent in mind at all times. 

Five ways to think about melody

1. Start with melodic rhythm

A large part of what moves us in a melody is its rhythm. Listen to some melodies you like and
clap out the melodic rhythm. This will give you an idea of the type of thing that works. 

Clap out a rhythm of your own, experiment until you find something you like.
Remember to keep it simple, the song needs to be easy to sing. Building a melody from
the rhythm up rather than from notes and intervals down tends to produce hookier
results. 

2. Add pitches

Choose a key and scale. Experiment with other scales and modes to create different feelings if
you understand how they work. If in doubt choose the major scale.

Make sure you sing the melody you are creating as you add pitches and intervals to your melody.
It’s important that your melody stays within most people’s comfortable vocal range (also known
as the tessitura).

3. Movement and Intervals  

A melody can move in one of four ways. Often sections of a song move in contrasting
ways. If the verse is largely static, then the chorus is likely to move by step or leap. A
single motif can use more than one type of motion, however. Over the rainbow leaps up
an octave and then slowly comes back down to earth using steps. 

Static
Where the melody sticks to one note or almost one note. This puts the focus on the rhythm of the
words and can make it easier to deliver more words than the other forms

Step
A melody that moves up or down the scale playing each note. This feels controlled and
connected but small and limited

Skips
Moving by anything larger than a step, feels more open and freer. I think of skips as thirds and
fourth but that’s just my system. The barrier between skips and leaps isn’t well defined. 

Leaps
Anything larger than a perfect 4th interval. Moving in leaps tends to feel powerful and energetic. 

4. Shape/contour

Think about the melodies shape. We can imagine 6 basic melody shapes. Linear, ascending,
descending, arch, inverted arch or zigzag. It’s sometimes useful to think about the overall shape
of your melody. 

5. Question/Answer and resolutions

Use question and answer phrases are very common. Listen out for them in songs you like. Which
musical phrase sounds like a question and which sounds like an answer? There are many ways to
make a musical statement feel like a question or answer. In general, there’s something about the
question that makes it sound unfinished or less finished than the answer. If a phrase finishes off
the beat and is followed by a similar one that finishes on beat, they will feel like a question and
answer. You can do the same thing using the range. If the second phrase finishes higher than the
first it will feel like and answer. This should be enough to get you going with questions and
answers. If you’d like to learn more on the topic let us know in the comments. 

Five ways to think about harmony

1. Story telling helps guide your choices

Imagine that the notes of the melody are the characters in our story. Harmony tells us about their
character traits and actions. Harmony is a powerful tool. It can help us tell stories and stir strong
emotions. It is also a very deep topic. We have many recipes on different aspects of harmony.
Don’t be scared by the apparent complexity. Use what you know and keep learning using our
recipes.

2. Use standard progressions

It’s good to remember that you don’t need to know everything about harmony to get started. If in
doubt use one of our standard chord progressions. Play with them. Feel free to change them, mix
them up and swap chords out of them. Listen to the feeling they create and use them like colors
in a paint box. Using these progressions alone could provide enough songs for a whole career.
You can find them here.

3. Use this chart to build you own progressions

You are in control; you can play any chord you like. If you haven’t yet studied music theory, it
can be hard to know where to start. If you want to create progressions that sound consonant and
resolved this chart makes it easy. 

If you start anywhere on this chart and move to the right as much as you wish. Only move left
along the arrows. The progressions that result will sound “smooth”. Notice how the musical
phrase feels completed when you travel along one of the arrows. If you would like to learn why
this works or are confused about what this chart means, read our introduction to functional
harmony.
4. Generate chords with software

You can use tools like chordchord.com to automagically generate a chord progression. You can
then export/import those that you like into your digital audio workstation. This is a great way to
spark your creativity but keep in mind the guidance above. Tools like this one can help break
you out of a rut or lead you in new and unexpected directions but your music choose the
progression that best expresses your musical idea. 

5. Use borrowed chords like a spotlight

Unexpected chords draw the listeners attention. This is a great way to underline the most
important phrase of your lyric or signal a change between sections of the song. You can borrow
chords from the minor mode or advanced techniques like secondary dominants.
Three ways to think about rhythm  

1. Pick the right tempo

Rhythm is fundamental, it animates the music. Without the rhythm there’s no melody and
harmony has no life. Getting the tempo of your song right is essential. Researchers at various
universities have found that most songs sit in the range of 116 – 126 BPM (beats per minute). It
is thought that this is the range where humans entrain to to beat and there’s a possibility of
dancing. There is however more to this story. Tempo has psychoacoustic effects. Slower songs
tend to be perceived as more somber or sad, faster songs tend to be sound happier. This is why
artist like Sia favor unusually slow tempos. 

2. Syncopation makes space for dancing  

If you would like people to dance to your song you need to make space for them in the rhythm.
When we breakup the exact rhythmic patterns used in music, we create that bit of space. The
music becomes slightly harder to follow but we feel the need to move to fill the space. Beware
however, too much syncopation and the music becomes too hard to follow. Off the Wall by
Michael Jackson is a case study in getting this balance right as is almost everything Nile Rodgers
has had a hand in. 

3. Metric modulations

This is where the perceived tempo of the music seems to change. A simple version of this is
where a band playing 8th notes at 90 BPM suddenly switch to playing 16th notes. The
underlying pulse hasn’t changed but most people would feel that the song has doubled in
tempo. A more subtle example of this can be heard on the Beatles song “Lucy in the sky with
Diamonds”. The verse of the song is in 3/4 at 144 BPM and chorus is in 4/4 at 94 BPM. They are
able to make this switch without us really noticing because these two tempos are related by a
2/3 ratio. In effect they are just playing four quarter notes in the same amount of time that they
were playing three triplets. Have a listen and you should hear what I mean. 
 

4. Other time signatures can help

Most pop music is in 4/4 (common time) but even in pop other time signatures can lend
a hand. This can be as simple as switching time signature between sections or as subtle
as dropping in one bar of 3/4 before the chorus to make the song feel like it jumps into
the new section.  

5. Consider varying the tempo 

Contemporary songs are all locked to the grid. They are produced in DAWs and are generally
precisely on the tempo. Older music however was produced without a click track and relied on
the musician’s meter. This meant that the tempo varied a little between sections of the songs.
This sometimes added to the feel of the track. Note however these changes in tempo are
usually quite small, large changes are quite unusual in pop, soul, hip-hop or rock.  
Now what?
You should now have most of a song. It’s time to take a step back and think about how to
improve it. It’s really important to create contrast between song sections, lets learn how to do
that. 
 HOW TO WRITE LYRICS
Where ideas and music collide

Problem
You have found an idea that you want to turn into a song. You have written some words that you
want to use for a section of your song, but they don’t seem to fit the music or sound like lyrics. 

Disclaimer
We could write several books on how to write lyrics. This recipe aims to give you the absolute
essentials and top tips for quick improvement. There are lots of other recipes on this site
dedicated to different aspects of this topic. 

Method
Writing lyrics that sound good and flow correctly requires technical skills. If you can master the
three following skills, you will see a huge improvement in your lyric writing: 

 Form – Structures that help listeners learn your song

 Meter – the rhythm hidden in words

 Rhyme – similar sounding syllables that help lyrics flow

 Other lyrical devices – tools and ideas you can use to add color and interest   

Form
Lyrics have structures in the same way that songs and music do. They help us make
sense of what we are hearing. They also set the listeners expectations. If we
don’t fulfil them, we create tension, which can be useful. Look at the lyric below. You can
see it uses an AAB structure. The first two lines have a lot in common. They both have
seven syllables and they use an end rhyme (more about that below). The third line is
different it has eleven syllables and doesn’t follow the rhyme scheme. If we repeat this
structure several times the listener comes to expect it.  

A [7] Listen to the truth untold

A [7] think of what the future holds

B [11] Try and find the meaning in your own sweet time

A [7] Look for to the words unsaid

A [7] follow them they form a thread

B [11] the storyteller covers up his own crime

Meter
Words have rhythms hidden inside them. We call these rhythms metrical feet. English words
and phrases have patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. Stressed syllables are louder,
longer, pronounced more clearly and usually higher in pitch. English poetry employs six basic
rhythms. I’ll illustrate this idea using “bom” for stressed syllables and “ba” for unstressed.  

Iamb 

An unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. E.g. ba bom ba bom ba bom –

“The only news I know Is bulletins all day“

Trochee

A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable is a trochee

bom ba bom ba bom ba – “Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright”

Spondee 

Two stressed syllables is a spondee. This pattern is usually combined with others. Words
like faithful consist of two equally strong beats. Say faith–ful out loud and you should
hear the bom bom pattern.

Anapest

Consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable.

E.g. ba ba bom ba ba bom ba ba bom. “Like the leaves of the forest when Summer
is green”

Dactyl 
Consists of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables

The opposite of an Anapest, bom ba ba bom ba ba bom ba ba.  “Just for a handful

of silver he left us”

Pyrrhic

Two unstressed syllables. This is the opposite of a spondee.  

Metrical Feet in other languages

There are other rhythms to be found commonly in other languages. For

example, the amphibrach consists of a long syllable between two short syllables. It’s
commonly found in Latin and Greek. Check out the song mi gente for a contemporary
example. 

How to find the beat in your words 

1. For longer words, find which syllable is stressed using a dictionary. I searched google

dictionary for the word banana. I get this pronunciation string /bəˈnɑːnə/ as part of the
result. This small character ˈ appears before the stressed syllable. So in banana the
middle syllable is stressed. 

2. Count how many syllables are in each line. This gives you an idea of the pattern you are
dealing with

3. Think about the meaning of what’s being said. The logic of the sentence determines where
stress will be placed. e.g.  “I SAID she told the truth.” verses “I said SHE told the truth.”

4. Single-syllable nouns, pronoun, verbs, and adjectives tend to be stressed. This isn’t a hard and
fast rule but it’s a good place to start. 

5. Single-syllable articles (a, an, the), and prepositions (by, of, with) tend to be unstressed.

6. Remember that stressed syllables are longer, louder, higher and clearer.
 Our example from above looks like this:

A 7 Listen to the truth untold
    bom ba ba ba bom ba bom
A 7 think of what the future holds
    bom ba ba ba bom ba bom
B 11 Try and find the meaning in your own sweet time
    bom ba ba ba bom ba ba ba bom ba bom

A 7 Look for all the words unsaid

    bom ba ba ba bom ba bom

A 7 follow them they form a thread

    bom ba ba ba bom ba bom

B 11 the storyteller covers up his own crime
    ba bom ba ba ba bom ba ba bom ba bom

The last line doesn’t fit the pattern, perhaps it should change.

Rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a song. It is usually referred
to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme. The last word or lines with the same letter all
rhyme with each other. In our example we have matched our rhyme scheme to our form. Untold
and holds rhyme as do time and crime.

A [7] Listen to the truth untold

A [7] think of what the future holds

B [11] Try and find the meaning in your own sweet time

A [7] Look for to the words unsaid

A [7] follow them they form a thread

B [11] the storyteller covers up his own crime

There are many rhyme schemes to choose from. This Wikipedia pages provides a good
list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme_scheme

Internal Rhymes

Rhyming of two words within the same line like this “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I
pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore”

Rhyme types
There are several types of rhyme. It’s important to know your options so that you don’t get stuck
trying to find a rhyme for a word that has few perfect rhymes and so that you don’t end up
endlessly recycling well-worn cliché. 

Perfect Rhymes

Perfect rhymes aren’t better than other types of rhyme. It just means they have a syllable that
sounds the same. In fact, they are often just boring or overused. Other types of rhyme offer
interesting opportunities to the songwriter. 

Slant Rhymes

Rhyme in which two words share just a vowel sound like “heart” and “star” or where they just
share a consonant sound (consonance – e.g. “milk” and “walk”). There are actually four families
of consonant rhyme. They are grouped by what your mouth has to do to produce the sound.
Using consonant rhymes from the same group generally sounds better than mixing
them. 

1. plosives, are stop consonants or explosions of sound, like drums if you think of a noise
component in music (b d g t);

2. fricatives, which are like shakers (v z);

3. sibilants, which are like cymbals and sound like a hissing noise (f th s); and

4. nasals, which resonate from the nasal cavity (m n ng). 

Rich Rhymes

Rhyme using two different words that happen to sound the same (homonyms) – for example
“there” and “their”.
Identical Rhymes

Simply using the same word twice. Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin rhymes “anywhere” with
“anywhere” and “night” with “night.” “Lights” rhymes “city” with “city,”

Person and Tense

Who is this song about and when is it happening? 

Person (point of view)

“Love, love me do”, “Girl, you know I want your love, your love was handmade for
somebody like me” these examples use direct voice, you and I. It turns the singer and
listener into the people in the story. You can write in third person, but it has the effect of
distancing you from the action. 

Tense 
Is the song happening now, in the past or in the future? Choose a tense and stick with it unless
there’s a valid creative reason to change. 

Other lyrical devices

There are many literary devices that we can use to make songs interesting and
easier.  literarydevices.net provides a good reference.  The following four however have often
been used to great effect in song. 

Mystery 

Often in writing lyrics the verses pose questions in the mind of the listener. This is
achieved by not saying everything and leaving space for the listener to wonder. Think of
it as giving the audience two plus two rather than telling them four. When listeners
come to a conclusion themselves there’s a payoff for them.  

Lists

Many songs are simply lists. Once again the Wikipedia has our back with a list of List_songs. 
Numbers

Lots of songs use a number as a key part of their lyric. Some examples include: 

 One in Ten – UB40 (1981)

 It Takes Two – Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston.

 Three Little Birds – Bob Marley (1977)

 Seven Wonders – Fleetwood Mac (1987)

 Eight Days A Week – The Beatles (1964)

Metaphor

In message in a bottle, Sting uses being a castaway as a metaphor for a lonely life “Just a
castaway, an island lost at sea”. Watch this space for a recipe on how to use metaphor to generate
song ideas and to express the ones you have in a new way. 
Constructive self-criticism
Writing lyrics takes some work. Don’t be afraid, just write some. Then you can use the topics in
this article to improve them. If you get stuck or frustrated look up the lyrics to one of your
favorite songs. You will likely be shocked by how few words there are and how simple they
seem. Most importantly write as much and as often as you can. If you do you will be surprised
how quickly they improve. 

As with every aspect of song writing the only “correct” choice is the one that fulfils the creative
intent. There are and will always be exceptions to any rule. This makes it hard to be self-critical
and to improve but great lyrics tend to be:

 Singable – if they aren’t easy to sing, they aren’t easy to remember 

 Conversational – are the lyrics in normal conversational language? If not, why not?

 Believable – write what you know, we can all spot a fake

 Easy to understand – if you have to explain it, think about changing it

 HARMONIC DIFFERENTIATION
Contrasting song sections using harmony

Problem
 You want a section of your song to sound different and evoke different feelings   

 You need multiple ways to create the distinction

Method
Creating melodies is simultaneously really simple and very complicated. There’s a lot to be said
for keeping it simple and trusting your ear/how it feels. That said however there are really useful
ideas that can help you up your melody game.

Five ways to make change with melody  

1. Use the same chords or don’t

You don’t always have to make a change. I mention this here as it such a common technique in
modern music. Sometimes the change is more subtle. Add tensions to the same chords or make
change in another way. You don’t always have to use changes in chords to make the difference. 

2. Add or remove chords

Adding (or removing) a chord early in a section tells us right away that something else is
happening. Changing a chord draws attention so another great thing to do is add a chord
underneath a key word, message or moment in the song. This is even more impactful when the
chord is unexpected. This might mean it’s a borrowed chord or other chord from outside the key.

3. Change harmonic rhythm

If we change chords more frequently there’s an injection of energy into the song. We can also
slow the rate of change. Hold onto the five (V) chord a little longer or reduce the number of
chords. Perhaps the section would be just find with one chord? Consider the rate at which your
chords change and how many chords you use in a section. Experiment with it and see what it
does for your songs. 

4. Switch the order of the chords

A super simple but effective thing to do is change the order of the chords you have already been
using. Just try changing the cycle and see what it means for the song. 
5. Pay attention to cadences
We use the term cadence to describe the feeling that a musical phrase has finished, that there’s
no more music to do for that section. The cadence typically resolves all the tension that may have
been built by other sections of the music. You can learn more about them in our harmony
overview. 

Now what?
Now you have explored harmonic differentiation take a look at making change
using rhythm, melody and lyrics.  
 WRITE THE FIRST VERSE
Where the songs story starts

Problem
 You’re not sure what content should be in the first verse

  You are unsure of how to differentiate the verse from other sections

 You’re struggling to make the verse flow

 You aren’t aware of your options on how to make your the first verse awesome

 You need to create a different feeling in the music when compared to other sections of

your song

Prerequisites
You can dive right into writing verse one if you want to. We recommend that you gather the
ingredients you will need first. If you have: 

1. Found a song idea

2. Written a ten word summary of your key message

3. Gathered sensory words to transport the listener 

4. and laid out your song structure… 

…you should be well prepared to write the first verse

Method
The verses are the sections of the song where you tell the majority of the songs story. Most of the
content lives here. That doesn’t mean that they have to be war and peace, however. Brevity and
natural, conversational language really helps songs connect with their audience in most cases. 
Assembling a section of a song brings many things together. Rhythm, melody and harmony all
play a role as well as rhyme, meter and structure. Here are the things you need to do. We find
doing them in this order works, you may find a different order works for you.  
Find a melodic rhythm
Structure your verse
Select a meter
Write a first draft
Find rhymes
Add pitches
Add harmony
 

1. Find a rhythm for the basis of your melody

2. Select a structure for your verses

3. Select the meter(s) you will use

4. Write a draft of the lines

5. Find rhymes and rhyme scheme(s)

6. Add pitches creating a melody

7. Add chords, arpeggios or other voices to create harmony

Now you have a draft of your verse. You should now get out your song structure canvas and
reflect on the choices you have made using the following tools.  

Melody

 Lower or raise pitch in comparison to other sections

 Follow or avoid root notes of chords

 Change the melody shape

 Use varied chord tones

 Steps, skips, leaps and static motion 

Rhythm
  Straight/syncopated

 Longer shorter notes

 Melody placement: before on or after downbeat

 More or less rest space

Harmony

 Exact repetition of harmony between sections

 Add/remove chord (or delay/elongate)

 Change harmonic rhythm

 Rearrange chords

Lyric

 Line length long/short

 Exact or internal rhyme

 Abstract metaphors vs direct conversational

 Catch your tenses and pronouns 

Bonus things to consider

 Unexpected and borrowed chords

 Using Lists and Numbers in your lyrics

Now what?
Phew! Well done if you have a draft of your first verse in the can you can give yourself a pat on
the back. You can now move onto other the chorus and then circle back to the pre-chorus. 
 SONG LAYOUT
Plan your song's structure

The challenge
It pays to plan out how your song will hang together. If you can’t “zoom out” and see your song
as a whole, you may find you end up with cool sounding sections, but the song doesn’t seem to
progress in the right way. This page helps you plan songs. It covers:  

 Song forms

 The role of each section

 Song planning canvas 

Song forms
There are lots of different ways to structure a song. As with every other decision in song writing
the only “correct” choice is the one that fulfils your artistic goal. If you want to dive deeper
you can read more about your options here.  

For this recipe however, we are going to focus on the most commonly used structure
in contemporary EDM, pop, rock, funk, disco, reggae and Soul. 

 Intro (4bars) – optional 

 Verse 1 (16 bars)

 Pre-chorus (4 bars)

 Chorus (8 bars)

 Verse 2 (8 bars)

 Pre-chorus (4 bars)

 Chorus (8 bars)
  Bridge (optional)

 Chorus (8 bars)

 Chorus (8 bars)

 Outro (4 bars) – optional 

There are many decisions that must be made about each section and how they come
together to form the song. Each decision must be made with your creative intent in
mind. 

The role of each section

Assembling a section of a song brings many things together. Rhythm, melody and harmony all
play a role as well as rhyme, meter and structure. Knowing what each section is trying to achieve
makes the job a little easier. 

Verses 

The verses are the sections of the song where you tell the majority of the songs story. Most of the
content lives here. Remember brevity and natural, conversational language helps songs connect
with their audience. This is the place where you use sensory words to “show not tell” the listener
what is happening and help them feel what you intend them to feel.

Pre-chorus

This provides a link between the verse and the chorus. If often set’s up the chorus sometimes
building tension that the chorus will release. Lyrically it’s often a way to connect to the repeated
message in the refrain. Sometime this is done using linking words such as “but” or “and”.

Chorus

This is the main emotional point of the song. 

It typically uses repetition to drive the message home. Look up the words to songs you like, note
how often the chorus message is repeated. There are different types of repetition used including
but not limited to: 

 Sandwich repetition – the main message starts and ends the chorus wrapping up

anything that’s in the middle 

  Internal repetition – Repetition inside a line itself e.g. If we sing “what do you care” and

then repeat “do you care, do you care, do you care”

 Complete repetition – the chorus says the same thing over and over. This is taken to an

extreme by Daft Punk. The lyrics of their song “Around the world” are simply the phrase

“Around the world” repeated 144 times.

Chorus message forms

Choruses are usually one of the following:

 Call to action – “Get into the groove”

 Statement – “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”

 Question – “Do you really want to hurt me”

If your chorus isn’t one of these three, ask yourself why.

Bridge

You should only use a bridge if you need one. It’s a place where you put new lyrical content. It
should be tangential to the rest of the song. Sometimes a bridge will re-frame the rest of the
content making you change your view of the rest of the lyrics. In contemporary music the bridge
is a place to bring in new musical ideas as well preventing the song from becoming too
repetitive.

Song Structure canvas

Assembling a section of a song brings many things together. Rhythm, melody and harmony all
play a role as well as rhyme, meter and structure. Make life a little easier using our Song
Structure Canvas. Creating a reference for what you want each section to achieve is
surprisingly helpful. It looks like the image below. 
1. Download the Song Structure Canvas

2. Print it out

A4 or letter size is OK, larger is better. Print a few and keep them handy for future song writing
sessions. 

3. Sketch out the song

Don’t try to write lyrics just yet. Draw on the ideas you have developed and, In the verses, bridge
and pre-chorus put in bullet points describing the rough shape of the song. Put a line in each
section similar to the below: 
  Verse 1: I’m alone but I’m happy

 Pre-chorus: but now I’ve met you 

 Chorus: I can’t do without you

 Verse 2: why is everything different now?

 Pre-chorus 2: but the more I know about you

 Chorus: I can’t do without you

 Bridge: Do you need me as much as I need you, I hope you do because

 Chorus: I can’t do without you

4. Add high level story ideas

In the verses add no more than three bullets on the narrative ideas you develop. 

5. Plan your chorus

Decide if it will take the form of a call to action, statement or question. You might wish
to see how your song changes if you switch from one form to another. 

6. Pause on the musical choices

Read the rest of the song writing method before you fill in the bottom boxes. The
sections on how to write music and how to create contrast between sections will tell you
how to fill in those sections.
 SONG PLANNING CANVAS
Human centered songwriting

Challenge
 You want to plan out your song  

 You want to make sure you are writing for other people and their needs.

Song Planning Canvas

This is the Song Planning Canvas. 

What it’s for 

How to download it

How to use it

Licensing and usage

How to use it

Now what?
Now you have explored melodic differentiation take a look at making change using rhythm,
harmony and lyrics.