How to Write Song with Evergreen Lyrics!

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What Makes A Great Song?

As an aspiring songwriter, you're probably wondering what makes a great song.

What is it that takes certain songs and sends them to the top of the charts and other songs end up dead on the cutting room floor without a chance to even make it to CD?

Well, in this article, we're going to analyze just what it is that makes a great song. If you can apply these principles to your own songwriting, I think you'll find that it will improve greatly.

Let's take a hit song that you may or may not be familiar with. I'm going to choose the classic "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

While this was originally done by Simon and Garfunkel, you might be familiar with it more recently when it was performed by Clay Aiken on American Idol.

So, what makes this such a great song? After all, it did win the Grammy for best song of the year in the 1971 Grammy Awards.

Want to get started right now?

You can get a head start on songwriting with help from the experts and get going right away when you check this out:

How to Write Song with Evergreen Lyrics!

Melody is a very subjective thing. 

One man's great melody is another man's boring song.

So I won't discuss the melody in terms of great, good or whatever.

But what the melody is, is memorable. And that's the key. Whether you like the song or not, you can't possibly forget that melody.

The reason is because it's not your typical 16 bar blues or rap rap. "Like a bridge over troubled water --- I will lay me down." Do you know there are only two notes the same written back to back in that whole line? The melody line moves and that's what makes it memorable.

But what about the lyric? The lyric is where this song really shines. Let's take that same line lyrically. "Like a bridge over troubled water --- I will lay me down."

In other words (and you have to go back to the lines prior) the singer is literally willing to lay his life on the line for the object of the song in order to ease their troubled mind.

In other words, he's saying that he'll be there for the person but he's saying it in a unique way. And that is what makes this such a great lyric. It's saying the same thing that everybody else is saying, but saying it differently.

If you really want to improve your skills as a songwriter, in my signature is a review of a great online source that will have you cranking out hit songs in no time flat.


Here is a great About How To Write Song resource for you to check out as well: 

How to Write Songs on Keyboards - Book and CD

Amazon Price: $22.95 (as of 11/16/2009)Buy Now

This book helps both keyboard and guitar players to find and develop interesting chords and chord sequences on a keyboard, and then use them to write their own songs.

Rather than trying to teach intricate pieces of music, the book breaks things down into a simpler style and concentrates on basic chords and ideas, starting with a simple three-chord song and gradually adding more complex structures.

A visual system that virtually eliminates the use of standard music notation allows guitarists who are used to using guitar tablature to feel totally at home. Songwriting issues are also analyzed, including key changes and writing songs in minor keys.

The straightforward style of this book will have musicians writing on a keyboard with ease even if they never have before.

What are the elements of a successful evergreen popular song? 

Anybody listening to a well written song will notice that there is a repetition of phrases that are called motifs or themes, which are repeated in the song.

These Theme can be as short as a few notes or be several measures long. A motif can be melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, or a combination of any or all of these.

The purpose of this is that every time the listener hears the song's motif it will register in their brain as 'something I've heard before' and makes it more memorable without effort.

It is a mistake for a new songwriter to believe that music is too simple or even boring if phrases are repeated too often. Remember the song "Don't Worry - Be happy"? There are many popular songs whose themes are simple and repetitive and massively successful so dont get too carried away and start complicating what could stay clean and simple.

Too much sophistication and complicated arrangement results in a song that has too many musical ideas -- and that makes the song harder to remember by the listener. The goal is for the song to be attractive and very, very easy for the listener to remember. If you are writing a song with more than four or five varying musical ideas in it, you actually have enough ideas to use for creating another song rather than try to cram them into this one song.

Since you have a lot of great musical ideas, it is suggested that you don't use them all in one song. Instead, break them up and use them to write a lot of great songs.

You dont need to struggle on your own trying to work out how to write a song. You can get a head start on songwriting with help from the experts and get going right away when you check this out:

How to Write Song with Evergreen Lyrics!




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Writing your song and melody 

Without a doubt the most important part of your songwriting is the melody.

The songs must have a hook or something that can attract the attention of your listener.

Think of your favorite songs and ask yourself exactly what about them do you like? More often than not it's simply the song's melody, naturally combined with the song lyrics that make connection in your mind and memory.

Here are some chord changes that are often used in popular songs:

The song's chord changes can include 1 chord, 5 chord and the 4 chord.

In a C major scale the 1 chord is c, e, g, the 5 chord is g, b, d, and the 4 chord is f, a, c.

Your song can also use chord substitution. Chord substitution is a simple way to break up the song's tune and to add a different texture to a verse or chorus of your song.

For example: instead of using a 4 chord f, a, c, on could substitute a 2 chord which is d, f, a.

Normally the common note of the 2 and 4 chord are f and a. But here the difference is that the 4 chord has the c, and the 2 chord has the d.


A song form outlined here that you can use to structure your song is the one used in most popular modern songs, namely:

Intro

A Verse

B Chorus

A Verse

B Chorus

C Bridge

B Chorus

Ending

Sometimes a song can have an added transition section or maybe your song can have a second half of the verse where it is written as an introduction or lead-in to the chorus.



Evergreen Songs always tell a good story

The song has to be truthful and authentic. Tell a story about an event that happened -- you could try creating conflict with a resolution.

For instance, you could create a problem in the verse, then fix the problem in the chorus.

As you explain and tell your story, use verbal imagery. Let people 'see' and experience in their minds, the taste, the smell, and the sounds of the places you visit in your story.

Most successful songwriters tell interviewers that their best songs were written from life experience and they are simply sharing what they were going through emotionally, by writing it into a song.

If you have had events in your life that affected you deeply emotionally, then you have material to write a song about.

You dont need to struggle on your own trying to work out how to write a song. You can get a head start on songwriting with help from the experts and get going right away when you check this out:

How to Write Song with Evergreen Lyrics!



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