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Song Structure! uhhhgg!

C

Casey C.

Sep 16, 2000
498
1
40
Butler, PA, USA
#1
idk if this is the right forum but..

My band has a certain formula we follow when structuring a song and I would like to break that. It's not that bad because every song is different that the other but someone might notice that every song is like this:

Intro-Chorus or Verse-Verse (if needed)-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus-end

Anyone have some advice? some of our songs have prechorus or preverses but its still the same setup. Anything will be greatly appreciated cause I would like to try something new to open new doors.
 
#2
We like to change things up again. Try making a song that opens with the bridge. The transition sounds cool especially because you change from the key and never come back to it.

Just experiment with different methods of writing. Try writing without any specific form. Just play what sounds good and be happy with it.
 
#3
Listen to a bunch of songs in a similar musical genre and sketch out the structures they use to get some ideas - how would one of your songs work with a borrowed structure. If you really want to stretch things, analyse the structure of some songs outside your genre as well. Listen and learn...

Wulf
 
#4
Def change your structures, listen to STP, seriously these guys are nuts with the structure of thier songs. Sounds like you guys are doing Puddle of Mudd songs. We wrote our first tune that same way, it's a simple very often used structure. But or second song we changed a lot and we continually tweak things we are working on to add more dymanics to our songs.
 
#5
This may seem really simple, but we wrote a song once, and it was sorta like a palindrome, the same fowards as it is backwards. Half way through the song, the riffs reversed, and they were played backwards. It was a really complaex thing to get your head around, but it sounded good none the less.
 
#7
And I hate to say it, but don't make them so complex that people have a hard time grooving to them. Metallica's St. Anger album and a lot of newer Incubus stuff (ie from Morningview and A Crow...), for example, is *so* structurally disjointed that I can't get into it. Even Dream Theater seem to make sure that their uber-complexity has some kind of groove that is followable, to an extent of course.
 
#8
you can do something simple like throw a just instrument section after each chorus beforet the next verse or not have any chorus at all like paint it black by the stones. It got 2 parts, but neither is really a chorus.
or you could have a second chorus(usually done with songs with many verses)like v c1 c c2 v c1 v c2 or v c1 v c1 v c2 v c2. These all things ive heard.

Or you can be weird and have ten parts that never repeat, that generally isn't coo.

or you can go bridgepart1, chorus, bridgepart2(something social d does, starts simple solo, chorus, then breaks out in a soloing frenzy)

or you can be a like pop people and just have a chorus, 1 chorus, no verse, no intro no bride no ending, and just repeat the chorus over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

sex and violence by the exploited is a cool song. a five minute song with only the words sex and violence repeated over and over in varying polyphonic and rythmic ways, thats clever. o and it has some ausome drumming in it too.(i think im pretty sure i hear two drummers).
 
#9
Our band did a pretty cool song... near the end we did two choruses, and then i came in with a loud, fuzzy bass solo. after that the guitarist did a clean, almost acoustic slow bridge where I sang quietly, and the whole thing ended on a note that didn't sound right. Try ending with a solo or on a weird note that has no place there. Hope this helped!!! :)
 
#10
Emo-core mainstays, Coheed and Cambria, have some very interesting progressive rock writing structures in some of their songs. Check out their song "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3". It's 8:12m long and it has a ton of powerful changes. That's what a great drummer can do for ya!! :)

BassGod said:
Our band did a pretty cool song... near the end we did two choruses, and then i came in with a loud, fuzzy bass solo. after that the guitarist did a clean, almost acoustic slow bridge where I sang quietly, and the whole thing ended on a note that didn't sound right. Try ending with a solo or on a weird note that has no place there. Hope this helped!!! :)
Click to expand...
 
#12
Jay Terrien said:
Emo-core mainstays, Coheed and Cambria, have some very interesting progressive rock writing structures in some of their songs. Check out their song "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3". It's 8:12m long and it has a ton of powerful changes. That's what a great drummer can do for ya!! :)
Click to expand...

These guys rock! They keep all their songs very interesting, and go into several different parts, but everythign is so smooth. I have "In Keeping Silence of the Earth: 3" and every song has a different structure. They are a very talented band. I would highly reccamend listening to them to get ideas for song structure.
 
#13
well, after thinking about it some of the songs just fit perfectly with that structure. I have some new Ideas about structures, and what to look for and what to try. Whoever made the STP comment, I TOTALLY agree. One of the covers we play is "interstate love song" and it took us a while to get the changes.

Thanks guys!
 

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