How to Structure a hit song
It can be hard to know the right place to start when preparing to write your next single. We will discuss the fundamentals needed to write a well put together song and compare how big artists can produce millions of streams every month.
Step 1. What’s it about
Think about what topic you want your track to be focused on. Is it a love song? Is it happy or sad? What happens at the start middle and end?. Having a clear direction makes writing the song a whole lot easier, as when you get stuck you can always refer back to the topic of the track for inspo.
Telling a story of your past can also help as the story is already planned out for you with a start middle and end. You can explain all the feelings you remember having at that particular time and the environment around you.
Step 2. Find Inspiration
Now you know what your tracks about try and write down 5 key things that happened. Use; who, what, where, when why and how - Who it happened to, how it happened, what happened, where it happened, when it happened and why it happened.
Example - Love song
Who - Girlfriend
What - Break up
Where - In a restaurant
When - Last night
Why - Wasn’t giving enough time
How - Back and forth conversation that ended badly
Think of your music like a story… If your struggling to think of what to write about turn to a film for inspiration.
Step 3. What Perspective is it coming form
Are you going to be writing in first person (We, us, our, and ourselves.) second person (you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves.) or third person (he, him, his, himself, she, her, hers, herself, it, its, itself, they, them, their, theirs, and themselves.)
In Drakes love songs he likes to speak in second person as though he’s talking to the girl directly “Already got what you needed, I guess”, “You'll try and come back when you famous”. This makes the track feel more personal as if Drake is talking to the listener directly.
“told me about all your insecurities, for what?” allows the listener to connect with Drake as they may relate to similar experiences with their partner.
Step 4. Structure
Structure refers to how the song is organised.
Intro - Catches the listeners attention and gets them ready for the song to start. Usually a lot quieter using a couple lyrics from the hook
Hook - The climax, the most memorable and catchy part of the song
Verse - Sets the scene, tells the story and builds anticipation for the hook
Bridge - Change of pace to the song usually found towards the end to throw off the listener used to the usual verse chorus format
Outro - Tells the listener the song has ended, eases the track out
The structure of “Mask Off” by Future is;
Intro,
Chorus, (A)
Verse, (B)
Chorus, (A)
Verse, (B)
Chorus, (A)
Outro
Step 5. Find your melody and flow
Find a catchy melody that works well for your track. A good trick is to record yourself humming or singing a melody to the instrumental and then writing to it.
Tion wayne used this tecnique when writing his verse for “Body Remix”. This helps you find the melody and flow that sounds most natural to your ear without having to base it around what lyrics you’ve written.
Step 7. Consider replay value
Replay value refers to how many times people replay your song after hearing it the first time. Here are some ways you can increase replay value;
Never fully satisfy the listener - dragging out the song too long will cause the listener to move on to the next one. Drakes most popular release to date on Spotify is “One Dance” clocking in at only 2 minutes 53 seconds. Keep it short and sweet.
Make them catchy - The definition of catchy is instantly appealing and memorable. Have you ever had a song re-play in your head so much that you had to play it out loud? That’s the power of catchy songs. They can be a constant advertisement in someones head to replay your music.
Get your music recorded at a high quality studio - No one wants to keep replaying a song that’s going to hurt their ears. Quality increases replay value.
Step 8. Useful apps
Rhymers Block - This app tells you words that rhyme as you type them. It also includes a syllable counter a dictionary and a thesaurus.
Voloco - Voloco is a mobile recording studio and audio editor - This app can be helpful for recording ideas down like melodies or a basic example of how the track could sound after being recorded in a studio. It includes auto tuning harmony and vocoding
