“As soon as I find the form I can finish the song in my head”
—Mose Allison
Music publishers and A&R executives tend to judge the commercial potential of new songs on the basis of three key principles: style, originality, and shape and form.
While style and originality are key factors from a marketing perspective, it is often the song’s form that plays a major role in gaining a positive response from the most important judge of all … the listener.
Scientists say practically all laws of nature are based on symmetries, and symmetry is deeply ingrained in humans’ inherent perception of everything—from physical objects … to the shape of people’s faces … to the music we listen to.
Whether we realize it or not, the repetition of melody, rhyme and form in popular music helps to meet this subconscious desire for symmetry. It creates a sense of predictability that is reassuring and a source of comfort for the listener.
That’s why your songs need a well-balanced shape and form that is clear and easy for listeners to follow. The symmetry and predictability will allow you to establish a solid base on which you can then create a few surprises without taking listeners too far out of their ‘comfort zone’.
Unless you’re writing jazz, avoid complicated song forms with intricate time signatures, chord progressions and phrasing patterns. They are more likely to be perceived as confusing rather than creative.
Even when a song comes to you spontaneously, perhaps resulting in a complete verse or chorus in a flash of inspiration, there is a still point at which you will have to decide which basic form to use in order to convey the song effectively to the listener.
“I write a lot from instinct,” Janis Ian once said. ”But as you’re writing out of instinct, once you reach a certain level as a songwriter, the craft is always there talking to you in the back of your head…telling you when it’s time to go to the chorus, when it’s time to rhyme. Real basic craft.”
# # # #