6 Reasons Every Songwriter Should Listen to POISON by Alice Cooper

[00:16] what is going on with this song released in 1989 on his 18th studio album Trash poison became Cooper's first top 10 hit in over 12 years and mark the beginning of a major comeback for the theatrical singer but far from being just another

[00:31] loud 80s rock anthem this song is full of valuable and interesting songwriting techniques so in this video I'm going to look at six reasons why every songwriter should take a good hard look at Poison by Alice Cooper and in the process talk

[00:44] about how you can transfer these ideas and these techniques to your own songwriting number one the awesome and slightly ambiguous intro the intro features a killer guitar riff written by guitarist John mcui and this riff is

[00:59] firstly it creates a really strong impression and this song isn't all that long it's 4 minutes 30 in total and yet the intro is taking up 38 seconds of that 4 and 1/2 minutes it's 38 seconds before we hear the first lyrics come in

[01:13] and the power of this intro is it really sets the mood for the whole song intros are unique in the song form in that they alone create the first impression they're the first thing The Listener hears and so the role of the intro is

[01:26] really important like a film it's setting the scene it's creating the mood it's introducing us to the instrumentation that we're going to hear this intro does something really interesting to grab our attention and

[01:39] constructed from two parts we'll call them part A and Part B part A goes like

[01:53] this and then Part B goes like [Music] this and at first we hear that riff played by itself and then we hear two chords coming underneath and those two chords are B flat and a d power chord

[02:06] they are the reason for this ambiguity that we feel and hear in the intro the note choices of the Riff and the chords underneath work together to essentially give us the sound of two different keys at the same time so in part A we get a d

[02:20] power chord followed by a five1 then we get a 91 [Music] [Music] resolving to the

[02:38] power chord doesn't have a three in it it only has the one and the five and in this case the Riff is also playing the nine but the omission of the three is so important because the three is what determines if a chord is major or minor

[02:50] if it's major it has a natural three if it's minor it has a flat three so the power cord in this situation could be interpreted as major or minor we don't know yet if we look at Part B however we do hear a three it's the major three

[03:04] those notes go 3 4 flat 7 repeated and then [Music]

[03:19] 91 where this gets really interesting is when we hear it with the chords when we hear it with the chords underneath so over part A we actually underneath so over part A we actually get the B flat chord come in in the

[03:33] get the B flat chord come in in the [Music] major or minor but we hear the major three come in on part B of the Riff so

[03:47] this leans us towards D major and if we look at the key of D major and the chords within it we get D major E minor FSH minor G major a major B minor C Shar

[04:00] diminished D major that B flat is not in the key of D major however it is in the key of D minor and this is what creates that beautiful ambiguity we essentially have one chord implying D major and another

[04:16] chord implying D minor in combination with notes from the Riff we're getting what is commonly called a parallel modulation which means we're getting sounds from both D major and D Minor introduced very early on in the song and

[04:29] the the effect of this is that it creates an instability in the structure it creates something interesting for the ear to suddenly latch onto at the very beginning of the song Because when we hear chords from the same key in a way

[04:42] hear chords from the same key in a way we expect it as soon as we hear chords that don't belong together being put together in this way it's very interesting and that ambiguity creates a tremendous amount of fuel that can then

[04:54] drive the rest of the song forward number two introducing the 64 15 so after the intro at 38 seconds the lyrics finally come in and we hear the lyrics and the melody come in over a D minor chord so this moment breaks the

[05:10] spell of that ambiguity and settles us into the sound of D minor and we get the following four [Music]

[05:22] [Applause] chords and that's a really common chord sequence what we have there is 6 4 1 5 and those numbers relate to the

[05:36] 6 4 1 5 and those numbers relate to the key of f so if f is the one and we lay out the chords in the key of f we would see there that the D Minor is the relative minor the six chord the B flat is the four chord resolving to the one

[05:50] is the four chord resolving to the one coming back round to the five chord c you hear that chord sequence in a lot of popular music and it's a great sound and in most songs you would expect to hear that sequence maybe going round as we're

[06:04] hearing the verse developed further but not in this song in this song we hear those four chords and then the fifth chord is something chord is something [Music]

[06:24] minor in the key of f is the two chord so we are at this point hearing it as potentially a two chord because all of those other chords are in the key of F and so we interpret that G minor as the two chord in the key of f but the next

[06:41] chord after the G minor is this the E flat and the E flat does not this the E flat and the E flat does not belong in the key of f then we have B flat and then we have this chord D major so this returns us to that

[06:59] ambiguous intro where we're hearing both the sounds of D minor and D major appear hearing with the chords of this verse is hearing with the chords of this verse is a repeated

[07:14] in the key of f going to that c which is then the five then we hear everything shifted Down A fifth or up a fourth depending on how you want to think of it sequence again on the G minor instead of

[07:29] [Music] resolving to the one B flat the new key resolving to the one B flat the new key of B flat but instead of going to the of B flat but instead of going to the five of this new key we get

[07:43] five of this new key we get [Music] very deliberate and that is pulling our ear

[07:55] ear back to the G minor which is the start of the next section so we get a pattern established and then the pattern is broken with that D chord which we heard in the intro

[08:09] creating that ambiguity alongside the D minor and this technique of taking a chord sequence and moving it up a fourth or down a fifth is really effective in grabbing our attention and taking us by surprise this song is not staying in the

[08:23] same key it's introducing a parallel modulation at the beginning it's now modulating halfway through the verb and we are going to hear more of this technique as the song develops and these unexpected chord moves and modulations

[08:37] really become the signature sound of this song they Define the way this song feels and you get the feeling that the three writers of this song Alice Cooper Desmond child and John McCurry were deliberately looking for ways to

[08:50] possible and a big part of that is this constantly shifting chord progression the melody also plays an important role in creating this this effect number three is that the prec chorus or the chorus when that D major chord lands at

[09:06] the end of the verse and draws us back to the G minor it feels like we've arrived at the chorus so here again is the

[09:23] verse now we get this [Music] beginning of this section is yet another 6

[09:35] 6 415 6 4 1 5 in the key of B flat but of course we're now getting used to this song constantly moving and that's

[09:47] exactly what happens again when we land on that F chord

[10:07] relationship between E flat and B flat well it's up a fourth there's that move well it's up a fourth there's that move again up a fourth or down a

[10:20] [Music] moment something moment something changes we get an A Minor an f a c and a changes we get an A Minor an f a c and a g G that's another 6 41 5 this time in

[10:33] the key of C and then you guess that there's one more modulation another 6415 in a new key but this time we've 6415 in a new key but this time we've returned back to

[10:48] [Music] F so the whole section is comprised of F so the whole section is comprised of four sequences four versions of that 6415 progression in different keys and the interesting

[11:02] relationship between those different keys and how are they connected so it's not to sound random or weird so the first one starts on G [Music] minor the second one starts on C

[11:16] [Music] minor so the difference there is the minor so the difference there is the fourth now we start on a minor which is a tone up from the G minor where we first began

[11:40] Minor which is a fourth away from the a minor so really these four sequences can be thought of as two pairs but how are these two pairs brought together what is the relationship between the second and the third line well if the second line

[11:53] the third line well if the second line is in the key of E that it starts on is the C minor when we move to the

[12:05] third line we start on the a minor 6 going to the 6 going to the 4f resolving to the 1 C so what we're really hearing is the second line being in the key of C minor the relative minor

[12:19] of E flat and the third line being in the key flat and the third line being in the key of C there we have another example of a parallel mod ation going from the key of C minor to the key of C and this is what

[12:33] helps the sequence sound interesting and surprising but not too jarring because a parallel modulation is often accepted by the ear as being a smoother way of transitioning a smoother way of changing key and modulating and our ears have

[12:47] been primed for this sound because of the intro so when we hear another parallel modulation in the middle of this section our ear is even more ready to accept it but what is this section is it a precourse or is it a chorus it

[13:00] sounds like it wants to be a chorus and yet really what it's doing is ramping up the tension through this sequence preparing us for the real chorus which is about to arrive and when the chorus lands it lands as all choruses should in

[13:14] a really satisfying way because when we hear the chorus it's the first time we hear a repeated section it's the first time we hear the chords going round without modulating without shifting and this creates a sense of stability given

[13:30] that everything before then has been moving so quickly so for context we get the Precor building up with this sequence of

[13:56] land back on that D minor and go round with yet another 6415 but staying this time in the key of f leaning on that D Minor

[14:08] f leaning on that D Minor [Music]

[14:26] [Music] cord number four the melody an exercise in motivic development one of the ways we can think about Melody writing is this idea of motifs short melodic phrases that we can then sequence up or

[14:39] down and this song uses motifs and motivic development more than almost any other song you'll [Music]

[14:57] little two note motifs very very simple motifs which is actually a repetition of the note being used through those four chords so the first Motif is two FN chords so the first Motif is two FN notes over D

[15:13] Minor then we hear the same two notes over the B note is the flat three when we go to the B flat the F note is now the fifth relative to the chord the next chord we hear is the F chord

[15:29] and here we jump up to the a note which is the third of the F chord then we hear the same

[15:43] Motif this time we're hearing the a note which is the sixth of the relative chord so the notes in the motifs are very very simple but their relationships to the that you can hear the motifs are sequencing up slowly they're moving in

[15:59] sequencing up slowly they're moving in an upwards direction we start with an upwards direction we start with f then we go to

[16:11] a when we get to the second half of the verse the direction continues these notes continue to move upwards [Music]

[16:32] being moved steadily upwards and this creates this sense of rising tension and the minimal melodic movement here works really well in contrast to the chords really well in contrast to the chords which are moving quite a lot around

[16:47] [Music] de like eyes de like eyes [Music]

[17:06] melody shifts gears dramatically we've just come from this very simple two note structure being moved upward steadily now we get a new Motif which is much now we get a new Motif which is much busier much more energetic

[17:37] Motif moving through the core progression being sequenced up getting progression being sequenced up getting ready for the chorus Melody to land

[17:49] poison [Music] T and the songwriters have chosen this moment during the chorus to give us the

[18:05] throughout the whole song because this is the moment that is all about delivering the main line of the song the main theme of the song and given that up until this point this is the moment the songwriters choose to give us a

[18:19] the songwriters choose to give us a simple and stable Melody repeated over those four chord sequences number five melodic timing the phrases keep moving if you've watched any of our other videos about Melody writing you've

[18:33] of phrasing and melodic timing and when we're doing our weekly feedback sessions as part of our online community hands down this is the most common topic this is the area that we spend most time talking about because this is the thing

[18:48] and the thing that often breaks a song is having the melodic timing too similar throughout the whole song that is having the notes come in at the same point in each of the sections this just creates too much predictability and the ear gets

[19:04] bored with the phrasing without knowing why it's disconnecting so in this song we're looking at three main sections the verse the prec chorus and the chorus and what I want to do now is quickly look at the melodic timing the entry points of

[19:17] each of the Melodies In Those sections and we'll start with the verse 1 2 3 4 1 and we'll start with the verse 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 2 3

[19:30] [Music] 4 so with the verse we get the first beat landing and then the melody is coming on the second beat throughout the whole verse as we move into the precour the entry shifts slightly it moves half

[19:46] the entry shifts slightly it moves half a beat earlier

[19:59] melody coming in on the TW beat we go to the pre chorus and it's coming in on the the pre chorus and it's coming in on the one and and now in the chorus it comes in bang on the one and the most stable entry point for a Melody is on the one

[20:13] this is what helps a chorus land and feel impactful especially compared to the rest of the song If The Melodies In the rest of the song are off the downbeat reserving the downbeat for your chorus is a really effective way to make

[20:27] chorus is a really effective way to make the chorus feel big and meaningful [Music] po and so many songwriters aren't even aware that they're putting their verse or their pre-or Melodies on the one and

[20:42] if we do that if we use the one position the downbeat position too much before we get to the chorus it weakens the impact of the chorus so this is a great example of a song where the downbeat position is being reserved for that chorus helping

[20:57] the chorus land with more impact number six contrast on steroids we've already seen and heard the contrast being created by the chord heard the impact of melodic timing and how Shifting the entry point of

[21:12] really helps create that contrast looking at the lyrics we can see another example of contrast the verses are minimal very few words because the syllables are really being attached to those two note motifs those short motifs

[21:27] that are sequencing up through the chords in contrast we then get the prec chords in contrast we then get the prec chorus busy phrasing lots of notes and a completely different melodic shape and why is this important why do we spend so

[21:40] much time thinking about contrast well the reality is if there isn't enough changing throughout your song this can often lead to a boring repetitious experience for the listener and there are of course many many examples of

[21:55] songs where there isn't too much changing and it's still a pleasurable experience but as we're working through our own song craft if you find that the or stale or losing the interest of listeners it's possibly because not

[22:10] enough is changing to keep the ear interested this whole song is a great example of many different contrasting elements being put together to create an experience for the listener that is like a roller coaster ride it's up it's down

[22:23] it's side to side the modulations the melodic timing the phrasing it's all serving to keep us engaged keep us entertained and not lose contact with the song and another huge element that we don't talk about enough is Dynamics

[22:38] the dynamic range of this song is also doing a great job of creating contrast between the sections and you can see here in the waveform that the verses are quite minimal they're almost intimate in the way that they're being delivered by

[22:52] instruments are being arranged around the lead vocals and these Dynamic changes throughout song are yet another way that we as songwriters can draw people in and Dynamics are absolutely part of the songwriting process we need

[23:05] together Our Song forms we shouldn't just leave it up to the producer when we get into the studio to bring the track to life with some up and down motion and this video is because when I first heard this song many years ago I loved it

[23:19] immediately I loved how much it was moving around I loved how surprising the it and the dynamic range of it and the structure of it even though I didn't have the tools to really pull it apart at that point there was something about

[23:33] it that really appealed to me and it's just a whole lot of fun to play and listen to and that in itself is something that a lot of us aspire to but our own songw writing this is an example of a song making bold choices not

[23:47] pulling any punches and really knows what it is knows what it's trying to be and it reminds us that there is value in trying to surprise and Delight our listeners with the choices that we make happy songwriting bye