How to Write Great Choruses: 3 Practical Tips That Work

[00:02] recording app made for musicians by musicians. In this video, I'm going to show you three radically practical tips to shortcut to great chorus writing. Hopefully, they will help you open the creative gates and also get past that

[00:16] feeling that your choruses are somehow falling flat or that you just have no idea how to approach writing great choruses. I'm also going to try something a bit fun in this video and I'm going to tell you a story at the

[00:28] end. A little known fact about one of the most famous song choruses of all time. You might think you know everything about this iconic song, but I you. So, I'm going to pepper some clues about what song it is throughout the

[00:43] to the end to find out and hear the story. The first chorus writing tip is story. The first chorus writing tip is to find the title of your song first. This might sound obvious to some people, but it's actually incredibly common for

[00:59] songwriters to start the songwriting process just kind of figuring out what they're writing about and then they get to the chorus and even start writing the chorus and are still yet to figure out what the title of the song is. This

[01:12] often happens because of a misunderstanding about what a chorus actually is and what it's there to do in a song. So, a chorus is not actually a song. So, a chorus is not actually just the section that repeats in a song.

[01:25] Yes, that's kind of what it looks like and sounds like, but it has a much more specific function to play. And we need to know what that function is in order to write a great chorus. So, a chorus is

[01:38] not just the bit that repeats. It's the section of a song that delivers the section of a song that delivers the central message, the core idea or the central message, the core idea or the peak emotion of the entire song. And not

[01:51] only that, but within the chorus, there's a pointy end. And that pointy end is the title. So even though the chorus is the section that delivers it, it's the title that is that single line

[02:06] phrase or even sometimes just a single word whose job it is to carry that central image, message, idea, or emotion. Sometimes this might simply emotion. Sometimes this might simply mean find it at the earliest possible

[02:21] moment that you can. And this really changes the way that we write songs because it means that some songs are actually going to start with a title. Not all songs start with a title, but it also means from the first thing that we

[02:34] sing, the first word on the page as we are exploring an idea, finding out what we want to write about, we're going to turn on a spotlight in our mind and search for the title actively in every moment that we are exploring ideas. We

[02:51] want to find that title at the earliest possible moment. Let's say I want to write a song about yearning for the comfort and simplicity of childhood. And I've got a bit of a concept, which is that I'm actually going to use the image

[03:06] that I'm actually going to use the image of the childhood house as a central image, maybe even a bit of a metaphor for the comfort and simplicity of childhood. That's a fine concept for a song and can get the songwriting process

[03:21] song and can get the songwriting process going. But the chorus is going to land with so much more impact if I have a title in my mind. If I can say and the title in my mind. If I can say and the song will be called home is where the

[03:36] heart lives. Having that title in place gives the entire song a target. And when I know what my target is, I can set everything else up to deliver that

[03:49] central message and idea. Let's look at a contemporary example of a song from a songwriter who I think is one of the best songwriters of the new generation of singer songwriters. It's the song Reckless Driving by Lizzie McCalpine.

[04:03] When we look inside the lyric of this song, we can see that the idea of reckless driving, being a reckless driver, is the central idea. It's the central metaphor of the entire song. She's using the contrast between being a

[04:19] reckless driver versus a careful driver to highlight the conflict that exists in a romantic relationship where two people are approaching it very differently. I

[04:31] didn't think it would go this far. Now you can't focus on the road when I'm in your car. We're going 100. Your hands aren't on the wheel. Now we're at 180.

[04:43] Crashed the car into the tree. You'd rather die than take your eyes off me. I'm a careful driver. I tell you all the time to keep your eyes on the road. You're a reckless driver and one day it'll kill us if I don't let go.

[04:59] It's only by having that title, that central image or metaphor in her mind that she's able to then pepper the rest of the lyrics with all this driving

[05:11] imagery. You can only achieve that when you know what the target is inside the chorus. All right, here is where we get to our first clue about this secret mystery song chorus. Here is your first clue. This song was originally written

[05:28] to comfort someone very close to the songwriter during a tough time. This intention shaped the entire song, turning it into a universal message of encouragement. Can you guess what it is? Okay, you'll have to stick around for

[05:43] another clue and stick around to the end where I will tell you the story. Tip where I will tell you the story. Tip number two, build the melody scaffold number two, build the melody scaffold around the title.

[05:55] examples. So in a moment I'll pick up the guitar and show you how it works in practice. But the concept here is once you have the title, we don't need to write the chorus line by line. What we want to do is almost build a structure

[06:09] around the title so that we can figure out the melody of the title, where the melody is going to fall in the chorus, and just use filler lyrics or even a very sophisticated method called the mumbles to fill in the rest of the shape

[06:22] of the chorus. What we're going for is getting the melodic shape of the chorus with the title in there. And we can even start to get a bit of rhyme structure, but again, we don't actually need the lyrics. We can just use the melody shape

[06:37] to help give us that bucket of the chorus that we can then come back and fill knowing that the most important thing is where the title will land, what the melody of the title will be, and how we're setting up that title so that it

[06:53] delivers in a really powerful way. Time to have a quick look at Tape It, a pro songwriters and musicians who are looking for a better way to capture and organize their original ideas. Tape it allows you to record in stereo, set

[07:06] markers on your audio files, and importantly has been designed in such a way that you can easily organize and group your recorded ideas, share them privately with other people, and even add photos and additional text. You can

[07:19] download it for free from the app store, and for a 20% discount on Tape Pro, you'll find a link in the show notes. So, I recently had a tough conversation with someone I really love, and they really love me. But at the end of it, as

[07:31] we were resolving this conflict, which is a good part of the story, this person sent me a text message. And inside that text message, they used the expression, you are half of my heart. And I was really really struck by that. So

[07:43] obviously it was a beautiful sentiment. And also as a songwriter, I think, wow, now there's a song title. So this is one of these moments that is a gift as a of these moments that is a gift as a songwriter. I have the title first and I

[07:56] about. I actually really want to write this song about this idea of having conflict with someone, but both people really wanting to try and understand each other, but the fear that is involved in suddenly feeling like you're

[08:09] on opposite sides of something. So, I knew it was the title, and I sat down to write the chorus first, actually, before anything else. There's a few other little things that came to mind when I wrote this down initially on a page. The

[08:22] first thing is the setup line. So, I really wanted to figure out what line would set up the title. And I came up with the line, I'm not whole without you. You are half of my heart. I really feel like that expresses the idea. It

[08:37] also as a songwriter has this lovely symmetry between whole and half. So, I did have those two lines. I'm not whole without you because you are half of my songwriter that it makes me think of immediately is that really feels like

[08:51] the end of a chorus. It feels like the concluding remark, not the opening remark. As I sat down to start playing with music and melody and chords. The other thing that came pretty quickly was just the opening melody that came with

[09:06] some lyrics. Really simple lyrics. The lyrics were without you, right? Without you. That expresses the idea as well. It's really angling towards the title. You know, the whole idea is without you, I'm not whole. You know, I need you

[09:20] because you are half of my heart. So, here is what I had for this chorus. And what you're going to see me do, which is so much a part of the actual songwriting process, is just mumble the rest. Just mumble the rest to figure out the shape

[09:35] of the melodies, the way the melodies interact with each other. And I'm really just trying to give it melodic shape, and then place the title where it goes, so I know what the chorus feels like as a shape. All right, so here is what it

[09:49] sounds like. Without you, I'm [Music] [Music] like I'm about the

[10:03] like I'm about the part without you. part without you. like my day and got through. I'm not like my day and got through. I'm not whole without you cuz you are

[10:17] whole without you cuz you are half. You are half of my what all the lyrics are immediately. Sometimes having the melodic shape is

[10:31] what's really going to deliver that title in the most powerful way. All right, here is our fun second clue to this mystery iconic song. The second this mystery iconic song. The second clue is this song's title was changed

[10:46] from its original name during the writing process to make it sound better and flow smoothly in the chorus. The final title is now final title is now iconic. Tip number three, save the tonic

[11:01] chord for the chorus. Now, this might sound a bit scary if you don't have a background in music theory, but it's not scary at all. It's very simple. The tonic chord is a fancy spritzy sounding word for nothing more complex than the

[11:18] home chord of a key. So, this tip is simply saying, save the home chord of simply saying, save the home chord of the key for the chorus. Chords are like a film score for the melody. The average listener doesn't know what chords you're

[11:32] playing. They only know how they feel. As songwriters, it's our job to know which chords and which chord combinations create those feelings, which is to say which film score we want to put behind our words and melody. In

[11:50] every song that we write, whether we've written it in a minor key, a major key, some kind of mode, or even mixed modes, it doesn't matter. There's always one it doesn't matter. There's always one chord that amongst all the other chords

[12:05] will always provide the most profound sense of resolution, stability and release for a listener. And that chord is the tonic chord, the home chord

[12:20] of the key. So let's say I've written a song in the key of C major. Well, that chord is C major. If I'm in F major, it's the chord F major. If I'm in A minor, it's the chord A minor. That home

[12:34] chord, which is called the tonic chord, which comes from the word tone, which is to say the tone center, which note is at the center of this key. That's all it the center of this key. That's all it means. The tonic chord is that chord.

[12:48] And if we know that the tonic chord has this kind of potency and power that none of the other chords have, it's our job to then use it in a meaningful way to

[13:01] know when to use it and also know when to hold it back. Because if we hold it back, what we do is we create a sense of tension. And then once we deploy that

[13:14] tonic chord, it's going to feel like such an incredible sense of release, such an incredible sense of release, which is so often what a great chorus which is so often what a great chorus feels like. In practice, all you need to

[13:27] do to make this deployment of the tonic in the chorus have this sort of bang in the chorus have this sort of bang release effect is simply avoid using that chord in the four to eight bars before we get to the chorus. If we look

[13:41] inside the hit song, Someone Like You by Adele, we can see that her pre chorus Adele, we can see that her pre chorus completely avoids that tonic chord. And when it comes in the chorus, it feels like release. These songwriters know

[13:58] that the tonic chord is going to deliver this incredible sense of release and resolution. And so, how do they use it? Well, it's also how they don't use it. They avoid it completely in the bars leading up to the chorus so that once it

[14:14] leading up to the chorus so that once it is deployed, it feels so satisfying. This technique is right there for the taking and it is so easy to use. You don't need to use any fancy chords. You can just use the chords inside a major

[14:27] key and it is so effective. If you're keen to learn more about great chorus writing, make sure to check out this video as well on our channel. And now for the final reveal of this iconic song that has a really interesting and little

[14:42] known story about the writing of its chorus. The song is Hey Jude by Paul McCartney. So it's pretty well known that this song was written by Paul McCartney for John Lennon's son Julian when his parents were going through a

[14:57] divorce. But the little known fact is that the song was originally called Hey that the song was originally called Hey Jewels. And Paul McCartney changed the title of the song to Hey Jude because he felt that it sounded better and was more

[15:11] singable than the original title. Hey Jules. The power of song titles. Thanks Jules. The power of song titles. Thanks guys. Happy writing. See you soon. guys. Happy writing. See you soon. [Music]