song structure

[Compact Diss]

I'm not the brightest light in the shed, you guys all know that.

 

I'm into playing chord progressions on my acoustic. Ok, one I like a lot, is:

 

Am Dm E7 Am

 

What I want to know is--what do you for the bridge? What chords would I play or would I just alter the strum pattern I'm using?

What's AA-BB pattern or whatever I have read about somewhere.

 

Basically I guess I'm just trying to play something that sounds more like a song than just the progressions repeatedly. I am really trying to buckle down with the metronome so I figure it would add a little excitement if it didn't sound so monotnous(sp?).

 

Thanks for any help

...not playing with a full deck...

..lost some marbles....

....must have a screw loose....

[Blue Strat]

I'm in the same situation. I've been listening to Nirvana trying to figure out why Kurt did what he did on In Bloom. I think the lyrics must have come first.

[A String]

I can't really tell you what the "Correct" method of writing is. I can only help you to figure out how you should be writing.

 

I think the best way to start is to pick some songs from the style you wish to write in. Listen to what they have done. What sort of key change is involved in the bridge, if there is one. Pay attention to intros and outros. Listen to the chord patterns used to go from verse to chorus. ie minor sounds in verse, major sounds in chorus.

 

There are a lot of good books out there, but be very careful not to start writing "cookie cutter" songs. Always try to add your own flare.

 

You could also try taking a song you like and rewrite it. Not for the purpose of making money with it, but just as an exercise. Move verses around, change the key of the bridge. Nothing better then tinkering with something to learn how it's put together.

 

Best of luck and I'll look forward to hearing your first single!

[I I mjrn]

Yeah, the ways songs can go are infinite, else they'd all sound the same---& we can determine for ourselves the ones that suffer from that symdrome.

 

Theory is better used as a way to understand what's happening in a piece of music that a method for it's construction but I'd offer these considerations:

Just going from the chords (with no idea of the melody or harmonic mood you might want to build) it seems as if you're working with A as your tonic key.

The chords you use should really reflect what the melody does. Songs are more intersesting to most people when the melody shapes things than when the harmonic structure determines where the tune goes., although it's possible to work from either direction.

Lots of rock songs are really progressions with atune shoehorned in...& the same could be said for jazz treatments of songs, sometimes.

 

So you might think of what you want the tune to be & proceed or you could figure out scales that fit the chords & build some melodic ideas from those. You could even try random chords to see if any of them spark something for you (hey, it worked for Lennon/McCartney ).

 

One other general consideration is whether you want sa song to seem to fit a certain style or if you want to make something a bit more innovative.

 

At any rate it really comes down to what you want to make.

There's no best single approach & while it's necessary to try all sorts of experiments to find out the different effects various combinations yield, as you develop try to base compositions around some particular idea, whether melodic or lyrical; you'll find those to be more resonant both for youself & for listeners.

[I I mjrn]

Posting this separately so it doesn't become one long blur...

 

"A-B" structure is really nothing more than a way of designating sections of a song that recur.

The individual letters have no definite meaning of their own; that is, in any given song "A" or "B" could be the verse or the refrain. In fact the terms for songs are somewhat indefinite; one person's refrain is another's chorus.

 

A song with a [verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus-chorus] structure would be [A-B-A-B-C-A-B-B].

 

You could just as correctly call the sections by numbers...& in fact that can avoid simple confusions that arise when someone refers to the "A" section when they might mean a chorus or key.

 

Bridges are just ways to break up the monotony that can set in when certain parts of a song get repeated enough that the ear begins to tune out. The idea would be to re-enliven the listen's interest or to alternate some musical ideas.

Not all songs need them. Sometimes you might want to build an intense mood by repetition; other times you might make a song that has two bridges or even more parts.

You could even design compositions that never repeat or that don't do so exactly.

 

The structure of songs (as is probably obvious) is as much a matter of personal taste as what notes to use or how you might harmonize them.

[Funk Jazz]

good advice Nose

 

not sure what kind of "feel" your going for 'Diss, but goofing with the chords

i played Emi, E7, Ami, F#/Ami (Ami with F# in the bass) as a "B" section.

[musicalhair]

I agree with funk jazz, that Michael Jackson's Real Nose gave some really good information.

 

I'd look at the chords you posted, in the absence of anyother info, as an a section where each chord gets four beats and to get to 8 bars we run through them twice.

 

||:a minor, d minor, E7, a minor :||

 

Now, because I'm a freak with no original thought in my head, I might go here for a b section:

 

G major, C minor, F Major, G7

 

where the G7 feels like a decpetive cadence, but gets us back to the top.

 

then back to the top for one time through the four chords. Then that looks like I'm playing a cut time feel or something because I've taken what is typically 8 + 8 A section and done it like 4 + 4.

 

So if we do that twice A+A+B+A, A+A+B+A

I'd go here for a bidge:

 

A#Major7, B dim7, C minor, C# diminished, F# minor 7, B7, E7, A minor 7 which already is at the top fo the a section.

 

But, there are a thousand ways anyone could go.

 

For a B section I'd not often stray from the original Key if I'm playing something like this were I know I'm adding a bridge, but otherwise If I'm doing something in AABA form the I'd use the B section to get away from what is going on in the A section.

[Billster]

What A String & Nose said.

 

Where does the melody want to go? If you have a melody, see where it wants to go next, and build the chords to that.

 

for what my opinion is worth (free) I see this as a modified I-IV-V blues oriented progression. Maybe a B section would like some II and VI chords (B dim 7 and F maj in this instance) or in a gospelly direction II to IV.

 

EDIT:

 

I was noodling this while waiting for the Van Halen song to download:

 

your changes:

 

four beats per chord: Amin-Dmin-E7-Amin (repeat)

 

then to:

 

four beats of Bmin7

two beats B flat min7

two beat A min 7

four beats G7

two beats F7

two beats E7

 

back to your changes:

Amin-Dmin-E7-Amin

[I I mjrn]

Well, anybody who got benefit from what I offered---great!

But I wonder if by trying to define the song or help CD write it, we might be taking away part of the learning process or the fun...(oops, lookout, Nose, now they all mad! )

 

But CD invited input, so don't let me get in the way.

[musicalhair]

Well, we're not really talking about a song but a chord progression. Sometimes examples might lead to it making sense, that is what I thought anyway. Especially after your fine explaination, I thought an example might do well.

[Compact Diss]

I appreciate all the help, I'm not ignoring you guys, I will respond better later. I'm trying to get myself sober here--not easy and taking all my time. Will talk soon. I did try a bar with different chords and it helped--more later-

[Dave da Dude]

Compact Diss,

I did try a bar with different chords and it helped--more later-

Maybe a bar with a little less booze would help?