HOW TO WRITE A SONG AND CONQUER THE WORLD?

The first thing you should keep in mind is that there are NO dogmas or magic formulas to write songs, so if you are wondering if it is better to start with the song, then move on to create the music or vice versa ...

We are many who spend hours and hours listening to our playlist from top to bottom, enjoying those songs whose melody and enveloping rhythm, regardless of the musical genre, disconnect us from reality and make us have a good time. It is quite curious how these songs arouse great variety of emotions when listening to them, but it is also even more interesting, when we ask ourselves about that summit and inspiring moment for which the band or our favorite artist was thinking, when he composed that song that we like so much ; taking into account that at some point in our lives, many of us have tried to compose a song equal or better.

Actually in Zombie Indahouse we are sure that there are several who have gone from contemplating music to doing it, whether professionally or not. Which is why we bring some tips, which in our opinion, should be taken into account when writing that song that you want or want to resume, regardless of the reasons that are driving you to express your feelings through music .

The first thing you should keep in mind is that there are NO dogmas or magic formulas to write songs, so if you are wondering if it is better to start with the song, then move on to create the music or vice versa; it is something SUBJECTIVE that you will discover on your own when you start to compose, since just as some begin with the lyrics of the songs, there are others who are easier to start by the musical part; whatever the path you start, it will be necessary to understand some very basic concepts related to harmony, rhythm and melody; which will help you understand the logic that is often used in a variety of songs and rock classics that you hear every day.

It is worth mentioning that the concepts we will talk about are focused on simple and very basic compositions that are usually used in Rock; so if what you are looking for is a little more advanced musical theory full of technicalities to make a piece of music, that makes the German composer Richard Wagner applaud from the grave for his musical skills, this article is not for you and the best is Do not continue reading. 

Structure to 
compose his anthem of Rock

Most commercial music has a clear and simple structure that you can easily identify, and based on it, create your own compositions. It really is not something of the other world, what you should do is simply learn how the basic structure goes and then listen to all the music you can, in this way, learn to identify that structure. It is worth mentioning that some artists make small variations and play with the basic structure, but nevertheless, only in very specific cases do they usually get away from the basic scheme.



INTRODUCTION

STANZA

CHORUS

STANZA

CHORUS

BRIDGE

CHORUS

STANZA

CHORUS

FINAL



To have more or less idea of ??how you can identify this structure, we will make an example with the song "American Idiot" by Green Day.

INTRODUCTION: 00:00 / 00:11

- It's usually an instrumental piece that

Precede singing -

FIRST STROKE: 00:12 / 00:28

Do not wanna be an american idiot.

do not want a nation under the new media.

and can you hear the sound of hysteria?

the subliminal mind-fuck america.

CHORUS: 00:33 / 00:50

Welcome to a new kind of tension.

all across the idiot nation.

where everything is not meant to be okay.

television dreams of tomorrow.

We're not the ones who are meant to follow.

for thats enough to argue.

SECOND STROKE: 00:58 / 1:15

Well maybe i'm the fagot america.

I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.

now everybody do the propaganda.

and sing along in the age of paranoia.

CHORUS: 1:18 / 1:36

Welcome to a new kind of tension.

all across the idiot nation.

where everything is not meant to be okay.

television dreams of tomorrow.

We're not the ones who are meant to follow.

for thats enough to argue.

BRIDGE: 1:37 / 2:12

- Instrumental part where usually

include the guitar solo-

THIRD STROKE: 2:13 / 2:22

"The first verse is repeated"

Do not wanna be an american idiot.

one nation controlled by the media.

information age of hysteria.

it's going out to idiot america.

CHORUS: 2:23 / 2:41

Welcome to a new kind of tension.

all across the idiot nation.

where everything is not meant to be okay.

television dreams of tomorrow.

We're not the ones who are meant to follow.

for thats enough to argue.

END: 2:53


Once you have this concept of the musical structure clear, you already have a roadmap and a mold to put order to the song you want to write, since you already know that a song is made up of stanzas and refrains . The first are verses that have a narrative purpose that vary throughout the song and it is in them where a story is told or something is described. The refrains by their side, are verses that are repeated throughout the song without changes or alterations, the idea with the refrains is that the central theme of what you composed, condense in that which repeats throughout the song and that as much as possible is expected to be explosive and energetic.

It is very important to find a good story or theme that can be turned into a song, even if it sounds a little cliché what we will say, take the time to think about a good topic, something that is solid and what people are can feel identified, love and lack of love are not the only themes for a song, but if you want to write about it, you can do it; the important thing is that you feel comfortable and that the thoughts when you translate them into the paper FLUYAN.

The art of writing a good song is only perfected with practice, so if you think you write "bad songs", do not be discouraged, you just keep writing, the more you do you have more opportunities to polish your writings and find a point Balance with which you feel comfortable, is a process that you must go through and it is something that demands patience, passion and a lot of commitment. Something that will help you a lot in your writings will be to listen carefully to those songs that you like so much; focus your attention on how the vocalist plays with the voice in different parts of the song, be attentive to the pauses, to the stretches he makes of some vowels and to the special accents he makes in the verses. The same thing that the vocalist does, do it with your songs.

Here is some information that will help you a lot when it comes to composing those verses that will be part of your song. Much attention with what is said of the rhymes.

On the other hand, if you notice that in your writings you are repeating a word over and over again, maybe this link wordreference.com that will take you to a website of synonyms and antonyms, will also fall as a ring to the finger.

Include music to your words
Having in mind the structure on which the majority of Rock songs are based and almost all popular music itself, the next step is related to a minimum of musical theory, for that reason it is important to know and understand three fundamental elements of the musical composition: harmony, rhythm and melody; key concepts that will make your musical composition a great piece to be proud of. It is important that you take your time and read a little about these three pillars, understand the basics, and then start playing with your writing or song ideas accompanied by a musical instrument or loops.

In Zombie Indahouse we are going to suppose that you, as a good rocker, will accompany your writings with a guitar, and that even though you have a basic knowledge about this instrument and it takes a more or less prudent time of rehearsals, that led you to do a Good interpreter, he still has problems composing his own songs. To solve this problem, we recommend a small dose of music theory, and as we mentioned in the previous paragraph, the minimum concepts of harmony, rhythm and melody; YOU SHOULD HAVE THEM VERY IN ACCOUNT. The importance of this is that you can understand why certain chords sound better than others when played in a row and you can also understand why some notes will favor you more than others.

To facilitate this process a bit, we will give you a list of some chord sequences frequently used in Rock, the idea is to play the sequence of four measures over and over again; with this, little by little you will notice the naturalness with which the music flows. When you are familiar with the chord sequence and play fluently, try singing at the same time, it does not matter if what you wrote does not fit very well with the chords, you just sing and try to accommodate it or change it completely if necessary, have note that it is a good opportunity to go editing your song, which is why try to make your words and what you play is pleasant to listen to, that your song does not have any words or you hear that they are forced to accommodate them with the chord

With this information that when combined with a little patience and discipline, little by little his compositions will improve. It is a process that can get the bad mood to more than one, for which; if you do it just for bragging about "artist", you will most likely abandon the process or leave with mediocre things; but if you do it with passion, dedication and dedication; keep it for sure you can do it and with the passing of time, you will have the ability to compose more complex pieces of music. And one last suggestion, if you want your composition to be original, do not do it so much with the structure of the song, do it from the melody, the rhythm, the riff or the themes which inspire the lyrics of your songs.