A song without a chorus can hardly be called a song. This rather bad statement is my personal opinion so if you don't agree, that's okay. But I would like to start this lesson with this statement, not only to wake you up, but rather because it's one of
key-statements of this lesson. So if you don't like songs without a chorus and never intend to write one, than probably you won't feel at home in this class this month. I must say I never felt at home when I was at school but that's another story... But if you do stick around, even if you don't like to write choruses, maybe you will change your mind about them. A chorus is more or less heart of a song, at least if it's a good one of course. Why this is true is not as obvious as it seems. People always tend to remember chorus of a song, while it may not even be most interesting part of song at all. The easiest explanation of course is fact that chorus is usually played a couple of times during a song. But if this was only reason why a chorus is heart of most songs, how come then that lots of choruses are easily forgotten, even if they are played seemingly endless in fadeout of a song? So there must be more to it.
In this lesson we will see it's hard to reveal secrets of a good chorus. Writing a good chorus may be more a matter of heart (something called talent?) than mind. But since this counts for songwriting in general, don't be afraid; there are always some tricks to learn to help those who have to struggle a little more then lucky, more talented ones. And believe me, most of us belong to first group, to put it stronger, even most talented ones often join struggling crowd when they're not inspired... In lesson 5, we already saw some elements a good chorus should have. Now we will take a closer look at these elements, by discussing some rules you should follow if you want to write a good chorus. These rules are:
It should be catchy It should contain elements of rest of song
It shouldn't be an anti-climax Following these rules, you obey to most important rules of writing a good chorus. We will take a look at these rules in next paragraph. You can also click on links to go directly to discussion of each of these rules.
Rule 1: a chorus should be catchy What makes a chorus catchy? The easiest answer (for me at least) is: listen to all those golden oldies. Almost all classics from sixties and seventies have catchy choruses. Of course The Beatles were real masters at this, but it seems all bands that became famous in those days were able to write catchy choruses which seem to stick in your mind forever. Who doesn't know chorus of Honky Tonk Women for example... Listening to examples is a great way to teach yourself, and that counts for songwriting too! But there's something more to say about this issue too.
Keep it simple One of main rules in writing a good chorus is to keep it simple. Try to avoid to make chorus sound complicated. This doesn't mean that as long as you keep it simple technically spoken chorus will sound simple! A chorus built around a difficult, but well written musical part will be easier to listen to than a technically simple chorus which is written in an unlogical manner.
Consider The Average Listener The above indicates you'll have to keep average listener in mind while writing your chorus. Most listeners aren't musicians so don't forget that! The average listener will often look for things he/she can recognize, a certain general feeling of what sounds logical and which has been developed during many years. You would probably think now that I'm saying most listeners are dumb but that's not case. So don't treat them like that. They won't buy same stuff over and over again (‘though this seems to be heavily contradicted by house-rage of this time....) so you will have to keep them anxious. In chorus you can try this by experimenting with backing vocals, special arrangements etc, but be careful and don't overdo things.So in general you could say secret to write a catchy chorus is to make it sound logical.
Rule 2: a chorus should contain elements of rest of song In this lesson we already saw a chorus is one of most important parts of your song. In most cases, it's part of song which will be played most often. So it better be good!
Another trick to make your chorus a good chorus is to give it treatment it deserves! Since it's main element of your song, whether you like it or not, it should get all attention it needs while you write it, to gain all attention it needs when you play it. This brings me to a rather contradictionary issue: writing songs is a very intuïtive job and that also counts for writing choruses. But to obey to rule that a chorus should contain elements of rest of song, you should at least examine and evaluate your music thoroughly. In mine opinion just writing your music from heart will generally result in best music, but it's not very sensible only to rely on your heart. Evaluating your music can be very useful and especially when it comes to writing a chorus. So no matter how you write, whether you write straight from heart or not, you will have to evaluate your song. Not only because it will enhance your songwriting skills simply because you are "forced" to think about what you have written, but also because "technical rules" like these can only be followed by using technical means like evaluation. Since a chorus is part that will be played and remembered most, it's best place to "advertise" your song. Maybe if you consider chorus to be advertisement of your song, you will better understand importance of putting elements of rest of song into it, making it kind of an excerpt of your song. Some advantages of doing so are:
