Whether you decide at the start or just let it take shape, a song’s form – its structure – is a writing choice you make. As my colleague Rich Meltin pointed out to me recently, all of what he calls the the ‘Big Three’ Songwriting forms (AABA, Verse/Chorus, AAA) are each particularly suited to certain kinds of stories and focus emotional flow in particular ways.
Think of what you ‘have to say’, in the song’s music and lyrics, as a liquid, and the structure you choose as the container. We think of wine as conducive to being sipped from certain kinds of glasses… beer drunk from a bottle or a stein… soda from a can… coffee or tea from a cup… etc. All seem to the majority like the ‘right’ way for that particular beverage.
Now, you don’t have to drink them this way. Maybe it’s just habit and you might actually prefer sipping your wine from a cup… or your coffee from a bottle…
But maybe not. Maybe there are good reasons, in addition to habits and customs, why you prefer a certain… form for your beverage. And maybe there are good reasons for the habits and customs.
It’s good to ask myself if I’ve found the right form for my song idea. Have I chosen the most effective ‘delivery system’?
When a creative work is truly effective it merges with its structure (unlike, say, a soda in a can). The form and the feeling become inextricable. So I can’t take this comparison too far. But that merging comes after a song is finished; after the writer has hopefully been diligent, judicious, and lucky in making decisions about a song’s final form.
Please let me know your thoughts in the Comments section below:
This is my struggle every time I finish a piece. Am I satisfied with the result?
Hannah,
The eternal question!
Thanks for writing,
Tony
Hi Tony!
It’s nice to see our conversation memorialized. Hope to see you again sometime soon.
Rich
Thank YOU, Rich!
TC
Hi Tony –
Thanks for all the great tips and topics. I really enjoy your column, but I have one complaint: I wish you’d say more!
I’ve written a lot of different ways. When I’m working with cowriters. often I’ll write the lyrics or the lyrics and melody and they’ll do the production. Sometimes it’s vice versa. For me the easiest way to write is to write both
That way I can ‘try on’ different forms to suit the idea/melody/lyrics. I completely think you’re right about the form suiting the intention of the song.
i wish you’d talk a bit more about the somewhat mysterious process of determining form for the song idea.
Thanks again!
CJ
CJ, my favorite book content on this subject is several chapters from a book by Sheila Davis called “The Craft of Lyric Writing.” It’s 30 years old, but I recommend it highly. There are reasons, directly connected to emotional intent AND to the type of story you are telling, to pick one form over another. A song intended to be rousing (“We Will Rock You”) demands a rousing Chorus section, so it needs to be a Verse/Chorus form (no other form has a chorus). But a lullaby pretty much needs to be an AAA form – simple, soothing. Sheila explains this sort of thing very well. It’s not as mysterious as you might think. It’s just that no one talks about it very much, for some reason!
Thank you CJ for writing and for the kind words and encouragement. And thank you Rich for explaining some basic concepts so succinctly.
Although I think Rich is right to say that finding the right form is not as mysterious as one might think, I sometimes find that for me what he says is true… after the fact. When I’m in the middle of writing, the process is usually mysterious and I’m depending mostly on ‘feel’… Later I can sometimes understand what I did!
That’s probably why I wrote this: https://tonyconniff.com/let-the-subconscious-do-the-writing-let-the-conscious-do-the-editing/
Best wishes,
Tony
Identifying the feeling can be a tough one
Joyce,
That’s true!
TC