Catchy. You want your Intro to catch people, to grab them, to pique their interest.

You want something that captures the mood, the feeling of the song in some way but also promises more, makes the listener lean in with curiosity to hear what will happen next.

There are many ways to do this and there’s no formula. But here’s a way to think about it when you’re searching.

In my experience, most intros come later, after you’ve worked on the song for a while and the grooves and parts are pretty well defined. When listening to the arrangement and its various components, some of them tend to stand out… as being able to stand alone. They just grab attention.

It could be a basic guitar or piano riff that’s central to the song; that’s in fact its single most defining musical part. Examples include the guitar riffs of Lose Yourself (Eminem) and Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young), the piano in Clocks and strings in Viva La Vida (Coldplay), even the brief acoustic guitar setup on Rolling In The Deep (Adele).

Or it could be an instance where a memorable bass line is stripped out and separated from the body of the song, such as on White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane), I Want You Back (Jackson 5), Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes), and even the vocal bass line that starts Uptown Funk (Mark Ronson w. Bruno Mars).

Sometimes the drums/percussion are enough: Royals (Lorde). Sometimes the drums are memorable… but then the bass line and chordal riff are added to make it irresistible: Billie Jean (Michael Jackson). Sometimes the whole rhythm section is catchy enough to invite you to the party, pre-vocal: Sex On Fire (Kings Of Leon; listen below).

Then there’s having a catchy melody that’s not the vocal melody of the song, the way they did it on Born To Run (Springsteen) and with the saxophone on Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty). Or the choral section of the song that starts Paperback Writer (The Beatles).

When I’m looking for an Intro, I listen carefully to the arrangement, once its basics are in place, and think about what element or elements would make a compelling start. I take things out and listen to the parts in various combinations. Usually the answer is already there, waiting to be found.

It can be as obvious (in hindsight anyway) as the guitar riffs of Cinnamon Girl or Lose Yourself. It can be something you might easily take as just an element – crucial, but an element nonetheless – in a good arrangement, until it’s plucked out for an Intro – White Rabbit, I Want You Back.

You might have a counter-melody that can be pulled out and featured at the beginning – Born To Run, Baker Street. Or a groove that just sounds and feels so good that no more need be said – Billie Jean, Sex On Fire.

With most of these, if not all, I’d guess the intro wasn’t created separately from the rest of the song. It was taken from what was already there.

And then there are…

Intros that are anomalies, that do the job of a great Intro but have little directly to do with the song parts. They just sound the alarm; let you know you’re in for something special: A Hard Day’s Night, I Feel Fine, Eight Days A Week. Of course The Beatles were great at this. They were The Beatles.

Got any others? Let me know (below)!

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