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The Blueprint of a Great Song |
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Thursday, 11 December 2008 |
The Blueprint of a Great Song by John Bael
If you are an aspiring songwriter, you are probably wondering what
makes a great song. What is it about certain songs that sends them
to the top of the charts while other songs end up dead on the
cutting room floor without a chance to even make it to CD? Well, in
this article, we are going to analyze just what it is that makes a
song great. If you can apply these principles to your own
songwriting efforts, I think you will have a much better chance at
success.
Let's take a hit song that you may or may not know. I'm going to
choose the classic "Bridge Over Troubled Water." While this was
originally performed by Simon and Garfunkel, you might be familiar
with it more recently when it was sung by Clay Aiken on American
Idol. So, what makes this song such a great song? After all, it did
win the Grammy for best song of the year in the 1971 Grammy Awards.
Melody is a very subjective thing. One man's great melody is another
man's boring song. So I won't discuss the melody in terms of great,
good or whatever. But what sets the melody apart is that it is
memorable. And that is because of the key. Whether you like the song
or not, you can't possibly forget that melody. The reason is because
it's not your typical 16 bar blues or rap rap. "Like a bridge over
troubled water…I will lay me down." Do you know there are only two
notes the same written back to back in that whole line? The melody
line moves and that's what makes it memorable.
But what about the lyric? The lyric is where this song is really
unique. Let's look at that same line lyrically. "Like a bridge over
troubled water…I will lay me down." In other words (and you have to
go back to the lines prior) the singer is literally willing to lay
his life on the line for the object of the song in order to ease
their troubled mind. In other words, he's saying that he will be
there for the person but he's saying it in a dramatic way. And that
is what makes this song so great. It is saying the same thing that
many other songwriters have said, but saying it differently.
If you really want to improve your skills as a songwriter, in my
signature is a review of a great online source that should have you
cranking out hit songs in no time. Study the greats and learn from
others if you want to make it.
About the Author
John Bael loves a great song. Find out how to write songs
successfully by visiting
http://howtowritesongsreview.blogspot.com |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 02 January 2009 )
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