How to write a song understanding Structure

Every song you write will have a structure of some kind. This may sound obvious but its important to understand and be able to work with in it. Regardless of how you write a song you are forming a structure, and understanding the structure you are creating is important because you create movement, and the movement creates emotion.
Writing a structure with an odd number of lines makes the song feel odd, unresolved, or unstable. The first line sets the motion. The second resolves that line. The third sets the motion moving again, so if you stop there you leave the listener with a sense that they are waiting for something else to come. There is a strong relationship between emotion and structure. Depending on the structure you use depends on the emotion you create in your song.Writing a song structure with an even number of lines makes the song feel balanced, even, stable. This is because with each line you write and set the song in motion, to balance it out you write another line. It seems simple but it really is so important to be aware of the emotion you create whilst you write.A three line chorus has that “give me more!” feel. It makes the listener feel like there is more to come so it has that unfinished feel about it. This is a great way to be able to draw the listener in, and make them want to hear the following verse or chorus, but understand you are causing a feeling of frustration and an unsettled feeling. It is pretty well documented that Mozart’s wife use to do a similar kind of thing to get him out of bed. She would go to the piano whilst he was sleeping in and play the first 7 notes of a major scale purposely leaving off the last one. This would frustrate him so much he would get up and play the last note to finish the scale.
A four line chorus fells like “all done!” resolved. You write your first line then resolve it with a second, you write the third line and resolve it with the fourth. This is movement that you create whilst you are moving through your sections of a song. It either has to be an odd or an even set of lines so take note and use them to your advantage. Try this in your writing and match it with your lyrics, if your lyrics of your song are about the feeling of disconnect, reinforce it with your odd lined structure and see how much more strength your song has. Try to then mix it up. Purposely add an uneven structure to positive lyrics and see that they just don’t feel believable. Maybe your character is trying to apologies and you don’t want them to be forgiven use this structure to give the sense that they aren’t meaning it or sincere. This is a great way to make it feel like your not trusting the character in your song or that they are kidding them self. And of course if you want to make your character more believable to do opposite and set positive, reinforced lyrics to an even, positive structure. The Motion you create with you structure helps create the emotion in your song so use this as one of your tools to add weight to your meaning. You can use many tools other than the words you sing to give meaning. This is the first of 3 ways to convey extra emotion with your song. Once you have practiced this one come back and click HERE for the next one. How to write a song understanding Line Length