Writing songs has general rules that can be followed to help guide you toward writing a good song. But these rules aren’t absolutes though, so once you know them then you can break them if you know why what you’re doing works. One of these rules has to do with song structure and types of information. Does a chorus always have to be a “big idea”? Can it have details and furniture in it like a verse does?\r\n
Structure Basics
\r\nWhen you’re writing a song for the music industry, the main basic song structure is verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, and chorus. The verse is generally used to set up a situation and offer details about what the song is about. The chorus is generally used to offer the high-level concept and “big idea” about the song.\r\n\r\nA basic example of this is pattern is All You Need Is Love by the Beatles (Writers: Lennon–McCartney).\r\n
What Is Furniture
\r\nThe term “furniture” in songwriting refers to descriptive details that fill the “room” of the song. They give the listener a detailed picture that conveys the contents and emotions of what is happening in the song. A classic example of adding furniture to an idea to help give you picture using words and all the associations that come along with them. Watch how each step gives you more of a mental picture:\r\n
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- There’s a book
- There’s a book on a table
- There’s book on a bedside table
- There’s an old dusty Bible on a bedside table
- There’s an old dusty Bible on a bedside table next to an empty bottle of gin
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\r\nEach line paints more of a picture and gives your mind something to grab hold of and really “see” what’s going on.\r\n
How Did This Furniture Get In My Chorus
\r\nSo let’s take those two ideas and consider choruses that are filled with furniture. Can you do this? Should you do this? The answer is, yes but carefully! Let’s a take a look at a couple of examples that stand out to me.\r\n\r\nOne of the first songs that comes to mind for me is Something Like That by Tim McGraw (Writers: Rick Ferrell and Keith Follesé). Here is the chorus:\r\n
I had a barbeque stain on my white tee shirt\r\nShe was killing me in that miniskirt\r\nSkippin’ rocks on the river by the railroad tracks\r\nShe had a suntan line and red lipstick\r\nI worked so hard for that first kiss\r\nAnd a heart don’t forget something like that
\r\nLook at all that furniture! I thought choruses were supposed to be high-level ideas, right? What makes this work? It’s all about the set up of the verses.\r\n\r\nThe first verse sets up the song and starts with furniture. The chorus changes musical sounds and continues with the furniture and ends with the one high-level concept of the song. Verse two changes scenes and sets up the retelling of the furniture in the chorus. The high-level concept of the song is then summed up in the bridge.\r\n
A More Complicated Example
\r\nOne more example that struck me the other day was Wish You Were Here by Mark Wills (Writers: Bill Anderson, Skip Ewing and Debbie Moore). Holycow, what a great song!\r\n
Wish you were here, wish you could see this place\r\nWish you were near, I wish I could touch your face\r\nThe weather’s nice, it’s paradise\r\nIt’s summertime all year and there’s some folks we know\r\nThey say, “Hello”, I miss you so, wish you were here
\r\nThe key here is the same. It’s all in how the verse sets up the furniture-filled chorus. While similar, this example is a little different. The chorus lyrics are the same and the verse changes the context of the chorus, but this context shift gives the chorus a totally new and different meaning. It’s a pretty difficult trick to pull off well. That’s why I like this song so much.\r\n\r\nSo take those ideas and use them to write better songs.\r\n\r\nComment below to list any other examples of furniture-filled choruses you can think of and why you think it works.
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