A song without a chorus can hardly be called a song. This rather
bad statement is my personal opinion so if you don't agree,
that's okay. But I would like to start this lesson with this
statement, not only to wake you up, but rather because it's one
of the key-statements of this lesson. So if you don't like songs
without a chorus and never intend to write one, than probably
you won't feel at home in this class this month. I must say I
never felt at home when I was at school but that's another
story... But if you do stick around, even if you don't like to
write choruses, maybe you will change your mind about them.

A chorus is more or less the heart of a song, at least if it's a
good one of course. Why this is true is not as obvious as it
seems. People always tend to remember the chorus of a song,
while it may not even be the most interesting part of the song
at all. The easiest explanation of course is the fact that the
chorus is usually played a couple of times during a song. But if
this was the only reason why a chorus is the heart of most
songs, how come then that lots of choruses are easily forgotten,
even if they are played seemingly endless in the fadeout of a
song? So there must be more to it.

In this lesson we will see it's hard to reveal the secrets of a
good chorus. Writing a good chorus may be more a matter of the
heart (something called talent?) than the mind. But since this
counts for songwriting in general, don't be afraid; there are
always some tricks to learn to help those who have to struggle a
little more then the lucky, more talented ones. And believe me,
most of us belong to the first group, to put it stronger, even
the most talented ones often join the struggling crowd when
they're not inspired... In lesson 5, we already saw some
elements a good chorus should have. Now we will take a closer
look at these elements, by discussing some rules you should
follow if you want to write a good chorus. These rules are:

It should be catchy It should contain elements of the rest of
the song

It shouldn't be an anti-climax Following these rules, you obey
to the most important rules of writing a good chorus. We will
take a look at these rules in the next paragraph. You can also
click on the links to go directly to the discussion of each of
these rules.

Rule 1: a chorus should be catchy What makes a chorus catchy?
The easiest answer (for me at least) is: listen to all those
golden oldies. Almost all the classics from the sixties and the
seventies have catchy choruses. Of course The Beatles were real
masters at this, but it seems all the bands that became famous
in those days were able to write catchy choruses which seem to
stick in your mind forever. Who doesn't know the chorus of Honky
Tonk Women for example... Listening to examples is a great way
to teach yourself, and that counts for songwriting too! But
there's something more to say about this issue too.

Keep it simple One of the main rules in writing a good chorus is
to keep it simple. Try to avoid to make the chorus sound
complicated. This doesn't mean that as long as you keep it
simple technically spoken the chorus will sound simple! A chorus
built around a difficult, but well written musical part will be
easier to listen to than a technically simple chorus which is
written in an unlogical manner.

Consider The Average Listener The above indicates you'll have to
keep the average listener in mind while writing your chorus.
Most listeners aren't musicians so don't forget that! The
average listener will often look for things he/she can
recognize, a certain general feeling of what sounds logical and
which has been developed during many years. You would probably
think now that I'm saying most listeners are dumb but that's not
the case. So don't treat them like that. They won't buy the same
stuff over and over again (‘though this seems to be
heavily contradicted by the house-rage of this time....) so you
will have to keep them anxious. In the chorus you can try this
by experimenting with backing vocals, special arrangements etc,
but be careful and don't overdo things.So in general you could
say the secret to write a catchy chorus is to make it sound
logical.

Rule 2: a chorus should contain elements of the rest of the song
In this lesson we already saw a chorus is one of the most
important parts of your song. In most cases, it's the part of
the song which will be played the most often. So it better be
good!

Another trick to make your chorus a good chorus is to give it
the treatment it deserves! Since it's the main element of your
song, whether you like it or not, it should get all the
attention it needs while you write it, to gain all the attention
it needs when you play it. This brings me to a rather
contradictionary issue: writing songs is a very intuïtive job
and that also counts for writing choruses. But to obey to the
rule that a chorus should contain elements of the rest of the
song, you should at least examine and evaluate your music
thoroughly. In mine opinion just writing your music from the
heart will generally result in the best music, but it's not very
sensible only to rely on your heart. Evaluating your music can
be very useful and especially when it comes to writing a chorus.
So no matter how you write, whether you write straight from the
heart or not, you will have to evaluate your song. Not only
because it will enhance your songwriting skills simply because
you are "forced" to think about what you have written, but also
because "technical rules" like these can only be followed by
using technical means like evaluation. Since a chorus is the
part that will be played and remembered most, it's the best
place to "advertise" your song. Maybe if you consider the chorus
to be the advertisement of your song, you will better understand
the importance of putting elements of the rest of the song into
it, making it kind of an excerpt of your song. Some advantages
of doing so are:

Recognition People will recognize the song by just hearing the
chorus. But it works the other way around too; they will
recognize the chorus as being part of that piece of music they
accidentally hear when they enter a bar for example.

Recollection People will remember your song much more easily.
Because the chorus is an excerpt of the song, they will only
have to remember the excerpt to remember the song. Why not using
old school-tricks when they work fine?

Strenght By putting elements of the song together in your
chorus, in fact you are just making a miniature of your song.
When you do this right, it will result in a very strong piece of
music. Producers will be pleased when they see you have skills
to achieve this, because they usually want you to cut out all
the unnecessary stuff from your song. But what elements should
you take? This in fact is completely up to you and depends on
the song you are writing. Generally it works fine to pick some
of the more melodic parts of your song, simply because most
people remember a melodic piece of music better than a monotone
piece. And that's about all there is to say on this issue, but
there are some pitfalls to look out for.

These tips might help you avoiding them:

Don't copy too much While putting the best elements of your song
together into your chorus, you are taking the risk of ending up
with a chorus that unveils all the secrets of your song making
the rest of the song predictable and dull. Therefor it's better
not to copy too literally but hussle things a little. Tricks
like changing the key of the parts while played during the
chorus can help. Just consider all the best parts to be some
sort of colour-palette, which enables you to make various
versions of the same picture. Don't make the chorus too long.
Better leave out some good parts than desperately putting
everything together in the chorus! Good choruses almost never
exceed 6 lines. As you can see, this part of writing songs can
be very tricky. Don't forget your skills will grow after every
song you've finished, even the more technical skills that you'll
need to write a good song, like evaluating your song and
deciding what parts should be reflected into the chorus. I
deliberatly used the term reflect, because this is one of the
most vague issues of writing songs, making it one of the most
difficult parts of it. But aren't things always getting more
difficult when technique meets feelings?

Rule 3: a chorus shouldn't be an anti-climax The third important
rule seems simple but, unfortunatly, is not. Just like the
second rule we discussed above, we will discover it's again a
matter of walking on the edge. You will have to carefully find
your way between what's good and what is bad, and there isn't a
clear path to follow. But again, experience is something you
can't buy but which comes free with endurance and perseverance.
So just don't give up when it's getting tough; your peaks will
get higher and your downs won't be as low as they used to be! So
a chorus shouldn't be an anti-climax. Clear! But why is this
rule not as simple as it seems? I will try to explain this. If
you follow the first two rules you won't too quickly end up with
a chorus that's an anti-climax, just because these two rules
ensure your chorus will be more or less the heart of the song.
But still your chorus can become an anti-climax, simply because
another part of the song attrackts too much the attention. A
very impressive instrumental break can easily put the chorus in
the shadows. So if your chorus is an anti-climax depends not
only on the chorus itself, but on the rest of the song too. To
avoid this disturbing effect, you will have to be very careful
where to put that instrumental break, charismatic leadvocal-line
etc. To make things even more complicated, you will have to
watch out for the chorus to become the climax of the song
itself! This can be disasterous to your song, because you will
end up with a song which repeats it's climax over and over
again, with the result that you end up with a song that doesn't
seem to have a climax at all! So every time you write a song you
will have to deal with the problem to write a strong, catchy
chorus but on the other hand not to make it too strong... This
virtual contradictionary is hard to solve, just listen to daily
radio. But there are some ways to help you with this:

Distinction To avoid the chorus and the climax of the song to
interfere with each other, you can try to make a very clear
distinction between these two rivals. You can do so by putting
them apart from each other "physically" (give each of them their
own space in the song), or by making them sound as different as
the song allows you to. The clearer the difference, the less
chance of interference. If you can't beat them... Another
aproach is to put the climax in the chorus itself. This works
best when done in the final chorus. This solution requires you
to change that chorus, otherwise it won't work, as we discussed
earlier in this lesson. These changes can range from just
changing the key, adding additional instruments (like
backing-vocals) to even changing the lead-vocal line. When done
right you will end up with a super-chorus, which won't be
forgotten easily!

Taken from: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Marble/9607

About the author:
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Taken from: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Marble/9607

Author : Free Music Education Center Team
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