Must All Verse Melodies Be the Same?

Creating contrast in songs is important, but verse-chorus is only one of many options.

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The verse-chorus format of songwriting is an easy way to ensure that the contrast principle is alive and well in your songs. Any time you divide your music into verse and chorus, with optional bridge, you’re building a natural tension-and-release that is vital for all music. But verse-chorus, where the verse melody is always the same, is only one option; there are ways to sectionalize your music by simply doing a “first-this-section-then-that” kind of approach.

This approach allows for creating sections within your song that stay in the preferred 4-6 minute radio format. It involves simply creating shortish musical ideas, all in the same key, with a similar feel, but with something that distinguishes each section.

There aren’t many songwriters who use this format, but Youth Lagoon (Trevor Powers) resorts to this kind of non-verse-chorus format for several of the songs on his interesting 2011 release The Year of Hibernation.

Highly reverberated and otherwise electronically modified, his voice and music is for some an acquired taste. But The Year of Hibernation is definitely worthy of a good listen.

The second track, “Cannons,” has a formal design that demonstrates considerable freedom in verse creation. In particular, verse melodies are not the same:

• 0’00”: Intro
• 0’25”: Verse 1 (Melody A), repeated at 0’52”
• 1’16”: “Chorus”
• 1’42”: Verse 2 (Melody B), repeated several times
• 3’12”: Instrumental ending

So in a sense, what we have here is a song where the formal design is simply a “first-this-melody-then-that-one” kind of map. And it works very well.

Powers uses instrumentation as his principle tool for creating song energy. That makes sense, of course, since the traditional approach of creating a chorus melody that sits higher than the verse doesn’t really exist in this kind of writing.

If you’re looking for a new approach to songwriting, something which will allow your next song to stand out a bit from the others that you’ve written, try this:

1. Create a first verse melody, complete with chords and lyrics.
2. Create a second verse melody in the same key as verse 1, but with new chords and lyrics (and, as mentioned, a new melody.)
3. Create a chorus or bridge that may or may not include lyrics (i.e., could be instrumental)
4. Repeat with new verse melodies/lyrics as desired.

You may actually find a certain kind of compositional freedom as you realize that verse-chorus formats, where the verse melody must always be the same, is not a rule you need to adhere to. What is far more important is the basic need for the contrast principle to be evident.

Click here for a great interview with Trevor Powers, that explains some of his recording/production choices.

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Written by Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” website.
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