any good source/book for structure of songs?

Discussion in 'Working with Sound' started by samsome, Sep 23, 2021.

  1. samsome

    samsome Guest

    any good source/book for the structure of songs?
     
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  3. ArticStorm

    ArticStorm Moderator Staff Member

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    Load your favourite songs from the genre you (like to) produce into your daw and try to make notes how the track is constructed. Listen carefully over and over and identify elements, transitions, etc.
    No need for any books, tutorials. Just analyse. Its surprising what you might find out by taking a closer look.
     
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  4. shake_puig

    shake_puig Producer

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    Any book about songwriting or composition should have a dedicated section about it. I would recommend to study songs that you like and analyze them as much as you can. Most places will tell you to assign letters to large sections of the song (Verse is A, Chorus is B, Bridge is C...), you can try that as a macro visualization and then go into the details into each part.
     
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  5. BEAT16

    BEAT16 Audiosexual

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    Do you have a special style or genre?

    Writing The Hook (An Intuitive Approach) | The Hit Song Architect S1E4

    SONG STRUCTURE 101 (Pt. 1-A) - THE BASICS: Verse, Chorus, & Bridge
     
  6. BaSsDuDe

    BaSsDuDe Guest

    A lot of people who do masterclasses on songwriting all over the world consistently suggest this book in their list of top ten good books for reference. Considering who Jimmy Webb is it's probably got at least a few good tips considering how many hit tunes he has written in popular music. Always find the right information from someone who has done what you want to and been where you want to go, not me or any other faceless internet person.


    upload_2021-9-24_0-42-44.png

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/614772.Tunesmith
     
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  7. BuntyMcCunty

    BuntyMcCunty Rock Star

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    I only came in here to recommend the Jimmy Webb book but BaSsDuDe beat me to it. That and The Manual by Bill Drummond.
     
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  8. Ŧยχøя

    Ŧยχøя Audiosexual

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    Books can only cover so much ground in a Practical/effective way..

    Some can go very in Depth indeed,
    but unless they're focused on the same exact music style/medium as the one you're working on,
    it will hardly be of any use, except in a general culture sense..

    I agree with the previous posts, the best you can do is gather References and study them
    do an Structural and Harmonic analysis, and see where it's going, how it does what it does, and maybe why..

    So having good references is paramount,
    unless it's a very personal style you've worked on forever..

    And it's good to Study and try to understand them,
    and then when you've got it all sorted.. just forget about all it, follow you instincts and do your own thing :wink:
     
  9. demberto

    demberto Rock Star

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    Arrangements are genre specific, songs with faster tempos have more complex arrangement, its still easy, as far as electronic music is considered. Shorter songs = simpler arrangement.

    I always create timemarkers of the original track, when I decide to create a remix, it helps in the placement of vocals and also a general idea of the arrangement of the remix.

    Making complete songs helped me understand arrangement a lot better
     
  10. triggerflipper

    triggerflipper Audiosexual

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    USE YOUR EARS BRO :mates:
     
  11. waverider

    waverider Rock Star

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    Was looking into this myself a while ago and found that this course by PML was a really good introduction. I particularly liked that it dealt with what each section of a song is supposed to be, and what its function is in terms of tension and release within the song.
    https://www.productionmusiclive.com/products/arrangement-course
     
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  12. odod

    odod Rock Star

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  13. BuntyMcCunty

    BuntyMcCunty Rock Star

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    I found this advice really unhelpful. I could see the things I needed to see when they were pointed out to me, but none of it was intuitive at all. And because I didn't know any actual musicians, books were the place I could get that stuff pointed out.
     
  14. Zenarcist

    Zenarcist Audiosexual

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    Spotify or YouTube
     
  15. Zenarcist

    Zenarcist Audiosexual

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    I like ABBA especially the blonde one :)
     
  16. xbitz

    xbitz Audiosexual

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  17. mr maki

    mr maki Member

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    learn the 4 times table
     
  18. Graf

    Graf Platinum Record

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    four chords and the truth, or alternatively two drums sticks and a lie
    50/50

    seriously though, ezkeys offers two tools, one thing is it comes with a library of chords and structures (for different genre), but another button it has that i like alot is once you select a chord structure you like you can ask it to play that "like" a different midi file.
    another great tool thats overlooked is BIAB, recently in 2021 they added the ability to take a prerecorded performance of a soloist, and rearrange his recording to be a completely different solo. and its the same guy. i don't know how they do that but its lifelike. not to mention its a structure tool too.
    thirdly have you looked at scaler? there are several similar technologies that give you structure based on a one finger press, but the farther i dig into scaler it has some pretty serious tweeks for legit composing
     
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