A Songwriter's Overview of the Five Key Elements of Songwriting
Songwriting is often thought of as a mythic art but it honestly isn’t as elusive as it seems. Like all other creative disciplines, having an understanding of the building blocks that go into writing a song gives one a good base line to start from. Let’s call these building blocks ‘elements’. The truth is, you probably already implicitly know the elements that will be talked about - so it’s just putting names to concepts you’re familiar with.
#1 Song Ideas & Inspiration
This is arguably the most important element and yet the one that most beginner songwriters struggle with. There’s no doubt an awful lot to write about and sometimes, songwriters try to cram as many song ideas as possible into a 3-minute song which unfortunately ends up confusing listeners. Most of the time, great worship songs have a single major theme e.g. the greatness of God in “How Great is Our God” (Chris Tomlin) or trust in “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” (Hillsong United).
Of course, songs with multiple themes can work well if placed properly within a narrative framework but the first question to ask as a beginner songwriter is this: What am I trying to say? If you have a hard time describing what your song is about in a word or short phrase, it might be time to revisit your main song idea before carrying on.
As a beginner songwriter, always start with the song idea. This will help ground you as you develop skills in the other elements. As an intermediate/advanced songwriter, the creative spark can happen in any of the five elements depending on what kind of writer you are!
#2 Song Hook
What’s a song hook? Well, think of your favourite song. The first lyric line or melodic part you think of is usually the song hook! Simply put, it is the ‘catchiest’ and most memorable part of the song that pulls a listener in and can either be an instrumental, melodic, or rhythmic phrase. The best songs usually have all three, and multiple of each at that.
Song hooks usually have a degree of accessibility and ‘simplicity’ so that most people of varying musical ability can catch it. To that end, repetition and contrast are tools that can help create strong song hooks.
‘Abba’ by John Mark Pantana is a good example of a song with a strong hook.
#3 Song Structure
These are marked and easily-identifiable sections that lend structure to a song. Common sections in modern worship songs - and most pop songs - include verses, pre-choruses, a chorus, and a bridge. Here’s a breakdown of ‘Here is My Song’ (Awaken Generation):
A conventional worship song structure looks a little like this: V - PC - C - V - PC - C - B - C. Of course, there are many other sections such as refrains, instrumental, reprise, and so on. Learning about these song sections and putting them together is a whole other study. For example, a recent style that is coming back into fashion is the hymnal structure where the entire song is composed out of verses and refrains.
#4 Melody and Rhythm
We touched on song hooks earlier and in a way, melody and rhythm are an extension of that element. Melody is composed of notes, chords, chord progressions while rhythm includes time signature, tempo (beats per minute or bpm, accents, and so on. Thus, knowing music theory and instrumentation is always helpful when it comes to developing melody and rhythm, but it is not a deal breaker. Having a good melodic and rhythmic sense can be developed over time and you can create certain moods in songs - exhortation, exaltation, laments - by the rising, falling, and interacting notes in a song.
#5 Lyric
Lyric is the main idea of the song expressed in extended language. Oftentimes, we say that a good worship song balances two things - the expression of an eternal truth (God’s love for us, our rightful response to Him, etc.) and the creative expression of it. For example in the song ‘Infinitely’ by Awaken Generation, the amazing glory and closeness of God’s presence (eternal truth) is expressed in a fresh way (creative expression):
Though infinitely bigger
You're intimately present
There are many lyric writing tools such as narrative flow, repetition, contrast, alliteration, imagery and allegory, rhyme scheme, and so on.
So there you have it - an overview of the key elements in a song. Don’t worry about mastering all of it at once. Simply start somewhere. If you have a fresh song idea, start looking at one other element like lyric, that can develop this idea.
These are the first things we teach at our Songwriting Stream in our AG School. We explore each in greater detail through writing and workshopping. If you are keen to learn more about songwriting, or to deepen your experience as a songwriter, come and journey with us as part of our 2022 cohort.
Stacy Tan is a songwriting mentor in our AG School. A linguistics and creative writing major, Stacy believes in the importance of storytelling and practices it in all forms, whether it be through songwriting, poetry or taking photographs. Follow her creative journey on Instagram @stacecake.
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