GCSE Song Composing Guide

*Begin by composing for piano and voice. Later, consider adding bass guitar, drum kit and melody instruments such as violin section or saxophones. You should not compose for guitar unless you completely understand the types of chord it can and cannot easily play. 

*For each new section of your song (verse, pre-chorus, chorus) use a contrasting, repeating 4 (or 8) bar chord progression.

*Consider modulating to a closely related key for the chorus (e.g. dominant, subdominant or relative minor) to create this contrast. To modulate, use chord V or V7 (the dominant chord) of the new key.

*The piano should play a distinctive, repeating rhythmic pattern, using notes of the chord in the right hand and bass note in the left hand. Base your work on the chord progressions and piano textures from the worksheet provided.

*Ensure that you have selected suitable lyrics: they should be metrical (i.e. have a repeating rhythmic pattern) and can be borrowed from one or more poems or existing songs. If in doubt, use text from the poems on the sheet provided. 

*The most important feature of the vocal line is the rhythm. With each new line of text: say the text rhythmically, underline the strong syllables and notate the rhythm (on one pitch) with strong syllables falling on (or just before) the strong beats 1 and 3 (notes falling before the beat are known as push rhythms). 

*Use the arrow keys to move the notes of the vocal line up and down. The best vocal melodies use a note from the chord on beats 1 and 3, move mainly by step in arch shapes and, most importantly, use distinctive, repeating motifs, often in sequences. Consider repeating B.1-4 of your melody in B.5-8 with a changed ending (B.7-8) to create antecedent and consequent (question and answer) phrases.

*In popular and folk musical styles, vocal ranges are normally smaller than in classical music, and lie mostly within an octave of middle C. Use the treble clef for female singers. Use the tenor voice clef for male singers.  

*Use the same process to compose each new section of your song: verse 1, pre-chorus 1, chorus 1.

*Now copy and paste these sections to create the next part of your song: verse 2, pre-chorus 2, chorus 2.

*All verses should use almost identical chord progressions and melodies but different lyrics. 

*All pre-choruses and choruses should use almost identical chord progressions, melodies and lyrics.

*Many different structures can be effective. I recommend: Intro, Verse 1, Chorus 1, Verse 2, Chorus 2, Bridge, Verse 3, Chorus 3 (followed by key change to) Chorus 4 (transposed up a tone or semitone).

*Once you have completed the voice and piano parts, add the bass guitar and drum kit.

*The bass guitar should play repeating, syncopated rhythmic patterns. Mainly the same bass note as the piano, mainly the root (bottom note) of each chord (e.g. mainly C in a CEG chord). It can sometimes move by step and should never play more than one note at a time. The bass guitar and piano bass should avoid playing different notes which are close together, this will create a muddy texture. 

*The part played by the drum kit is almost always based on a conventional pattern: do not imagine your drum part from scratch. Base your drum part on one of the ‘Example Drum Patterns’ found on the Music Dep website. In the 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th bar etc. consider adding a drum fill. Change the drum pattern between sections.

*Other instrumental lines must be idiomatic: they must suit the instrument for which they are written. Music written for acoustic instruments usually avoids: highly disjunct melodies, rapidly repeated notes (except bowed string instruments), chords and complex ostinatos (except keyboard instruments).

*If you insist on composing non-idiomatic instrumental lines, you must use technology to make them playable: they may be synthesised (the stave should be labelled ‘synth strings’, ‘synth brass’ etc.) or multi-track recorded (the stave should be labelled ‘multi-track violins’, ‘multi-track trumpet’ etc.)  

*Do not use an instrument unless you ‘exploit its potential’. If an instrument plays for only a few bars in your composition, delete that instrument, and give this musical material to a different instrument/voice instead. 

*The texture of contemporary songs is normally melody dominated homophony: one line of music (usually the voice) performs a prominent melody, the other lines form a supporting accompaniment. If a song uses contrapuntal textures, these are added carefully so that the main melody is not obscured. Avoid adding multiple, complex layers, creating dense textures which obscure the main melody.