The verse and chorus melodies in “Let Her Go” don’t have a lot of contrast. Put images that are unconnected into different sections of your song or keep them a few lines apart.
Use a family of images to take listeners deeper into a feeling or idea. Quick shifts in images don’t work well for them. Listeners like to get into a mood or vibe and stay there for a while. Or try a palette of fantasy images – magical, spiritual, or haunted – for a song about soul mates. Or, if your song is more complex, go for urban images of city streets, crowds, traffic, and noise. Try choosing images that come from the same family, ones that share a sense of time, season, place, or emotional tone.įor example, you could stick with simple, organic images like this song does. Listeners don’t know what to focus on or what to feel. But if you just throw a whole bunch of them into your song, you could end up with a lyric that feels disconnected and confusing. It’s this sense of being left with only a handful of elemental images that gives the song its strength and feeling of authenticity.Īs a songwriter, images are one of the most powerful tools you have. In the verses, the images suggest a lonely, quiet interior: “staring at the bottom of your glass,” “staring at the ceiling in the dark.” All the images seem to come from the same world, stripped down to the bare essentials. USE A FAMILY OF IMAGES: The images in the chorus of “Let Her Go” are basic, simple objects: a candle, the sun, a road. Make sure it’s the central idea of your song. Pick one idea, feeling, or situation and explore it. One of the biggest mistakes we make when writing a song is to try to express TOO MUCH in the chorus. Take the listener deeper into how it feels or what you think about it. KEEP THE FOCUS TIGHT: Try keeping your chorus focused on just one feeling or idea. Read more about using images and examples to get listeners involved. Concrete examples, images, and physical sensations are the best way to make listeners experience your message and keep them involved in your song. By comparing that to what it feels like when you “let her go” listeners can understand the feeling. Listeners have experienced what it feels like when the sun goes down and the world becomes dark and cold. The singer doesn’t make a direct statement until the very end.Įxamples help us feel and experience what a song is about rather than telling us how we should feel. All of the lines in the chorus make the same point, using different examples to express the idea that we only value a thing once it’s gone. USE EXAMPLES: In “Let Her Go” the lyric lists a string of regrets. There’s a long tradition of folk songs that feature lists and riddles, songs like “Hush Little Baby,” and “I Gave My Love a Cherry.” A few recent hit songs like “Cannonball” by Damien Rice and “The Riddle” by Five for Fighting share similarities with these traditional lyrics. Try adding a pause in your melody before the final phrase of your chorus. Notice the dramatic pause before the final line of the opening chorus and final chorus, before he sings “and you let her go.” The pause sets up the phrase, giving it importance. Very simple but it works because the lines are so emotional they provide the peak moment that is so often the job of the bridge.įINAL CHORUSES: After the bridge there are two repeats of the chorus, with the final four lines being sung with no accompaniment at all. THE BRIDGE: The bridge section (at 2:48) is really just a repeat of the last line of the chorus developed through three lines of chord and melody changes. Just be sure you have a compelling chorus lyric that stands on its own without any foundation needed. It’s a risky choice to go with the chorus first. They don’t know why the singer feels the way he or she does.įurthermore, starting with the chorus doesn’t give the song a chance to build tension that can be released in the chorus. Starting the song with a chorus doesn’t give listeners this context. When you open with a verse, you lay the groundwork for those feelings, giving the listener insights into the situation and emotions so the chorus has more impact when it finally arrives. (“You only need the light when it’s burning low…”) is an unusual choice in today’s hit songs and here’s why: The chorus is the emotional heart of your song. STARTING A SONG WITH A CHORUS : Opening with a chorus. SONG STRUCTUREĬHORUS / BRIDGE (built on the last line of the chorus)
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