What Makes this song great?

What Makes a Song Great?

Soothing soul with their groundbreaking melodies, songs aspire to transcend the mundane and please the most discriminating of ears. Transforming every day into the exceptional, singers set their sights on stirring up the masses. Music lovers are searching for new compositions, hungry for fresh material to fill their playlists. Everywhere is a concert, and every song is an event. It doesn't matter what type of music you like; you still know a song is good when it makes you want to move, makes you feel free, and makes you want to sing along. But what makes a song so spectacular? From poetry to production, there are many factors that contribute to the success of a song. Explore the factors that make a song great, from lyrics and melodies to message and beat, and find out for yourself the intricacies that make a song transcend the rest.

The Secret Sauce All Music Needs

Is there an art and craft to writing great songs? Of course, there is. All great songs are based on common music lessons and songwriting principles that work! Learning what these principles are and how to apply them is the key to creating songs that captivates your audience while indulging in the multiverse of the possibility that comes from their creations. Studies of successful songs always reveal a similar structure which entails many crucial factors we will discuss later in this guide. But before we dive into the details, let us make it abundantly clear that great songs aren't created by accident. Yeah, sure, some great songs seem to just come out of thin air - but that is pretty rare. Typically, songs are the product of years of dedication and practice - the result of a specific approach to songwriting, a determination to study guitar lessons, voice lessons & music lessons, and the passion for understanding what makes great music.

15 Features That Show Up in Most Great Songs

There are many differing opinions on what makes a song great. Some tend to focus on how much of an earworm it becomes, while others concentrate on the message being conveyed in the lyrics. There are also criteria based around the musical arrangement and many other factors to consider. Furthermore, there are so many sub-genres of music, from the country to post-hardcore to whatever you want to call trap. It's impossible for us to be experts in all of them. But there are some proven features that show up in almost every song that transcends the ordinary and pays attention to the why behind successful songs. These have proven characteristics that are certain to appear on your lips other than 'hey, what's playing on the radio?' So, treat this list as a lesson in great songs that will hopefully help you to understand the secret behind a hit song, why they make the audience feel something, and maybe inspire you to have a song that can be remembered for ages to come. So, what are the key characteristics of great songs? What do they have in common? Well, when you get right down to it, there are certain features that show up in almost every great song that is memorable and will stand the test of time.

1. Chord Progressions:

Chord progressions are the musical structures that determine the chords that you'll hear in a song. (Just like keys determine what notes a piano will play.) You may not have to know a lot about chords, but you do need to know your way around chords. Learning chords gives a firm grounding in your knowledge of music.

In almost any great song, whether it is an acoustic one or a pumped-up rock or pop song, the progression of chords empowers the track to take flight. Chord progressions are what fill in the gaps that make up the song's structure. It gives the song a signal to start moving and a destination to head toward. Without the progression of chords, the song's melody is just a bunch of notes that don't make any sense. That alone puts you off!

Knowing your way around chord progressions will lend you the ability to craft great melodies and catchy tunes which get stuck in the head of your audience. (If you only know the most basic progressions, your melodies will fall flat! This is definitely noticeable how the transformation of a simple melody can completely change the audience response.) Knowing your way around chords and progressions is essential to your progress as a musician and songwriter. This is a key moment to understand that your pieces will have to be built on some kind of solid musical structure in order to be considered great. If you are just trying to get a catchy tune stuck in people's heads, then all you are doing is churning out a hit single.

As a starting point for understanding chord progressions, let's consider the first four chords of the four-chord progression R-G-B-D, known as the I-IV-V chord progression.

The "three-chord sequence" format emphasizes the functional chord of each key (around which another chord might form a progression), making it a powerful and useful starting point for understanding chords and moving on to understanding other chord progressions. For example, the I V I chord progression is repeated and then followed by two altered chords: I V I IV

The use of common chord structures will help you understand, remember, and generate strong, memorable chord progressions. Heck, not just chord progressions, but songs too!

2. Key:

A key makes a song genuine. When you hear a song, and it evokes a mood in you that's warm, bright, or dark; it's because of the key being played. So then, what is the Key? And how do you use it to make great songs?

The key will be the basis for all your chord progressions and your melodies. Your song's timbre (tone, color, character) will also be affected by the key. Ultimately, the key will determine how powerful your song will be. Influencing every known aspect of music, the key dictates the mood the song conveys.

When you think about the use of keys, you might be thinking about the note G. Somewhere down the line; mainstream pop music has associated the key of G with a certain type of song, songwriting approach, and musical sensibilities. These are the popular contentions of the "Loud"-type songwriting (aka Key of A Minor) and the "Soft"-type songwriting (aka Key of B Minor). Due to the popularity of the "Loud" type of music, the note G has come to be associated with musical expression to the degree that hardly anyone questions it. But when you take into account the fact that there are actually six different keys (A, B, C, D, E, and F) and that they each have twelve different tonic chords, you can see how convoluted this situation gets. The most important thing is to start with the most simple key of E Major and to understand the impact it can have on anything you do musically. Nothing can be so important to a song that you should ignore the role that it has played in all the music that precedes it. The key of E is the most simple and original key of all.

Once you have an expression of the chords in the music, you can then use it to understand how it fits into the key of the song. The key identifies all chords found in the key. It also tells you the name of the scale (the melodic and harmonic structure that, according to "musical intuition," represents the key of the song).

For example, if we take the four in the key of E Major, we see that they are as follows:

E-G-B-D

Here, we see four basic chords and a scale (open fifth, power - diminished fifth, and perfect fifth). This is enough to understand that when we take these chords and move them around in a song in a musical or melodic way, that's how we would define the song's key.

Tonality accompanied by good rhythms and melody is a crucial part of any song. If it is didn't have a driving bass that gives structure and a solid melody with a beat, a song won't produce any kind of response.

If we were to listen to the key of E major, we would begin to hear a background that gives it a texture, which means that the chords and the resulting melody will be heard in the foreground without any interference.

3. Melodies:

Though it is not as visible as the other two elements, the melody definitely differentiates a great song from a mediocre one. So, how does a melody help differentiate a great song from a bad one?

Without the melody, a song would fail to have any kind of expression. Without the melody, there is no happy, joyful feeling, no sentiment, no hint of anything. The melody is also the means through which a song nourishes itself. Like a field, the melody provides simple nutrients for the seed that will become a tree. If the melody is strong, then it will provide nourishment for the song by supplying basic ideas which will grow into something special or different. A melody is a driving force behind the whole song the connects the meaning of the lyrics to the soul.

To create this all-important part, the human instinct is to like a smooth, simple tune. Songs with a strong, clear, brightly-toned melody will be carried along, recalled in their sweet and positive tune by the music-loving masses. Those with a strong, clear, and dark melody will be captured and put to music by the elite choir that has the ears to hear it. Songs with a powerful melody will always be remembered as the driving song that gives meaning and lust after.

Songs that have a memorable melody are those that start to work in the minds of the listener and create a process of being groomed and explained as great, the songs that are capable of transferring a specific feeling to the audience.

Though the melody may not be the most important part, it sets the groundwork for everything that follows, and this is the essence of the song. To work on your melody, consider taking voice lessons from established vocal coaches. This will definitely help you in getting a better feel for how your voice perfects, with a more refined technique, will develop the voice that will become recognizable.

4. Lyrics:

The lyrics provide a wonderful way to describe the message conveyed through the song and to help tell a story that helps connect with the listener. The lyrics are what sets a song apart from the rest with their ability to be memorable and profound without being cheesy. They convey the meaning of the song's central message, so it's important to pay attention to them. It's also the place where most artists use to let their personality shine through.

Lyrics are the most important part of a song. These are the lines that are spoken or sung by the artist expressing their thoughts and experiences that relate to a particular song. The lyrics also tell the audience how the artist is feeling and how the song relates to them. The lyrics relayed messages that help connect the audience to the song. They allow the audience to share an emotion with the artist, which he or she may not be happy about. That's what makes great lyrics.

The lyrics also form the stages of the bridge, which carries the message through the song from the chorus to the end of the refrain, and through the end of the song itself.

Music has always been about life and people, with lyrics doing the communicating between the two. The human condition is central to almost every song, and if you want to excel in this arena, you will need assistance from a professional music teacher to assist you to discover your inner voice and use it to get your message across to your audience. Make sure you work with a music teacher for sufficient voice lessons, music lessons, and San Clemente lyrics training before you try to go it alone. If you want to write lyrics that your audience will sing or read, you have to have a proper understanding of how to properly utilize authentic songwriting principles and techniques. These include listening to and writing songs with a positive message or a message that indulges your "specific" audience in a lively way. You don't want to come with a track full of me-me-me self-indulgence.

5. Solid Song Structure:

There is no greater building block than a solid song structure. If you don't have some kind of a well-defined structure, then you could be in for a world of disappointment. If one thing is for certain in great songs, it's that songs take the listener on a musical journey. You can have all kinds of brilliant melodies, but if your song doesn't have a defined path to convey the song, it's going to remain obscure and leave the audience completely lost. However, your journey to understanding the many intricate aspects of song structure should begin with some kind of a simple schematic template.

All songs have a structure. Some songs make this clear, such as the basic verse-chorus-verse structure. Some songs keep their structure invisible, as in the case of the children's songs we have all heard where one word is repeated, but this produces an earworm effect which keeps the song in your head. But where there is a structure, there is definitely a trajectory, a narrative that is there from the start to the end for anybody to enjoy. And when you have a solid structure, you know what's coming. When you make a song that followed a defined path, the harmony and melody make a happy journey together to the end of the song. This is the type of song that won't leave you asking, "what was that?"

As a beginning point to understanding the structure, consider taking guitar lessons, voice lessons and try exploring the distinct mediums to find your voice. Apart from the many different elements a song offers, you will start understanding how direct the relationships are between the song's components. You will also begin to recognize that bad composition has a ton of side effects, and you never want to be on that road.

6. Reaction and Emotion:

Who doesn't want to be the hero at the end of the day? As humans, we want to be loved; we want to be seen; we want to be heard. And as a creative person, you want to express yourself and be heard. And then there are those moments that just resonate with us that stick in our heads. These are the moments that take hold of us and make us think, "That's how I would have done it." The sound and the feeling of the song just hits us in a different way than we thought at the time.

From the undeniable heartbreak to the slightest melancholy, we all have that little something that makes us think of what we could have been sometimes; elements like melancholy, emotion, sadness, and heartache are what cause us to think of our flaws and our worries and our worries. We listen to a song that makes us feel a certain way, and we are then compelled to want to change or work on a problem. Songs move us like nothing else.

Melody and rhythm are the most significant parts of all the songs. Together, they are the key component to all that we listen to. The importance of melody and rhythm in many songs is no secret, whether it's pop music or rock, rap, or country. A song without the ability to steady its feet on melody or rhythm won't find a way out the door. Everything is centered in rhythm.

The tone or mood that's conveyed by our lyrics is somehow derived from the song's sound. When we listen to a specific kind of music - be it country, gospel, rock, or that one song we can never get out of our head - we can always hear a certain sound or tone. It's something that's very powerful. That's what moves us as people and makes us love music. So, it's compulsory to acknowledge and understand this aspect of music. Overall, simple observation can reveal a great deal about how much the art of music matters to us.

7. Special Hook or Riff:

The hook might be a generic term, but this is a type of songwriting that involves a catchy or "magical" phrase that indulges the listener's ear. The phrase becomes a part of the whole song by weaving throughout and is usually rhythmic. It's that catchy part that makes the song memorable.

Sometimes a song needs an artistic hook to get its groove going. (Maybe the song is about life and the hook is about the theme you want to convey.) When multiple hook phrases are used, it cements them to the listener's memory. However, understanding the meaning behind the hook phrase is vital, as is the ability to write many songs that employ this sound. This is an aesthetic story that can be communicated in a number of ways, but generally, it's a fast run-up to a catchy refrain that eventually goes down smoothly. Sometimes there is a simple chord progression within the hook phrase that builds up the song (see Single-Chord Progression section) and then is repeated in an even quicker manner.

The hook phrase will bring you into the song, inviting you to sing along. You may also be compelled to sing along to the hook if the melody intrigues you. Sometimes the hook phrase makes me believe that there is something more, and it sets the stage for the main theme to follow.

The tone of the song will also be different, as there will be a re-familiarity to the moment in the song. The hook phrase can end up being in the way of the song's main theme, so make sure that the hook you choose isn't too long. You want it to be catchy so that it doesn't keep the audience off their feet, but it should be short enough that you won't lose track of the overall momentum of the song. Don't leave your audience hanging. Make them want for more by finding a phrase that they will be delighted by.

The hook phrase can be very distinct in musical identity yet equally as powerful as it's not at all obvious. It's a bit of a tricky technique to master, yet once you do, it will make your song become a hit.

8. Genre and Style:

Genre is the style of music in which the song or music belongs – for example, rock, pop, blues, or country. This is also used synonymously with musical genre and refers to the sound of the music. The genre of the song communicates the mood of the piece, and it's something you need to learn and explore with assistance from your San Clemente music teacher.

For a good song to have any weight in an artist's catalog, you must have a particular belief in the music that will carry through the whole song. If you only represent one style of music, then you will achieve career longevity. But most musicians tend to have different genres in their music. Some incorporate them to help them step out of the ordinary. There are many examples of this I could produce. For instance, bands like The Script, which sings ballads combining both American and British pop, dance music, and rock 'n' roll, giving their songs varied, diverse, and original ways of expressing themselves.

Nonetheless, a musician must strain for inspiration. For someone to even come close to expressing themselves, you must have a passion for that genre of music. You must feel genuine emotions for the songs and music, and you must truly believe in what you do. Otherwise, the songs will be worthless to listeners. To invoke a special kind of something with music takes you away from the ordinary and into a larger space of emotion and inspiration. Passion sustains a musician and keeps his life on a positive and high note. This will allow your music to soar high and free through the wind that it carries.

9. Song Sections:

Song Sections are a fundamental part of most popular songs. Whether it's a rock song or a pop song, a song is divided into sections that introduce the song's themes. These sections can be as "simple" as a strong intro or as "complex" as a lengthy instrumental passage. What's the point? Song Sections are more or less the dividing points in any song that make it stand out from the rest. And we're not just talking about the key, the chord progression, melody, or hooks. No, we're talking about the opening and ending.

Song Sections are the key to a song's foundation when the song is paused between its introductory section and the change of tempo to a section that reveals the song's true nature. We can be sure that the main song sequence was a popular choice of writing style if there are two strong sections in tune with the song's introduction, meaning it all happens in the same key. When you find a song that starts out in a different key and everything changes to the same key, it leaves you with a sense of confusion. Yes, it's a catchy song, but the listener is left confused.

All popular songs have a definite beginning and end. And if you can identify the sections in the song, you will be able to identify the song's structure. The more you know about sections, the more you will understand the songwriting process.

A section can start out in a different key and turn around to be in the same key. This is why it's important to understand the principles of song structure so that you can understand why a song is so well-formed. That's why taking music lessons in San Clemente is co crucial for aspiring musicians.

10. Arrangement:

Another key element of a song is the arrangement of the elements. It includes the beats and rhythm of the song as well as the basslines that give it body.

The arrangement of a song possibly plays a smaller part than you might think, but as it brings the song together, it is a vital element that needs to be right. Creating a song with an arrangement that works flows from the initial idea. Many musicians often take the idea for the arrangement to be more natural. It is a good idea to always come up with an arrangement that's pleasing to the ear. If your song was not to be had without one, it would not be noted and would not be considered as an element of a great song.

You may think the arrangement wouldn't be dictated by such a small feature, but I would tell you that the arrangement is worth much more than you might think. It always holds the song together. If it is poorly done, it may bring you a disaster. If it is well thought out but not the correct kind of rhythm, then that too would be destructive.

As I see it, the arrangement is the result of all the time spent on the melody and the lyrics. If you have thought all of this through, then you can be reasonably sure the arrangement of your song will be a success.

Conclusion

Hopefully, that gives you a great understanding of the common characteristics of a great song. Of course, like all things in this world, there is more to the components of a song than the focus has given you here. Don't let yourself get too caught up on the terms of the rules, though. When you're inspired, and your ideas are burned into your mind by the power of music, the necessary skills to being a great songwriter will become yours.