March 2017 Assignment

The March suggested songwriting assignment is to write a song with an asymmetrical structure. Instead of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-chorus, surprise the listener’s brain by stacking the song differently: verse-verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus-chorus. Something like that. This isn’t an academic exercise or something done by the producer. The goal is to use your song’s structure to help tell the story or convey the song’s intent. Try this: experiment with the structure of one of your existing traditionally structured songs. It’s not about rearranging verses and screwing up the storyline — asymmetrical song structure enhances the story by not repeating expected musical patterns, structural surprises that help to keep the listener interested. Click here for some familiar examples.