Way to set up verse 2 to hit like a chorus?

[rlm297]

I'm recording a song and am curious if there are any songwriting/arrangement "moves" or "tricks" I can employ after the 1st chorus of my mid tempo 4/4 rock song to make verse 2 hit harder.

 

The second verse will contain a fury of new textures (after the 1st chorus, you're running on borrowed time), so I'm looking for a sonic way of setting that up.

 

I guess I'm looking to hear "what's been done" and works. What is the proper name for this? Which bands do this the best?

[Chicken Monkey]

I think it's more typical to "let up" in the second verse.  The chorus hits hard, then the verse eases back to give the song an up-and-down texture, rather than steadily growing intensity.

[Oswlek]

I did that once.

 

It isn't that tricky, you just can't hit the first chorus too hard or else there will be nowhere to go, particularly when you reach C2.

[blue2blue]

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rlm297 wrote:

I'm recording a song and am curious if there are any songwriting/arrangement "moves" or "tricks" I can employ after the 1st chorus of my mid tempo 4/4 rock song to make verse 2 hit harder.

 

The second verse will contain a fury of new textures (after the 1st chorus, you're running on borrowed time), so I'm looking for a sonic way of setting that up.

 

I guess I'm looking to hear "what's been done" and works. What is the proper name for this? Which bands do this the best?

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It's become a woeful cliche these days to start small -- spare, lo fi, acoustic, heavily filtered, or sometimes all of the above -- and then go big (as the saying goes) at V2 or the first Chorus.

It's a very effective,  satisfying -- and woefully cliched, overused, driven-into-the-ground -- trick.

And you can still pull it off without sounding like you just popped out of The Big Cooke-Cutter -- but it requires some sensitivity and creativity -- and, sadly, a familiarity with the oceans of current tracks that use some variation of the idea.

But, you know, you really don't (often) want a second verse that just continues right on from the end of the first with no change in dynamic tension or vibe.

So, it doesn't necessarily have to be small/big (or big/small/big chorus, etc), but you've usually got to find some way of differentiating and shifting things. Generally, if you have two verses in sequence, you're most likely to want to build tension through both in some fashion and then into the chorus.

With regard to decisions, I will typically look at how I feel the overall shape of the song should go -- but I will also give special attention to the lyrics and vocal performance in making those decisions. Because, when you drop things down, spare out the arrangement under singing, it puts BIG emphasis on the foreground is left: the vocal.

 

PS... Good specific suggestions from Lee!

[rlm297]

 

You guys rock! Thank you.

This is exactly what I was looking for.