Song structure ... what do you use as your template ?

[grace_slick]

I mean I have never actually sat down and planned out a song. I guess my songs are structured on a more unconscious level that draws from all those years of listening.

I am very much the same. Most just tend to come out if I hear some chord progressions and like where they take me. I don't really care about proper structure most of the time. I have in the past tried to plan out my songs more but then I notice they seem boring to me and I lose my inspiration to all the micro-management.

Oh, Blegh says hi by the way.

[Dingoist]

I try for some structure -- I plan things out. I like working within rigid walls to see what can happen. I spent a couple of months just writing sonnets, strictly within form, to see how well conventionally and unconventionally I can express ideas within those bounds.

 

I'm a planner. I will take a piece of scrap paper, work out a flow chart of concepts/feelings/progressions and work from that. Not saying that the overall structure adheres consistently to common structure, or is conventional, but it is structured.

[Matximus]

To me, there are so many ways to be creative in a song, that to experiment wildly with song structure feels unnecessary. Working within the structure is part of what makes it fun. Everything I write has some variation of verse/chorus...I'm not really interested in straying too far from that. Also, I like being concise...probably a reaction to my younger days, when I had the habit of making songs that broke the five minute mark...my recent songs all tend to hover around three and a half minutes. I guess I could make them shorter, but I seem to be a sucker for that big "one more time" chorus at the end.

I agree with ALL of this emphatically. The art is in what you do within the confines of the structure. The best art comes from navigating very real & firm boundaries. I think that is because good art comes from the same place in your brain that handles problems effectively.

But Simplicity & Brevity: They define most great art, particularly anything involving words.

Ya'll that make it up as you go along should do yourselves a favor and try a cookie-cutter approach on for size now and then. Do wonders for your point of view.