The Grand Unified Song Theory

One is all, and everything is one, at least in Eastern thought. But what about in songwriting? While this is not essential for a good song, coherence is something worth aiming for.

Almost all commercially successful songs have a hook, that is a main idea consisting of a phrase and or melody that is repeated. This is typically the most exciting or memorable part of the song. It is also how most people will identify your song.

Having a good hook is 95% essential. But what next? How does it relate to the rest of the song? The size of this relationship is what I call the "coherence" or unity of the song. An incoherent song is one where there is a great hook, but it doesn't really have much to do with the rest of the song. A coherent song has a great hook and builds the entire song around it.

Examples

Two examples might make sense of this.

Sixpence None the Richer's song "Kiss Me" is very coherent. The song is about the lovee's desire to be kissed and to experience the sensations that it brings. As well as being in the chorus, the line "Kiss Me" creeps in at every opportunity, including the opening line. The verses spell out a couple of romantic scenarios that lead to that kiss. Simple. The hook is central, and all the parts of the song relate to it.

Geoff Bullock's Power of Your Love is fairly loose in the coherence area. The hook is the "power of your love", which is the melodic high point easing down to a gentle release. It is true that the verses "Lord I come to you" (confession) have some connection with the hook, it is not the direct connection of "Kiss Me". Actually the song is more about grace and forgiveness, and it should be "The Power of Your Grace" but that doesn't sing anywhere near as well. To be coherent, the song should deal more explicitly with the transforming power of God's love, ie how it meets our eternal and earthly longings for love and acceptance, ie "Lord I come to You, emptiness inside, it's true, longing for the love, that is found, in You" (maybe its not as poetic, but its more coherent).

Am I advocating rewriting an already successful and popular song? No. But I am advocating writing with unity in mind. Sometimes coherence will be sacrificed on the altar of lyrical expedience, but if you can do both, why not!

How to do it

So heres some ideas to make your songs more coherent.

1) Once you have your hook/theme/central idea of the song: stop writing!
2) Rather than write "verse 1" and then thinking of how on earth you're going to follow it up, brainstorm around your hook.
3) Write down everything that comes to mind related to that hook, not rejecting anything. The connections may be as direct or as loose as your creativity.

eg: "The power of your love"
Power, might, strength, I am not ashamed, the gospel is the power of God for salvation, need, longing, hurt, desire, want, I want you, lonely, broken hearted, cold hearted, on my knees....... etc.

If you get stuck, pick one of your ideas thats related and start again, eg desire: foolish, led astray, deceived, pain,.......

If you need more material, do some Bible Study, dig out the concordance, or the thesaurus, use an online dictionary or tool like the "Lexical Free Net".

4) Now try and find some "organising principle" to set up a structure for your verses or sections. Common theological organisers are time: (before salvation, what Christ has done, what it means now, what it means in heaven) or "Creation/Fall/Redemption" or personal: (What God says, what it means to me, its implications for the wider world).

For "The Power of Your Love" heres one possible structure

a) My powerlessness
b) God's love demonstrated
c) It's transforming power
d) A prayer for power to live it

Actually if you re-analyse Geoff's song you will see it actually starts following this path, but doesn't really pay off in the end.

5) Once you have an organising framework, look back over your notes and link your various ideas with the various sections. In some cases there will be plenty of ideas already for a particular verse, but in others the cupboard will be dry. In that case, start brainstorming on the specific theme of your verse.

6) Having done this, you should be well on the way to having a coherent song with a unified, well balanced and logical theme that flows like a river. The only problem is you might have a couple of great lines left over that you haven't been able to use. In that case it looks like its time to write another song.

An axample of a coherent song

To illustrate, heres one of my songs called We are family:

We are family by Ken Davis

© Inside Out Music Production 1997

This is the chorus: Note the song begins in good Calvinist fashion with what God has done :-)

We are family
We are children of God
We are gathered together
By His Spirit and Blood
We belong to the Father
Who's building a home
Where we shall live as one
We are family

There are 3 verses exploring different aspects of being one family.

1) The same but different (note the use of "family" words).
2) The basis for unity: Christ's death (and rebirth into God's family)
3) The reality that we find it difficult, with a call to selfless obedience

We are brothers and sisters
We're fathers and sons
We're mothers and daughters
Together we're one
And though we are different
In our failings and strengths
Inside we are the same

Jesus our Saviour
In love for each one
Humbled Himself
An obedient Son
He suffered the cross
With all the pain and the scorn
So we could be reborn
To His family

Sometimes we struggle
And sometimes we fight
Though we know in our hearts
That it just isn't right
Jesus commands us
Ourselves to deny
All our ego and our pride
We are family
We're His family

Note how each verse sticks to its point. They are written in such a way that the transition from verse to chorus flows naturally. This meant altering the chorus after the second verse "So we could be reborn to His family, We are....." It is easy to wander off track when writing, but the further you get from your hook, the harder it is to get back.

Good luck.