How to Write a Song
Start with something small and true, write the chorus before the verses, build the verses toward it, then cut about a fifth of what you wrote. Everything below is that in order.
- 1
Start with something small and true
Not a theme, a thing. A car that would not start, the last shift somewhere, a phone call you did not answer. Songs about love, loss and freedom in general are already written. Songs about one specific Tuesday are not, and the specific one is easier to write because there is something to describe.
- 2
Write the chorus before the verses
The chorus is the part a listener carries away, so it decides what the song is. Writing verses first usually produces two good verses arriving at a chorus that does not fit them. Get the repeated line down, even roughly, and the verses have somewhere to aim.
- 3
Keep the chorus simpler than feels right
Small vocabulary, short lines, deliberate repetition, and endings on open vowels a voice can hold. Cleverness belongs in the verses, where a listener is following rather than joining in. A chorus made of four different clever lines rarely survives one hearing.
- 4
Build the verses toward it, specific to general
Verses carry the detail: names, objects, times, weather. The chorus strips that back out so a stranger can apply it to themselves. That contrast is the engine of the form, and a song where both are general has nothing to hold.
- 5
Give the song somewhere to move
Decide the emotional arc before the second verse. Anxious to defiant to proud is a song. Sad throughout is a mood. The turn does not have to be hopeful; numb to actually feeling it is a turn, and often a harder one.
- 6
Add a bridge only if it adds something
A bridge appears once and changes the angle: a reversal, a confession, the first admission. If yours restates the chorus in different words, cut it. Songs are better short than padded, and the bridge is the easiest place to pad without noticing.
- 7
Cut, in this order
The lines that explain what the previous line meant. Then the second-best image in each verse. Then anything that exists only because it rhymed. Then the adverbs. Most first drafts are around a fifth longer than the finished song needs.
- 8
Read it aloud with no melody
A lyric that only works when sung is usually one where the tune is carrying words that are not pulling their weight. Anything you stumble over is a real problem, not a performance note.
Go deeper on any of it
Or start from a genre
Every genre page explains its own conventions and writes a full song to them.
Questions
How do I write a song for the first time?
Pick one small real thing rather than a big theme, write the chorus before the verses, keep the chorus simpler than feels comfortable, and build the verses toward it with concrete detail. Then cut roughly a fifth of what you wrote.
Should I write lyrics or melody first?
Either works, but write the chorus first whichever you start with. It is the part that decides what the song is, and verses written before it usually have to be redone.
What is the standard song structure?
Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus is the most common in popular music. Rap usually runs hook, verse, hook, verse, hook. Older folk and blues songs often have no chorus at all and use a repeated refrain line instead.
How long should a song be?
Most sit between two and a half and four minutes, which is two or three verses and a repeated chorus. Two strong verses beat three where one is weak.
Do I need to know music theory to write a song?
No. Knowing the shapes helps, and this page is those shapes. Plenty of songs people know by heart were written by somebody who could not name a single chord in them.