JPF Home Page Forums Lyric and MP3 Feedback MP3 Feedback Forum Will This Become A Song Someday

A 'Musical Composition' of any genre commences with whatever sounds are delivered to the listener first, an 'Introductory Movement'.
The function of an Introductory Movement is simply to get the listener's attention, and sustain that attention until the next 'Movement' commences.
Those sounds have 'Hook Factor'. The words, when they commence, should have 'Hook Factor', getting and sustaining listener attention.

For a 'Song', meaning a Composition with a 'Lyric' to be 'sung', the next Movement may be a Chorus, or a Verse.

Actually, for any Composition, Instrumental or vocal, even rap, I recommend attention to that 'Structure', perceiving the various Movements typical of a 'sung' work, Intro., Verses, Choruses, Repetition and Change, a Bridge if necessary, and a final Movement, a Coda.

The 'sounds' of the Intro., Introductory Movement, may continue unchanged into that next Movement, or may change dramatically, to accommodate the Vocal execution, the Melody of the Lyric, the dynamics of 'Change'.

An Introductory Movement need only be long 'Enough' to accomplish that 'Hooking' of attention function. It may be as little as seven seconds, as much as fourteen seconds, but, ideally, not much longer. Singers, Songwriters, often miss their cue and 'Repeat' the Intro., making it twice as long as necessary to serve that function.

Someone wrote the 'rule', "Don't bore us! Get to the Chorus!"

Again, some Songs open with the Chorus, then go to a Verse to do the 'Exposition' of the 'Storyline' that the Chorus Lyrical content implies.
If the Song 'Structure' is Intro. and next to Verse, that Exposition sets up for the Lyrical Content of the Chorus, the third Musical Movement in the Composition.
1. Introductory Movment
2. Verse
3. Chorus

A common complaint among Song 'Screeners', listening to submissions by aspiring artists, or submissions for Publishing to other artists and their management, is that the Verse and Chorus sound too much alike, "Not 'Enough' contrast between Verse and Chorus." A Song must have 'Enough' Repetition to supply Structure, Enough 'Change' to keep it interesting.

How long is 'Long Enough' for an Intro.?
How long is 'Long Enough' for the next Movement, be it Chorus or Verse?

The other degrees on the 'Enough' continuum are 'Not Enough' and 'Too Much'. "Don't bore us! Get to the Chorus!"

I read a Producer quoted, saying, "If you haven't done something interesting in 47 seconds I quit listening."
A Song Screener told of driving down the road popping submission cassettes into a small player, and if you didn't 'Hook' his interest in 19 seconds, he popped you out and the next submission in.

It has to do with the Human attention span, and the demands of terrestrial radio, where they play music, and pay Royalties, not as a presentation of Art, but as a device to keep you listening 'Long Enough' for them to play the Commercial Advertising that pays the bills. So they like short Songs.

People cite long Songs as a guide that their Songs are not 'Too Much', like "Stairway To Heaven" an "Hotel California", and the latter's one minute Introductory Movement as justification for their own 'excesses'. I say, "Yeah. Write Songs like that and play them like that and you can get played on radio $$$ too."

But if your Song isn't a masterpiece like those, your chances of getting played, paid and listened to are better with short Intro's. and just 'Enough' Lyrical delivery to get to the 'Change' of dynamics of the next Movement, Into. to Verse or Chorus, Verse or Chorus to next Movement, be it Verse or Chorus.

By 19 seconds in, or less, you should be to the second component. By 47 seconds in you should be to the Title Line, THE Hook, the main idea of the Lyrical Storyline.
The listener should hear that Line, 'get it' as a summary idea in the Story.

It may be a 'Refrain', a single Line of Lyric and the Melody to which it is sung, that ends each Verse, a 'Refrain-Type' Chorus.
It may be one of the several Lines of Lyric in a 'Stanza-Type' Chorus.

The first Line may be forgotten by the time the Chorus ends. The last Line is left ringing in the listener's ears, so may be ideal as the position for THE Hook.

THE Hook/Title Line should Repeat a minimum of three times, with more better because it 'drives' home' that Line as the main idea of the Song, making it 'memorable', remember-able, ear-worm-ish, insisting on being heard and remembered.

These are some of the Songwriter's 'Judgment Calls'. Songwriters make them, usually unconsciously, inspired by their own sense of what is 'Enough' and when it is 'Time' for the next Movement.
Listeners will make their own Judgment Calls about whether they like or are moved by the Lyrical content, the Melody to which it is sung, and whether they 'get it', get the summary significance you intend that Line to mean in the overall Storyline, and whether it is 'memorable' or 'forgettable'.

You, as the Songwriter, are the first 'listener'. You make those Judgment Calls, consciously or unconsciously.

What we're talking about then is 'Structure'. Do you 'Compose' a Structure the listener can relate to, a Lyric they 'get' and are entertained by, a Melody they can't help singing along with?
On the 'Enough' continuum, your Judgment, is the Introductory Movement Too Long, not Long Enough, or Enough?
Is the timing of getting to the next Movement Enough, Too Much, Not Enough?
Is the next Movement, be it Verse or Chorus, Enough, Too Much, Not Enough?

Songwriters enjoy 'emoting', singing their Lyric, playing their instrument, and their Judgment may be influenced by their own enjoyment, so guarding against that with attention to what other listeners will experience is necessary.

Songwriters enjoy writing, so they often get verbose, 'wordy', and it becomes Too Much, more than Enough.
Melody tends to become 'Monotonous', mono = one, tone. The listener drifts off to other thoughts.

This Composition is very Introductory Movement oriented, in my Judgment, and gets my attention. About 7 to 14 seconds in I'm ready for the next Movement.
By about the time this recording ends I would be ready for the Change of dynamics of the next Movement, the third Movement, Intro., Verse, Chorus. or Intro., Chorus, Verse.

So any sounds can commence a Composition, 'Introduce' the Composition.
Timing for Change, Repetition to supply demanded Structure listeners can relate to, continue to be 'Hooked' on, when and how to 'Change', all demand Judgment Calls on the part of the first listener, you, the Songwriter.

Not knowing you are making Judgment Calls works. Your 'sense' of timing, emotive qualities of your Melody, word meanings, all go into creation of a Song. You didn't have to 'think' about it; you just did it. It came out that way and 'felt' right.
Conscious examination of those factors can enable you to stop 'Boring us' and 'Getting us to the Chorus'.

I think I'll go back and listen to the track again, and see what Judgment Calls I can make.

P. S. The final Musical Movement of a Composition is not the 'Outro'.
'Intro.' abbreviates 'Introductory', but there is no 'Outroductory' word.
The final Musical Movement is the 'Coda'.