Wonder what songwriting tips and techniques writers use in their hit songs? Keep watching
this video, and I'm going to show you exactly how Maroon 5 did that with "Girl Like You"
and made it such an earworm. Hi, I'm Heather Greenslade, with Singer Songwriting
School. For the best tips on songwriting, make sure to subscribe to our channel and
hit the bell, so you're notified every Tuesday when I upload a new video.
If you're wondering what songwriting tips and tricks you can use to grab your listeners'
attention and really hold it throughout an entire song, keep listening. I'm going to
show you how the writers of Maroon 5's "Girl Like You" did that by varying the phrase length,
varying what beat those phrases started on, and whether Adam Levine was singing chord
tones mainly or nonchord tones in various sections of the song. Now songwriting can
seem like it's magic, but there really are certain tips and techniques that every great
songwriter uses. They're their particular tools of the trade. It's obvious that the
writers of this song knew one of the fundamental tenants of great songwriting, vary your sections.
The first thing I'm going to dive into here is phrase length. The verse in Girls Like
You has a phrase length of 10 beats. Take a listen.
(singing). We spent the last night making things right
between us. Now let's examine the same thing in the pre-chorus, or the ramp.
(singing). Four beats now. Now I'm all good, babe. Roll
that back wood, babe ... Those phrases are four beats each. We had 10-beat phrases in
the verse and now 4-beat phrases in the ramp. Let's see what happens in the chorus.
(singing). They're long phrases. It's sort of a run on
sentence, but it lasts that whole 16 beats. Then he takes a break, and goes again. Now,
the only section we have left is the bridge. Let's listen to that.
(singing). In this section, he's got two three-beat phrases
followed by a four-beat phrase, and then that all repeats. Maybe it's 6:45. Maybe I'm barely
alive. Maybe you've taken my shit for the last time. To recap this issue, the verse
has 10-beat phrases, the pre-chorus has 4-beat phrases, the chorus has 16-beat phrases, and
the bridge has 3-beat and 4-beat phrases. Varied, for sure. Nice.
Okay, next up, let's look at which beat each of these phrases starts on. This song is in
four-four, so we've got four beats in every measure. Let's hear where Adam's jumping in
in each particular section. Let's start with the verse.
(singing). In this verse, he comes on the second half
of the third beat. Bear with me. I'm going to count in, counting one, and two, and three,
and four, and, and then show you where he comes in. One, and two, and three, spent 24
hours, I need more hours with you, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and
three, spent the weekend ... He sticks with that for the pre-chorus. Let's go listen.
(singing). Okay. Is it going to be the same or different
on the chorus? Let's go check it out. (singing).
In this chorus, he's really coming in on beat one. Girls like you run 'round with guys like
me 'til sundown, but because he throws that 'cause on the beat four before, you could
debate it, but the second time through ... We talked about there's a phrase of 16 beats,
the second time he does a phrase like that, it solidly girls, so I'm really not paying
much attention to 'cause. Really, the driving force on the chorus section
is that beat one. We were kind of at beat three and a half, so landing right on beat
one, it's a smart place to go for a chorus because the chorus should feel like coming
home, and beat one, that's a solid place to start. That feels comfortable. That feels
like home base. Now, we have the bridge. Where is the bridge
going to come in? (singing).
On this one, he's coming in on beat two. One, maybe it 6:45. Maybe I'm barely alive one,
one. What's cool about that is the bridge is supposed to knock you off your feet a little
bit, like, "I thought I knew where we were. This felt comfortable. This felt stable. Then,
oh, this is new. I haven't heard this before." It's cool that we're starting on the second
beat, which we haven't done yet. It feels a little bit like, "Oh." Then, what's cool
also, is right after the bridge, you come right back home to the chorus. Beat one, girls
like you. Perfect. The next thing I want to point out in this
particular song is the use of chord tones and nonchord tones. Actually the next video
that I'm going to put out, and that'll be on October 9th, 2018, when it's up, I'll put
a link right here, it'll be all about this topic, so make sure and come back to get more
if this is something that interests you. Basically, in certain sections of the song,
Adam Levine is singing tones that are actually in the chords that the guitar is playing at
the time, or that all the instruments are playing at the time. Then he's just passing
through some other notes, and we call those passing notes, as he's getting from one chord
to the other. However, there are certain places in the song where a chord is being played,
and he's mainly singing notes that are not within that cord. That's important too, to
recognize that he's varying that up through sections. Listen really quick to the verse,
and I'm going to show you something important. (singing).
The song is playing a C chord. Spent 24 hours. That is da-da-da-da, C, C, C, E, D, C, so
mostly C and E; and a C chord is C, E, G; so we're singing primarily chord tones, just
passing through that D. 24 hours. I need more hours. Once we get to that, that's a G chord.
A G chord is G, B, and D. I need more hours, but we're still singing C, E, and then D.
C and E are not in the G chord. We're singing nonchord tones here. We're really focusing
on some tones that are not in our chord. (singing).
Then it goes to with you, and that's D, but we're playing an A minor chord, which is A,
C, E, so again, we are on nonchord tones.
(singing). For the verse, basically, we go singing chord
tones, nonchord tones, nonchord tones; chord tones, nonchord tones, nonchord tones ... That's
really hard to say for some reason ... In the pre-chorus and the chorus, we're solidly
on chord tones the whole way, just with some passing notes in between. Once we get to the
bridge, we once again throw in some nonchord tones. I think if you listen to the song now
with that in your head, you'll feel there's a different flavor. There's a different intensity
of the words when you're seeing nonchord tones. Think about it, your primary message that
you're really driving home the point of the song is the chorus, so for the chorus to be
starting on beat one, really focused on chord tones, makes a lot of sense.
Is there another song that you'd like to hear me analyze in this way? Just shout it out
in the comments below, and I'd love to. This is basically my favorite thing to do.
Now, there's one other aspect, in particular, of varying the sections of your song that
comes into play significantly, besides chords, we should get to that too at some point ... Actually,
I do have a video all about choosing cords for your song, so why don't you find that
here? I also do have a series all about melodic contour, which is the shape of your melody
throughout your song. That's another thing to be aware of and pay attention to when you're
going from section to section. I have a whole video series about that, and I'll throw that
up here in the cards as well. Now you know some of the songwriting tips
and techniques that hit writers use to create songs that grab listeners' attention and hold
it throughout the song. You saw how they did that and how it's been applied in Maroon 5's
song Girls Like You. Would it be useful to you to have a template, where, as you're writing
a song, you can lay it all out and say, what did I do in this section, what am I going
to do in this section, with some ideas to vary things up? If so, I've got something
for you, and it's free. Go check in the description below, and you can download a copy of my song
template. Make sure that you have subscribed, and share
this with any other songwriter you think might be interested in hearing it. If you found
this helpful, please comment, "Helpful." Happy writing.
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