Create dynamic songs through contrast!

SONG 5 of the 10 Songs In 10 Weeks Challenge is all about leaning into contrasting elements.

Today’s exercise is called…

Contrast

This exercise is great to:

• Create a constant state of excitement
• Give each element in your song spotlight confidence

Creating high degrees of contrast in your songs makes them more dynamic. The most common moment to create contrast in a song is between sections:

Verse = thin/narrow -> Chorus = fat/wide

You can also do this at a bar level. And even create contrast by one-off moments in songs. You’ll be doing all three in this exercise.

Examples of songs that use high contrast:

• Mykonos – Fleet Foxes: dramatic moment around 2:15, bridging the gap between a different feel and tempo
• MONTERO -Lil Naz X: lots of contrast in the song, pay attention to the bar level contrast between the bass and the guitar in the verses. They are separated frequency-wise and also rhythmically (mostly).
• Attention – Charlie Puth: swapping around the normal small verse to big chorus, this song spawned the birth of the anti-chorus. But the reason this is so engaging is because of the contrast.
• Unholy – Sam Smith: classic minimal verse to big chorus. Nearly all of the bigness here comes from the backing vocals.

How To:

In the video, I walk you through the exercise step by step, so you can follow along. But here are the individual steps, if you prefer to read:

1. Bar level – Instrumentation: Pick two or three high contrasting instruments e.g. a deep, fat bass and a trebly guitar.
   
2. Bar level – No overlap: Write a sparse one to four-bar part on one of your chosen instruments. This will form your verse. Then pick up your second instrument and fill in the rhythmic gaps. It’s ok if the parts overlap a bit but aim to keep them out of each other’s way rhythmically. Accentuate the contrasting sounds, push the drama. One part low, one high, or one legato, the other staccato, or one monophonic, the other polyphonic.
   
3. Section level – Note length: Create a chorus section with your instruments. If your notes are long in your verse, use short notes here. Or vice versa.
   
4. Section level – Melody Rhythmic Variation: Create vocal melodies for both verse and chorus. If your verse melodies are focused on the on beats, move to a cross-rhythm or an offbeat melody in your chorus. Or vice versa.
   
5. Craft your song: Let your contrasting bars and sections be the foundation for your song!

Big Moment of Contrast: Pick a point in your song to create a standout moment of drama. Ideas you can try:

• An extended riff that all the band plays
• Cut sections off at odd bar length e.g. a three-bar pre-chorus
• Go from super high energy to suddenly just one instrument playing
• Change the metric decision e.g. move from standard time to half time
• Remove all the reverbs for a moment
• Effect the whole mix with a tape delay, pitch, time stretch, tremolo, lfo, etc.

That’s it! I hope you enjoy this exercise 🤗

The foundation for this challenge

The book I’m basing this challenge on is Ra Wilson’s book, Write 47 Songs. If you haven’t heard of it yet, I highly recommend you get it. As the name says, the book gives you 47 exercises that serve as a practical roadmap for your artist development through implementation and self-exploration. So it’s a highly practical guide for artists who are just starting out in their songwriting journey, and it’s packed with exercises that are designed to help you put in the practice and level up in all the ways I mentioned before – from your lyric writing to your musical understanding, to developing yourself as an artist in terms of your sound and your artistic voice. All of that through implementation. Because it’s what you DO that counts. When you learn to play an instrument for example, you go to lessons and you spend most of the time DOING. Songwriting should be no different.

Are you new to this challenge? Watch the intro video here!

Wanna join alongside a group of artists?

If you’ve ever made a purchase with us (like joined any of our bootcamps, or got Ra’s book) you also get access to our free WhatsApp community where our artists hang out and support each other. There you can share what you make within a safe space and listen to what others share as well. This will make it way more fun and really help you with accountability.

If you decide to get the book (or you’ve already joined a bootcamp with us), be sure to send me an email so I can give you access to the community! My email address is sonj@artistspringboard.com

I hope you enjoy writing your SONG 5! 🤗❤️

Happy songwriting,

Sonj