How do you make a 3 minute song?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dominateus
  • Start date Start date
D

Dominateus

Guest
I swear...for the life of me i cannot write a 3 minute song. Yeah, short and sweet for radio play but...

I mean when you add it all up, you've got:

Intro
Verse 1
Chorus
Verse 2
Chorus
Bridge
Verse 3 (or repeat Verse 1)
Chorus
Fade
________
= at least 5 minutes.


Damm, i could drop the bridge, maybe kill that last chorus...drop the third verse maybe? It seems to me if i did any of them my chances would suffer, rather than improve. Know what i mean? All my best stuff is like this.

Anyone else have this problem?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
in rnb theres rarely a third verse, after the second hook, theres a bridge and then the hook again...but in rap there might be, cus of the many featured artists.....but if i were to drop something it would deff be the third verse.
 
I agree with Axxe. Also, you can decrease the amount of bars in each section... instead of 32 bars, you can drop it to 16... or from 16 to 8 - In some songs you'll even find the first verse has 16 bars and the second verse has 8 bars.
 
A couple of things you can do. Shorten intro...8-12 bar verses...4-8 bar bridge...Increasing the tempo of the song would help a lot.
 
Last edited:
I hate to be that guy, but if it's after a Chorus, your Bridge is actually a Middle 8. A Bridge usually leads into a chorus (usually the last one).

If I were to give advice, I'd say don't be shy about having a Radio Mix that cuts that last verse. Or pull a Ramones- verse-chorus-verse-etc. Maybe let the song dictate the structure and worry later about what square hole it'll fit in?
 
DarrenTy,

Middle 8s are usually bridges but bridges may not be middle8s.

Also, in proper structure the middle 8 (bridge) goes to verse, not to chorus as you suggest. They way i have displayed it is in fact correct.

i.e. Intro-{Verse-Chorus}(Repeated)-Middle 8-{Verse-Chorus}(Repeated)-Outro.

Grabbed that for you off wikipedia. Easy mistake to make.

It just seems a shame to have to work so hard to come up with good bridges, or middle 8's, for a format that won't allow them due to time constraints.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, i'm thinking about it. Keep it coming.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
well, a lot of people are using 12 bar verses nowadays, and if you still want 16's, just do 2 verses.
but me on the other hand, i have songs that are 7 and 8 minutes long, i try not to conform to whats current, i make what sounds good to my ears.
 
Gutty502

You hit the nail right on the head. See, it's all about pace and flow. I'm old school about that...My hooks are more dramatic if i set them up properly. I guess that's what I'm afraid of...I'll lose effect if i start chopping it up. *sigh*
 
short n powerful ive been told:




not all songs need a bridge... also bridges could be implemented into a verse... and choruses can be shorter lengths, like in this video.

da relic
 
Last edited:
Make it different:

For Example:

Intro
Verse1
Chorus (x1)
Verse2
CHorus (x2)
Bridge
Chorus (x2)
Outro

Should take some 3 minutes
 
You guys amaze me. There have been some very creative approaches to solve this, and i am grateful to everyone in the crew that has taken the trouble to try to help me out.

My gawd, i have advise, videos...



I have to say it...because it occurs to me now that we are taking a hard look at the 3 minute window, and seeing the inherent restrictions of it. Could it be...is it possible...that all these years i have been sneering down my nose at most of what i hear on the radio and blaming bad writing and bad bands...is in fact a label problem, not a talent one?

I find I'm wondering how those songs originally sounded and how complete they were, before the label chopped them up for radio play...so maybe we should cut those bands some slack.

If they took one of my 5 minute songs and cut it to 3, would mine sound any better? I don't think it would.

So, I have a new thought.
 
for the radio, u must "trim tha fat"... bcuz theyre gonna do it for you... choruses, or "hooks" do not need to be long... they just need to be "catchy"... every verse doesnt have to be 16, just uniform... you'll know this when the song is close to complete... the vid i posted has three, 12 bars verses, and the last is 6 bars... the "hook" is said 4 times in the song believe, but its only one line, and then im into the next verse... not hard to do, you just hafta sit and arrange a song the way you wish it to be.

da relic
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top