I want to discuss song length in this article and how to go about determining it and then mapping it out. The main thing you want to make sure you do when planning song length is not running out of gas before you get to the finish line.
Now if you’re writing for a client, the song length is probably going to be determined by the project itself. If your client has a 30 minute video and he wants 30 minutes of music, well, that’s the ball game. You have to come up with 30 minutes of music. That decision has been made for you.
But what if the client has left things relatively up in the air as far as song length, or the project you’re working on is personal like wanting to have a hit record in a specific genre? In that case, you need to look at a number of things.
Let’s take something simple like wanting to write a country hit. Naturally, as far as the sound goes, you listen to what hit country songs sound like. But what about length? To come up with a song length you would need to look at several things.
First, what kind of country song is it? Is it an uptempo good time country tune or are you planning on writing one of those crying in your beer tear jerkers? If its the latter, those songs, simply by the nature of them being slower and more thoughtful, are usually longer than your uptempo tune. It takes longer to develop the idea than an uptempo tune. Of course don’t tell that to Bob Dylan. Listen to Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts when you get a chance. I think the song is something like 8 minutes long and it’s about as uptempo as you can get.
But for the most part, if you’re going to write a slow country tune, it’s going to be longer than the uptempo kind. So you’re going to want to look at the typical length for your crying in your beer country tune and plan accordingly. For an uptempo tune, you then listen to a cross section of them and do the same.
Can you go against the grain like Don McLean did with “American Pie?” Sure, but you better make sure you have something really special if you’re going to go that route. It’s always easier to go shorter. Shorter songs have several advantages. The two main ones are as follows.
A shorter song goes by quicker so it takes more listens of the song in order for the listener to actually get it down. This is because the song is over so quickly they can’t absorb it as well. There’s no time for the song to simmer. American Pie, but the time you had gotten to the 4th chorus, you could actually sing along and that was on the first listen. The song was already getting familiar because if it’s length.
Shorter songs also have the advantage that because they are shorter, it’s harder to get sick of them. You’re less likely to get bored by the song because it IS over so quickly. I remember the first time I heard 1-2-3 Red Light by the 1910 Fruitgum Company. That song was so short (under 2 minutes) that I can’t tell you how many times I played that record when I first bought it. You’re not going to play American Pie more than once in a sitting unless you’ve got some serious obsession issues.
After you decide how long you’re going to make your song, the next thing you have to do is structure it, especially if you’re writing royalty free music.
Regardless of what kind of song you’re writing, it’s going to have a beginning, middle and end. (duh!). But what exactly does that mean?
Most songs aren’t linear. What do I mean? A song, when it starts, usually starts off slowly, even if uptempo, it starts off slowly. What I mean by slowly is arrangement wise.
For example, a song might start with just piano, bass and drums. After the verse ends and the chorus comes in, the strings might join in, or maybe an organ. But something will be added to the arrangement to move the song forward so that it doesn’t remain stagnant.
Are there exceptions? You betcha! Listen to Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn” when you get a chance. That song is about as linear as you can get, more or less. Yes, it does have its moments where things change a little, but for the most part, this is a linear song. And it was probably meant to be in order to simulate an actual trip on the Autobahn. Personally, I think it was executed brilliantly. But I digress.
You want your song, for the most part, to move forward as it progresses through the song. If it remains stagnant, it becomes boring. Now, here is where time comes into play.
If the song is a short song, you probably want to hit your various plateaus rather quickly. Let’s take a 3 minute song. You probably want to hit peaks at 1 minute, 2 minutes and on the last chorus. So you have to develop the song quickly.
But what if the song is 10 minutes long? You don’t want to hit a peak too early. If you’re bringing down the house at the 2 minute mark, where is there to go after that? For 8 minutes you’re going to have a very disappointed listener.
Conversely, you don’t want to wait too long either. If nothing goes on for 8 minutes and you basically give the listener the last 2 minutes of “excitement” they may not make it that far. So like with a shorter song, you want to have several peaks during the song. So maybe one at 3 minutes, another at 5 minutes, another at 7 minutes and finally the big finish at around the 9 minute mark.
If you’re writing a symphony that’s 48 minutes long, well, now you’re looking at 4 movements with the first and last being pretty much wall to wall excitement with maybe a few lulls. Nobody is going to sit through 48 minutes of a funeral dirge OR a nuclear blast. You need to have some balance.
Being able to map out your song and decide where the highs and lows are going to fall will make the entire process of songwriting a lot easier and give you a better chance of coming out with a great product.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim