“Kilo Alpha” proved a very easy starter for this blog: they don’t always turn out this straightforward!
As I tend to like a linear approach to writing – I start at the verse, and work forwards to a chorus, middle eight (or whatever) – I sometimes struggle after a strong beginning. I’ll often write lots of strong following sections, they just don’t follow the start. I guess that’s a nice problem to have.
In the case of this song, the verse and chorus lined up pretty much straight away. I needed only the slightest nudge to get the bits to fit together. In this case the “nudge” was a device I like: using a simple repeating phrase (6 notes – CDCEDC), with a breakdown in the drums, which I echoed at the end of the chorus (5 notes – EFGED), with the same drum breakdown.
The only deviation from my linear approach is where I decide I need an intro. If I have a middle eight I’ll sometimes start with that, with maybe some slight alteration. In the case of this song, I took elements of the chorus and changed the piano and horn parts, and added a very different organ part. I think this section worked well to build up to, then break down in the first verse.
One thing I should point out about the songs on my SoundCloud – I write pieces to be as complete as they can be in terms of melody, but because I don’t write lyrics or sing, they have a definitely unfinished quality. I think of them as largely awaiting a vocal, and so don’t worry too much about structure, as a singer/lyricist tends to say “I’ve written a shorter verse”, or “you had two verses, I wrote four, can you edit the song”. I don’t get precious about that, hence the arrangements I start out with.
My instrumental pieces are pretty much complete for the opposite reason!
I cried when I wrote this song 