From the course: 20 Unofficial Rules of Songwriting

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,600 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Rule #5: Make sure every line of your verses and bridge provides new information

Rule #5: Make sure every line of your verses and bridge provides new information

From the course: 20 Unofficial Rules of Songwriting

Start my 1-month free trial

Rule #5: Make sure every line of your verses and bridge provides new information

“

- Rule #5: Make sure every line of your verses and bridge provides new information. Songs are short. You really can't afford to say the same thing more than once. The whole idea is to keep your listeners' attention span in mind and move the story along with every line that you write. In our song, A Little Bit, one of the things that we did in our second verse just to move the story along was to use the line: "A little bit over getting over you" which tells more of the story and lets the listener know there's someone else involved. In other words, each line of each of our verses was designed to tell a little bit more and reveal a little bit more of our story. In our Grammy-winning song example, the song Sunny Came Home by Shawn Colvin does an absolutely beautiful job of telling a story where not a single line or word is wasted.

Contents