Lesson 34: Starting a Song: Hook Chords
This lesson explores creating a
chord-based hook, a common
first step in writing a song.
Before taking this lesson, you should know:
Pop songs almost always have a
hook. A hook:
-
Can be any short, easy-to-recognize musical idea.
-
Is repeated; often immediately, and always many times during the
song.
-
Is often the foundation of the song's chorus.
Chord-based hook. A hook can be various kinds of musical idea, but one
common kind is a
short chord progression along with a
melody
phrase. I call this a
chord-based hook.
The
steps in creating a chord-based hook are typically:
-
Choose a short chord progression for your "hook chord phrase"
and play it over and over.
-
Make up a melody (and lyrics) that fits the chords.
The rest of this lesson will explore that first step, creating
hook chord
phrases. We can develop our art for choosing these by:
-
Analyzing the hook chord phrases in popular songs
-
Practicing using the ideas we find
To demonstrate, let's analyze the hook chord phrases in a couple of hit songs:
-
Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan
-
Crazy by Gnarls Barkley
(Links to recordings at the end of the lesson.)
Like A Rolling Stone
The hook chord phrase in
Like A Rolling Stone, at the chorus (1:05 in
the recording), goes like this:
| | |
C | F |
G |
| | || |
/ / | / / | |
/ / | / | / |
| |
| How does it feel | |
| |
| How does | it feel |
"Statistics" for this hook chord phrase:
-
3 chords total
-
2 measures long
-
The whole chorus consists of just this 2-bar phrase, repeated 6
times.
The
Roman and functional analyses
(
Lesson 26: Diatonic Function Analysis) of this phrase
are:
This is about as basic as a chord phrase can get:
I → IV → V,
T → SD → D.
1st half, 2nd half. One more point about this chord phrase: If you want
to fit
3 chords into
2 measures, there are two obvious ways to
do it, fitting two chords into either the
first measure or the
second measure:
C F G
| / / / / | / / / / |
or
C F G
| / / / / | / / / / |
What difference does it make? In
this hook, with this
melody rhythm, doing it the
first way above creates a
"1st-half,
2nd-half story" between the chords and the words:
-
Measure 1 (1st half): Changing chords get the attention
-
Measure 2 (2nd half): The words get the attention
(For more on "1st-half, 2nd-half stories", see
Lesson 46: Melody Rhythm: Rolling Stone.)
Crazy
Here's the chorus to Gnarls Barkley's
Crazy (0:37 in the recording):
| | Cm |
E♭ |
| | | / / / / | / / / / | |
/ / / / | / / / / | |
| | A♭ |
Gsus4 | G |
| | | / / / / | / / / / | |
/ / / / | | / / / / | |
"Statistics" for this hook chord phrase:
-
5 chords (or only 4, if you count the Gsus4 → G as just "one
chord")
-
8 measures long
-
The whole chorus is just this 8-bar phrase, played just once.
But the verse uses this exact same chord phrase, so this chord
phrase is actually repeated a lot in the song.
This song is in the key of
C minor
(
Lesson 29: Minor Key Triads), so the
Roman
and functional analyses are:
| T | (T) | SD | D | D |
| Im | ♭III | ♭VI | Vsus4 | V |
| Cm | E♭ | A♭ |
Gsus4 | G |
This
Crazy Roman-numeral sequence is more original than the
Rolling
Stone sequence above, but it's still very conventional. It's another
classic
T → SD → D functional sequence, with a few
twists:
-
It's in a minor key.
-
After the starting T (tonic, Im), instead of moving straight
to SD (subdominant), it first inserts a substitute T
(♭III).
-
For its SD, rather than use the "primary" SD, IVm, it uses
♭VI .
-
It uses the classic Vsus4 → V "special effect"
(Lesson 32: Suspended-4th Chords).
Trends
Here are some
similarities and differences between these two example
hook chord phrases:
-
How many chords: 3 or 4.
-
How long: 2 or 8 measures.
-
Repeated: A lot in both cases, but different ways of doing it.
-
Functional analysis: T → SD → D in both cases (with
variations).
Exercises
You can add these activities to your
writing exercises (from
Lesson 2: Practicing Songwriting):
-
Analyze the hook chord phrases in songs you like; the examples in
this lesson were just to help you to get started. Look for trends and
differences, and unique ideas in particular songs.
-
Practice creating your own hook chord phrases, using the ideas you
get from analyzing. Don't try to create a whole song from every hook chord
phrase you create; save a collection of hook chord phrases, so you
have several to choose from when you're ready to create a song.
Next:
Links to recordings:
-
Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan: I used the version from
The Essential Bob Dylan ($1.29 at
Amazon
last I checked).
-
Crazy by Gnarls Barkley: I used the
YouTube video.
