Creative Firelight  

How To Create That Hook! (your song’s chorus)

Now that you all have a good idea on how to come up with your band

Name, now it’s time to get down to it. Everyone that writes a song wants

It to go as far as it can and to reach as many people as it can, but how do you

Write that “hit song?” There are many ways this can be accomplished, but

The BEST sure way is to know how to make your HOOK or CHORUS stand

Out and be catchy! The key here is to be CATCHY! So how do you do that?

First off what type of song do you want to write and sing about? If you are

Writing a song about falling in love, then you want to express your point

To your fans. Words like. “I’m just in love with a man” Doesn’t truly

Express your meaning, but if you write “I’m in love again, this man I’m

In love again.” That tells more of your point. Now back to the hook.

Normally hooks are about 8 bars to 16 bars long, but here is a difference.

A 8 bar hook you don’t have to use a hook lift to introduce your next verse,

But you can, however in a sixteen bar hook, you need to have a lift into

The next verse. There are exceptions, like house music and instrumentals.

We will get into how to musically arrange your hook in the next blog and

Segment, but for now let’s focus on the writing.

In Usher’s song “Moving Mountains” his hook he wrote simple, but with

Great artistic expression. “But I keep climbing and hoping things would change,

then the sky turns grey, and the water from the rain

washes progress away. It's like moving mountains.

It's like moving mountains.” The words but I keep climbing and hoping things would

Change, to the rain washes progress away is the lift into the hook. Then it’s like

Moving mountains is the first part of the hook then the next part of the hook

Is “Why you just leave me. Just leave me be.

Just leave me. Just leave me be.

Why you just leave me. Just leave me be,

why you just leave me. Just leave me be.” How he just kept it simple but VERY MEANIFUL. I love this song. It really touches the hearts to all who are really in

love, but the other partner won’t do the work to make it work. Now his hook in this

song is actually 32 bars from the first verse, and it starts “I know sorries, just wouldn't do it. Her heart is

obliterated. I'm trying to travel through, but

it's like moving mountains. It's like moving mountains,

hey” but this is rare and doesn’t need to be done, but GREAT SONGWRITERS AND

PRODUCERS know how to make this work! My advice is to use a 16 bar hook if

You are starting out with your song writing. 16 bar hooks are always CATCHY and it keeps the listener in tune with you.

Now in Fall Out Boy’s song Dance, Dance. Their hook is this. “Dance, dance. Were're falling apart to half time.

Dance, dance, and these are the lives you love to lead.

Dance, this is the way they'd love. If they knew

misery loved me”. This hook is again only 8 bars, but it explains the story about

asking a girl you like to dance with you. Genus! Let me know of your song content

and I will help you structure it! A hit song is worth its way beyond gold but diamond multi platinum so let me know. Till then!

                                                                        CREATIVE FIRELIGHT!

Ok! So all of you are excited that FINALLY you got all your music gear that you had to save a lot of money on, worked two jobs and had to borrow money from your parents, family members, or banks, either way you want to make your talent known to the world. So how do you do this? For all newly formed bands of all ages listen up! The first and MOST IMPORTANT step into reaching out to your future fans and becoming well known is the heart of your band’s meaning, your name. Just picking a band name by random or whatever you just come up with ISN”T GOOD ENOUGH! You must put a lot of time, thought and heart into it, so that your future fans “feel you”. They will know that you are a real dedicated group just by alone the heart you put into your group’s name.

Let’s look at some major musicians in our biz today. Clifford Harris, known as T.I used the inspiration that he got from his grandfather that he looked up to named him Tip. Then he later used that name Tip for his stages performances more spelled like T.I.P then as his success grew he shortened it to T.I. You might be thinking “so what” but he was really close to his grandfather and wanted to take a piece of him, his good nurturing and share it with his fans by using the nickname his grandfather had given him. T.I makes the rapper not Clifford Harris, even though Clifford Harris is his birth name and legal name. T.I is how his fans see him and relate to him. Then there is Marilyn Manson. The two names that he came up with are very significant. Well Marilyn came from of course Marilyn Monroe, the hot sexy blond that made her major debut in the hit film All About Eve, and then the popular serial killer Charles Manson, but that’s not just the main reason for him naming his band that. Think of it. Charles Manson has killed numerous of beautiful women, and Marilyn Monroe even through all that beauty had her many struggles, some even say that her death was planned out. So Marilyn Manson in his acts uses a masculine approach to his stage acts, and the make-up reflects the feminine side with a Goth twist that make the famine side look dead as Marilyn Monroe when found looked very pale as decay was approaching and Charles Manson is the crazy side to his shows. This is how his fans know him and is drawn to his act.

The first step in deciding on the right band name is to use your heart and emotion. What made you form your band in the first place? Was it hard childhood and you and your band mates use your talent to get through? Was it remembering the loss or losses of love ones? Fans WANT to relate to you anyway they can so your feelings are VERY IMPORTANT when deciding on a name. The second step is what genre of music you are doing and how you want people categorize your music as. Again read the celebrity examples above. T.I fits a rapper image as the “nickname” sounds like he’s close with his homies, and family, and Marilyn Manson is just straight genius, very hard core rock. So with all that information, this should help gives you more insight as to deciding a name for your band. And lastly YOU MUST BECOME YOUR NAME! Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Peter Criss all are great musicians, but alone they don’t make Kiss. All together they are known as Kiss. So with that DO YOUR HOMEWORK and mail me your name ideas and what inspired you to come up with them.

Keep Your Dreams Alive- Creative Firelight!