Your Music Secrets: the Whole Course in One Song
One hundred lessons, one song. In the last lesson of Hits Decoded, build an original song of our own in seven steps, each taken from an earlier lesson: a key and the four-chord loop C – G – Am – F (lesson 10), a backbeat groove (lesson 28), a riff from five pentatonic notes (lesson 72), a melody with chord tones on the strong beats (lesson 21) and one appoggiatura that leans and falls (lesson 74), a sol–mi whoop for the hook (lesson 73), a song map with a pre-chorus that builds and releases on beat one (lessons 22 and 24), and a final chorus lifted a whole step, from C to D (lesson 23). Then hear the whole song with every layer, take a look at the map of the course, all 25 modules, and write your own song with the same seven steps.
In this lesson you'll
- Build a song step by step from the course's tools: key and loop (I – V – vi – IV in C), backbeat (kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4), a one-bar pentatonic riff with a rest on beat 2 and a note off the beat, three times the same and a new ending.
- Write the melody and the hook: chord tones on beats 1 and 3 with one appoggiatura (over G, lean on C, fall to B), a chorus above the verse built on the sol–mi whoop (G → E), then map it: verse, a pre-chorus that takes away the kick and bass and doubles the snare roll, one breath of silence, the chorus on beat one, and a final chorus lifted from C to D, set up by A7, the five of D.
- Write your own song with the same seven steps using the workbook template, analyse it in five steps (lesson 26), and tell verse, pre-chorus and chorus, the original key and the lifted chorus, and chord tones and appoggiaturas apart by ear.
Remember
A loop, a groove and a riff give a song its ground: I – V – vi – IV, the snare on 2 and 4, and a short pentatonic riff with a rest and an off-beat note, repeated with a new ending.
Chord tones on the strong beats, one lean, and a two-note hook make the melody: an appoggiatura clashes on the beat and falls into the chord, and sol and mi fit all four chords of the loop, so the whoop can repeat all the way around.
A map that builds, releases and lifts: the verse tells the story, the pre-chorus takes something away and makes you wait, everything comes back on beat one, and the last chorus moves up a whole step, set up by the new key's five chord.