Structure: Tools and Discipline

Structure in songwriting gives you everything you need to set your own finish lines and then run for them.

Whether you’re determining the rhyme scheme you’re about to use, the number of syllables in a line, the number of measures in a section, the number of minutes you’ll spend composing today, or the number of songs you’ll write by the end of the month… structure is much more than just deciding whether to add a bridge to a three-minute pop song.

Structure can help you do anything. From measuring out syllables to steering the course of your songwriting career, structure allows you some command over the shape of each song, then the order of the setlist—and, in time, the overall arc of your life.

At bare minimum, learning to skillfully manipulate verses, choruses, and other song sections can make your songs sound surprisingly professional. And on a broader scale, structuring your day to start and finish songs week after week will make you feel professional.

Structure feels good. It feels disciplined. Purposeful. Lucid.

Structure can also help you push yourself further than you might have gone otherwise. Left to my own devices, I feel tempted to give up or do something else about every 30 seconds. Let’s face it—songwriting isn’t always the most fun you can have on a Saturday night. It’s hard work to write well enough to keep yourself interested and satisfied. Some nights it flows; other nights you’re in hell.

That’s where structure helps. Challenging myself with a new rhyme scheme once in a while keeps me from using the same ones over and over. Setting a minimum time limit keeps me sitting at the desk when I otherwise would flee. Taking time to outline a song or an album helps keep me oriented, keeps me from getting lost in the forest of details that any project inevitably sprouts.

John Zorn has done well by setting challenges for himself. His Masada songbooks, which now include over 500 melodies, started as a goal to write 100 tunes using traditional Jewish scales in a single year. After touring for a while performing his Masada tunes in a quartet, John said to himself okay, let’s see if I can write 100 tunes in a month this time.

He did.

Then he did it again.

And again.

Today Zorn’s still working on getting all those tunes recorded by various artists: vocal ensemble, string trio, power trio, the list goes on and on. But the main point I want to impress you with is the kind of powerful momentum that comes when you commit. When you work at any craft consistently over time. When you aim high and set challenges for yourself. When you enforce some kind of structure on your songwriting—and note that “structured” in this case doesn’t necessarily mean that the process will be orderly. It rarely is. Setting aside 30 minutes to make a gigantic nebulous mess on a sheet of paper counts as a structured session.

So. What’s your Masada book? What do you want to accomplish in the next 30 days?