Songwriting - Some Simple Music Theory

[Jeremy Connolly]

Primarily, a song consist of a melody (the tune) and accompaniment
(chords). This discussion of song writing assumes that you already
have some what of a foundation in these applications of music theory.
Although this is broken down to simplify the process for you, you may
still want to refer back to some basic music theory.
A song is really nothing more than sections of music put together in
varying orders. These sections have names (intro,verse, chorus
etc......). The sections are then divided up into measures and the
measures are divided up into beats. The beat is the foundational
building blocks of a song. Most commonly, measures have four (4) beats
in them. A measure can have three (3), two (2) or really any amount of
of beats per measure, but probably 95% of the songs we here in music
today are in what is called 4/4 time. It is actually so common in
music that it is even referred to in music theory as common time and
is symbolized by the the letter C. Another thing that is a "probably"
in music is that most sections of songs are typically even number sets
like four (4), eight(8), twelve (12) or sixteen (16) measures. They
don't have to be, but they typically are. Below are the beginnings of
a chord chart. A chord chart is like a road map of the song. Chord
charts are used in studios and practice sessions to map out the song.
This is also the beginnings of a songs construction. The purpose for
you to see this chord chart is so you can start visualizing what a
song "looks" like.
C / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4 / 1 2 3 4/ :
The above diagram is a typical 4/4 (common time) 4 bar section. The
lines you see are called bar lines. From one bar line to the next bar
line creates a measure. Measures are also referred to as bars.Each
measure in the diagram contains 4 beats. The two dots at the end of
the four bars is called a repeat sign. It means to play that section
again.

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