AN EQUATION FOR SONGWRITING

As an engineer I have always liked math, arithmetic and things in life that can be defined as an equation or formula. For me it is somewhat soothing and calming to have an idea defined in black and white and with a distinct structure in a world that has so much uncertainty in it. I thought about this aspect for a while in regards to my approach to music and songwriting. Many of us know that music theory has underlying mathematical principles and structures to it but could songwriting be broken down into an equation? I think it can be and I like to describe it this way:

The equation of a song:

lyric + melody + harmony + rhythm = A SONG

It’s like songwriting is a recipe with four main ingredients and you can put different portions of these ingredients into your song depending on the genre or vibe you are writing. I do feel these four main ingredients must be in your song for it to be successful. For example, Hip Hop music tends to be more rhythmic based whereas country music tends to be more lyrical and narrative based.

So now we can add a numerical weighting to the song equation to define how much of each ingredient goes into your song with the x’s being a number that totals 100 in the equation:

(x)lyric + (x)melody + (x)harmony + (x)rhythm = (100)a song

For example (32)lyric + (28)melody + (17)harmony + (23)rhythm = (100) A SONG

As in real songwriting, with the equation I have shown you can start with any one of the main elements. Maybe you work your song idea from a drum loop hence the rhythm could be the first element in the equation or maybe you start with a chord progression which would make your harmony the first element in your song equation.

For me, I am trying to write commercial, radio friendly music and my approach is to have a “hook” for each one of these main parts of the songwriting equation. Mutt Lange was a legendary producer famous for having numerous hooks in a song. I think if you take a deliberate approach to ensuring you have a memorable element to the lyric, harmony, rhythm and melody in your song it has a much better chance of getting stuck in someone’s brain as an “earworm”.

I also heard a great producer once say that our ears mainly hear in “groups of 3’s”. Considering the music equation, when writing or producing music and its hooks think about only combining 3 of the elements at one time so the listeners ear can truly absorb them properly.

Some other side ingredients and additions that could go into the song equation include instrumentation, arrangement, cadence, phrasing, chord voicings, sound design, live performance “moments”, song production and many more nuances of the musical realm. I think these are all enhancements and without the four foundational parts of the song equation included these “enhancements” don’t mean or sound like much on their own. For the sake of the song equation lets call all these elements “song enhancements”:

((32)lyric + (28)melody + (17)harmony + (23)rhythm)) x (song enhancements) = A SONG

This is a very structural, formulaic and deliberate workflow for songwriting. It may not work for everyone but because of my engineering nature and approach it has helped me balance and put creativity into a simple math equation and maybe it will work for you!

Stay in tune and stay in touch, Kent