Songwriting

Songwriting 101: Lovedrug

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Today I’m breaking down a song I wrote a couple of years ago called Lovedrug.
This track is a good example of how simplicity in songwriting can be extremely effective when the core ideas are clear.

It uses one of the most common harmonic patterns in popular music:

I – V – vi – IV

(If you haven’t read my earlier post on chord relationships, I recommend starting there for a deeper explanation of why these chords work so well together.)

Let’s jump in.

Key and harmony

Although the song is often described as being in D♯ major, the more standard and readable key name is:

E♭ major

All of the chords in the song are diatonic—they belong naturally to the same key. There are no borrowed or outside chords. This is one of the main reasons the harmony feels so stable and familiar.

Verse progression

E♭ – B♭ – Cm – A♭

Functionally, in E♭ major:

  • E♭ = I

  • B♭ = V

  • Cm = vi

  • A♭ = IV

So the verse follows:

I – V – vi – IV

Chorus progression

E♭ – Cm

Functionally:

  • I – vi

Reducing the harmony in the chorus helps make it feel more focused and emotionally direct compared to the verse.

Making the song easier to play on guitar (capo approach)

These chords are awkward to play in open position. To simplify things, I place a capo on the 8th fret and use open chord shapes.

With the capo on the 8th fret, I use:

Verse shapes

  • G major → sounds as E♭ major

  • D major → sounds as B♭ major

  • E minor → sounds as C minor

  • C major → sounds as A♭ major

Chorus shapes

  • G major → sounds as E♭ major

  • E minor → sounds as C minor

This allows the entire song to be played using familiar open-position shapes while sounding in E♭ major.

Why I chose this key

The reason I chose E♭ major (capo on the 8th fret) is simple:

it fit my voice best.

Choosing a key is often more about the singer than the instrument or the theory. A song can feel completely different when moved up or down by only a few semitones.

During the writing process for Lovedrug, I also experimented with the song in G major and B♭ major before settling on this final key.

Trying different keys is a great way to:

  • find a more comfortable vocal range, and

  • discover new melodic ideas.

Song structure

I would categorize the form of this song as:

A – B – A – B – C – B – B – C

Where:

  • A = verse

  • B = chorus

  • C = instrumental break / interlude

I originally labeled the “C” section as a bridge, but functionally it behaves more like an instrumental interlude. The harmony and overall feel remain very similar to the verse and chorus, and the main difference is that the vocal melody is replaced by a guitar riff.

So the structure is best understood as:

Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Instrumental break → Chorus → Chorus → Instrumental break

Emphasizing the chorus

My favorite part of Lovedrug is the chorus. Since the melody is especially catchy, I wanted to make it the emotional center of the song.

To do that, I simply made the chorus the most prominent section by:

  • repeating it more than any other part, and

  • placing it close to both the middle and the end of the song.

Lyrics and theme

Here are the lyrics:

Verse

I love to watch you squirm
Every time you lie
Feel the way it hurts

Chorus

You get me high then you bring me down
Don’t know why I ever stick around
Hate to say, hate to say it now
Just a drug, just a drug, just a drug to me

Verse

Why did the fire die?
I want to watch it burn
Every single time

Chorus

You get me high then you bring me down
Don’t know why I ever stick around
Hate to say, hate to say it now
Just a drug, just a drug, just a drug to me

Lyrical idea

The song is about staying in an unhealthy relationship and becoming emotionally addicted to the constant highs and lows.

A line like:

“You get me high then you bring me down”

directly mirrors that emotional cycle. The language is intentionally simple and repetitive to reinforce the feeling of being stuck in a loop.

For this song, clarity and emotional directness mattered more to me than metaphor or complexity.

Melody-writing approach

The melody started with a very simple idea:

  • on the word “high”, the melody walks up the scale,

  • and on the word “down”, the melody walks down the same scale.

After that, I experimented with many variations of this idea until I found one that felt natural and expressive. That version eventually became the verse melody.

From there, I created small variations of it for the rest of the song.

In practice, melody writing is often just:

trying twenty different ways to sing the same short phrase, and keeping the one that feels best.

Final thought

Lovedrug is built almost entirely from:

  • diatonic chords,

  • a very common harmonic pattern (I – V – vi – IV),

  • and a simple melodic idea.

If you take one thing away from this lesson, I hope it’s this:

simplicity can be extremely powerful when the core emotional idea is clear.

It’s very easy to add too much. Sometimes the strongest songwriting move is knowing when to stop adding and let the song breathe.

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Songwriting

The Power of 4 Chords

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If you haven’t already, watch the video above.

It feels almost unbelievable at first: dozens of famous songs, all built from the same four chords. Different melodies, different lyrics, different artists—yet the harmony underneath barely changes.

So what’s really going on?

How can just four chords work in so many situations—and why do they sound good no matter what key they’re played in?

To understand this, we only need a small amount of music theory.

The 12 notes of Western music

In Western music, there are 12 total notes. Each note is separated by a half-step, and together they form the chromatic scale.
After twelve notes, the pattern simply repeats at a higher pitch.

From this chromatic scale, we can build other scales by using specific step patterns.

Major and natural minor scales

The two most common scales in popular music are the major scale and the natural minor scale.

They are defined by patterns of:

  • W = whole step (two half steps)

  • H = half step

Major scale pattern

  • R – W – W – H – W – W – W – H

Natural minor scale pattern

  • R – W – H – W – W – H – W – W

Each scale uses 7 of the 12 available notes and begins on a root note (R).

Two simple examples

To keep things simple, here are two scales with no sharps or flats:

C major

  • C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

A minor

  • A – B – C – D – E – F – G – A

For the purpose of this example, I’ve intentionally chosen these two keys.
You can apply the same scale formulas to any starting note, which will introduce sharps or flats as needed.

Assigning Roman numerals

Next, we assign Roman numerals to each scale degree.
These numbers tell us which chord is built on each note.

Key of C major

  • C = I

  • D = ii

  • E = iii

  • F = IV

  • G = V

  • A = vi

  • B = vii°

Key of A minor (natural minor)

  • A = i

  • B = ii°

  • C = III

  • D = iv

  • E = v

  • F = VI

  • G = VII

Upper- and lower-case numerals indicate the chord quality (major or minor), and the ° symbol indicates a diminished chord.

Where the “four chords” come from

Now we can finally look at the famous four chords.

In tonal music, the I, IV, and V chords are the three primary functional chords of a key.
Together, they form the basic foundation of most harmonic progressions.

These three chords account for three out of the four chords used in the video.

Turning scale degrees into actual chords

To go from notes to chords, we simply build a chord on each scale degree.

In C major

  • I → C major

  • IV → F major

  • V → G major

In A minor (natural minor)

  • i → A minor

  • iv → D minor

  • v → E minor

Note: In most real music written in minor keys, the V chord is often made major (for example, E major in the key of A minor) by raising the seventh scale degree.
For simplicity, this example uses the natural minor scale.

You can think of I, IV, and V like variables in math—they change depending on the key you are in.

What is transposing?

The process of changing these same Roman-numeral patterns into a different key is called transposing.

This is often done to better suit a singer’s vocal range—and it’s exactly what’s happening in the video.

Below is the key of C major transposed to several other keys:

[IMG]

The fourth chord

So what about the final chord?

The last chord in this progression is:

  • vi in a major key

  • VI in a minor key

For example:

  • In C major, vi is A minor

  • In A minor, VI is C major

This chord is especially common in pop music because it shares two notes with the I chord.
That allows it to substitute smoothly for the tonic while still creating a noticeable emotional shift.

That contrast is one of the reasons this chord works so well alongside I, IV, and V.

The famous progression

In the video, the chords are played in the same order throughout:

I – V – vi – IV

You can change the order of these chords, repeat them in different patterns, or add additional chords to create an almost endless number of possibilities.

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Songwriting

Songwriting 101: Curiosity

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Today I’m breaking down a song I wrote a couple of years ago called Curiosity.
This track is a good example of how simplicity in harmony, combined with thoughtful sound design and arrangement, can create a strong emotional result.

The song sits at a medium–fast tempo of 140 BPM and blends:

  • ambient pads

  • natural-sounding piano

  • pizzicato-style synths

  • organic percussion loops

  • soft, intimate vocals

Together, these elements form a mellow electropop sound I had been wanting to explore for some time.

Harmonic foundation

I began the track by creating an ambient pad progression that plays from the very beginning and continues throughout the entire song.

The progression is built from the following chords in the key of B major:

  • B (I)

  • E (IV)

  • F# (V)

  • G#m (vi)

These four chords form the familiar and widely used progression family:

I – IV – V – vi

Rather than thinking of these as individual “pitches,” this pad part is made up of full chords, with B, E, F#, and G# serving as the chord roots.

This progression lays the emotional and harmonic foundation of the song and helps create the uplifting, reflective mood that runs throughout the track.

Adding motion with piano

Once the pad progression was in place, I added a simple piano lick that plays over the same chords during both the verse and the chorus.

The piano serves two important roles:

  • it reinforces the harmonic progression, and

  • it provides rhythmic motion that drives the song forward.

While the pads create atmosphere, the piano becomes the main rhythmic and melodic backbone that supports everything added later.

With this foundation in place, I moved on to shaping the structure.

Song structure and layout

At first listen, the form might sound like a standard ABABCB structure.
However, the arrangement is slightly more expanded.

I would describe the layout as:

A – B – A – A – B – B – C – B – B – D

Where:

  • A = verse

  • B = chorus

  • C = breakdown (pads and vocals only)

  • D = outro

The key idea behind this structure is:

  • the listener hears a compact version of the song early on (A–B),

  • then those same sections are expanded later (A–A–B–B),

  • followed by a breakdown, a final set of choruses, and an outro.

You can hear these major transitions clearly:

  • the expanded sections begin around 0:54,

  • percussion enters the later verse at 1:22, and

  • the outro begins around 3:12, marked by a change in percussion and a gradual thinning of layers.

This is best thought of as an expanding arrangement, rather than a strict pop form.

Defining the verse

For the first two verses, I define the section almost entirely through three elements:

  • the ambient pad progression

  • the piano lick

  • the vocal melody

In the final verse, those same elements remain, but I introduce percussion at 1:22 to subtly raise the energy and move the track forward.

Defining the chorus

To shape the chorus, I keep all of the verse elements and add:

  • a second percussion layer, and

  • two sampled melodic synth parts.

Instead of making the chorus bigger by changing harmony, I make it feel larger by increasing density and texture.

To let the instrumentation fully stand out, I also remove the vocals entirely during the chorus. This shifts the listener’s focus toward the groove, sound design, and melodic synth layers.

Writing the lyrics

As with most of my songs, I wrote the lyrics after the musical structure and arrangement were finished.

Lyrics

Let’s lose our normality
And get a taste of insanity
Why do I flee from this feeling?
That world is calling

Everyone’s the same
Can’t seem to escape from their old ways
Free will’s to blame
But we weren’t born to regret anything

Forever and ever we live our lives on fire
Facetious desire we hold our dreams up high
One more step until I’m free
One last breath to breathe

Funny how the truth works out
When you open your mind and see
You can’t believe the simple things
If you have a bit of curiosity

Concept and inspiration

This song was inspired by the idea of embracing the absurd and the belief that searching for meaning can itself give life purpose.

Rather than trying to explain that philosophy directly, I focused on capturing the emotional side of it—curiosity, uncertainty, freedom, and reflection—and translating those feelings into both the lyrics and the overall atmosphere of the track.

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Songwriting

Songwriting 101: Waves

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Waves is a slow-tempo track built around a steady 75 BPM pulse.
I wanted this song to feel relaxed, intimate, and atmospheric, drawing from the kinds of moods often found in downtempo, chill-out, ambient-leaning electronica, and soul-influenced productions.

Rather than letting genre define the tempo, the goal here was emotional pacing—creating space, warmth, and subtle movement.

Starting with tempo and groove

For groove-driven and electronic-leaning music, it’s very common to begin by locking in the tempo and feel before writing melodies or harmony.

After settling on 75 BPM, I built a core foundation made from:

  • a simple drum pattern, and

  • a supporting synthesizer part.

This groove acts as the backbone of the entire track and is repeated throughout almost the whole song, with only a brief break in the middle from:

1:29 – 1:42

Instead of constantly changing the groove, variation is created later through layering and arrangement.

Song structure

I chose a very simple overall structure:

A – B – A – B

Where:

  • A = verse

  • B = chorus

For this track, the form is intentionally straightforward. Because the song uses a fairly dense arrangement—ten instruments in total (including vocals)—a simpler structure helps keep the song clear and focused.

This is not a universal songwriting rule, but rather a practical production choice:
when many layers are active, a clean structure makes it easier for each part to be heard and understood.

How the sections are defined

In Waves, the verse and chorus are not separated by new chord progressions or large melodic changes.
They are defined almost entirely through instrumentation and density.

Verse

The verse is shaped by a gradual build:

  • it begins with the core groove,

  • a new instrument is added every two bars,

  • the verse ends when all instruments are playing together.

You can hear the full build complete at:

  • 0:51 and 2:33

Chorus

The chorus is defined by:

  • full instrumentation right away, and

  • the entrance of the vocal line.

The end of the chorus is marked when the bass drops out and plays alone, which you can hear at:

  • 1:29 and 3:11

Rather than using harmonic contrast, the song relies on textural contrast—how many elements are playing, and how they interact.

A note on the outro

There is a short outro at the end of the track.
I still describe the song as ABAB, rather than something like ABABA, because the outro is brief and does not function as a full structural section.

In practical analysis, short intros and outros usually do not need their own formal label unless they play a significant structural role.

Lyrics and imagery

Lyrics

Idealistic, utopian dream
The sun and the moon blend into
Pools of emotion, a feeling waves
Can’t you see everything I do?

My goal with these lyrics was to paint a visual scene in the listener’s mind.

For example, the line:

“The sun and the moon blend into pools of emotion”

combines concrete imagery (“sun,” “moon,” “pools”) with emotional language.
This allows the listener to picture a setting while still interpreting what that image represents emotionally.

The title Waves reflects both:

  • the visual idea of blending and motion, and

  • the emotional movement suggested by the lyrics.

Final thought

Waves is built around a small number of simple ideas:

  • a fixed tempo and groove,

  • a stable foundation loop,

  • and gradual changes in texture and density.

Rather than relying on complex harmony or frequent structural changes, the song uses arrangement and layering to create contrast and shape.

For this track, letting the instruments slowly evolve over time was the most effective way to support the calm, immersive mood I wanted to create.

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Songwriting

Songwriting 101: Goodbye

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For this song, I used one of the most common and effective pop/rock forms:

A – B – A – B – C – B

Where:

  • A = verse

  • B = chorus

  • C = bridge

In plain terms, the structure is:

Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Final chorus

This form works so well because the verse and chorus establish familiarity and momentum, while the bridge provides contrast before returning to a final, stronger chorus.

Verse – creating space for the vocal

The verse uses a simple two–chord loop:

  • G major → C major

In the key of G, this is:

  • I → IV

Rather than adding more harmony, I focused on arrangement to shape the section.

During the verse I use:

  • a lightly swinging feel,

  • palm-muted guitar,

  • and a complete stop in the middle of each verse.

This creates space and pulls the listener’s attention toward the melody and lyrics.
By reducing rhythmic and harmonic density, the vocal line becomes the clear focal point.

(If you want more help specifically on melody writing, I cover that in my 3 Tips for Writing Strong Melodies post.)

Chorus – increasing energy and harmonic motion

For the chorus, I remove the palm muting and switch to a more upbeat and open rhythm.
I also expand the harmony from two chords to four:

  • G major, C major, E minor, D major

In the key of G, these function as:

  • I – IV – vi – V

The chorus progression is:

G – Em – C – D – G – D – C

Rather than being harmonically complex, this progression works because it is:

  • longer than the verse loop, and

  • more active in its motion.

That added movement helps the chorus feel larger and more emotionally open than the verse.

Melody approach in the chorus

The chorus melody is created by taking a portion of the verse melody and giving it its own variation. This helps maintain familiarity while still making the chorus feel new.

One small technique I use is note length.
For example, I hold out the notes on the words “hate” and “goodbye” to make those lyric moments feel more emphasized and emotionally weighted.

Bridge – variation without leaving the sound world

For the bridge, I wanted to preserve the general energy of the chorus but still introduce contrast.

I keep:

  • a similar upbeat feel, and

  • the same overall chord set.

However, I change:

  • the rhythmic groove, and

  • the order of the chords.

The bridge progression is:

G – D – C – G – Em – C – G – D – C – Em – D – C – D

In the key of G, this uses the same functional chords:

  • I – V – IV – vi

but rearranges them to create a fresh contour.

Using color tones in the bridge

To help the bridge stand out, I also introduce color tones near the end of the progression.

By “color tones,” I mean emphasizing notes such as:

  • the 7th or 9th of the underlying chord in the melody (and occasionally in the guitar voicing).

These notes go beyond the basic triad and create brief moments of tension and warmth before resolving back into the chord. The color tones appear in the last four chords of the bridge progression to subtly increase intensity before the final chorus.

Lyrics and interpretation

Here are the lyrics:

Verse

Every day, I know what you’re thinking
“I’m a saint, living life still believing
In a fate,” well I think I found a reason to try and change.
Rest assured, something I’ll never be cause
Lines blur, you love to hate the demon
Little words, can best describe the feeling “I’m free at last.”

Chorus

But I’ll remember every single time
And I will never hate that life
But now it’s over, I’m looking for my voice
Just to say goodbye

Verse

It’s kind of hard, speaking the same old language
From the start, “10 candles light the way when
We fall apart,” just wash the pride away and find a heart
You are, the enemy of reason
Cross scarred, can’t seem to breathe when thinking
In the dark, hands on the tree of treason to trust in fate

Chorus

But I’ll remember every single time
And I will never hate that life
But now it’s over, I’m looking for my voice
Just to say goodbye

My approach to lyric writing

I believe effective songwriting leaves room for the listener’s own interpretation.

For example, phrases like:

  • “hands on the tree of treason”

  • “enemy of reason”

are intentionally suggestive rather than literal. They point toward an emotional situation without fully explaining it.

My goal is to find a balance between:

  • being clear enough for the listener to follow the emotional story, and

  • being open enough for the listener to project their own meaning onto the song.

Striking that balance helps keep the listener curious and emotionally engaged.

Final thought

This post is the first in a series of Songwriting 101 articles.
For now, I’ll be breaking down my own songs, but in the future I may also analyze well-known songs.

One of the fastest ways to grow as a songwriter is simply to dissect real songs and ask:

  • Why does this section feel bigger?

  • Why does this lyric stand out?

  • Why does this transition work?

That kind of focused listening is one of the best tools you can develop.

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