Or you may run into the following problem. The words are perfect. The meter is perfect. The song is three minutes and twelve seconds of perfection. It just sounds a little weird in places and doesn't blow you away in others. You thought it would work itself out if you just sang it for a week or two. That didn't happen. It's time to sit down and fix the problem.

Differentiating Parts of a Song

If the melody is good but it just doesn't go “bang” when it hits the chorus, there are a number of ways to fix this problem. First, look at the overall melodic range of the song. Is it too narrow? If so, try moving the chorus melody up a third or the verse melody to a fifth harmony in the octave below the melody. You might have to make some adjustments, but it's a starting point.

Now, let's take a look at the tessitura — a factor describing where, within the melodic range of a song, a certain section spends most of its time. If you have a good melodic range in the song, but the parts still sound a lot alike, look at the tessitura to identify problems. It could be that the verse has a couple of low notes in the first line, then jumps up into chorus territory for the remaining three lines. To solve this, try reserving the top few notes of the melodic range for chorus use only. The opposite can be done as well, with a few notes on the bottom being used only in the verse. Overall, you generally want a lower tessitura for the verse and a higher one for the chorus. This doesn't mean things can't overlap, just that they should have significant differences.

Pay Attention to Continuity

What if the melodies of two adjoining sections are so different that they don't seem to connect? Sometimes this can be a tessitura problem. Look at where the notes are in the end of the first section. Are they more than half an octave away from the notes that begin the next section? If so, you can try changing the melody of the last line of the first section to “walk up” into the next section. Alternately, you might try starting the first line of the second section lower and “walking up” from there. Sometimes a combination of these two approaches can work.

If that doesn't do it, you might consider writing a two-line lift that provides a buffer zone. A lift usually has elements of the melody and meter of both sections. Sometimes, though, it will be totally different from one or both sections. The important thing is for the lift to create a workable musical connection to the sections on either side of it to help make the transition work. Of course, it'll probably need lyrics and it might make your song too long, so make sure you have extra time and something to say.