You know, you want to write a hook. So boom, get confident, run at it, and write a hook. and when doing that, this is this. Sometimes what we can do is we do then write a wee bit side outside of ranges and things. We have to be careful when we’re writing these, hopefully really memorable lines. we can sometimes write them a bit too high or a bit too low for doing some really cool, like, DJ drop the boot, and suddenly we’re way out of range, and we’re going ba right? We’re way up there.
And we’ve kind of, and we’ve written something that’s  interesting and familiar and memorable, with great rhythm and intervals and everything, but it’s, you, you come to cut it and, and it’s like, oh, we’re in a different Octa and stuff. So just be aware of that. Don’t go, you know, it’s not an entirely separate part of a song. Sometimes people stick them on and they’re way up in a different part of the, the range for the singers. So just be careful. Make it part of the song. is, is a better way actually of putting that. It’s kind of in a comfortable range, but also part of the same song, not an add-on.
we can do that with post, choruses as well. Sometimes they’re a little bit on and try and let them relate to the rest of the song. Make them be part of, even if they’re oohs, in some way, let them be a reflection of the rest of the song. so what makes a hook or catchy melody? I put this in intentionally because I’m repeating, what we’ve already been through, and it’s for a reason. Â It’s ’cause you already know what I’m about to say. That’s the same in songs. Â Repeating stuff in songs feels good.
It’s literally, it’s the tension and release of, leaving home and arriving back, to home. So, when we hear something over again, we’re comfortable and it feels really good. It, it sates us. It kind of answers that suspension that we’ve been feeling in areas that we’re not aware of what’s coming. So repeating, it makes it stick, the contrast from previous sections that this is so worth repeating because it is often so, under, valued or, or, or ignored actually forgotten about.
You kinda write a song and you’ve written your verse, and you’ve written your verse, and then your pre chorus, and you’re going up and, but you’ve not made any production contrast. You’ve not made any rhythmical contrast, perhaps not even a lyrical contrast. Really. It’s not flipped. You’ve not started to  make your way out of the verse towards the chorus. You’re not making that bridging, that nice ramping gap up to the chorus. so  contrast is hugely, hugely important.
Really, really think about it both in strumming patterns and your guitars, dropouts, create tension and release and drama. You know, that’s, that’s even in the most intimate stuff. You know, you listen to, Billie Eilish, you know, the Future song at the moment, and how much tension and gorgeous release there is in that song, yet it’s so intimate and close. So this isn’t about just, you know, binary black and white.
It’s kind of just a really lovely way to make songs, blossom and then fold back into themselves. So, and then again, repeat. You know, this is again, that, that Billy other song’s a love, a lovely example for this. It’s just, when you come back to I’m in love with Matthew, you know, we, it feel feels so lovely to get back there. so repetition is absolutely key here. you know, I come from a, indie singer songwriter background where kind of feeling as though you were being told how to write a song, or that there was any rules or any formula was, you know, the kind of, punky ethos, would’ve had me spit and rip up any idea of a, of a, of a document on this.
 That’s not the case. This is more of a human nature, thing. This is more, you know, what tastes good. of course, we’re there to, to, to experiment and push and write with within these lovely, almost physical and natural laws.
But familiarity is a tool that we cannot avoid. Avoid. And no matter how cool you think, you know, oh, I don’t wanna repeat it, I’m just, I’m not, you know, the chorus can change, or I’m not gonna repeat the verse melody on verse two. Well, okay. But be prepared for losing connection with your listeners. And, and I don’t necessarily mean, you know, I sometimes people think that means that we’re talking just about commercial success. I’m talking about expressing myself emotionally and have someone hear it and feel it to.
 Now, that will result in commercial success. But if it’s only one person, then that familiarity of melody repeating in verse and verse two, of course, this is condensed massively into hooks.  That familiarity of hooks, and that catchiness is actually an emotional lance. It’s like a sword right to the heart, where you just can really grab people. You’ve got them in, and your message, therefore, is communicated so much more clearly.
 So, returning to a melody, it feels familiar and comforting. It’s tension and release, and it’s, and the contrast in the preceding section, I talked so much about this contrast, but the contrast in the preceding section, hence pre-course, is, you know, that contrast, is really just a kind of setting up. It’s almost like taking the dome off the plate in the, in the posh restaurant, you know, da da da, boom. Off it comes. And there’s the chorus. So it’s a lovely way to introduce, a section where there’ll be hooks.
there’ll be, can be hooks throughout songs, but most, more often than not, you’ll have your biggest hooks, in and around the chorus. Â So the contrast in the pre preceding section will really add texture and taste to that, and set it up for you. Â So, Â developing your melody. this is something that, as I’ve said, Â I used to think, because music quite rightly, feels, and indeed might come from a place, beyond our understanding at points, sometimes it would lead me, I believe now wrongly, to not want to mess with it.
I speak for myself here. I was wrong. I think I would’ve written better songs earlier had I started crafting what had come from my heart. You will have all, anyone that’s listened to me talk before, hear this, very frequently from from me, about the importance of writing from the heart.
Really have something to say that might be dj turn it up, but it might also be about someone you’ve just lost, or it’s, so that’s a full spectrI’m just saying, what’s your truth? Say that. but when you have, and, and that you’ve poured that out, and you can watch the other webinars that if you’re interested in me talking about that, then the other webinars go into great detail about that. Â but once you have that, then really do craft from your head, use this stuff, use this stuff that we’re talking about, that Martin talks about, that Shelly and all, and Jeff and all the other, mentors on the songwriting Academy talk about, really dig in.
and, you know, that kind of idea of the first thing that was, was in somehow it’s unpolluted and, you know, therefore it has some magical quality. Yeah. But it can be embellished and improved. It’s magical because it came from you and it didn’t exist before, but we can improve on it. So your first idea is a start, not a finish.  So what I really like doing is  I’ll sing just from my heart, and I’ve got my idea, and I’m very much writing from an emotional place.
So I’m talking to someone really, or I’m talking about someone to someone else. That’s where I am when I’m writing songs.  So therefore, that melody that comes out me will, will be a, a  sort of a carrier really for the emotion once I have that. And it might be, I might like it. but once I have it, I try, I get it out of my mouth and I get it under my hands on a piano.
Or if you play guitar or any other melodic instrument, and I actually play that melody,  I play that melody on an instrument, and then I develop it. So I think, oh, well wait a minute. I’m singing da da. And then I’ll just change. I think, oh, wait a minute. I could go and  I’ll start moving the odd note. And I just always find, a more engaging melody. Doesn’t need to be fancy.
This doesn’t mean mean that I’m suddenly away into, you know, lots more notes and, fancy pants stuff. It just means that there’ll be a, there’ll be more tension, more release, just more of my inner ear. Having time melodically to indulge itself rather than just my heart  when I’m writing lyrically and emotionally and creating a song. I want my melodic capacity to really come alive here. I’ve got it,  you know, under my hand on the piano, and I can start developing that melody.
