Songs usually build energy as they proceed. Whether by using instrumentation, melodic range, dynamics (i.e., loudness), tempo, and rhythmic intensity, the end of your song should usually come across as more energetic than the beginning.
A song’s chord progressions should proceed from fragile to strong. A fragile progression is one that is perhaps tonally ambiguous or meandering, while a strong progression is one that clearly points to a tonic note and chord. Verse and bridge progressions can be fragile, but chorus progressions should be short and strong.
A song should show a steady harmonic rhythm. The term harmonic rhythm refers to how long you play a chord before moving on to the next one. Most songs will keep that pattern fairly steady, changing chords every 4 or 8 beats.
A song should show a strong relationship between melodic shape, lyrics and chords. When a melody rises to a high point, it’s usually for a good reason: you want to highlight something significant in the lyric. Good songs show a clear and important relationship between all components, to get the message across.
A song’s chorus will feature the tonic note and chord more often than the verse. The tonic note is the one that represents the key your song is in. It acts as a strong sense of “home”, and so chorus melodies are usually written to place special significance on that note and its accompanying chord. Verses can wander a bit more, avoiding the tonic note. But choruses need to feature that note as an important goal.
Chorus melodies usually sit higher in pitch than verse melodies. That’s because the human voice generates more energy in its upper range, and we obviously want more energy to occur in a chorus than in a verse.
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