What makes up a song?
We call a “song” (some people call them “tracks”) any piece of music or sound that appears on an album, even if it’s the only item on the album. No matter how short it is, it’s still a song: every audio file you send us is considered a song, even if it’s called “Part One” of a larger work. Songs are separate from one another, even if artistically they belong together as sections of a larger work.
• Melody: This is a succession of single notes, varying in pitch, that make up a recognizable musical phrase. The melody is usually the lead vocal part of the song—the part to which you can easily hum along. Writing melodies that are both pleasing to the ear and catchy, or memorable, can be challenging. • Lyrics: Words that a songwriter sets to music are called lyrics. They create the meaning and mood of the song and give listeners a story or emotion to relate to. Instrumentals are songs that contain no lyrics. • Rhythm: The time component of music, rhythm includes the tempo (pace) and beat (pulse). Most pop songs have the same rhythm throughout, though some change either the tempo or beat midsong. • Harmony: These are musical notes sounded together to create chords. The harmony is the musical foundation that supports the melody. Most songs contain a chord progression, a series of chords over which a vocalist sings a song’s lyrics.
For starters, instruments can produce a wide range of notes, and on some instruments, more than one note can be played at the same time. Musicians also have control over how long each note is held, how loud the note should be, and in what order to play the notes. A note belongs to a scale, and in Western music, it is usually made up of 12 notes (C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab, A, A#/Bb, B). Each note belongs to a specific octave, and together, the note and octave determine the particular pitch, or frequency, associated with it. For example, “concert A” is 440 Hz, and is often the first note that’s used to tune an orchestra. One interesting property of octaves is that each octave doubles the frequency. So, the note “A” one octave above “concert A” is 880 Hz. When multiple notes are played together, it’s called a chord, and the sound from each note is simply added together.
