How to Write a Rock Song: Tips and techniques to write great songs in this popular genre of music that originated in the mid-1950s (as Rock n Roll) and is today an international style known as rock music. Rock Music is a Genre that influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language.
What is Rock Music (Definition)?
Rock music is a type of popular music that developed out of rock’n’roll in the 1960s and 1970s. Characteristics include amplified instrument sounds, heavily accented beats and heavy usage of electric guitar, bass and drums.Rock Music History
Rock music’s origins goes back to the late 1940s, when country and blues (popular styles at that time) were blended to produce a new sound.
Read more on origins of Rock music on Wikipedia
It grew out of the rock’n’roll, which itself was inspired genres like country and rhythm & blues. Pioneer rock artists relied heavily on classic blues structures. Since then, rock music has been constantly evolving, and today several subgenres of rock music exists (inspired by music from all over the world).
Instruments Used in Rock Music
In the earliest rock and roll styles, piano or saxophone would often be the lead instrument, but these got replaced with the guitar (around mid-1950s).
Classic rock and roll is usually played with electric guitars (one lead, one rhythm), a string bass or (electric bass guitar), and a drum kit.
Sub-Genres of Rock
Over the years, several sub-genres of Rock emerged. Let’s take a look at some of the more popular subgenres of Rock music.
- Alternative Metal: This stye features furious solos and accelerated tempos, uses abrasive sonic textures. Key Artists: Tool, Staind, Korn
- Hard Rock: Pounding drums and loud guitars, more volume and up-tempo urgency. Interestingly, hard rock artists perform the occasional ballads as well. Key Artists: Velvet Revolver, Hinder, Buckcherry
- Industrial: Harsh musical form (illustrates the disharmony of contemporary life) full of discordant noise, synthesizers and drum machines. Key Artists: Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, White Zombie
- Post-Grunge: Heavy guitars, mid-tempo arrangements (between plaintive ballads and aggressive rockers). Key Artists: Nickelback, Creed, Shinedown, Tantric
- Rap-RockMerges the two genres, features turntables, guitars and rapped vocals.
Key Artists: Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine
Characteristics of Rock Songs
The moment you talk about rock songs, listeners associate it with high energy.
These songs tend to have:
- Fast tempo
- Loud volume
- Catchy Riffs
- Action, excitement, and even aggression
- Short sentences
However, at the basic level, it is not very different from writing a song in a different style.
Catchy Chorus
You need a great chorus, else what are your fans going to chant in unison at concerts?
That’s a mark of a great Rock song!
Chorus has to be catchy, more important than the lyrics.
Guitar Solo
You need a good guitarist to help you out here, as every great rock song has a great guitar solo.
If you are a guitarist as well, then this is your chance to shine.
The guitar solo helps break up the song (there’s no bridge).
Most songs that are written usually follow a particular rule; so you’ll find many songwriters & musicians follow this approach:
- Start with Lyrics
- Create the Melody
- Add Rhythm and Harmony
Having said that, I would also like to mention straightaway that when it comes to music, there are actually no hard and fast rules, but more of guidelines. So there are many who are also comfortable with a different sequence.
More Suggestions
Some songwriters may have a different opinion here, and also depending on the type of rock song (there are several types), the following may apply:
Does Lyrics Need to Make Sense?
Looking at some of the popular rock songs, it seems as if the lyrics can be insignificant so long as the music is loud and catchy enough.
There are several hit songs that talk about dragons, medieval knights, etc, and I’m sure even if you replace those with some other topics, the fans couldn’t have cared less, which brings us to the next point.
You Need to be a Rebel
That’s what I meant, “who cares” is the attitude that works.
At the core, it’s about rebelling. Even if you go back in time, anti-establishment attitude made this genre of music popular.
So keep that in mind while writing.
Sex Sells
Again, this is something that applies to most forms of music.
Singing about this topic is still easy money, and can help make any rock song a hit.
Also, it’s important for rock musicians (for musicians of any genre actually) to have a good grasp of music theory.
Songwriting Skills
You will also need the following skills, irrespective of the style that you are writing for.
- You need to create musical ideas
- You need to create lyrical ideas
- You need to arrange these ideas into formats that best suits the style of the song
As you can see, the first two is what you need to learn and master to come up with great rock songs.
Practice
If you’re frustrated with your songwriting ability, maybe you are not writing enough.
This first thing that you need to improve is your musical ideas creating ability; you should be able to generate hundreds of ideas quickly.
And the second technique deals with writing lyrics, which should be written keeping in mind the characteristics of a rock song!
Do this regularly and soon you’ll be writing lyrics that is full of excitement, power, and emotion.
Music Theory for Beginner Rock Guitar Students
If you’re a budding guitar layer, i’m sure you would have come across some rock musicians who would proudly boast that they ‘knew nothing’ about music (and there are several of these kinds).
And the most common reason they give is that music theory just doesn’t apply to what they’re playing.
However, the fact is that music theory is a vast subject, so certain things that apply to other music genres may probably not apply to rock music. But there are several things that are done over and over in rock music, and you can easily apply those concepts here.
Here are a few beginner level things that you should practice on a regular basis.
- Major, minor and pentatonic scales (preferably in all keys). Classic rock uses pentatonics, punk usually sticks to major. Useful to improvise and to create solos and licks.
- All major and minor chords in various positions and inversions. Learn about Chord extensions and substitutions.
- Chord progressions in various keys.
Here is an example given for the key of C:
Key C: I ii iii IV V vi (bVII), which means you play the chords C Dm Em F G Am (Bb)
Also Read:
Jerry Lewis Rocks (and Rolls) in ‘Rock-a-Bye Baby’ (1958 film) – Video
Classic Jerry Lewis – Rock N ‘Roll, scene From Rock to Bye Baby (1958 movie). This video is dedicated to all the fans of the artist.
This is from the 1958 comedy called Rock-A-Bye Baby, which stars Jerry Lewis as Clayton Poole, a small-town TV repairman whose former sweetheart, Carla Naples (played by Marilyn Maxwell), becomes a movie star.
Amazing that he did those hilarious dance steps with the Gibson ES-175 (with P90s) in hand, and surprisingly Jerry didn’t trip over the guitar lead (glad that he didn’t because the video has come out really well).
And he also plays the drums, impressive.
And because the movie was filmed in 1958, Lewis, his fake band and the song are clearly parodying Bill Haley & His Comets, who released an album called Rockin’ Around the World that year and Rockin’ the Oldies the year before.
Enjoy the video.
They don’t make ’em like that any more. Silly, but Entertaining & BRILLIANT!
Useful Links
To Conclude
The more important part is to use these tips and techniques regularly so that it becomes second nature to you. Be sure to use these techniques and you will soon be writing stuff that will impress your listeners. If you want to know how to write a rock song, these are the tips that you should follow.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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