[MUSIC PLAYING]
So how do we use imagery
in our own songs,
really apply this to
the writing process?
One way to think about it is
that the verse tells the story.
It carries the detail, the small moment.
And the chorus carries the big message.
So the small moment illustrates
why that big message is true.
The small moment needs to
come before the big message,
or the big message doesn't carry
the believability that it should.
[PLAYING ORGAN]
One way to approach using imagery
is to understand that, in the verse,
we're trying to answer some questions.
We can think about a song in
terms of where we use imagery.
The verse section tends to use
a lot of that showing detail.
It carries the story.
The chorus section
summarizes the main message.
So just knowing that
can help us determine
where to put the sensory language,
where to put the imagery.
In a verse-- let's say I'm
writing a song about an old truck.
The verse section might describe that
truck in the sense of the vinyl seats.
Maybe they're ripped.
Maybe the clutch has stuck sometimes.
Maybe there's no power steering.
So it's taking me some effort
to get where I want to go.
Maybe I'm describing the
feeling of driving over
jagged, rocky, dusty ground maybe.
The cap on the dash, the money jingling
around and making a sound every time
wheels bump over big rocks--
I'm describing to you a scene that
you may or may not have experienced.
But the beauty of that is you
might make some assumptions.
Relate to it in the sense that
you could understand my lifestyle,
the way I might feel and think
based on that experience.
So I'm setting up a scene to help
you to understand and engage with me.
It doesn't matter if
we're writing in I--
first person point of view.
It doesn't matter if that
scene is happening to me
or to a main character like a he/she.
But you will understand
the character's point
of view, the character's
life and experience,
through that scene I'm setting up.
And that's the verse.
The chorus then culminates in,
why is that scene valuable?
What do I want to say through
that example, that situation?
[PLAYING ORGAN]
So the verse expressed
what's happening, who
it's happening to, when it's happening.
Because that's that small moment.
Me driving the truck
is the small moment.
The where was only in that truck.
I didn't go other places.
I didn't park somewhere and
get out and go mail something.
I didn't-- it's only that truck.
So the who, the where,
and the what and the
when are all established in the verse
section of highly visual lyrics.
But the why, that comes in the chorus.
And the why expresses what is
valuable, what is thought and felt,
what is the meaning
behind the experience.
And so that's what our
choruses tend to do.
