Song construction tips?

[hardlock]

Hi all, I could use some advise on putting together a song I'm working on presently.

Right now it's about 2:30 min with 8, 8 bar sections long and could either be all leads or all vocals with what I have to work with.

Full verses are 3 sections and the chorus is 1 section long. Could go 2 full verses with choruses for a total of the 8 sections.

Obviously I should use 1 full verse and maybe 2 choruses with the rest lead? Would like to achieve a good balance with say a 4 bar lead intro, 2 verse sections, a chorus, lead, 2 more verse sections and ending lead but the 4th verse section seems to be a natural to end the piece on.

Here's the lyrics I'm working with that is published as a poem (book?) by Rose Milligan. It fits the melody I already have perfectly and I dig the moral of the story as well.

Thanks for any tips!

Ken H

[Farrell Jackson]

That is a wonderful poem to work with and allows you a lot of structure options. My favorite song structure is one or two verses, a chorus, a lead solo (same as chorus), and then move to a vocal bridge with different chords, followed by another chorus (or 2). My recommendation is to choose the 2nd poem verse as the repeated chorus. But that is just me. I'm sure whatever structure you choose will work fine. Have fun!

[hardlock]

Thanks much Farrell, that's a big help. Was having trouble using the last verse as the chorus twice so using the second one does fit much better.

[T.C. Elliott]

Not to throw a wrench in the plans but to offer another option, How about a structure like Verse, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo/lead, Chorus while using the third stanza as the chorus and the last as the bridge? I like the third as being a sort of outward, more encompassing theme as the chorus whereas the first two are more focused on things you can do at home or at least not out in the great wide yonder. Just an idea. Ignore me at your pleasure.

[hardlock]

LOL, no, not a wrench. All ideas are good.

I've now realized that the 2 musical parts I previously wrote used the 4th stanza as the chorus when sung so can't be switched around as I thought without re-"singing". Since the vocals are layers of left, right and center (and edited to death) I want to use as-is. I could start another thread on how to have pitchy vocals mixed to hide the pitchyness but I digress....  

verse: Am F Dm E
chorus:Gm A# F C w/E last

[T.C. Elliott]

Yes, you'd have to rerecord the vocals. There are pluses and minuses to that. I hate the extra "work" but it almost always gives me better results. The biggest hurdle in releasing my first ablum was the getting over the idea of rerecording all the songs for better results = hard work. When you realize it's an opportunity to fully realize its potential, much like taking a rough draft of a paper, book etc., and improving it, then it starts to become a bit less of a chore. A bit...