3 Musical Ways To Beat 2nd Verse Writer’s Block

If you’re an aspiring songwriter still learning the ropes, let me know if this sounds familiar to you at all…

You’re working on a new song idea and you’ve got the makings of a great chorus set in place. Perfect! The focal point of your song has been established and is now guiding you along the way. Awesome!. As a result, you manage to get verse written and structured how you want it.

Amazing!

All of a sudden, the dreaded question looms its ugly head. “Now what?”

This is a guest post written by guitarist & vocalist Aaron Cloutier.

You know it needs another verse but do you really want to repeat the same thing you did in verse one?
You start to doubt yourself. Thoughts screaming things like “Won’t repeating the same thing make the song sound boring?” “WILL it make it sound boring?” “Agh! I don’t know what to do now! I’m going to play video games instead.” begin to spin around in you head. Before you know it, you’ve thought yourself into paralysis.

Indeed! You’ve fallen prey to the dreaded “2nd verse writer’s block.” While there is no one way to write a song and balancing familiarity with variety is what good songwriting is all about, the usual cause for this type of mental blockage is that verse two sounds exactly like verse one and things get too repetitive and ultimately, boring.In this particular case, the challenge then becomes to create some kind of variety either musically or lyrically in some way to help make verse two stand out a bit more. Maintaining a sense of familiarity while introducing a bit of surprise.If you’re currently squaring off with the dreaded block, here are some musical approaches you can try out to make verse two stand out a bit more and breathe new life into your song.

1.) Change the Feel of the Drums (Normal Time to a Half Time Feel)

Sometimes, all you need is a different feel…Drums are the foundation of a song in so many ways. From the mix to the structure to the arrangement decisions you make, the drums are like the foundation of a house in a lot of ways.

By changing the feel of the drums, you can create a distinct rhythmic line of demarcation to separate the two verses.

Let me explain…

For example: Let’s say you have a fast, upbeat pop-punk groove happening during verse one. Let’s say that the kick is landing on beats “1” and “3” of each measure while the snare is landing on beats “2” and “4”. Let’s go even further to say that you like this type of thing! (Yay!) To you, this feel captures the energy and vibe of how you want the listener to be introduced to the song as it leads them into your epic chorus.

Awesome!

What you soon discover however is that verse two needs something. All the other instruments (bass, guitar, vocals) are doing the same thing in verse two as verse one and you feel like having the exact same drum beat would get monotonous.
You’ve set up the listeners ear to be primed for excitement but now you want to cool things down a bit…

A simple way to do that would be to shift the drum groove to a halftime feel.

This is achieved by having the kicks land only on beat “1” of each measure while each snare lands on beat “3” of each measure. These changes in feel can create a dramatic shift in how your song flows throughout.

Here’s a quick video to show you what I mean.

Using these contrasting rhythms can bring a refreshing sense of variety without changing any of the overlying harmony and melody of the other respective instruments in your song.

Another example off the top of my head done by people way more famous than me would be “Wait And Bleed” by Slipknot. Listen to how drastically the feel changes from just the drums alone between verses one and two.

If we’re counting time by listening to the hi hats which are playing steady 8th note patterns during both verses, notice how the snares land on beats “2” “4” “6” and “8” during verse one and then later landing on on beats “3” “7” and “8” during verse two.

Fills aside, notice how verse two creates a nice heavy halftime feel by placing
emphasis on whacking that snare on the “3” and “7.”

2.) Change the Vocal Melody (or Delivery.)

Add different notes and phrasing (or change the altogether) to the vocal melody. I hate to come off as lazy but I have to defer to “Wait And Bleed” from the mighty mutant nine once again. I can’t help it! It’s such a great example! Notice how singer Corey Taylor not only changes his delivery from melodic singing in verse one to brutally screaming in verse two. If that wasn’t enough, he also changes the
way he phrases his vocal patterns during the second verse. Adopting a slight hip hop influence that’s run through one of the most intense vocals during its time as far as contemporaries go.

Now clearly, I was not in the room with them when they were writing this but I can take an educated guess as to why they decided to change things up in the way that they did.

Let’s dive in a bit deeper.

When first pushing play, the song immediately introduces us to an incredibly catchy chorus.
This chorus is made up of the following four lines…

“I’ve felt the hate rise up in me
Kneel down and clear the stone of leaves
I wander out where you can’t see
Inside my shell I wait and bleed.”

If you listen, you’ll notice how the note F# is used on the lyrics “I felt” (first syllable of “felt” to be exact as it then drops down to an “E” on the second syllable.) during the chorus’ first line “I’ve felt” as well as in the third line “I wander.”

In verse one, the melody maintains a similar use of the F# at the beginning and is used during every single line. Once again, bringing a sense of familiarity to the listener while creating enough contrast with the rhythmic phrasing of the melody as well as the notes being used. Like the chorus, all notes are being pulled from the B minor scale.

Immediately following verse one is a repeat of the chorus. By this time, we’ve heard the chorus melody 4 times with a similar sounding melody in verse one. To repeat the same thing In verse two would most likely get fatiguing to the ear so the introduction of not only the halftime drums but the spastic aggressive vocal delivery makes for a nice sonic breath of fresh air…..(Cough) Here’s that link again.

3.) Add to the Song’s Arrangement
Let’s say you have two verses sandwiched together. Sometimes all you need is to add some extra instrumentation in the right spots to create a sense of variety throughout a repeating section. A great example of this is “Blow Up The Outside World” by the mighty Soundgarden.

In verse one, things are set up in hypnotic fashion with the following elements. Bass, drums, acoustic guitar (panned hard right) electric guitar (panned hard left) which accompany the following lines…

“Nothing seems to kill me, no matter how hard I try.
Nothing is closing my eyes
Nothing can beat me down for your pain or delight. No.”

This basic arrangement lasts from 00:13 to 00:51. Once verse two comes around the corner at around 00:52 mark , notice how the introduction of spacey lead guitar overdubs inject a bit of surprise while the later addition of tambourine at roughly 1:13 helps build a sense of momentum before exploding (no pun intended) into the chorus.

Another great example would be the super dance able “Eyewitness” by singer-songwriter producer extraordinaire Steven Wilson. It’s absolutely gorgeous to see how the song’s arrangement builds and builds while everything is held together by Wilson’s emotive vocals and clever use of ear catching rhymes through each verse.

From 0:44 – 1:08 Verse 1’s table is set with what my ear detects as synth, bass synth, drums and a single vocal.

In verse 2, (from 1:16 – 1:40 to be exact,) the intensity elevates just slightly with the addition of mid and high range synth, as well as some particularly incandescent sounding vocal harmonies. Buh-BOOM! Good stuff! To go even further, Wilson adds even more instrumentation in the form of bass guitar and piano to verse 3 (2:14 – 1:40) and subsequently kicks the emotional payload up yet another notch. All the while, the vocals still following the same melodic and rhythmic structures established in verse one.

Such a powerful track. I need to go listen to it again. In closing Hopefully by this point, you feel informed and emboldened to get back to those song ideas you put on the shelf to see what the possibilities can be. It can be a lot of fun to experiment with all of these respective approaches but perhaps just start by choosing one and see how things go.

If you keep the goal of maintaining listener interest fresh in your mind at all times during the process, trust your instincts and above all, try things out, you will escape the greedy clutches of the dreaded block.

Thanks for reading!
-Aaron-