Finish your own song

A whole song in this grid fits in a link: about four characters per note, plus eight letters for the chords.

You now have every tool you need for an eight-bar song: a melody with a clear shape, a motif that repeats and changes, chords under it, a rhythm with long and short notes, and two phrases that ask and answer. This unit puts them together in a working order. Writing a song rarely goes in a straight line, so treat the steps below as a plan you can come back to, not a rule you must follow from top to bottom.

Step 1: chords first or melody first

Songwriters start both ways. If you begin with chords, choose four for bars 1 to 4 and four for bars 5 to 8. A safe plan is to end bar 4 on G (V) and bars 7 and 8 on G then C (V then I). The grid in this unit already holds that plan: C, Am, F, G, C, F, G, C. If you begin with the melody, hum or tap a one-bar motif first and add chords afterwards with the bottom row or the Suggest chords button.

Step 2: the motif and the first phrase

Write bar 1 with notes from its chord on beat 1, then build bars 2 and 3 from it with a repeat, a variation or a sequence. Let the line climb a little. In bar 4, stop on re, sol or ti and hold it, so the first phrase asks a question. Play it back several times at a slow tempo. If a note on beat 1 sounds sour against the chord, move it one row up or down until it turns solid.

Step 3: the answer and the high point

Press the copy button so bars 5 to 8 repeat bars 1 to 4. Keep bar 5, perhaps bar 6, and rewrite the ending: reach the highest note of the song in bar 6 or 7, then walk down by step to do in bar 8 and hold it for the whole bar. Check the panel: bar 4 should read open and the last note closed. The picture below shows one common plan, with the letters marking ideas and the boxes in bold marking the two endings.

Step 4: rhythm, tempo and sound

When the notes are settled, give the rhythm some life. Switch on Split beats if you want eighth notes, lengthen the notes that end phrases, and leave one or two empty cells so the tune can breathe. Try the tempo at 72 and at 120 bpm: a slow tempo suits a gentle tune with long notes, a faster one suits a busy tune. Then compare the two instruments. The piano sound sustains each note for its full length; the pluck sound, made with a plucked-string model, rings and fades by itself like a guitar or harp string. Finally pick a chord rhythm: once a bar for a calm feel, every beat for more drive.

Step 5: share it

Press Share link. The song maker writes the whole song into the address: tempo, instrument, chords and every note, about four characters per note. Anyone who opens the link sees this page with your song loaded in the first grid. Nothing is uploaded or stored on a server; the song lives only in the link, so keep a copy if you want to come back to it. Use your own melodies. Copying a melody from a song that is still under copyright and sharing it is not the same as writing your own, even if the grid makes it easy.

Try it

The grid below starts with the chord plan C, Am, F, G, C, F, G, C and an empty melody. Follow steps 2 to 5, play your song from start to finish with Loop on, and fix one thing each time it comes round. When the panel shows an open bar 4, a closed last note and at least one repeat, make a link.