THE ONE BIG THING
Ideas worth focussing on.
I was once in a songwriter seminar critiquing about 10 songs in an hour session and I realized that one problem continued to come through:
Too many ideas
As songwriters, it’s great to have loads of ideas. The more ideas, the better. However, if we communicate ideas to our listeners, it’s much better not to have too many ideas in the same song. In fact, any song should really have just ONE BIG THING.
What is a ONE BIG THING?
The ONE BIG THING is all about what a song is all about. It’s the main point of the story. It’s the idea we really want to get across in the song. It’s what the lyric is all about and what the music is also trying to say, with the same emotion and energy it needs to be used with.
There are many ways of saying what a ONE BIG THING is. But the five things I’m looking for in my own writing are:
A single idea
The heart of the song
The destination of the lyric
Clarity about what the lyric will be all about
Something resonating for both listeners as well as the singer
The more I started writing lyrics with this as a tool, i.e. having found the song’s ONE BIG THING up front, the more important it became as a commercial songwriter.
The ONE BIG THING is normally set out well in the chorus and, often, the song title too. This is why I love rhymes that can let people know something at the end of the chorus is about to say something rhyming and important.
What about other parts of the song? Well, sure, there can always be different approaches to get to the ONE BIG THING in the chorus. And maybe a completely different approach can be used in a bridge (if needed). But, to make an ok song into a killer song, each section somehow needs to come back to one thing: the BIG ONE THING.
Why the ONE BIG THING works so well
There are many reasons why it’s important to use the ONE BIG THING tool:
Telegramming – Deciding what the ONE BIG THING idea right up front allows the lyric of the song to telegram the idea in Verse 1 and lets listeners get ready for something important and meaningful happening in the chorus.
Avoid clutter – When there are two or three other ideas that people might think a song is all about, it can add a lot of clutter to the listeners. Avoiding the clutter (competing ideas) means everything in the lyric points towards just one thing: the ONE BIG THING idea.
Use competing ideas somewhere else – If two competing ideas exist, why not send them back to your Idea Bank (Link) to use in another song? Anything great ideas can be used in another song with a different ONE BIG THING in the heart of it.
It’s easier to write – By deciding the ONE BIG THING is there for the chorus, the rest of the song is generally a lot easier to write in the remaining sections. For example, it’s a great way to ask questions in Verse 1 and answers in Verse 2. Other ways of doing this you can find in my first book, Song Maps (Link)
Focus – Deciding on the ONE BIG THING idea means that rather than finding a million other ideas for song lyrics, it’s possible to focus on what each part of the song should be about.
Questions
Here are a few questions –
What’s songs in your library or playlists are written with just ONE BIG THING that embodies the whole idea behind the song?
Are there songs in your catalog that could maybe find a second idea in the song to add to your Idea Bank?
Is there a song in your catalog you’re not 100% happy with, that could be perhaps rewritten using this approach, using a ONE BIG THING idea to make it better?
Hope this helps!
Simon