How to Write a Folk Song: Structure

Video Transcript

"CODY KIMMEL: Hi. My name is Cody Kimmel, and I'm the lead singer of the band Eliot Fitzgerald, and I'm here with the Expert Village to teach you how to write a folk song. In writing a folk song and when thinking of the song structure, it's important to remember ultimately the purpose of the folk song which is, in fact, to tell a story that has either a moral or some form of ethical protest or political protest or something like that, it has something to say. It's not just a story for the sake of a story; it has a point to it. And because of that, the song structure for folk songs are oftentimes much simpler whereas in rock or in hip-hop or in pop or even country, you might have a pre-chorus added in here, you might have an intro, you might have an outro, you might have all these different things; with folk, the song structure itself is going to be very basic. You have a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus or something like that. This is the tempo we're going to be using today for the song that I've written as an example of folk song. Now, one thing that is important to note though that you would not and should not be limited to two verses within a folk song. You should really include as many verses as it takes to tell the story that you're trying to tell and to make the point that you're trying to make, but if you're just starting out and this is your first time writing a folk song, let's stick with this song structure because this is going to be something that is very common, commonly found within the folk genre and this will be just a good way to kinda get comfortable with the genre and get comfortable with writing it."