How to Write a Good Country Song

Co-authored by Tanisha Hall

Last Updated: June 22, 2022 References

A good country song is all about deep emotion and memorable music. It should make you ache for the singer’s loss and wish you could pick up a guitar and play along. To write a song like that, you’ll need to know how to brainstorm, write lyrics, and compose music the way that all the most successful country artists have in the past. As long as you do, you’ll be able to write a good country song like the pros!

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Brainstorming Ideas for Your Song

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Decide what themes you’ll deal with in your song. Country songs deal with themes like loss, heartbreak, betrayal, family, and faith. More often than not, they also tell a story. Decide what classic country themes you want to engage with and how you want to tell a story about those themes.^{[1]
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- For example, if you just broke up with your significant other, you could write about that.
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Think of a title for your song. One of the best ways to come up with song ideas is to think of titles and extrapolate from there. Listen for catchy phrases on TV, in movies, in books, and in real life and write them down in a notebook or on your phone to keep track.^{[2]
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- If you’re writing a song about breaking up with your significant other, the title could be “My Heart Left with You.”
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Come up with a hook based on your title. The hook is the part of your song that sticks in your head because it’s catchy. If your title is memorable, it can easily serve as the hook of your song. Play around with your title and different melodies to see what you come up with.^{[3]
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- Try to come up with lyrics or a melody that you can’t forget. If you can’t forget it, neither will your audience.^{[4]
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- The most memorable melodies have what is called a “money note,” a note that stands out because it’s exceptionally high, low, or long.^{[5]
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- If your song is called “My Heart Left with You,” the hook could be “But my heart left with you,” and you could drag out the note on “you.”

Part 2

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Writing the Lyrics for Your Song

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Build your chorus around your hook. The hook usually serves as the foundation of the chorus because if it’s catchy the audience should hear it as much as possible to make sure they remember it. It’s usually 1 line long and is often at the beginning or end of the chorus (or both) to help it stick out for the audience. Start with your hook, and write the other lyrics of your chorus from there.^{[6]
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- The chorus is usually around 4 lines long and should use vague lyrics that still key your audience in to the themes of the song.^{[7]
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- You should consider changing the vocal range for your chorus to make it stick out. Try singing an octave higher or an octave lower in the same key.^{[8]
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- The chorus to “My Heart Left with You” could be “I wish you could hear my heart breaking/With you gone, don’t know what to do/I wish you could hear my heart aching/But my heart left with you.”
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Write the first verse of your song. Use concrete imagery in your verses. Your verses are usually around 4 lines long should have specific examples to make the themes of your song hit home. Play around with different rhyme schemes to see what seems most memorable.^{[9]
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- Rhyme schemes often alternate between each line (you/me/too/please), but you can try others like (you/too/me/please) or (you/too/view/me) or (you/me/see/please).^{[10]
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- The first verse of “My Heart Left with You” could have lyrics like “I wake up every morning and the tears come right on cue/And I can’t keep down the breakfast that I’m eating without you.”
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Base your other 2 verses on your first verse. Once you’ve written the first verse of your song, you can write the next two verses of your song pretty quickly. The other verses should be patterned after the first while providing new information and imagery.^{[11]
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- The second verse of “My Heart Left with You” could have lyrics like “At work the hours fade away and I lose all sense of time/Cause without you I don’t care for money and my job ain’t worth a dime.”
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Include a bridge in your song to add lyrical and musical contrast. The bridge is usually around 4 lines long and breaks up the monotony of your song by adding something new, different, and possibly unexpected. Bridges are like another chorus for your song: they’re usually vague, but they deal with the theme in a new way that adds some flavor.^{[12]
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Tanisha Hall
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Expert Interview. 27 March 2020.}
- Try playing around with the same imagery from your chorus, but present the imagery in a new way.^{[13]
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- The bridge to “My Heart Left with You” could have lyrics like “There’s a hole in my chest where a heart should be/And there’s a hole in my life where you used to love me.”

Part 3

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Composing the Music for Your Song

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Stick to simple keys and rhythms. The majority of country songs are written in the most common major keys (G, A, C, D, E, and F) and use straightforward rhythms. Start off by trying to write the song in a common key and a 4/4 time signature (the beat lasts about 1 second long and there are 4 beats per measure).^{[14]
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- Most songs usually transition from one chord to the next after 1-2 measures, or 4-8 beats (strums).
- Country songs also usually follow the same chord progression: the first chord in the key’s scale to the fourth to the fifth and back to the first.^{[15]
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- If “My Heart Left with You” is in the key of G, the chord progression would be G major to C major to D major and back to G major.^{[16]
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Build your music around a guitar. The guitar (acoustic or electric) is the backbone of any good country song. When you’re writing your song, use a guitar as the accompaniment. Start off with a simple up and down strum pattern along with the beat, and as you sing you can test out more complicated strum patterns that might go with the melody.^{[17]
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- For “My Heart Left with You,” try an acoustic guitar with some blues strings for a more mournful sound.
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Add in other classic country instruments. After you’ve written the song with your guitar, you can start to add in other instruments, like the fiddle, banjo, harmonica, and pedal steel guitar. Together, these instruments will give your song that classic country feel.^{[18]
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- If you want a really classic country feel, you can also add in instruments like the washboard, mandolin, autoharp, and accordion.^{[19]
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- Your other instruments should be played in the same key and time signature as your guitar, but the rhythms and melodies can be different, however. Play around with your original melody and some scales to see if you find something new that you like.
- For “My Heart Left with You,” you could try adding in a harmonica and a fiddle to accent your mournful tone.

Songwriting Help and Sample Song

Basic Tenets of Country Songs

Country Lyrics Pitfalls to Avoid

Sample Annotated Country Song

Expert Q&A
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Question

How do you write a country song in 5 minutes?

Tanisha Hall
Songwriting Instructor
Tanisha Hall is a Vocal Coach and the Founder and Executive Director of White Hall Arts Academy, Inc. an organization based in Los Angeles, California that offers a multi-level curriculum focused on fundamental skills, technique, composition, theory, artistry, and performance at a conservatory level. Ms. Hall's current and previous students include Galimatias, Sanai Victoria, Ant Clemons, and Paloma Ford. She earned a BA in Music from the Berklee College of Music in 1998 and was a recipient of the Music Business Management Achievement Award.

Tanisha Hall

Songwriting Instructor

Expert Answer

Support wikiHow by unlocking this expert answer.

It's going to be pretty difficult to write anything especially powerful or dynamic in only five minutes! If that's really your goal though, you may want to jot down ideas as they come to you. Whenever inspiration strikes, put it down on paper. Then, you could put your ideas together and arrange them when you have a lot of material to work with. Still, you shouldn't focus on how long the process takes or just try to churn out songs super quickly. It's more about enjoying the songwriting process and engaging in your love of music.
Question

How do I come up with the lyrics for a song?

Community Answer

Use a personal experience or story. Heartbreak, love, family, friends and work are common topics you can use for inspiration.
Question

Can I say anything I want in my song?

Community Answer

Not necessarily, because you want it to make sense to the people listening to it, and you may not want to offend those people either.