Songwriting - a major contrast between verse and chorus hooks people in

I give some advice on songwriting on the main blog, but I mostly get other people to write that stuff for me.

My experience helps me pick a great song and I know some of the things that I am looking for - as we talk about in the '10 Key steps...' eBook - but I am NOT talented, technical or musical myself.

So, this article loses me after the first paragraph - but the first paragraph I understand very well and agree with.

If you're a writer and musician, hopefully you understand the stuff about keys and 'Aeolian mode' - I know what a key is, but that other thing???

The article references the idea to the current Bruno Mars hit - so you know massive hits obey the rule.

Contrast is one of the most important elements of successful songs. You want to contrast one section (a verse, for example) with another (the chorus) enough so that they're distinctive, but don't differ so much that they sound like they come from different songs. Without enough contrast, songs tend to sound long and boring, with chords, melody and lyrics coming across like a long run-on sentence. So how do you create enough, but not too much, contrast?

Read the whole post here.