BREAK MY HEART: 

How to Dial Up the Emotional Appeal of Your Songs 

Songs can make people jump up and dance… or shut up and listen.  
 
They can make people start belting in the car with their friends… or 
curate a wedding playlist.  
 
The audience’s reaction can be immediate. Listeners may not be 
able to tell you exactly​ why​ they love a particular song. Just that they 
love how it makes them ​feel​. 
 
Everyone feels emotion, but not everyone knows how to express it. 
Here’s where you come in: writing songs. S ​ ongs are all about 
emotion​, and good songs elicit strong emotional responses. They 
can literally make people feel – up, down, mellow, angry, sexy, in love, 
sorrowful, and everything in between. 
 

 
 
Writing a song that your audience can instantly relate to is a 
two-stage journey. There’s what you express and how your audience 
responds to it. The things that move people are not always obvious. 
 
There’s good news.​ It’s possible for you to deliberately ramp up 
the level of emotion in your songs, ​regardless of the actual 
emotion you're going for or the genre you're working in. 
 
By combining subtle techniques and broad brushstrokes, you can 
amplify a song’s emotion. Here are three things that influence the 
listener’s emotional response: ​the words you use, the chords you 
choose, a​ nd​ the melody you make. 
#1: The Words You Use 
 
Lyrics are meant to be heard rather than read. They have to be 
impactful and easily remembered. But most of all, they should evoke 
an emotional response. ​Emotive language​ makes an audience f​ eel 
something. ​The words you choose ​at every level of your song 
contribute to the emotions your audience will feel. 
 
Here are two great examples: 
 
This is the first part of verse 1 of ​Back to Black​ by Amy Winehouse​. 
 
He left no time to regret 
Kept his dick wet 
With his same old safe bet 
Me and my head high 
And my tears dry 
Get on without my guy 
 
For sure, she’s using rhyme and alliteration. But most of all, she’s 
being uncompromisingly direct with sexually explicit language. The 
message she’s sending is both upset and angry. She’s gutted. It 
confronts and enthralls an audience right away. Provocative, possibly 
shocking, but you can’t wait to hear more. 
 

 
 
Look at Hozier’s chorus of T ​ ake Me to Church​. 
 
Take me to church 
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies 
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife 
Offer me that deathless death 
Good God, let me give you my life 
 
Think about the ​nouns​ and v ​ erbs​ he chooses – church, worship, dog, 
shrine, sharpen, knife, death, God. They​ a ​ ll act as emotional triggers 
in the song’s challenge to religious hypocrisy and sexual orientation, 
using language of sacrifice: l​ et me give you my life! 
 
In both these examples, there are no wasted words. N ​ o fillers. 
Both lyrics express large and vulnerable emotions concisely. 
 
Finding the right emotional intensity in your lyrics depends on how 
you want us to feel. Remember, we (your audience) love to listen to 
emotional songs with high impact! Review your draft lyrics. Move 
them from conceptual, complex, or strictly factual to emotive and 
powerful by hitting the ​synonym switch​. 
 
Try substituting words that are “just ok” for words that slap you in 
the face. Use an o​ nline thesaurus​ to open up the possibilities. 
 
Use it on your ​nouns​ – is this new love or is it ​like a virgin​? 
 
Use it on your ​adjectives​ ​and​ ​nouns​ – is it a car or a ​little red 
Corvette​? 
 

 
 
Use it on your ​verbs​ – do I go to you or am I r​ unning up that hill​? 
 
Use a ​whole phrase​ – m ​ y momma don’t like you and she likes 
everyone. 
 
Then, there’s the music.   
#2: The Chords You Choose 
 
The harmony in your song provides an emotional canvas that creates 
movement​,​ tension​,​ a
​ nd​ resolution​. Your audience doesn’t often 
realize this. But you should, because you can use harmony to embed 
emotion ​into​ your song. 
 

 
 
At a basic level, ​major keys​ tend to create a positive, “happier” mood. 
While a minor key can set up a more downbeat, “cooler” feeling. But 
you can build tension and release – smaller “push-pull” moments ​– 
within your chord progression. 
 
A very well-known one is ​where the f​ ifth ​or​ V ​ ​-chord​ (dominant) 
resolves​ to the I​ ​-chord​ (tonic). Let’s take the major chord progression 
I-IV-​V​-I​, e.g., ​C-F-G-C​. The fifth chord (​V​) – G major in this case – 
creates a short moment of tension. That tension is relieved by 
playing the ​I​ chord when you finish with C major. 
 

 
 
You can heighten this uneasy feeling by adding a s​ eventh t​ o your 
fifth chord​. ​G major is a triad made up of 3 notes: G, B, and D. If you 
add the seventh note of the scale, you make G7 – G, B, D, and F. 
 
This gives an even more unstable edge to the progression ​C-F-​G7​-C​. 
And you could make it longer as C ​ -F-G-​G7​-C​.​ It makes hitting the 
final C major even more satisfying. The resolution will feel even more 
satisfying to your listeners, even if they don’t realize it’s happening. 
 

 
 
You can add small elements of tension into your songs by using 
chord extensions​. E
​ xtended chords​ have added (extended) notes 
beyond the seventh​. Commonly, they use the second, fourth, and 
sixth notes of a scale but an octave up. So they’re called ​ninths, 
elevenths, and thirteenths​. 
 
Sounds complicated, but it can be very simple. For example, check 
out ​America’s ​A Horse With No Name​‘s ​Em9​ – ​D6/9​ progression. 
 

 
 
Suspended chord​s are a great source of emotion. They work by 
removing the ​third​ of the chord​ (the note that tells us if a chord is 
major or minor). It’s replaced with the fourth (e.g., C
​ sus4​ = C F G) or 
the second (e.g., C
​ sus2​ – C D G). They give a sense of space and 
motion. 
 
Tom Petty’s ​Free Fallin’​ runs entirely between F, Fsus4, and Fsus2. 
But you can also throw a ​suspended chord​ in just once in your 
progression, e.g., C
​ -​Csus2-​F-G-​G7​-C​. 
 

 
 
Use ​non-diatonic​, or “​out of scale”​ c
​ hords that aren’t found in the 
key you’ve picked. They can bring surprise and intrigue to your song. 
Usually this means substituting a chord that’s normally major for a 
minor or vice versa. 
 
Radiohead​ d​ id both with two non-diatonic chords in C ​ reep​. 
 
Diatonic chords used in their chosen key of G major are: 
 

 
Creep’s ​progression​ ​should​ be G ​ major​ - B
​ minor​ - C
​ major​ - C​ major 
again. But instead, they decided to mix it up and create a creepy 
feeling: ​G major​ - ​B major​ ​(r​ ather than B minor​) - C
​ major​ - ​C minor 
(​rather than just C major​). 
 
Using these non-diatonic chords creates that fantastic “unexpected” 
feeling. 
 
Now let’s move on to the catchiest part of the song: the melody. 
 
 

#3: The Melody You Make 

 
You can also pump emotion into your song while writing your 
melody. It works hand in glove with both lyrics and harmony. When 
a melody falls or rises, it catches our ear. The overall shape or 
contour ​of the tune keeps us interested in the direction it’s headed. 
 
Often, the chorus is the climax of this contour. Y​ ou can vary the 
direction and the shape of the melody. L ​ ifting us up to the chorus 
will add contrast between the verses, the chorus, and the bridge. Or 
keep it flat, and we’re gasping for something to change. 
 

 
 
Melodies are made from small groups of notes, called ​motifs​, that 
are r​ epeated in patterns​.  
 
And it’s Goldilocks time! Too much repetition, we get bored. Not 
enough repetition, we get lost. It’s gotta be just right, and definitely 
singable. 
 

 
 
We need contrast and surprises too. But the whole thing has to hang 
together so we hear it as a tune in its entirety rather than unrelated 
chunks of music. 
 
Sometimes lyrics will dictate the r​ hythm​ of the melody and, 
therefore, its emotional color. Slow, descending long notes come 
across as calming, while short staccato or rapidly repeating notes 
tend to add excitement to the song. 
 
But melody can also change how we deliver words. A famous 
example is the way Whitney Houston sang Dolly Parton’s song, ​I Will 
Always Love You​. Extra time on each syllable emphasizes the 
emotional weight. 
 
Melodies can ascend or descend note by note in ​steps​, in short 
jumps or ​skips​,​ and larger distances or l​ eaps​. 
 
The  relative  distance  in  pitch  between  notes  is  called  an  ​interval​. 
Intervals  can  charge  a  melody  with  so  much feeling that the interval 
can  be  a  song’s  “signature.” Listen to the octave jump in S​ omewhere 
Over the Rainbow​. 
 
Here are some more examples of songs’ signature intervals​ to wrap 
your ears around. 
 
We can cope with big leaps if there’s repetition and a stepwise 
resolution after a leap. Or after a drop like in Michael Jackson’s 
chorus for M ​ an in the Mirror​. B
​ ut add​ ​too many leaps or falls, and 
you start to mess with singability​. 
 
Starting and ending​ n ​ otes​ contribute to how emotionally settled 
your song is. Starting every note on the first beat of the bar on the 
tonic (​I​) quickly becomes static and, well... boring. However, hitting 
the tonic or root note in your chorus can land your song back at 
home base. 
 

 
 
 

Tying It All Together (10 Bonus Tips) 

 
Much of this comes from just trying things out. ​Songwriting relies 
on repeated improvising​. You won't sit down and write the perfect 
heartwarming melody fully formed on the first try. You start with 
something, decide which bits move you, upgrade, and redraft. 
 
Be aware of the levers you can pull to improve how your songs 
resonate emotionally with an audience. Here are ten things you can 
try right now to dial up emotion in your songs. One of them might 
change your life! 
 
LYRICS 
 
1. Use one higher impact verb (action word), e.g., she CRAWLED 
back, he RIPPED our love apart. 
 
2. Add one color (adjective), e.g., BLUE dress, RED sky, GREEN  
eyes. 
 
3. Add one body part of one of the song’s characters (noun), e.g., 
her FINGERS, his ARM, her FACE, his NECK. 
 
 
CHORDS 
 
4. “Unbalance” your verse by using the first chord of your 
progression for three beats of the bar and the second chord for 
the final beat, e.g., ​IV​-​IV​-​IV​-​vi​.
 
5. If the song is positive, change the bridge chords to the relative 
minor. But if the song is sadder, change the bridge chords to 
the relative major. 
 
6. Try doing a “chord audit” on your songs. Look through the 
songs you’ve written and find keys, progressions, and rhythms 
you use regularly. Then change that habit for your next song. 
For example, if you often use multi-chord progressions, try 
simplifying by writing a two-chord song. 
 
 
MELODY 
 
7. Draw the contour of your melody (how it rises and falls). If it’s a 
flat line, create a peak at the chorus and steer the melody 
towards the peak. 
 
8. If the whole verse melody is stepwise (climbs or descends note 
by note), add ONE larger interval UP or DOWN. 
 
9. If the verse and chorus have the same melody, make the notes 
twice as long in the chorus as those in the verse. 
 
10. If the verse and chorus have the same melody, start the verse 
melody on any beat other than the second or third beat of the 
bar. But start the chorus melody on the first beat of the bar. 
 
 
 
   
CONCLUSION 

Great songs have the ability to stir our emotions instantly with a 
heady combination of powerful lyrics, well chosen chords, and 
memorable melodies.  
 
To truly reveal the emotional core of your song, focus on each of 
these crucial components when you’re writing. Try out some of the 
steps above in your songwriting process. Think about what changes 
you could make, big or small, to turn the ‘feelings dial’ up another 
notch. We’ll love you for it!