Blank paper
A hummed phrase, one line you still remember, a suspicion that the second chord is wrong. This half is everything that has not been written down yet: no rhyme, no bar count, no key.
Filled
"A chorus does not get louder. It gets narrower."
The gap between the two halves is the whole job.
Songwriting, taken apart
Songfinding is a working library of songwriting decisions. Each entry takes one stage of the job and shows the move you can make in it, with the structure, the rhyme scheme, the chord degrees and the bar counts written out so you can check them against your own song.
The pipeline
Four segments, in the order a song actually moves, each carrying the newest published entry for its stage. Bridge work has no segment of its own — it sits in the list below and in the tree at the left.
Most recent
- 8 Oct 2026Case: The Shrinking Verse — 8 Lines, Then 6, Then 4案例：递减的主歌——八行、六行、四行Verse
- 6 Oct 2026The Dynamics Map: Arrangement Decisions Made While Writing动态地图：在写作过程中做编曲决定Verse
- 4 Oct 2026Place-Name Verse: Rhyming With a Town You Have Actually Been To地名主歌：用一个你真去过的小镇来押韵Verse
- 1 Oct 2026Seven Ways to Vary One Chord Loop Without Changing a Chord在一个和弦都不改的前提下变化同一个循环的七种方法Verse
- 29 Sep 2026Two-Chord Seed: A Song Built on Em-C, and Where It Needed a Third两和弦种子：一首建立在 Em-C 上的歌，以及它在哪里需要第三个和弦Idea
- 27 Sep 2026Voice Memo Triage: Turning Four Hundred Fragments Into a Short List语音备忘分诊：把四百个碎片变成一张短清单Idea
- 24 Sep 2026Walk and Hum: A Forty-Minute Filter With No Phone边走边哼：四十分钟不带手机的筛选Idea
- 22 Sep 2026Melody Before Words: Writing a Tune on a Neutral Syllable先旋律后歌词：在中性音节上写一条旋律Idea
- 20 Sep 2026Borrowed First Line: What a Public-Domain Lift Costs a Song借来的第一句：从公有领域借一句要付出什么Idea
- 18 Sep 2026Vocal-First Demo: Recording the Voice Before the Chords人声优先小样：先录人声，再贴和弦Demo
- 16 Sep 2026The One-Take Demo: Five Minutes of Setup, One Pass, No Click一遍过小样：五分钟架好，一条录完，不开节拍器Demo
- 14 Sep 2026Bridge Prompt: Two Lines the Narrator Would Never Admit桥段命题：两行叙述者绝不会承认的话Bridge
How to use the library
Start from the stage you are stuck in, not from the top. The tree on the left is the only taxonomy here: idea, verse, chorus, bridge, demo. Every entry prints its own key, rhyme scheme and bar structure, so you can carry the numbers straight back to your own song instead of carrying away a feeling.
Entries marked Exercise can be finished in one sitting. Entries marked Breakdown take one song apart bar by bar. Entries marked Technique are the reusable moves. Publication dates are printed on every entry: new ones go out a few at a time rather than arriving in a heap.
There are 25 entries published so far, spread across all 5 stages.
Every stage
- VerseBreakdownCase: The Shrinking Verse — 8 Lines, Then 6, Then 4
案例：递减的主歌——八行、六行、四行
F# minor (F#m–D–A–E), drop D tuning · ABCB across both verses
- VerseTechniqueThe Dynamics Map: Arrangement Decisions Made While Writing
动态地图：在写作过程中做编曲决定
D major (D–A–Bm–G), drums enter at verse two · AABB in verse one, ABAB in verse two
- VerseExercisePlace-Name Verse: Rhyming With a Town You Have Actually Been To
地名主歌：用一个你真去过的小镇来押韵
Any; use the same two chords for all eight lines · ABAB, with the place name used as the rhyme itself
- VerseTechniqueSeven Ways to Vary One Chord Loop Without Changing a Chord
在一个和弦都不改的前提下变化同一个循环的七种方法
A minor (Am–G–F–G) with a modified second pass · ABCB
- IdeaBreakdownTwo-Chord Seed: A Song Built on Em-C, and Where It Needed a Third
两和弦种子：一首建立在 Em-C 上的歌，以及它在哪里需要第三个和弦
E minor (Em–C), capo 4 to put the melody between D4 and B4 · ABCB
- IdeaTechniqueVoice Memo Triage: Turning Four Hundred Fragments Into a Short List
语音备忘分诊：把四百个碎片变成一张短清单
n/a — this is a cataloguing method · n/a