Hiya Margo

There are many times in my life where I am incredibly thankful that I grew up as the daughter of a Science teacher. This is one of those moments.

So when I was in elementary school, my Mom, Kristen Alger, began teaching as a middle school science and math teacher at my school. She taught my older sisters and I alongside our classmates biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. As such, when school let out, I would walk across the school to her classroom and work on my schoolwork in the back of her classroom while she held after school hours for her students.

Her passion project was the Science Fair. Before she began teaching, my school never sent students to the Regionals of the Science Fair. After her efforts, we were consistently sending students to the State Science Fair at our State Capitol. The State Science Fair was my Mom’s baby almost as much as I was.

As such, I had the scientific method drilled into me from a young age. My Mom had a handmade poster of the scientific method pinned on her corkboard at the back of her classroom and it became one of my favorite details in her classroom (other than her “own it!” button she had students hit after taking an exam).

Just in case y’all need a refresher from your 6th grade Science class, the scientific method has six main steps. You start by asking a question, then you research that question. Based on that research, you form a hypothesis, which is educated guess on what the answer to your question is going to be. After that step, you experiment to find the answer to your question and analyze the data you collect. Finally, you report your conclusions.

This is the framework of every single science paper, and when you have roughly 50 students submitting science projects every year for over a decade… well, you do the math. That’s a lot of science papers my Mom was reading.

While my Mom was reading these papers, I sat in the back of her classroom messing around with GarageBand on my iPad. At about 10 years old, I began writing my own songs and eventually picked up guitar in middle school. As I got older, I realized that a lot of songs are structured like a science paper with an introduction, hypothesis, results, and conclusion.

Sounds weird, I know, but hear me out! While songs often use different structures, in general, most songs in Western media follow this format:

Verse 1
Refrain
Verse 2
Refrain
Bridge
Refrain
End

Some songs flip this around – such as starting with the refrain or lacking a bridge – but in general, this is a very common framework used in songwriting. As an example, I have included a video of one of my songs, “Jello People.”

This clip comes from my performance on “The Beat” with Beatman Rich NaVarre, a music podcast based in Pensacola, Florida. On the show, we discussed the idea of using the scientific method as a songwriting framework and I used this song as my example.

Throughout this article, I will continue using this song as the example and break down how the lyrics of the song follow a scientific structure. You do not need to listen to the song for the rest of this article to make sense, but it may be beneficial.

Now, let’s line these parts of a song up with the sections of a Science Fair paper!

Verse 1 = Introduction

The introduction paragraph of a science paper introduces the question we are asking and touches on the research we did on said question. Usually, the entire scientific method is summarized in your introduction.

In a similar way, The first verse of a song usually introduces the main point of the song. It doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story, but it gives the essential points you need to know in order to understand the characters involved and the setting they are in.

As an example, I will use my song “Jello People”. The first verse of Jello People goes as follows:

I bounce from acquaintance to acquaintance
I never have connections or the patience
to form a bond that goes beyond some small talk
and some "How ya doin?"s

Those that know me know that I'm always on the move
'Cause I'm looking to see if I can find my groove
And while I'm fine alone, well, I'd
like some friends along the way
(is that a lot to ask for?)

This first verse introduces the idea of the song: that the singer interacts with a lot of people, but doesn’t necessarily connect with them. This idea is further explored in the refrain, also called a chorus.

Refrain/Chorus = Hypothesis

A hypothesis is not merely an idea: it is an educated guess about the state of the world. For example, if you are testing how two substances interact with one another in a chemistry lab, you would research the two substances individually to understand the chemical compounds that make up their matter and understand how those atoms interact with different stimuli. Then, based on that research, you would make an informed prediction about how you think they will interact with each other.

In songwriting, your refrain is the hypothesis. Just like the hypothesis, the refrain is the main point you want your audience to walk away understanding.

In a science paper, this statement follows a very clear format of, “If X happens, then Y will happen because Z.” Then, at the end of the paper, this statement is either proven or disproven. This clear format makes it easy for the reader to understand the main question the experiment is trying to answer and whether or not it had conclusive results.

Refrains are not that rigid, thankfully. However, they do fulfill a similar role. The refrain should make it clear to the listener why you wrote this song. It could be to tell a story, offer advice, critique society, or whatever else that inspires you. Whatever you are trying to communicate, it should be most clearly stated in the refrain.

Again, let’s use the lyrics from “Jello People” as an example:

In a world full of puzzles, I am Jello
I fit in every scene but it still feels incomplete
'Cause sure, I fit the mold 'cause I am mellow,
But I don't click in place. I just fill up the space
Inside

But inside
I want my heart to open wide
and slide in place with all my Jello People
and I think that you're my Jello People
I think I found my Jello mold in a world full of puzzling people.

As seen here, we see what the first verse in the above section was building up to. The main point the song could be summarized as “when you connect to everyone, you connect to no one.” There is a profound loneliness to being surrounded by people you are able to get along with, but are not truly close to. But once you find people who are just like you, it is an incredibly enriching experience.

This idea is explored through the use of analogy. In this case, Jello is used as a sweet substance that is relatively flexible and often shared in social settings. This imagery is juxtaposed with puzzle pieces, which are much more rigid but still carry that playful feeling. It is clear to any person that these two items do not go together, but that with the right mold, Jello could be shoved into any missing space in a puzzle. It would still be clear that the Jello is not that missing piece, but it would technically fit.

By using this analogy, we are able to give these types of people a name – Jello People. It puts a title to a feeling not a lot of people know how to verbalize. That is why the analogy is put as the refrain of the song – because as the song grows, the analogy grows with it.

Following Verses = Experiment/Procedure/Results

Up to this point, the comparisons between songwriting and a science paper have been pretty one-for-one. However, this section of the song is where art deviates from the scientific method.

In a science paper, the real meat of the essay is discussing the procedure of the experiment and its results. If you are writing a song that tells a story, then your song will follow a similar format. It’s likely that your first verse (itroduction) introduced the characters and setting and your refrain (hypothesis) established the moral of your story. The subsequent verses likely tell the story itself, or elaborate on where the story goes from there.

However, if your song does not follow a traditional storytelling format, then that likely doesn’t line up with your song structure. Instead, I like to look at subsequent verses like this:

Now that you have introduced and established your topic, ask yourself… why?

Why are things this way? Why is the point you’re making true? Why should we care about it? There are a million ways you could ask “why”, so let’s go back to “Jello People” for an example.

We have introduced our main character – the singer, who is very social with many but close with few. We have established the main point of the song – that the singer (and those that feel like her) are “Jello People” and once we find each other, we can connect just like puzzling people. Now, we ask ourselves “why,” specifically:

Why don’t you just change to get along with the puzzle people?

That is the natural question to ask. If the problem is that you don’t get along with a certain group of people, and they don’t seem to have any issue connecting with people around them, why don’t you just change yourself to fit in? The second verse answers that question:

I've always embraced my definition
The words and terms I use as explanation
When I say, "Hi!" and wonder why I
frighten off so many

I know I can be the sweetest dessert
But some people just aren't a fan of my flavor
So I'll jiggle on my Jello way
and pass on the jigsaw puzzles
(which sucks, 'cause I really like those!)

If the question is, “why don’t you just change yourself?”, the answer is “I don’t want to. I am not a problem, and they are not a problem. We just aren’t for each other, and that’s okay.”

And this loops well into the refrain where we reinforce the idea of being “Jello People.” In fact, let’s return to the second half of the refrain:

But inside
I want my heart to open wide
and slide in place with all my Jello People
and I think that you're my Jello People
I think I found my Jello mold in a world full of puzzling people.

Now that we have addressed the natural question, this second half of the refrain hits harder. It’s not just that we aren’t changing, but we don’t need to, because there are Jello People just like us out there that we can connect with just as well as the puzzle people click together.

Now all that’s left is to end the song.

Bridge = Conclusion

I hate ending songs. It is my least favorite part of writing a song. I never want them to be over, but unfortunately, we need to eat and sleep and do things other than sing and play guitar all day. C’est la vie.

But on a more serious note, how do you end a song? Well, the same way you end a science paper: with a conclusion.

The conclusion of the science paper wraps everything up in a pretty little bow. It summarizes the experiment, explains the results, and states whether the hypothesis has been proven correct, incorrect, or inconclusive. The most important detail about a conclusion is that it does not introduce any new information.

Your bridge is not a paragraph in an essay: you don’t have to summarize the entire song. However, you should not be introducing any new information when the song is 3/4 over with. Instead, the bridge is a great time to reinforce the ideas you have already established.

In the case of “Jello People”, we have a strong analogy used for a phenomena that people likely struggle to explain. This analogy involves Jello, a sweet dessert that can be a little controversial but is overall liked (or at least tolerated).

The bridge in “Jello People” reinforces this idea by taking a cliche and spinning it into a recipe.

Two parts sugar, one part spice
A pinch of everything nice
And maybe add a dash of charming chaos

It is a common saying that girls are “sugar, spice, and everything nice.” This saying is turned into a recipe – two parts sugar, one part spice, a pinch of everything nice. Then, we add a little something new to the recipe: a dash of charming chaos.

This is the recipe for our Jello Person, specifically the singer. They are mostly sweet with a good amount of spice, and a little bit nice, charming, and chaotic. This recipe compliments the “Jello People” analogy without introducing any new information. Sure, we may not have known the exact recipe for a Jello person, but we already know what a Jello person is, why they can’t change, why the puzzle pieces can’t change either, and why we’re in this situation. We aren’t introducing a new analogy or story beat: we are reinforcing what we have already established.

That is the purpose of the bridge. It is also why the bridge is optional. Since it is simply reinforcing the idea, sometimes the idea is so strong that it does not need any reinforcement. If this bridge were removed, “Jello People” would still make sense all on its own. However, the addition of the bridge adds just a little bit of spice (pun intended) that makes the song better by having it included.

That should be the litmus test for your bridge. If you remove it, does your song still make sense? If not, you may want to consider restructuring some of your lyrics.

And with that, we have taken a 6th grade Science Fair paper and turned it into a songwriting framework. Obviously, this layout is not going to work for every song or artist. However, it can be very beneficial for laying out your own songs and making sure that they have a solid story structure. There’s a reason that the scientific method’s deductive reasoning dates back to the Ancient Greeks – it works. And just maybe, it will work for you, too.