PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Songwriting Tempo change conundrum: When is it okay to change the tempo (increase it) for a bridge?

Demo 8 really flows well! Thank you for letting me be part of your process. As always, feel free to disregard the unsolicited advice which follows. **smile**

In our society, the 3 minute song has become a convention. Going against that convention takes a pretty strong belief in one's song. I'm sharing a quote with you because I think it applies here. "...you should trust your instincts, and believe in yourself, as all the successful artists have had to do at some stage in their careers." Michael Eaton, 2016

Eternity is a marvelous contemplative meditational song, and I believe it has value at a slower tempo. I've sped the youtube up to 125 bpm to see how your producer hears it, and it becomes upbeat rather than contemplative. There's a place for both in Christian music, but if you had to argue over it for four hours, it's obvious your producer doesn't really like the song. My question is this. Why not, given the strength of your BIAB arrangement, simply have your singer record it at your tempo and create a BIAB song with it? Why not release it as a single? Put it on Spotify, tag it Christian, tag it Jesus, maybe tag it meditation, talk it up with your friends, link it on Facebook or Instagram, see if you can get a lot of plays.

Now for a purely technical notation comment on the melody line to make the music easier for your singer to understand. At bar 87 where the triplets start, that should be all quarter notes like it was before. That's what Eleanor is singing (quarter note triplets) so far as I can tell. Bars 88, 90, and 92 should not be triplets at all, but a half note followed by a quarter rest and two even eighth notes--again, that's what Eleanor is singing. Bar 95 is just a half note. You're bouncing back and forth between swing and straight, and that's very good, part of the charm of the song--it's a really common jazz/swing convention that makes a melody flow in a lovely way.

If you do decide to shorten the song, you might consider removing a verse and a chorus to do so without changing the tempo; you could combine verses, since you have repeated lines that could be repurposed. I have longer songs myself and when I first started squeezing them down to meet the 3.5 minute standard it really hurt, felt totally wrong, but I learned to combine the verses and eliminate some time that way. I also experimented with changing the tempo by just 5 beats, reather than by 20 beats, to keep the easy flow of my songs but shave off time (you might not need the tempo increase at the bridge if you try this). Intros and outros can also be shaved down. The song itself is complete at the end of the chorus; your coda is lovely but to me the change in melody and lyrics took away from the feeling of completion. Again, this is unsolicited so feel free to disregard it; you might be better served by having one chorus at the end and only repeating the last line ("How I long for eternity") if you wish to shorten the song and keep the mood. Or you might to decide to keep the coda but only play one chorus.

Lots of options for shortening the song... but here's the thing, Tom. Your song has a specific purpose and you've crafted the lyrics and melody to fit that purpose. Like Mr. Eaton says, "at some point, you have to believe in yourself." Maybe the audience who will love your song is waiting on Spotify or even in a local church. You won't know until you release it.