There’s three reasons why this works so well:Ī) In a song where the verse and chorus combinations are essentially the same, the removal of harmony differentiates the chorus from the verse.ī) the space made by removing the chords in the first 8 bars makes you focus on the lyric. The harmony (the other notes in the chords) is absent. Secondly the first 8 bars of chorus are stripped back to a single note bass. (In the bridge the F#minor 5 chord is debuted for a similar reason.) It’s the first time we hear a change in the chord structure and it sounds like something new is happening.

To cue the 2nd block of 8 bars and to make it sound fresh the bass passes through VI (G) and IV (E). Firstly the chorus is split into two blocks of 8 bars, with further 8 bars of post chorus. There are two really clever concepts at work here to keep that simple chord progression exciting. The verse and chorus of Bad Habits are loosely based on the same I – III – V chord combination of Bm – D Major 7 – G It’s especially well used here as the first line of the verse “Everytime you come around I can’t say no” is low in pitch, and doesn’t have a huge amount of impact as a song start.

Bad Habits relies on repetition right from the start, with a single round of the chorus hook “Whoo whoo whoo”. In the world of pop music, there are fewer stronger songwriting tools than repetition. Ed Sheeran “Bad Habits” – SONG SHAKEDOWN Artist

In this article, we shakedown the song and look at some of the tricks and concepts used by one of the world’s most successful songwriters, and share ideas for how you can apply them to your own songs. Bad Habits is singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran’s 12th UK Number 1, wracking up over 200m plays on Spotify and more than 100 million YouTube plays within its first few weeks of release.

Bad habits ed sheeran lyrics