How to compose an acoustic guitar chorus?

Question

I've been playing guitar off and on for years, and every once in a while I come up with some lyrics and chords that seem to be really great for a few verses. The problem is that I can never seem to write a good chorus. I just don't know where to begin.

I really want to finish a few of these songs, so, how should I go about creating a chorus that will resonate and work well with my verses?

A couple of notes:

• I currently do acoustic guitar with a semi-fast country sound
• The main song I am working on is E - B - A - F#m
• I'd love to hear thoughts about this particular chord progression, but really would love to hear about the theory behind verse/chorus composition

Answer 1

If you do a Roman Numeral Analysis, it goes like I V IV ii. From a programmer's perspective, you just need to close the loop. Something that leads back to the beginning. The most obvious (to me) would be to do: V / V7 / . That gives you a V7->I. A strong turnaround.

Answer 2

I would also agree that from a theory standpoint ending on the minor two is a bit weak. Ending on a five is an easy fix, but some other good options could be going I V IV I (country singers rarely mind ending and beginning on the I) or putting a six in. In the key of E that would be a C#minor chord, which would be stronger than your F# but not as strong as a five.

Many artists also use the vi (or minor 6 if you don't know roman numerals) as a starting point for a chorus because it can add a drastic change in mood if your verse is largely major. Specifically Conor Oberst uses this a lot. I think the key to a chorus is just to make it stand out from the verse, while still having the transition be somewhat fluid.