This has got to be one of my favorite pop songs to come out this year. I’ve been a huge Charlie Puth fan ever since I heard his smash hit “See You Again” back in 2015, partly because I love the tone and texture of his voice, but also because he’s phenomenal at writing hooks that are simultaneously catchy and emotional. “How Long” is the second single off of Puth’s sophomore album, and delivers its listeners a sultry, slinky dose of pop goodness. Let’s dive in and see what makes this track a stellar pop song.

Intro

The song’s intro is simple enough: four bars of bass, claps, and a woodblock-sounding instrument, as well as a nice descending vocal riff. Notice that the bass has a strong root in the downbeat, primarily landing on 1 & 3 of the beat.

Verse

Melodic shape: Descending Then Ascending (“U” Shaped)

Here, Puth starts the verse on the fifth scale degree, moving stepwise (without skipping any notes in the scale) down to the tonic, or first, scale degree, before making his way right back up to the fifth scale degree. He uses the natural minor scale, doing a small ornamentation at the top before coming full-circle back to the fifth.

Phrase Type: AAAB

The first part of the verse contains very short phrases (“I’ll admit / I was wrong / What else can I say girl”), with a longer ascending phrase at the end (“Can’t you blame my head and not my heart”). Notice how even within the A phrases there is some variation at the end, with subtle syncopation to spice things up.

Phrases Start: A – After the Downbeat, B – On the Downbeat

The verse begins after the downbeat, which slightly heightens the listener’s interest by making them wait a bit longer for the melodic content of the verse to begin. However, the B phrase starts on the beat.

Phrase Length: A – Half Bar, B – Two Bars

Notice how even within the context of a single melodic contour, there are varying phrase lengths. This creates a lot of interest for the listener, and we’ll see this move used again throughout the song.

Section Starts On Scale Degree: 5

Starting on the fifth scale degree makes the song sound slightly less stable than, say, starting on the tonic.

General Observations

Notice how the vocal line plays back and forth with the bass: (Bass downbeat), “I’ll admit,” (Bass downbeat), “I was wrong,” (Bass downbeat), “What else can I say girl,” and then they sync back up on “Can’t you blame my head and not my heart.”

Pre-Chorus

Melodic shape: Descending

Puth, an extremely versatile vocalist, leaps up over an octave into a falsetto run down that rises slightly towards the end.

Phrase Type: AB

The A phrase (“She said boy tell me honestly”) pulls us wooingly down, while the choppier B phrase (“Was it real or just for show?”) ascends.

Phrases Start: A & B – After the Downbeat

Again, Puth chooses to start both A and B phrases after the downbeat, heightening interest.

Phrase Length: A & B – Two bars

Note that the phrase length for the pre-chorus (two bars) is at its peak four times longer than that of the verse (half a bar). This is a powerful tool the writer uses to create contrast.

Section Starts On Scale Degree: 1 (+ Two Octaves)

Here, Puth makes a huge jump up to the tonic, not one, but two octaves up from his previous range. Again, note the contrast that this creates from the range we were in previously.

General Observations

Notice that how the overall feel is both similar and different from the verse. Puth starts emphasizing the “and” of the beat more with A phrase (different from verse), and then introduces syncopation with the B phrase (similar to the verse). Also, notice the borrowed chord at the end of the section that heightens the emotional tension for the listener.

Chorus

Melodic shape: Ascending then Descending (“Bell” Shape)

In this section, Puth creeps (notice how the melodic creep matches the actual lyric of “creepin’ round”) up from the tonic to the third, and then right back down, and throws in two repeating upward leaps at the end.

Phrase Type: ABB

Phrases Start: A & B – Before the Downbeat

For the first time so far in the song, the melody begins before the downbeat. Again, more contrast.

Phrase Length: A – Two Bars, B – One Bar

Notice how the phrase length here is almost an inversion of the verse phrase length in the verse. The A phrase (“How long has this been goin’ on?”) is two bars long, while the B phrase is just one bar. This can be an interesting tactic to use in your own music if you’ve already come up with a chorus, but don’t have a strong verse. Look at the phrase lengths, then try inverting them.

Section Starts On Scale Degree: 1 (+ One Octave)

The melody now returns to the tonic, this time an octave lower. The tonic gets used a lot in popular music, especially in the chorus, because it’s stable, and because any melody that uses the tonic repeatedly tends to be more memorable and evoke more emphasis on the title of the track.

General Observations

Notice how heavily on-the-beat the chorus is. Almost every word in the phrase “How long has this been going on” lands square on the beat, and the lyrics “creepin'” and “callin'” heavily emphasize their downbeats (although Puth does seem to almost rush the placement of these lyrics the first time through for dramatic effect). This is, again, is in contrast to the previous two sections, where the use of syncopation was a little more liberal.

Post-Chorus

Melodic shape: Ascending then Descending (“Bell” Shape)

Phrase Type: AAB

Interestingly, we see that the phrase type is reversed from the chorus.

Phrases Start: A & B – On the Downbeat

Phrase Length: A – 1 Bar, B – 2 Bars

Here we see a direct inversion of the phrase lengths from the chorus.

Section Starts On Scale Degree: 5 (+ One Octave)

The post-chorus begins a perfect fifth above the chorus, giving it a nice lift and carrying the melody higher while the beat just “rides” for a bit.

General Observations

One interesting thing about the post-chorus is that it’s the first time in the song that scale degree 7 is used. This is a subtle way to add melodic interest, especially this “late” in the song when a lot of the standard tricks for creating variation (phrase length, alternating beat emphasis, etc) have already been used.

Second Verse and Pre-Chorus

Puth spices up the second verse by changing up the melodic shape a little bit at the end, but overall, things stay the same. The second pre-chorus remains completely unchanged melodically.

Bridge

Not much to see here. As one of my mentors, Ashworth, wisely told me, “Bridges are for burning.” From what I’ve noticed recently in the pop scene, a lot of writers seem to be getting really lazy with their bridges. They’ll often just create a single phrase and repeat it (as in Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You”), or, like in this case, they literally just repeat the pre-chorus verbatim with a subtle change like an octave shift. Perhaps this is not, in fact, laziness, but rather the ultimate form of simplicity, using song sections that already exist instead of introducing new ones. In the end, like most things in music, it comes down to taste.

Final Chorus, Post-Chorus

The final chorus remains unchanged from its previous counterparts. However, the final post-chorus layers in the chorus hook on top for maximum impact. The song ends on the downbeat, which is not an accident; it emphasizes the main groove of the song, which is on-the-beat.

Key Takeaways

After running through an in-depth look at the melodic structure of the track, here are my high-level takeaways:

Inverting phrase structure can be an easy way to create interest if you’re stuck. Your chorus is ABB? Try making your verse BAA.

Make sure that it’s clear whether a certain song section is heavily on-the-beat or syncopated. You can use both, but each section should lean one way or the other.

Vocal range makes a big impact on the listener’s interest level. Puth has a fantastic falsetto, which allows him to jump up and down and keep things interesting.

Puth uses a sort of call and response to “play” his verse melody off of the bass rhythm. If you’ve got a track you need to topline, see if there are any elements that seem like you could create a similar call and response with.

Groove is everything. This track works primarily because the instrumental is very, very strong from a production perspective. The mix is crisp and slick, and even when the arrangement isn’t as busy, you never lose track of the grove.

Don’t overthink the bridge.

Here’s a final high-level look at the song’s melodic structure:

Like this post? If you’re interested, you can check out my own songwriting here.