Ideas for Intros

Given the sheer volume of songs out there, getting the listener to sit up and take notice within the first couple of bars is paramount. Leading with an overly long intro or taking forever to get to the main hook could quickly cause your audience to vanish. Accordingly, here are some time-honored techniques for opening with the good stuff, whether it's adding a brief but irresistible riff, a few seconds of standalone percussion, front-loading a piece of the chorus, plus other ideas.

Keep It Concise
The first order of business is keeping the intro to a respectable length. No matter how much you might like a guitar or keyboard riff you've crafted to open the song, don't flog the idea to death-try giving it four, perhaps eight bars at the most, or around 10 seconds, give or take. Remember that the listener is waiting to hear how the rest of the song goes, and the longer you carry on with the opening, the less likely they are to stay with it, no matter how alluring the lick may be.

Fast Forward to The Chorus
Another oft-used strategy is to quote all or some of the chorus at the top of the song (or perhaps a bit of the chorus chord progression, or even just the melody), as a way of "foreshadowing" how the refrain sounds right from the start. Particularly if you've got a strong chorus, this approach can be quite effective, as it helps front-load the good stuff, immediately piquing the listener's interest. This procedure can even be done after the fact-that is, using your editing tools you can simply copy and paste a piece of the chorus to the start of the song.

Contrasts are Good
Having a different kind of sound at the beginning of the tune is yet another way to add intro variety. One technique that admittedly was done ad nauseum during the '90s is the lo-fi beginning, whereby the first few bars of the recording is put through a high-pass or lo-cut filter, creating an abrupt sonic contrast once the processing is removed. However there are other ways of achieving this effect-for instance, you could open with a single, clean guitar part, followed by a round of distorted guitars. Or you could consider muting most of the instruments, so you only have a spare backing to start, then quickly bring up the other parts so that the level instantly doubles.

Verse Goes First
Nothing cuts to the chase faster than starting the vocal on the very first downbeat-no riff, no extended intro, just go into the song right from the top. While this method has been around for eons, it's perhaps most effective nowadays given listeners' increasingly reduced attention spans. You can choose to open with the first verse, or you might grab a few seconds of the chorus melody to lead off with. Using your editor, this can be accomplished during the mix phase if you so choose-that is, just select and trim the backing track right up to the where the vocal first comes in.

Percussion Starters
Think of the countless songs that begin with a vigorously shaken tambourine, a set of maracas, a cowbell, or just a straight-up drum groove. Did it make you sit up and listen? Artists have been using this trick for ages, because it works. This too can be done as an add-on-just save eight bars at the start of the song and fill it with some of the mixed drum track or a piece of percussion. Once you've done that, try bringing in the rest of the instrumentation one piece at a time-first the bass, then guitars, keyboards, and so on, until you eventually have the full rhythm track up in the mix.