Let's talk about how Shawn Mendes' "Treat You Better" actually works on a compositional level
A lot of people listen to that track and think it's just a standard pop breakup song. It is that, but the way it's built is worth looking at if you care about songwriting. The song runs in E major, which is one of those keys guitarists love because the open strings give it this bright, ringing quality. That's not accidental. The melody sits mostly in the middle register, which keeps it accessible for singalongs but avoids the vocal strain that comes with pushing too high. The chord progression underneath the verses is pretty straightforward: E, C#m, A, B. That's I-vi-IV-V in E major, basically the most common progression in pop music history. What makes it interesting is how the vocal rhythm plays against it. The verse melody has this syncopated feel where Mendes lands on off-beats instead of the downbeats, which gives the song forward momentum even though the chords themselves don't change much. Listen to the first line, "I don't need anyone but you," and notice how he starts the word "I" slightly ahead of the chord change. That small rhythmic choice is what separates a flat demo from something that feels like it's moving. The pre-chorus builds tension through melodic ascent. The notes climb steadily until they hit the chorus, where everything opens up. This is a classic tension-release pattern, but the specific intervals matter. He's jumping a fourth or fifth into the chorus hook, which creates that emotional lift. If you're trying to write something similar, don't skip the pre-chorus. That climbing movement is what makes the chorus feel earned.
I actually tried to re-record this track a while back with a full band setup, and the first problem I hit was the drums. The original has this big, gated-snsare sound that's everywhere in mid-2010s pop. My initial attempt sounded thin because I was playing straight four-on-the-floor kick patterns. The trick is to use ghost notes on the snare and add some tom fills before the chorus hits. Without those fills, the song loses its drive. The bridge section is where I struggled the most. It strips everything back down to just voice and piano, which sounds simple but is actually harder to make work in a mix. A full band suddenly drops away and you're exposed. My workaround was to layer a subtle pad underneath during the bridge to give it width without cluttering the vocal space. It's a small detail but it makes the transition into the final chorus feel massive instead of abrupt. The chorus itself uses a slightly different harmonic move. Instead of staying purely on the I chord, it touches the vi chord for color before resolving back. That momentary shift to Cminor is what gives the chorus its bittersweet quality. It's the same emotional complexity you hear in a lot of Mendes' later work, where the music feels hopeful but the lyrics are pretty brutal. The production on the final chorus adds harmonies and more percussion layers, which is standard but effective. If you're producing a cover, don't under-invest here. A single vocal track in the final chorus will make it sound flat compared to the original. One thing beginners always miss is the dynamics. The song isn't loud the whole time. The verses are deliberately quieter and more restrained, which makes the chorus hit harder. If you play everything at the same volume, the song falls apart. You need to actually pull back in the verses and let the chorus breathe. I measured my mix levels and found that keeping the verses around -18 LUFS while pushing the chorus to about -14 LUFS gave the right contrast without squashing the transients.
The song was written by Ed Sheeran, Amy Allen, and Freddy Wexler, who clearly understand pop structure. The tempo sits at around 77 BPM, which is slow enough to feel intimate but fast enough to keep energy. That's a sweet spot for this kind of ballad. Anything slower and it drags, anything faster and it loses its emotional weight. If you're learning this song, start by playing along with the original at half speed. The vocal phrasing has some tricky rests and anticipations that are easy to mess up if you rush. Also, pay attention to the guitar tone. It's a clean electric with a touch of reverb and delay, not an acoustic sound. Using the wrong guitar tone is the most common mistake I hear in covers of this track. It completely changes the vibe.
Get the Full Details
