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Basic Song Structure Essentials |

LedgerNote
Jared H.

13-17 minutes

There are countless song structure options available to

songwriters. Using them effectively requires an understanding of
the individual parts, such an intro, verse, and chorus, for
example. We'll explore each while discussing their emotional
impacts and how you can use them to serve your song's
purposes.

The deeper into the adventure of song writing you delve, the
more you'll begin to notice patterns, especially relating to song
structure.
 Differing genres and decades will display their various
influences and preferences, but at the end of the day the basic
song structure essentials never change. One or two of the
fundamentals may disappear in exchange for others here and
there, but you'll typically find the same elements over and over
again in various orders.

Some songs may feature two full verses before you hear the
first instance of the chorus. Some songs may have a four-bar
intro and go straight into a chorus. Others will feature a pre-
chorus or a bridge while pop songs, for example, may not.

Your own personal goal will change depending on the style of

music or the emotional impact you're trying to create. It will
serve you well to be familiar with each structural unit of a song
so you can listen critically and discover more arrangements to
use in your own music.

The basic and essential units of a song are:

• Intro

• Verse

• Pre-Chorus

• Chorus

• Bridge / Solo

• Outro

Again, not all songs will feature all of these parts and will
arrange them in differing orders, but this is what you will find in
95% of music. The bird's eye view of songwriting is far simpler
than you think.

As you venture into other types of music such as progressive

rock music medleys and classical overtures, you'll begin to
 discover more types and songs that completely break all of the
rules. But it all always comes back to these main six.

The structure of a song is comprised of its parts, and its parts

will each be one of the following building blocks, called sections.
This means you can think of songwriting as sectional, with a
song built up of only a few sections, most of which are repeated.

It's all about the order of the sections, which create musical
forms (and there's only so many of those, too) like:

• bar form (AAB form)

• 32-bar form (AABA form)

• verse-chorus form (ABAB form)

• ternary form (ABA form)

• strophic form (AAA form)

• 12-bar blues form (AAA form)

• through-composed (ABCD and so forth)

Through-composed is for classical music and art songs. I only

mentioned it so you'd know it exists, but it's not really relevant to
us.

In the above list of examples, A stands for the verse and B

stands for the chorus. But that doesn't mean they're limited to
those two sections. We'll explore more and explain how they fit
in. Read on to learn about how each piece functions and what
purpose it serves.

Song Structure Broken Down: Parts of a Song

Let's take a look at each individual piece of the typical non-pop

song. Understanding the purpose and function of each of the
following pieces will prepare you to write songs that feel mature
and complete. They may or may not include all of them and
definitely aren't constrained to the following order.

Intro

When you begin a song, you don't want to come in at full force.
Your listeners need a chance to become accustomed to you,
your style, and your intentions.

This is the goal of an introduction: to acclimate the user and

allow them an attempt to anticipate the adventure. Like a movie
or novel, music should feature a clear start, gradual build-up, an
exciting climax, and a final act that debriefs and returns the
enjoyer back to their original state of mind.

Typically, intro's have been fairly low-key and don't feature all of
the instrumentation of the song. It will often allow a backing
instrument to play a rendition of the lead melody, easing it into
the listener's mind to bring on immediate familiarity.

Some genres however, like the newer Dubstep, have further

developed the usage of the intro, creating a giant crescendo that
leads into the first verse in a very dramatic fashion, taking as
long as a full minute of listening time.

Traditionally in most styles of music, intros will last anywhere

from four measures to eight measures. Your goal is to establish
the rhythm, the tempo, foreshadow the lead melody, introduce
the vocalist's voice, and more.

Show the user your conceptual idea without giving away the
whole show, so when the downbeat drops and the rhythm
section brings in the full groove, there will be sense of
excitement leading them into the first verse.

Usually the intro is simple and dances around the tonic chord
(the home chord with the root scale degree of the key), building
up to an interesting cadence that ends back on the tonic or
dominant chord.

A neat trick is to base it on the "turnaround," which I'll talk about

further down. This saves you even more effort while adding
complexity to your song.

It's a good move to introduce the main melody of the vocals as a

riff played by one of the instruments to kind of seed the idea into
the listener's mind. That way the verse will already be familiar
upon first hearing.

There's more advanced tricks using the dominant seventh to

trick the listener but we'll save that for a future article.

Verse

Many people feel that the verses of a song are only there to give
the brain a break before hammering it again with the chorus.
The big industry bosses have realized this, which is why most
rap singles have the hottest R&B pop singer on the chorus
every time without fail.

It's how you ensnare most non-committed listeners. But huge

opportunities are lost by this "make the chorus rock and forget
about the verses" methodology.

Pink Floyd said it best:

How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

It's no surprise pop music is shoveled and marketed towards

kids and teenagers. These are the same people who want to eat
their dessert first and spoil the meal.

You don't have to ask a listener to delay their gratification

though. You should be entertaining and developing the story
throughout the verses.

The best songwriters have managed to write verses that

completely change the meaning of the chorus after each
separate verse. Yes, verses can literally be mind blowing.

It's your chance to explore the depth of emotion and intellect of

your listener. It is the meat and potatoes that sustains the
listener and readies their pallet for another chorus.

A great approach is to think of a verse as having two segments

of eight bars each with their own stanza of lyrics. Taking
advantage of this allows your to keep things feeling creative and
different while unified.

You can have varying melodies, chord progressions, and

harmonizations that drive the listener higher and higher until you
wow them with the chorus. Don't feel like you have to stick to the
typical ABAB rhyme scheme either.

You can think of the verse as a way to prolong the tonic.

Prolongation is a way to dance around the tonic note without
actually playing it, but still reinforcing it as the stable home of the
song. This is getting a bit advanced, but once you understand
this you can exploit it to great effect.

Pre-Chorus

But not just yet... don't hit them with the chorus yet! It's time to
tease them with the pre-chorus which accomplishes a few goals.

I'll go as far as to say that 99% of songs don't use a pre-chorus,

which is sad because they allow you to heighten the impact of
the chorus by delaying them just two more bars before the
chorus hits.

Sometimes this is called the turnaround, build, channel, or

transitional bridge, and the point is always to note the end of
one section while leading to the next.

This build or turnaround indicates that a transition is coming.

With the chorus on the horizon, it gives a chance to snag the
listener's attention as if to say "hey, perk up, it's time!"

You can also break patterns, bring in novel harmonies, and use
interesting drum breaks. Basically, whatever you've got to do
bring full attention back to the song.

Because, as Blues Traveler tells us:

Because the Hook brings you back

I ain't tellin' you no lie
The Hook brings you back
On that you can rely

The move here is to create an interesting connection between

the verse and chorus, typically using the subdominant chord
(look up tricks using the secondary dominant if you're skilled
enough with music theory to exploit it).

That way, it'll be unique and intriguing but not over-power the
more important parts of the song. I like to think of these sections
as "ear candy."

Chorus

The most essential part of song structure is the chorus, also

called the refrain or hook (inaccurately). It is the portion of a
song that is repeated between verses that returns the song back
to a sort of baseline.

Due to the repetition of vocals, rhythm, and melody, it gives the

listener a chance to rest the ears in familiar territory. It's either a
melodic or lyrical phrase that is used multiple times through the
song.

Choruses should be sonically offset from the verses. What this

means is that a verse can be a bit calmer and build towards a
climactic chorus that brings a larger impact, or the chorus can
be a dynamic reduction in intensity that helps accentuate the
other parts of the song. There are a lot of options available.

For a very unique exploration of the chorus, listen to Owl City's

Fireflies (from an album that makes our list of best mixed
albums) and pay attention to how the role of chorus changes as
the song develops. The video is below for your convenience.

Whatever you choose, do so with deep thought. This is arguably

the most important part of your song, due to it's repetition and
memorability.

Bridge / Solo

As Led Zeppelin asked us in a bridge-less song while goofing on

James Brown:

Where's that confounded bridge?

The bridge (or transition) exists to bring forth a sense of novelty

later in the song while providing a contrast to the rest of the
song.

Just when the listener is expecting the beginning of another

possibly tiresome verse, they are confronted by a drastically
different bridge (especially in the "middle eight" style) that jars
them awake and gets their attention again. How is this
accomplished?

Some common conventions to achieve the goal is to switch to a

relative key that uses the same key signature. For instance, if
you're playing a song in A-Minor you may switch to C-Major in
the bridge.

Switch up your chord progression and melody and you can

create a contrasting emotional experience. Another convention
is to do none of the above, but allow 8 to 16 measures for a
guitarist, pianist, flutist, etc. to smash out a rippin' solo.

The soloist should improvise, and if help is needed they can

play off of the lead melody.

Be careful to not allow the guitar solo or synthesizer solo to go

on for too long (unless you're playing some variation of Heavy
Metal music), since many listeners attempt to hold their breath
during it out of respect and reverence to the soloist.

This behavior is not condoned by LedgerNote. Please consult

your doctor before attempting to worship the Rock Gods in this
manner.

Outro

If you attempt to catalog all of the various ways of handling the

outro, you'll never stop. You'll hear it be called a coda and a tag,
too, but it's usually some form of expanded cadence in the last
two bars or four measures.

Some bands go nuts and make it complex, while others will just
add a fade out (boring!) on a repeating chorus. Some do a
ritardando where they gradually slow the tempo. There's a lot of
choices!
The goal is to clearly delineate the fact that the song is ending.
Some bands prefer a nice sinusoidal or linear digital fade out,
but I personally don't like anything that can't be replicated live.

You can create an interesting rhythmic break that ends abruptly,

repeat the chorus in a low key manner, reiterate the intro, or
even repeat the first half of the first verse. You can be very
creative here as long as you get the key point across, which is
preparing the listener for the eventuality of the song being over.

This is also a great chance to vamp on the ostinato, which is a

small piece of melody or rhythm that you've used throughout the
song.

It might be a piece of a harmony from the accompaniment, a

quick cadence, or an interesting guitar lick. It's a cool way to
bring attention to something that could otherwise be under-
appreciated.

The final trick that you hear rarely but is always cool is the ad
libitum or ad lib. It's really only ever used in the outro. The
vocalist may use an entirely new melody, or the familiar melody
with different lyrics. Given enough time this can be repeated to
create a new piece of ear candy for the listener.

The Sum of the Parts is the Song Structure

You're now familiar and knowledgeable about the various

elements of the structure of a song. Which you include or leave
out largely depends on the type of song and your intended
audience. Knowing about them is one thing, using them is
another. Our songwriting tips can help!

As you go about your days in the car with the radio, or

streaming music online, try to analyze the songs you hear and
label each piece of the song. You'll begin to notice various
structures that will help you emphasize the purpose of your
song.

Take what you hear and play with it in your own songs. You'll
learn as you listen and as you create your own song structures.
Both will carry you forward on your journey.

Jared has surpassed his 20th year in the music

industry. He acts as owner, editor, lead author, and web
designer of LedgerNote, as well as co-author on all articles. He
has released 4 independent albums and merchandise to global
sales. He has also mixed, mastered, & recorded for countless
independent artists. Learn more about Jared & The LN Team
here.