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Songwriting Basics: Song Structure Part 3 — Songwriting building blocks & popular song forms

Sections 4 & 5 (of 5 sections)

*Please note that there are currently free audio podcast read-aloud versions of parts of this article available here in The Whistle Test section.

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Overview of all sections

1. Introduction

2. Historical background

3. Songwriting paths & the main types of song

4. Songwriting building blocks

5. Popular song forms — a song’s structure

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SECTION 4. 

Songwriting building blocks

So, you have an idea for your new song. You know what type of song you want to write (see section 3. Songwriting paths & the main types of song). You’ve got some idea of where to start, the key, the tonality, the tempo, you have some chord progressions in mind, and even some tricks you want to try out — like a sudden change in dynamics.

Next you need to start translating all of that into the main basic building blocks of a song, it’s component parts.

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The Title

Probably the most basic of these components is the songs title. This may sound obvious but this is how people will refer to your song. When someone says to me “Ain’t No Sunshine” immediately I now they mean Bill Withers’ signature-tune masterpiece. Same for “Roxanne”, undoubtedly they are referring to The Police’s classic.

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The Hook

Quite often the title points to the next key building block, the hook. Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” is the title and the hook. It is the line from the song which is probably the most memorable. It’s the line that is repeated the most often. It’s the line that conveys the key message of the song.

A hook does not have to be a lyric, equally it can be a memorable musical riff or motif. Look no further than the “short short short long” first four notes of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (1804-08).

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Maybe you have some lyrical ideas on a piece of paper, and a few melody ideas in your head. You’re sitting with your favourite acoustic guitar or at your trusty old piano. The next step is to start building all of these ideas into a song.

You’ll need an introduction (intro), a verse, a chorus, maybe a middle-eight or a bridge. Below is a list of most of the componential building blocks you hear talked about when referring to a song’s structural elements. The list is followed by a more in depth explanation of each term.

• Introduction (intro)

• Pre-verse

• Verse

• Refrain 

• Pre-chorus / lift / climb / verse-extension / transitional bridge

• Chorus

• Interlude

• Bridge

• Middle-eight

• Solo / instrumental section or break

• Overlap  or  collision

• Ad lib

• Outro aka vamp and coda

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Introduction (intro)

The song’s opening, where the listener get’s a first taste of what’s to come. An intro is a great way to get your song’s mood immediately established, although an intro is not essential (for an example of this take a listen to “Hey Jude” by The Beatles). For an example of a great intro take a listen to another song by The Beatles which has the melody of the vocal hook played on guitar — “Here Comes The Sun”.

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Pre-verse

This section links an intro to a verse. It’s hardly ever used now. I don’t actually know of a good clear example. Do you? Please le me know.

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Verse

This is possibly the main component of a song. It’s where the story is progressively told. It sets the scene, develops the song, and delivers the key lyrical information.

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Refrain 

A refrain is not a section. It’s normally a lyrically repeated part of a verse. You could say it’s the same as or synonymous with a vocal hook. As we’ll see in section 5 of this article (Popular song forms, a song’s structure), some song structures don’t have a definite chorus section (for example see 5.1.iii AABA form). Instead the first or last line of the verse becomes the main repeated memorable lyrical hook. This hook is then often referred to as the refrain. Quite often it becomes the related material at the end of the song (see outro / vamp / coda below). A great example of this is “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys.

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Pre-chorus / lift / climb / verse-extension / transitional bridge

Quite literally the pre-chorus is a link between two distinctly different sections, the verse and a chorus. “Sir Duke” and “I wish” by Stevie Wonder both have a great examples of using pre-chorus sections (“But just because a record has a groove” etc & “Tryin' your best to bring the water to your eyes” etc).

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Chorus

The section intended to be the most memorable part of the song. Usually contains the title and hook (but not a refrain, that’s a hook from a verse). Wow! How to give an example of this, there are so many great choruses! OK, off the top of my head, Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”. (Bet you didn’t see that coming!) Her chorus rocks.

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Interlude

Some breathing space. Quite often a very short musical break after a big chorus to give some space for the vocalist to breath (literally) before the next verse. Neil Young’s song “Old Man” has plenty of these, just for example after the first main chorus. I say main chorus because in this song there are two distinctly different chorus sections, the first introduces and ends the song. The main chorus comes later, after the verse sections.

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Bridge

The word ‘bridge’ can mean several things depending upon the context and overall structure of the song.

Quite often the word ‘bridge’ is used to refer to the ‘middle-eight’ (see the next item on this list).

Quite often the word ‘bridge’ is used to refer to a musical solo section (see further down on this list).

In some song structures (for example see section 5.1.iii AABA form) a bridge is a musical section which is completely different from the verse. It’s included to add variation or take the song in different direction for a while. Normally the song then returns to a final verse section. So the bridge literally forms a bridge between the opening verses and the final verse.  A great bridge example can be found in “Yesterday" by The Beatles (“Why she had to go?” etc).

In other rare cases a very short bridge (short compared to a verse) may be added after (for example) the second chorus, to just momentarily take the song in a different direction, to give it some variation, or to add an unexpected lyrical twist.

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Middle-eight

A middle-eight is another type of bridge. Specifically it’s an 8-bar bridge in a specific 32-bar song form (see 5.1.iii AABA form), but can also be used in other forms (for an example see 5.1.iv ABABCB form). A middle-eight section quite often has distinctly different lyrical direction, melody, and rhythm. “Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay” by Ottis Reading has a perfect example of a middle-eight after the second verse and chorus (“Looks like nothing’s gonna change…” etc).

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Solo / instrumental section or break or bridge

Exactly that, an instrumental solo, on electric guitar or keyboards or saxophone or whatever instrument takes your fancy. Solos can happen anywhere, at the beginning, end, or middle of a song, before a verse or after a chorus. One of the most frequently chosen positions is after the second chorus (based upon the either the chorus melody or the verse melody), or during the outro chorus section. Another favourite place is after the middle-eight, quite often based on the verse melody leading into a short vocal bridge, or pre-chorus, before the final chorus.

Where to start with examples, there are so many amazing solos, so…. Brian May of Queen’s guitar solo in “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

Note that solos can often become known as the signature hook of a song, for example the saxophone solo in Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’, or the once contentious alto sax solo in ‘Will you?’ by Hazel O’Connor (and saxophonist, now co-writer, Wesley Magoogan).

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An Overlap  or  collision is where different musical parts of the song overlap with each other. For example in the end section of Michael Jackson’s “Who Is It” the main chorus vocal melody (which is being sung over the chorus chord progression) suddenly (so with no preparation or additional bridge section) continues over the verse chord progression.

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Ad lib is short for ‘ad libitum’ which translates from Latin as ‘at one’s pleasure’. It’s another way to indicate that the section is improvised freely

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Outro aka vamp and coda, which is Italian for ‘tail’. It’s quite often an additional final section, often after the final chorus (so just when you thought the song was finished), often over a totally new chord progression, that lifts the song notably in another direction. It can contain improvisation, overlap of previously used parts, new material, and a key change (or two). “Hey Jude” by The Beatles has probably one of the best known coda sections ever (“Naa na na na na na na, na na na na, hey Jude” etc).

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Rhyme

Almost everything discussed here in this section about song building blocks relates to sections of songs that are principally formed by lyrical content. So a final word has to go to the importance of rhyme and in particular making sure you (at least consider) stick(ing) to a rhyme scheme. There is simply nothing worse, and nothing that can totally ruin an otherwise good song, than trying to include just one extra syllable in a verse lyric rhyme scheme, just because you could not find a suitable word that fitted your scheme. There’s always a suitable rhyming word and / or word order, sometimes it just takes time to discover it.

Yep, rhyme schemes are also crucial building blocks for writing lyrics and creating strong melodies. Here’s just a few (without any further detail or examples at this time) to get you started (at some point in the future I’ll expand on this topic).

• Alternate (ABAB)

• Cinquain (ABABB)

• Couplet (AABB)

• Enclosed rhyme (ABBA)

• Extended Alternate (ABAXB)

• Limerick (AABBA)

• Monorhyme (AAAA)

• McCarron Couplet (AABBAB) 

• Ottava Rima (ABABABCC)

• Rhyme Royal (ABABBCC)

• Rubaiyat (AABA)

• Simple 4-line (ABCB) 

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SECTION 5.

Popular song forms — a song’s structure

Please keep in mind that there are MANY different ways to analyse the structure of a song or piece of music. Below is NOT intended to be a definitive list of song forms, NOR is it necessarily the BEST or ONLY way to analyse song forms, it’s simply the way I prefer right now.