The structures or musical forms of songs in popular music are typically sectional forms, such as strophic form. Other common forms include thirty-two-bar form, verse-chorus form, and twelve bar blues. Popular music songs are rarely through-composed. The term musical form refers to two related concepts: the type of composition (for example, a musical work can have the form of a symphony, a concerto, or other generic type -- see Multi-movement forms below) the structure of a particular piece (for example, a piece can be written in... A song is a relatively short musical composition. ... Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and are disseminated by one or more of the mass media. ... Look up section in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Strophic form, or chorus form, is a sectional and/or additive way of structuring a piece of music based on the repetition of one formal section or block played repeatedly. ... The term musical form refers to two related concepts: the type of composition (for example, a musical work can have the form of a symphony, a concerto, or other generic type -- see Multi-movement forms below) the structure of a particular piece (for example, a piece can be written in... The thirty-two-bar form, often shortened to AABA, is a musical form common in Tin Pan Alley songs, later popular music including rock and pop music, and jazz, though there were few instances of it in any type of popular music until the late teens, it became the principal... Verse-chorus form is a musical form common in popular music and predominant in rock since the 1960s. ... The 12-bar blues has a distinctive form in both lyrics and chord structure. ... Through-composed music is music which is relatively continous, non-sectional, and/or non-repetitive. ...

The verse and chorus are considered primary, while the introduction and coda or ending may or may not be used in different performances and are not considered essential to the identity of most songs. A bridge is slightly more important. The verse and chorus are usually repeated throughout a song though the bridge, intro, and outro are usually only used once. In music, the introduction is a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece. ... Coda sign Coda (Italian for tail; from the Latin cauda), in music, is a passage which brings a movement or a separate piece to a conclusion through prolongation. ...

Verse

Main article: Verse.

In popular music a verse roughly corresponds with a poetic stanza. When two or more sections of the song have basically identical music and different lyrics these sections are probably the verses of the song. Verse is a writing that uses meter as its primary organisational mode, as opposed to prose, which uses grammatical and discoursal units like sentences and paragraphs. ... In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. ...

Chorus

Main article: Refrain.

Chorus is used to mean the refrain of a song, which often sharply contrasts the verse melodically, rhythmically, and harmonically, and assumes a higher level of dynamics and activity, often with added instrumentation. Chorus form, or strophic form, is a sectional and/or additive way of structuring a piece of music based on the repetition of one formal section or block played repeatedly. A refrain (from the Old French refraindre to repeat, likely from Vulgar Latin refringere) is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the chorus of a song. ...

When two or more sections of the song have basically identical music and lyrics these sections are probably instances of the chorus.

Bridge

Main article: Bridge (music).

In song writing, a bridge is an interlude that connects two parts of that song, building a harmonic connection between those parts. In popular music, especially occidental, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section. ...

Normally you should have heard the verse at least twice. The bridge may then replace the 3rd verse or precede it. In the latter case it delays an expected chorus. The chorus after the bridge is usually last and is often repeated in order to stress that it is final.

If and when you expect a verse or a chorus and you get something that is musically and lyrically different from both verse and chorus, it is most likely the bridge.

Vocal Runs

A Vocal Run is a melismatic variation on the chorus of a song. It is mostly used at the end or beginning of a song and adds a new layer to a chorus. An attribute of some Islamic and Gregorian chants, it is the style of singing several notes to one syllable of text. ...

AABA form

Main article: Thirty-two-bar form.

Thirty-two-bar form uses four sections, most often eight measures long each (4×8=32), two verses or A sections, a contrasting B section, the bridge or "middle-eight", and a return of the verse in one last A section (AABA). The thirty-two-bar form, often shortened to AABA, is a musical form common in Tin Pan Alley songs, later popular music including rock and pop music, and jazz, though there were few instances of it in any type of popular music until the late teens, it became the principal...

Variation on the basic structure

Verse-chorus form or ABA form may be combined with AABA form, in compound AABA forms. a1 and a2 can also be used The thirty-two-bar form, often shortened to AABA, is a musical form common in Tin Pan Alley songs, later popular music including rock and pop music, and jazz, though there were few instances of it in any type of popular music until the late teens, it became the principal...

Twelve bar blues and other chord progressions

Main article: chord progression.

Sections are often defined through the use of different chord progressions in different sections. However, the repetition of one chord progression may mark off the only section in a simple verse form such as the twelve bar blues. A chord progression (also chord sequence and harmonic progression or sequence), as its name implies, is a series of chords played in order. ...

Musaic

Definition: The creation of an audible collage of music - or the use of color, shape and substance to embody a musical concept.

Further reading

• Sheila Davis. "The Craft of Lyric Writing", Writer's Digest Books (1985)
• Sheila Davis. "Successful Lyric Writing", Writer's Digest Books (1988)
• Sheila Davis. "The Songwriter's Idea Book", Writer's Digest Books (1992)
• Richard Middleton. "Form", in Horner, Bruce and Swiss, Thomas, eds. (1999) Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture. Malden, Massachusetts. ISBN 0-631-21263-9.
• Covach, John. "Form in Rock Music: A Primer", in Stein, Deborah (2005). Engaging Music: Essays in Music Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517010-5.
• Everett, Walter, ed. Rock Music: Critical Essays on Composition, Performance, Analysis, and Reception. Cited in Covach (2005).
• Covach, John and Boone, Graham, eds. Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis. Cited in Covach (2005).

Richard Middleton may be Richard Middleton (Lord Chancellor) medieval theologian, philosopher and Lord Chancellor Richard Middleton (writer) (1882 - 1911) British poet and ghost story writer Richard Middleton (musicologist) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

External links

• Song Structure and Components