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HELP! What's a VERSE, CHORUS, & BRIDGE? (Songwriting 101)

have you ever wondered what a versus

what about a chorus? what about a
bridge? let's start with the chorus the
chorus is typically the part of the song
that we all suddenly remember all the
words -”because i'm happy-pharrell”

you may also notice a lot of

repetition in the
chorus. Chorus have been known to start on very
high and powerful notes -

okay now let's talk about the verses. there

are usually two to three verses in a
song and while all the verses will have
a similar melody you should notice a
change in lyrics.
now
here is verse two—

so notice how the first line of verse 1

and verse 2 have a very similar melody
but different lyrics

now last but not

least the bridge
to put it in simplest
terms the bridge gives our ears a break
from everything we've heard up until
that point most commonly you'll hear a
bridge come directly after the second
chorus
for example– “snow glows white on the
mountain tonight not a footprint to be
seen a kingdom of isolation and it looks
like I'm the queen”

“it's funny how some

distance makes everything seem small”
“my powers flow through the air into the clouds”

notice how the bridges melody lyrics

and background music are all pretty
different from the chorus or the verse
not only is this a great break for our
ears but it also makes us crave
something familiar
you guessed it the chorus!
English (auto-generated)

Musical Form- transcript

in this presentation we'll talk about
form in music and specifically about the
use of a main section and a contrasting
section sometimes referred to as a B
here's a song that you all know that has
a verse that would be like the a section
that she agrees this no you know one
horses fence thing and to that a section
this is the B section likewise for this
version the man who sails you see has
this course
and then more recently
Verse Chorus
so verse chorus is a type of a B form
capital RA representing the first
section and then be representing its
partner section one way to show this
would be using geometric shapes the red
square represents the a section and the
blue circle represents the B section in
a more dramatic sense we might say say
we were presenting a movie and had a
hero
that's our a section you know Batman's
great and all but he doesn't seem as
cool as when there's a villain and
that's our B section so having the Joker
be the evil villain is the foil against
which Batman appears to be even more
heroic so it's kind of like a
protagonist and an antagonist is like
the a in the B section for many
composers and writers an A section just
doesn't seem satisfying enough for many
listeners that's true as well a B
section a contrasting section seems to
be desired
and you could think of some reasons for
the motivation for employing a B section
some I've already mentioned I'm gonna
Demonstration
play a song that's probably familiar to
you if you like you could do the rhythms
that are on the screen pat the rest pat
rest pat rest pat rest pat for the a
section and then rest clap clap best
clap rest clap clap best clap for the B
section
likes happiness
so why is that such a successful thing
in popular music well first of all it's
Star Wars
not just in popular music on this slide
now you can see the melody at the
opening of John Williams main theme for
the Star Wars movies this harkens back I
believe to the 80s but we still know
that the tune they become sort of part
of the Star Wars franchise and you'll
notice that the structure of this theme
is an A and B there's a nice eighth
measure a section and then a nice
complementary eighth measure of B
section that's interesting that it's
symmetrical you know four measures in
the first phrase here and then four
measures in the second phrase for the a
section then four measures of the first
phrase and then four measures of the
second phrase you'll hear a brief intro
but let's listen to this Star Wars
melody and also pay attention to what's
different in the a section things like
the type of melody the instruments used
the volume all sorts of contrast between
a and B
okay so think about it what is different
between the a and the B section well for
one thing you may have noticed that the
a section was nice and loud and then the
B section was contrasting lis soft so
that's the difference what musicians
would call in dynamics or we might just
say in volume there's also a difference
in instruments used in the a section
there was a lot of brass instruments
playing this heroic main theme whereas
in the B section the strings took over
and had a contrasting theme also in the
a section there were large melodic leaps
like those I'm circling right now leaps
have almost an octave and a fifth and
things like that must more angular and
disjunct in the B section the melody was
much smoother and stepwise so a lot of
contrasts between a and B if you listen
Return to A
to the recording that I just played
you'll notice that at the end of the B
section there is actually a return to
the a section it turns out that's a very
human desirable thing you know we have
something presented to us after a while
we get we get that and we get kind of
not bored but you know we've gotten the
main idea and and we're ready for
something contrasting that is a surprise
to us or at least as fresh and then
after hearing that contrast we return to
a and it's all the more satisfying for
having been away from the a and dwelt
with the B for a while so a B a is a
type of a symmetrical form that I I
don't think it's an exaggeration to say
you know 80 90 percent of all music at
least in western music is some variation
of ABA form but it's not just in music
it's in all of the arts in architecture
for instance this facade of a building
clearly has an ABA form if you look at a
lot of the ways visual art is composed
the the way objects are arranged it's
frequently you can find this this type
of ABA certainly in drama where a
protagonist is a character and an
antagonist is a counter character and
then there's some kind of conflict
between the two and they work it all out
or they overcome or something happens
and then there's the return to the to
the opening state ABA let's listen to
the Star Wars theme notice the crescendo
that I've indicated at the end of the B
section that really prepares you for the
return of a
that
wonderful music by John Williams so why
have so many composers and songwriters
used ABA form why does this form work
again you could think about that
question I think there's a lot of
answers a lot of correct answers I think
it all relates back to our humanists and
what satisfies us as human beings
there's a type of form called Sonata
form that is used by a lot of concert
art music composers a lot of classical
composers sometimes it's called Sonata
Allegro form because mostly music
written in Sonata form is fast the
opening movement of almost any classical
or Romantic period symphony that you
would hear by Beethoven by Mozart by by
Mendelssohn and on and on and on Brahms
etc most of those opening movements of
those symphonies are Sonata form and
even though there are many more
ground-level details than just ABA
they're Sonata form is basically an
elaboration of ABA form and the terms
that you see in this graph Expo deve and
recap stand for exposition development
and recapitulation and so each of those
sections has formal implications but
essentially some ideas are presented in
the a section there's some kind of
something contrasting that's done with
those ideas in the B section and then
the a section represents a return of the
opening so Sonata Allegro form is an
elaboration of this ABA form song form
verse chorus is a B form and then when
the a returns it usually returns with
its B so the verse and the chorus sort
of become a pair and we start to hear
the verse chorus instead of as a and B
we hear it as a unit a formal unit a B
and then when the verse and chorus are
repeated a B returns again so at that
point the listener starts to associate
the verse in the chorus with a
predictable entity and is ready for even
more contrast and that's why a bridge is
used a bridge would be a third section
interesting material so I've labeled it
see after the bridge though now that
we've been away from the a and the B for
a while it's it's really satisfying to
return to it
you know absence makes the heart grow
fonder right so as you're listening to
the bridge it's it's new material but it
usually is the purpose of the bridge is
to lead you back to something from the
opening A or B often it's just just the
course some other formal sections that
we might see in song form include an
introduction you know some things just
set up the song and then an outro some
closing material in classical music we
might call that a coda or a code Etta
and that is song form
English (auto-generated)