Song Structure

 

I think is extremely crucial to know what are the parts of a song. If you ever hear a review of music, you’ll often hear things like: “the bridge of the starting track to week”. Sure, you know that the reviewer is not so happy about a particular section of the song. But it will be necessary, or at least it’ll be better if you could position yourself in the right place when hearing these kinds of things. That’s why is important to know more about song structure.

 

In our reviews, we often refer parts of the album using this language. And maybe it is known by a lot of people, but there are a few folks that aren’t so sure about it. I’ll like to share with you the structure of a song, and I’ll tell you also the technical description of them. Just in case you’ll ever want to communicate yourself with a sound engineer.

 

Song Structure:

 

Introduction (Intro): The start of a song is what we know as the intro. It generally contains no lyrics and the main purpose of it is to create suspense on what is coming next.

 

Verse: What is coming after the Intro is generally the verse of the song. This section is not known as the hook of the song but used in fact to create a hook for the chorus, that is why they are positioned normally before them. Lyrically speaking, the verse contains the details of the story told in the song.

 

Chorus: Maybe the most known part of a song is the chorus. These are typically the loudest, highest and fullest section of a song. Generally, the lyrics of the chorus are repeated.

 

 

Bridge: Some songs have bridges, and it is normal to find these parts only one time. The bridges can be found in any place of a song, and they are used for connecting two sections, not necessarily different ones (it is normal to use a bridge for connecting two choruses).

 

Solo: This is the part of a song where an instrumentalist can show what he gots. In pop music, the instrument is used is generally digital. And in Rock music, the most common is a guitar solo, but there are always exceptions, like Moby Dick from Led Zeppelin.

 

Outro (AKA Coda, Ad lib): This is the ending section, the most popular way to finish a song is through fading, where the volume of the music decreases until it reaches 0Db.

 

All these parts are used as the artist want to. For example, we might hear chorus with different lyrics. Even with different melodies. There are some cases where you might find songs with two bridges.

 

Things might get way more complicated when it comes to progressive music, which follows no defined pattern. In this type of music songs are composed of different “acts,” with each verse or set of verses conveying a different “feel” appropriate to the subject matter or story action.

 

Knowing the structure of a song will help, as said before, to locate yourself in a review. Also, it would be useful when your jamming with your friends and want to start from one part of the song that is not the actual beginning of it (example, starting on the second verse). If you’re recording your work, this language will help you to communicate with a producer.

 

I hope that this article helped you in some way. If you have any question, there’s a comment section down below or just send me an email 🙂