Song Stucture

Song Structure describes how we put our songs together.  In popular music today, the primary elements of song structure are called the VERSE and CHORUS.  

The VERSE of the song usually has a melody that repeats but the lyrics change for each verse.  The verses usually take up the majority of the song and tell the "story".  It is similar to a stanza in poetry. 

The CHORUS or refrain has a repeating melody and also repeating lyrics.  It usually catchy, exciting, has more instruments, and has higher dynamics.

Typically in popular music today a Verse is 16 bars long and the Chorus is often 8-16 Bars long.  

I would also like to introduce the part of a song called the INTRO which is short for Introduction! Where in a song would you find the intro? ....the beginning of the song, of course!

We are going to do a listening exercise to practice identifying the Intro, Verses and Chorus in a few songs. 





.....Now that we have a better understanding of Verse and Chorus we will start structuring your songs this way in Reason.   

Here is an image from reason with a 16 bar verse (1-17) followed by an 8 bar chorus(17-24).