Most music is built up of many shorter sections that are 'arranged' to create a larger piece of music. The order these shorter sections are put in is referred to as 'Structure'. There are generally two types of structure you will hear discussed when it comes to music, that of a whole piece and that of the smaller sections that make up a piece. On this page we will be discussing the first of these types.

'Song Structure' describes the arrangement of an entire song or piece. Most modern music that has some sort of singing in it will be built up of sections such as verses, choruses, middle 8s and instrumentals (for a more complete list of structural sections seen in songs have a look at this lesson). In an instrumental piece you may see letters used to describe sections. This sort of structure doesn't really tell you anything about what is played within these sections, just the general layout of the overall piece.

Lets give an example to describe the structure of the song 'Boulevard Of Broken Dreams' by Green Day. The list below details the order of the different song sections and also tells you how many bars each part is made up of. The number of bars isn't totally relevant to the structure but it is useful to include. Listen to the song and follow the list a long with it and see if it makes sense. There are distinct differences between each part that will help you keep track of where you are. For example the intro happens right at the beginning of the song and the verse starts when the vocal comes in.

  • Intro (4 bars)
  • Verse 1 (14 bars)
  • Chorus (8 Bars)
  • Intro (4 bars)
  • Verse 2 (14 bars)
  • Chorus (8 Bars)
  • Intro (4 bars)
  • Guitar Solo (9 bars)
  • Verse 3 (4 bars)
  • Chorus (9 bars)
  • Outro (12 bars)

If you have a rough idea of what sort of grooves and fills are used in this song you could use this list as a cheat sheet to help you play along. You could add additional details to each part to remind you to do certain things. This is a useful thing to do if you have to learn a song at short notice, I have re written the list below in the format I would use in that case.

  • Intro (4 bars)

    Don't play

  • Verse 1 (14 bars)

    Play from bar 2, straight groove. Fill into chorus

  • Chorus (8 Bars)

    Louder. Stop in last bar, play fill

  • Intro (4 bars)

    Verse groove

  • Verse 2 (14 bars)

    Same as V.1, play all.

  • Chorus (8 Bars)

    As Chorus 1

  • Intro (4 bars)

    As previous intro

  • Guitar Solo (9 bars)

    Louder, stops in bars 5 and 7, build up bar 9

  • Verse 3 (4 bars)

    Don't play, fill into chorus

  • Chorus (9 bars)

    As Chorus 1, build up in last two bars

  • Outro (12 bars)

    Mega loud, three bar phrasing

I may even go as far as colour coding sections that have the same part played within them.


The example above is a very common structure and you will find that a lot of songs (particularly in rock and pop) follow a similar pattern. Listed below are some variations on the structure above I can guarantee you will come across at some point.

  • The number of bars in each section is highly likely to be different in different songs. 4's, 8's and 16's are common amounts to see here.
  • The third instance of the intro may be removed meaning you will go straight from a chorus to a guitar solo.
  • The guitar solo could be a middle 8 instead.
  • The second and/or third instance of the intro may be replaced with a bridge.
  • There may not be a third verse, in this case meaning you would go from the guitar solo to the chorus.
  • Pre Choruses may be used between the verses and choruses.

Check out our lesson on structures used within smaller sections.

Lessons

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