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couple of bars early or late, either of which can be exciting. Another nice technique is to take out a bar to make a
second phrase arrive earlier than you would expect. 'It Won't Be Long' cuts a bar from its verse after the first phrase
so the second has more impact. (Try singing the song with the "cut" bar restored and notice how much less
interesting it is.) In 'Do You Know The Way To San Jose', there is a good example of asymmetry: the chord
sequence I IV I V is five bars long, with the V covering two bars.
The Through-Composed Verse
A verse can also be "through-composed". I use this term for a verse that has no repeated chord-change unit, such as a
turnaround, but is a single structure without internal repeats that is maybe 12 or 16 bars (or even longer). This type
of song is less common because it is more demanding to write. It is also less favoured in a commercial context
because the listener has to wait until the end of the verse to grasp the whole. The lack of chord repetition can be
offset by repeating lyric phrases or having melodic motifs in the instruments that repeat regardless of the changing
harmony. Although unusual, the through-composed verse does offer marvellous opportunities to develop the
melodic line. 'Alone Again (Naturally)' and 'For All We Know' would be examples.
If a verse is short, the distinction between verse and chorus can be blurred. There is one song structure that has two
sections, A and B, and A is a verse that climaxes with a hook – in other words a "mini-chorus" is incorporated into
it. In 'Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)', there are only two lyric lines sung in four bars before the song
arrives at the hook. The whole section is wrapped up in about eight bars. Badfinger's 'No Matter What' is another
example with an eightbar A section. Both songs have a bridge that modulates away from the home key. The Beatles'
early albums contain quite a few examples of this AB structure.
Verses can be constructed by using 8-, 12- and 16-bar blues-derived forms.
8-bar three-chord verse
IIIVIIVVI'Act Naturally'
IIIVIIVIVI'Barbara Ann'
I I IV bVdim I VI II V I IV I V'Need Your Love So Bad'
Typical 12-bar
I I(or IV) I I IV IV I I V IV I V12-bar in Dm
I I V V I I IV IV I V I I'Black Magic Woman'
Songs can have verses with different sequences and structures, all leading to the same chorus.