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instrumental rather than vocal. The last verse is likely to have the hook repeated. There is an old formula for a 32-bar
song that goes: Verse 1, eight bars; Verse 2, eight bars; Bridge, eight bars; Verse 3, eight bars.
3 Intro Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Coda or fade
4 Intro Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Bridge Chorus Coda or fade
5 Intro Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Bridge Verse Chorus Coda or fade
6 Intro Verse Chorus Bridge Verse Chorus Coda or fade
This is the structure of the single version of 'More Than A Feeling'. This edited version is much snappier than the
album track, offering a good example of how radio edits are often aesthetically right, too.
7 Intro Chorus Verse Chorus Bridge Verse Chorus Coda or fade
This is a radio-friendly format because it starts with the chorus.
8 Intro Verse Verse Verse Solo/Bridge Verse Extended Coda
9 Intro riff Chorus Verse Verse Chorus Coda on intro riff
Used by The Byrds for their adaptation of Dylan's 'Mr. Tambourine Man'.
10 Intro Verse 1 Verse 2 Verse 3 Verse 4 Solo Verse 2 Verse 3 Verse 4
This is the structure of Smokey Robinson's 'The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game'. What's interesting is that it
never returns to Verse 1 (in D major); the rest of the song is in B minor. Each verse is short, and in the Marvelettes'
version the whole thing comes in under three minutes.
Remember that it is perfectly possible to either cut a first chorus in half, or to cut a second or third verse in half, in
order to tighten up a song's structure.
Other Types of Structure
When thinking about structure, it is important to keep sight of the overall "shape" of a song. A song may have a
dynamic curve that over-rides its verse / chorus sections, as in the case of 'With Or Without You', 'You'll Never
Walk Alone' and 'It's Over', songs that build to a climax and then ebb away or stop. It's important to realize that
songs can be made to seem almost seamless – 'This Used To Be My Playground' is a good example. In too much
recent songwriting, the "joins" between sections are all too obvious.
Some of Springsteen's longer early songs, such as 'Rosalita' and 'Jungleland', have complex structures with many
dynamic moments of crescendo and ebb. These were written with live performance in mind and partly influenced by
the "soul revue" approach. Meatloaf is a performer who has, against the odds, made a career out of batty (pun
intended) long numbers that are like mini-operas. In rock, there are such unconventionally structured songs as
'Paranoid Android', 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (and its lesser-known precursor, 'March Of The Black Queen'), 'Happiness
Is A Warm Gun', 'Stairway To Heaven' and 'Band On The Run'. Be warned, however – that way, the rock opera and
concept album lie!
If you have never written a song, it can seem daunting to listen to a piece three or four minutes long and think, How
am I going to invent all that? It is much easier to reflect on how long each section is. Let's say we need an intro, a
verse, a chorus and a bridge: 4 + 8 (twice) + 4 (twice or four times) + 8. That's a total of only 24 bars of music for
the whole song. Cut down to size songwriting need not seem so difficult.