Songwriting: Structure

Video Transcript

"In this segment, I am going to talk about song structure. There's no rules in creativity, really. You can do whatever you want, but it is also good to know what the 'norm' is. So that when you break them, you break them intelligently and purposefully and so you just don't seem like you have no idea of what you are doing. Here is a standard pop structure. You have verse one. You have your chorus, after that. Then there is verse two, the chorus, a bridge and the last chorus. The verses are the parts of the song that basically tell the story. The chorus is going to pop-out as the main feeling or the main idea. This is the reason why you wrote this song. It is what you want to say to the world about this song. The second verse is going to develop from the first verse. It will tell that story more or tell the details of what's going on. Back to the chorus, which is going to be exactly the same, usually. Then, we get to the bridge, which is . . . you don't have to have a bridge on all songs, but a bridge is a different perspective. It is going to have a different sound. It is going to almost come at it like through the looking glass. You know, you have the story and the main idea. Well, the bridge is going to be like, "But, what if?" or "It could've been this way." or "I never thought of it this way." It is like the other side. Then, you are going to end with the chorus. You are going to think of a way to end your song. There's a basic standard song structure."