In common usage, a bridge is the section of a song that usually comes after the second chorus:
Verse 1 – Chorus – Verse 2 – Chorus – BRIDGE – Chorus – Chorus…
You’ll sometimes see this section termed the “middle 8”, but the concept is the same: you’re looking for a way to provide a bit of a diversion from the material of the verse and the chorus. It gives your song a bit more mileage, and allows for a return to the chorus without tiring the listener with endless repetitions of verse and chorus melodies.
But to be successful, a bridge needs to do more than simply present new material. It needs to heighten excitement, and needs to give the impression of increasing energy and momentum, even if it only does so with subtlety. [Continue reading below..]
The bridge actually has its roots in Classical symphonies. In a typical symphony, the composer presents two melodies, repeats them, and then enters a section called the Development. In this section, musical ideas from the previous melodies are fragmented, developed and enhanced, the point of which is to heighten excitement. At the end of this Development section, the composer re-presents the original themes.
In a way, this is what songs do, and this so-called Development section equates to the bridge.
There are many ways to generate excitement in a bridge. I’ve spoken before about the fragmenting of musical ideas: taking thematic material and presenting it in “shorter bursts” which tends to build energy. But don’t neglect lyrical excitement.
In bridges, you don’t generate excitement by simply saying more exciting things. The excitement happens through a combining of the different ways that verse lyrics and chorus lyrics are usually presented.
A verse lyric is usually narrative. It describes a situation; it tells the listener “what’s going on.” It may also tell the listener what the singer is feeling, but the primary purpose of a verse is to set the stage and give the audience a perspective.
Through the chorus lyric the singer emotes, and tells the listener what he/she is feeling. (This also, by the way, has its roots in Classical music, if you are at all familiar with opera. In an opera, the singer presents what’s called a recitative, which tells the audience “what’s going on.” The character then sings an aria, which tells the audience what he/she is feeling about the situation.)
The lyric of a song’s bridge needs to do something different: it needs to build excitement. How do we do that? By juxtaposing the two concepts of narration and emotion.
I’ve used Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” as a great example of this concept, but it’s just one of many. Give “Just a Dream” by Nelly a listen, and you’ll find a great example of bridge lyrics that generate emotional excitement.
The verse sets the stage and tells the situation: “I was at the top and now it’s like I’m in the basement./ Number one spot and now she’s finding a replacement./ I swear now I can’t take it, knowing somebody’s got my baby./ And now you ain’t around, baby I can’t think./ Shoulda put it down. Shoulda got that ring…”
The chorus presents the emotional impact of the situation: “I was thinkin’ about her, thinkin’ about me./ Thinkin’ about us, what we gonna be?”
The bridge, while not generating a lot of musical excitement, has the singer turning the situation over to the audience, directly addressing the listeners: “If you ever loved somebody put your hands up./ If you ever loved somebody put your hands up./ And now they’re gone and you wish you could give them everything…”
That kind of lyric, that directly addresses the audience, has a way of creating heart-pounding excitement, because for the first time the listener gets to actually think, “Hey, this has happened to me!” It’s very poignant.
So when writing a bridge for your song, don’t forget that it’s not just a melodic/harmonic event. It directly involves your lyric, and the kind of words you use.
-Gary Ewer, from “The Essential Secrets of Songwriting”
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