What Songwriters Need to Know About Song Structure

One way to create a sense of uniqueness with your music is to consider an ad hoc form.

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It’s a good bet that most seasoned songwriters won’t have a lot to say about song structure. There’s a “just get going and write” opinion out there that makes it seem that structure is something that just happens. This is borne out by the fact that most songs, particularly hit songs, rarely stray from the verse-chorus (optional bridge) form. It’s important to take a closer look at what’s going on in the verse-chorus format that can help you be a bit more creative with your songwriting.

A study of song structure is a study of the all-important contrast principle. The verse-chorus format allows the songwriter to contrast different melodies within the same song. The challenge for the songwriter is to create that difference between the two melodies, sometimes three, while at the same time providing subtle characteristics that link them together.

The characteristics that often differ between the melodies within the same song are:

• melodic range
• accompanying chord progression
• accompanying instrumentation

But as I say, it’s important to create a sense that the two or three melodies complement each other – that they “belong together.” That unity is usually provided by:

• similar motifs (i.e., similar melodic and rhythmic ideas)
• a lyric that responds to thoughts put forward in earlier lyrics
• similar instrumentation between the various sections

This is most easily achieved by writing songs in the verse-chorus-bridge format because much of those similarities and distinctions are part of that form. In other words, the verse-chorus-bridge form serves as a useful template, an already-established structure that songwriters can use to achieve the vital sense of contrast.

But verse-chorus is only one way to structure a song. Once you remember that contrast is the overriding attribute that’s provided by the verse-chorus format, there’s no reason that you can’t create your own form, what I’d call an ad hoc form.

An ad hoc form quite literally means a form that’s created for one song, and not necessarily for any other. Progressive rock used ad hoc forms almost as a songwriting principle. For a great example, listen to “Siberian Khatru“, by British group Yes. You can hear melodies repeating, and you get a sense of verse and chorus, but what really becomes obvious as you listen to the entire song is that it sounds like “this section” followed by “that section”, with contrast being provided by the various melodies (range, lyrics, etc), with subtle instrumental manipulations.

Creating a unique structure for your song means you need to put aside thoughts of verse-chorus, and think more simply of contrast. Your song needs to sound like a coherent musical journey, and that journey is provided in large part by a strong lyric that weaves the parts of the journey together.

Here are some tips for creating an ad hoc form for your song:

1. Work out 2, 3, or more distinct but related melodies that each reside in a unique range. The various ranges don’t need to be that different from each other. But it’s best if at least one of them hits a note higher than the other melodies.
2. Create a lyric that progresses through the entire song. That doesn’t mean you can’t have lyrics repeat, but there should definitely be a sense that by the end of the song, a coherent story, philosophy or opinion has been voiced.
3. Map out ways in which each section (melody) will differ from the others. While tempo will often stay the same (though this certainly isn’t a requirement), you may want to experiment with changing instrumentation, vocal style, harmonic rhythm (i.e., how often you change chords), etc.
4. Consider allowing for some repetition of sections. Listeners can get frustrated if a song is one long run-on sentence, where no thoughts reappear. In general, the longer the song, the more important repetition may become. Any form you create that follows an ABCDE… kind of structure, one with no repetition, can cause problems. Bringing back melodies heard earlier gives confidence to the listener that they understand the song on some level, and that’s crucial.

Ad hoc forms are not just used in progressive rock. In a sense, Roy Orbison’s hit song “In Dreams” uses a complex ad hoc form of 7 sections seamlessly connected by similar rhythms, melodic shapes and instrumentation. You notice that each section tends to move the voice higher, and that’s probably its most important formal element. The fact that no melody repeats is not a problem here, as the entire song is only 2’50”.

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