Songs usually consist of various sections such as verses, choruses, and instrumentals. The way these sections are organised is referred to as the ‘arrangement’ of a song. Sometimes when making a cover of a song, musicians change the arrangement. For example, you might drop a verse, or add in an instrumental, or shorten the introduction. When creating covers and writing your own original songs, it is helpful to understand how songs are usually structured, and what functions the various sections have within the song.

This lesson mentions chord progressions. If you don’t know what a chord progression is, check out my lesson here.

A typical arrangement for a pop song is as follows:

Intro
Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Instrumental
Verse
Chorus
Chorus
Outro

Songs may also include any of the following:

break down
bridge
pre-chorus
post-chorus

The following describes the function of each of these sections in a song and some ideas to consider when creating these parts your song.

Intro

This is the beginning of your song, the introduction. Some songs have no intro and launch straight into a verse, but that’s quite rare. A short instrumental section with no vocals/lyrics gives the listener a moment to get into the groove of the song, and feel the tempo and mood before the verses start. Introductions don’t usually include lyrics.

The intro often includes a re-working of the melody and chord progressions that are used in the verses and choruses. The most common introduction is to play the chord progression of the verse, with no vocals or melody.

Where an intro is included, it typically begins with a lower energy than the rest of the song, with fewer instruments. Then instruments are added to build up to the first verse. You might start with only the drums, or only the bass, or perhaps the bass and a snippet of melody that could be the last four bars of the chorus.

A typical introduction is four or eight bars, though some songs, like Sweet Child O’ Mine, have really long introductions with their own melody and bass line/harmony.

If you would like to start the song with a bang, you can use the chords from the chorus rather than the verses (if they each use different chords). This is like a teaser of what is to come.

Usually with pop songs, the intro won’t repeat, and plays just once to orient the listener before the vocals start. In folk, country and slow pop ballads, the intro might go on for a bit longer, giving the listener more time to settle in to the feeling of the music. Rock songs sometimes start directly with the vocals, or can include a longer instrumental introduction, sometimes introducing a catchy melody or drum beat to pull the listener in.

With the introduction, if you want, you have an opportunity to create an interesting and unique instrumental part, with its own chord progression. You could use a guitar or piano to create a ‘riff’.

To learn how to write an introduction and a riff, see this lesson.

Verse

The verses are where the story of your song is told, through lyrics. Typically all the verses follow the same melody, though the melody and rhythm might be varied a bit to suit the words in each verse. Verses often rhyme but don’t always.

Verses are usually lower in energy than the choruses (though sometimes this is reversed), and the energy of each verse may increase as the song goes on. The energy could be built by adding in some extra drum beats or a bass rhythm with more notes, and the vocalist may sing the words a little louder.

It’s good to think of the verses as telling a story, with a beginning verse, one or more middle verses, and an end verse. The content of each verse typically reflects the beginning, middle and end of a story.

Most pop songs have two or three verses but some songs that are very story-focused, such as ballads and folk or country songs, may have as many as five or more.

Chorus

The chorus is typically sung with lyrics, but unlike the verses, where the lyrics are usually different for each verse, the lyrics are generally the same each time, or have only small variations. Often the title of a song is a phrase used in the chorus.

The chorus is the place where the key message of the song is emphasised – the part that listeners tend to remember. Usually the rhythm of the chorus is simpler than that of the verse, because you want people to remember it and sing along.

Hearing people sometimes talk about how a song gets ‘stuck in their head’, with certain phrases playing over and over in their mind. These phrases are known as melodic hooks – catchy, easy-to-sing snippets of melody that are likely to get stuck in the listener’s head. Typically this melodic hook is found in the chorus of a song.

Usually the chorus is a higher energy part of the song, and the energy might build through the song with each chorus. This can be achieved by adding in more instruments or extra drum/bass beats to later choruses, as well as asking the vocalist to sing louder and more passionately.

Pre-chorus and post-chorus

Sometimes a song includes a short instrumental section just before or after each chorus, called a pre-chorus if it goes before, and a post-chorus if it goes after. The pre-chorus is used when the songwriter decides they need something to build the energy and suspense up to transition from the verse to the chorus. Similar to a chorus, the pre-chorus always uses the same lyrics (though it doesn’t always have lyrics), and it hypes up the listener, telling them: the chorus is going to kick in next! The pre-chorus might not be used after an instrumental if the songwriter feels that the transition is not needed.

The pre-chorus is a newer convention, coming into use as pop music boomed in the 1960’s, and has been a mainstay since then. It’s not common in folk and country songs.

Sometimes the pre-chorus has its own chord progression, but usually it uses the same chord progression as the verse or the chorus. For songs that do have a unique set of pre-chorus chords, the songwriter is usually trying to build up a bit of tension. Chord progressions that avoid the I chord are usually best for this, because the chorus will usually be starting on that I chord.

Here’s a common way the pre-chorus is used in pop music: The verse will set a scene, often about the tough times, such as in the song Firework by Katy Perry. In the verse, she asks ‘Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?’ The verses tell a story of struggle. It would be jarring to go from that verse imagery to the Katy Perry belting out triumphantly, ‘Baby, you’re a Firework!’ There needs to be a transition here both in terms of the volume (the pre-chorus starts to get louder), and lyrically (the story begins to turn around). So a pre-chorus is added, ‘You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine…’ which builds up from the tension of the verse to the triumphant feeling of the chorus. That way when the chorus hits, it feels like a cohesive journey.

The post-chorus performs the same function but in reverse, providing a transition from the chorus to the verses.

Instrumental

An instrumental section has no lyrics/vocals, and can be an opportunity to showcase the bassline/harmony, or to include a melody on a guitar or keyboard. Instrumentals may use a different chord progression than what is used in the rest of the song, giving the listener a bit of a break from the repetition. The chord progression of the instrumental might also be used in the intro and outro of the song, to help tie it all together.

The melody of the instrumental is often different to the melody of the verse or chorus, though it may be similar – perhaps some parts of the rhythm will be replicated. Likewise, the bass may change to a different rhythm during the instrumental.

Instrumentals can be really simple, just the bass and drums playing a variation of what is played during the verses and choruses, and the melody might be a simple pattern similar to those used for bass lines, or they can be as complex as you like.

An instrumental is most commonly placed just before the third verse of a song. But a songwriter can insert an instrumental section wherever they want to add some “breathing room” between the sections with vocals.

Bridge

The bridge is an instrumental section which deliberately has much calmer energy than the rest of the song, to contrast. If the energy has been building throughout the first and second verses and choruses, it may feel there is nowhere for the song to go. So adding a bridge which lowers the intensity can mean that when the next verse or chorus comes in, the energy can be lifted in a pleasing way. In a pop dance song, which is very high energy, the bridge could be a quieter moment with a sombre atmosphere. In a rock song, it could be a moment where the instrumental section shines. In a folk or country song, this could be the place where the story in the lyrics is reflected on from a different perspective. The bridge may include lyrics or it may be instrumental-only.

A bridge will generally happen in the later part of the song after the verse and chorus have already been introduced. A very common song-structure to use a bridge is this:

Intro
Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Bridge
Chorus
Chorus

This common bridge placement helps to bring new life to the song, disrupting the pattern of verse-chorus-verse-chorus with new material. As well as stopping the song from being too repetitious, the diversion of the bridge can make the return of the final chorus more satisfying.

The quieter, calmer energy of the bridge can be achieved by removing some elements, and having fewer notes. It could be just the singer and bass line with no drums or additional harmony. The first 8 bars might be particularly quiet and the second 8 bars could gradually build, creating anticipation which finally ‘pops’ when the chorus returns.

Bridges often use a new or altered chord progression to contrast with the verse/chorus. One common songwriting technique is to create a bridge that uses the ‘relative minor’ of a chord progression. For example, with a song featuring the chord progression I V vi IV during the verse/chorus, the bridge could contrast by starting the progression with the minor chord, the vi. So the chord progression for the bridge would be vi IV I V. This makes a more melancholy effect for the bridge. This combined with a drop in volume and a reduction of instruments can be a powerful tool to bring the mood down, to explore a darker perspective on the song before the chorus returns.

While in pop music the bridge is almost always a section with vocals and new lyrics, a bridge can also create contrast from the verse/chorus by being an instrumental. This is especially popular in rock music, as the bridge is an opportunity for an instrument (such as a guitar, piano, saxophone or electronic synthesiser) to create a solo. That instrument comes to the fore, playing an exciting melodic passage.

Breakdown

A breakdown is a short section, perhaps only one or two bars long, where several instruments drop out, and then the all the instruments come back in again afterwards. It could be included within the bridge or elsewhere in the song. Since deaf people struggle to hear when the lyrics start, I like to include a small breakdown before the chorus and/or verse, as it can be very distinctive and cue us to know that the verse or chorus is coming. A breakdown is usually focused on the drum beat or bass line. It’s a stronger way of creating contrast than a bridge. A break down could be as simple as two bars that are only drums, or it might be four bars that are just the bass line. This is often used in pop dance songs, to get the audience moving.

Breakdown ideas:

One of the simplest breakdowns is to simply play ‘four on the floor’ (a kick drum on beat one, two, three and four) for one bar by itself.
Optionally you could add in the bass also playing four on the floor, using the note that is the song’s home for the key (ie C if the song is in C Major).
Have both the bass and the drum play a different rhythm than four on the floor, in sync with each other.
Play a snippet of melody on the piano or guitar or another instrument, while the bass and drums drop out. The melody could be really simple, such as playing the 1, 3, 5, 3 of the chord on beats one, two, thee and four.

Outro

The outro is the ending of the song. It might be very simple, such as playing the last line of the chorus again but slower, and with a long final note. Or it can be a whole instrumental section of its own. Some outros wind down gently, with instruments gradually dropping out and what’s left slowing down. Other outros can build up intensity, with extra drum beats and crashes, ending with a final ultra-crash.

It is typical for a song to end with the final chorus being played twice in a row – also referred to as a ‘double-chorus.’ The double-chorus gives a sense of finality. Often the second round of the chorus can include extra instruments or backing vocals, to build it up further, those these can become a bit harder to hear for people with hearing aids, so you may need to be careful not to add in too much. The song then finishes with the home chord, either playing it quickly to finish with a bang, or playing it as a long note which fades out. It’s important to finish on the home chord (the I or in some cases the vi), because otherwise the song will sound unresolved. Sometimes the chorus will just keep on repeating, slowly fading out.

For details of how to write an outro, see this lesson.

Some example song structures

Now you have the ingredients for song sections: intro, verse, chorus, instrumental, bridge, outro. When you create a cover or write your own original song, you have a lot of flexibility when it comes to arranging these elements, but using traditional song structures can make our songs more accessible to an audience, as they will be able to follow and understand the journey of the song the first time they hear it.

Some typical arrangements

A country or folk song

This is the very simplest type of song – just verses telling a story. In this song, the last line of each verse might be the same, to fulfil the function of the chorus.

Verse
Verse
Verse
Verse

A country or folk song

This is another simple song structure, where verses to tell a story, and the chorus delivers the overarching message.

Intro
Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Outro

A pop song

Now we take the same song structure as shown previously, and add in a pre-chorus. The pre-chorus may have repeating lyrics, like a chorus. This extra use of repetition is common in pop and rock music. The pre-chorus is another chance for the song to introduce something catchy and memorable to draw the listener in.

Intro
Verse
Pre-chorus
Chorus
Verse
Pre-chorus
Chorus
Outro

A pop or rock song:

Now we can take the same song structure and add in a bridge. The incorporation of the bridge here means the song can incorporate more musical ideas, and create a super impactful final double-chorus.

Intro
Verse
Pre-chorus
Chorus
Verse
Pre-chorus
Chorus
Bridge
Double-chorus
Outro

How many bars to use for each section?

Most songs play for less than four minutes and are in 4/4 time. Sections are generally created in multiples of four bars. So they might be 4, 8, 12 or 16 bars long but are not usually 3, 5, 6 or any other number of bars in length.

The most common number of bars for a verse or chorus is 8 or 16 bars, using a four-chord chord progression. That means that the chord progression would typically play through two or four times.

The intro, outro, pre-chorus or post-chorus may be as short as 4 bars.

The bridge is usually the same length as the verse or chorus, though it may be longer, at 16 bars, even when the verse and chorus are 8 bars each. The bridge can also be short at just 4 bars.

The outro may be longer, at 16 bars, or as short as 4 bars.

How did you go with song arrangements? Was this lesson clear for you? Anything you are confused about? Let me know what works and what doesn’t, so I can improve this course. Thanks! – Asphyxia.