Song Structure

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post describing my composing process for my songs. While I hope this is helpful, I realize that it is hard to write songs without knowing how to organize them. You hear a lot about story structure, but not so much about song structure. At least, not in the solo piano world, according to my knowledge.

Just as story structure helps create better stories, song structure helps create better songs. What song is there that people would listen to that is jumbled, as several parts missing, and never seems to go anywhere? There might be some (new age music comes to mind), but I prefer music that flows in an organized way. It creates resonance in the song and helps me remember it.

Song structure is most obvious in pop songs, but it's also present in solo piano. To say the least, it is important to your composing process. Here, I would like to give you a better picture of what it looks like.

For my first example, here is the outline for one of my songs:

• intro, left hand melody

• main theme

• main theme repeated, elaborated

• chorus

• main theme, octave lower

• chorus

• bridge

• chorus

• main theme to end

This is one of the different types of structure I use. There's no formal, "you must do it this way" sort of structure, but however you organize your song, you must make sure it is organized. Pieces shouldn't be scattered willy-nilly.

The structure of the song I showed above is based off pop songs. We all know how they work. They start with the first stanza, maybe add another one, go to the chorus, go back to another stanza, add another chorus, switch to a bridge, come back for a repeat of the chorus, then end in some way, shape, or form. This is personally my favorite way to structure my songs, partly because it gives the listener an equal amount of exposure to all the parts. It doesn't get boring.

Another example of a song structure is in another one of my songs:

• main theme as intro

• main theme elaborated two times

• chorus

• main theme

• chorus

• bridge

• chorus

• main theme simplified to end

It's a very repetitive song. Remember how I warned you about taking repetition too far? When I wrote this song, I made sure that I elaborated the main theme enough to give it variety, while keeping its familiarity. Much to my delight, though it is very simple, this song turned out to be one of my favorites.

I heard song structure explained like this: it is a poem. Poems are written with a distinct pattern to their rhymes (A, B, A, B, for example), and it gives them a backbone to then take off with their flowing language. Same with music. To make it work, it needs a skeleton of some sort to hold all its magical parts together so it can leave the instrument and saturate every molecule of air in the room. Even the great musicians of the past such as Shubert, Handel, Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart used structure in their pieces.

The best way to learn song structure is to find it yourself. Sit down with a pad of paper and a pencil, and turn on your favorite songs, whether it be classical, pop, jazz, or solo piano. See if you can spot the patterns that were used, and write them down. Compare what you find, and see if you can use some of your favorite structures to write your own music.

Music writers, what do you think? How do you use song structure, and what are your favorite patterns?