Don't be a Rambling Man
Lyrics, Structure and Formula
By: Jimi Heath

Yes, I know.. your musical genius should not be shackled to the bonds of corporate demise.  Why should you use a formula?  The great thinkers didn't.. Einstein didn't, Da Vinci didn't, The Beatles didn't.. oh wait!  Yes they did. So you must as well my little creative geniuses.  It's really very easy to write in structure and mind the general guidelines of songwriting, once you get the hang of it.  You will find that other writers will take you more seriously when you conform (just a little) to some writing standards.

Does that mean that you have to write a bunch of cookie cutter songs that are meaningless and do not effectively explore your creative side?  No.  You can bend the rules, and some people even break the rules.. BUT you have to KNOW the rules and master them before you can break them.  So let's look at some basic song structures to get you headed down the right path.

 VERSE: The purpose of a verse is usually to tell the story or describe the feeling, etc.

CHORUS: The chorus is the focal point of the song or the central theme.  It usually contains the hook.

HOOK: The hook is the repeated concept line or phrase and the most important part of a a song.  A lot of writers use the title as the hook.  It usually falls at the end or beginning (sometimes both) of the chorus.

BRIDGE:  A bridge can be the fresh perspective in a song, and lyrically should usually summarize what the verses and chorus before it.  A bridge can be a  small body of music only, or have both lyrics and music and is  usually placed after the second chorus, though there are exceptions.

So let's move on to song form/structure. You may have seen or heard about a song having an ABAB form, or ABABC, etc. and wondered to yourself, "What the hell does that mean?" It's okay, I've been there too.  Let's talk about it.

One of the oldest song forms is  referred to as folk, where there isnt a chorus, but a series of story verses. Since verses are always labeled "A", when we describe a folk form or any song that has only verses, we'd refer to it as, AAAA.

A lot of songs these days in popular markets follow the ABAB form.  Choruses are labeled, "B", so a verse, chorus, verse, chorus type of song is ABAB. Is it clicking yet?

The majority of songs on in Country, Pop and R&B follow an even broader used structure called the AABABCB. This is the form that includes a bridge, which is labeled, "C". So by these labels we can translate the  structure as: verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus.

You will find that there are many variations of these forms. For instance, some songs start with the chorus, some have more than one bridge, and you can add in lifts, also referred to as pre-choruses.  These are small sections that melodically lift the lyric into the chorus.  Some writers use the second part of the verse as the pre-chorus, or you can section them out completely lyrically.  Its all your choice and what best fits the songs.

If you listen to some of your favorite songs you will begin to identify the sections of the structure it was written in. 

Understanding song form is an good way to further your education on the craft of songwriting...if you sit down and experiment with different song forms, you may find all kinds of possibilities you didn't know existed before.

A good practice technique is what I like to call a "write over".  Take a song you love, print out the lyrics and write over that form.  Don't be a jackass and copy their melodies or lyrics, but just use the form.  Doing this as an exercise will get you thinking about form and structure and after a while you will just start writing in form as habit.

Now go write a hit!