Even a casual music fan knows exactly when to expect the emotional upswing in Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” the confident refrain of Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss,” and the explosive chorus laid down in Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” That’s song structure at work. Ready to make your own music magic? Let’s dive into the various parts of a song and how they all work together.
Songs are made up of several different parts, all mixed up and shuffled around into several unique yet recognizable combinations. We’ll walk through the most common elements of songwriting, but if you’re playing along at home, remember, music is an art, not an exact science. Not every song will have all of these elements.
Intro: The intro is the beginning of the song. It can be as short as a few instrumental bars or as long as several sung lines. Most songs begin with some sort of intro. Sung intros are easily found throughout the musical theater canon (a lot more often than in pop music), mostly because they give the song a chance to build up emotionally instead of just beginning abruptly on a bell tone or launching right into a verse.
For example, in the song “On the Street Where You Live” from the musical “My Fair Lady” (music by Frederick Loewe, lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner), we’re given a few introductory lines:
When she mentioned how her aunt bit off the spoon
She completely done me in.
And my heart went on a journey to the moon
When she told about her father and the gin!
And I never saw a more enchanting farce
Than that moment when she shouted “move your bloomin—”
Then, the song launches into the verse we all know:
I have often walked down this street before…
Verse: The verse is the part of the song that contains its “plot,” and it’s usually made up of a few lines. Songs contain several verses, all of which feature the same tune but different lyrics, helping to move the story of the song along.
The song “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell features a classic verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. It starts with a verse:
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot
Which is then followed by a chorus (more on that in a moment):
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
And then the pattern repeats several times until the end of the song.
Chorus: Unlike the verse, everything about the chorus will be exactly the same each time we hear it, not just the music. While choruses are found all over pop music, they’re a little harder to find in theatrical writing, since repetition does nothing to move a plot along. Musical scores are much more likely to utilize refrains (more on those in a second).
The song “Beautiful” by Carole King, for instance, subverts expectations by starting with the chorus, followed by the first verse, and then using the chorus two more times.
Refrain: Unlike a chorus, which is a several-line hook that repeats, a refrain is just a line or two that repeats, usually situated at the end of a verse.
In the song “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from the musical “Gypsy” (music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim), the refrain is—wait for it—“everything’s coming up roses.” Sondheim certainly got his refrain miles in—the lyric repeats five times in the three-minute song.
Bridge: The bridge, which is also called the B-Section, is a place where the composer subverts expectations and introduces a new musical theme or pattern. Narratively, the bridge serves as the emotional climax of the song, occurring halfway to two-thirds of the way through it.
In the song “Easy to Be Hard” from the musical “Hair” (music by Galt MacDermot, lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado), the bridge comes after the second verse, with a different melody and higher vocal line to match its bigger emotional stakes. For those who want to listen along, the bridge starts about a minute into the song with the phrase “especially people who care about strangers.”
Outro: The outro is the inverse of the intro, or the way that we get out of a song. Sometimes outros are just instrumental music, and sometimes they are sung refrains or fade-outs. Of course, in the context of theater, you’re generally not going to find outros, as the medium usually prefers a big finish. Some older musical theater albums featured outros that didn’t happen onstage to make them more palatable for radio play (imagine that!). Consider the end of “Spread a Little Sunshine” on the original “Pippin” album (music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz)—it doesn’t end, it just loops and fades out.
How do the parts of a song work together?
Let’s look at a song you’ve probably heard a thousand times (especially if you went to theater school with 17 precocious tenors), label the parts, and see how they all work together: “Maria” from “West Side Story” (music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim).
INTRO
The most beautiful sound I ever heard
(Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria)
All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word
(Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria)
(Maria, Maria)
VERSE
Maria!
I’ve just met a girl named Maria
And suddenly that name will never be the same to me
SECOND VERSE
Maria!
I’ve just kissed a girl named Maria
And suddenly I've found how wonderful a sound can be
CHORUS
Maria!
Say it loud and there’s music playing
Say it soft and it’s almost like praying
Maria
I’ll never stop saying, “Maria!”
BRIDGE
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria
Maria!
CHORUS
Say it loud and there’s music playing
Say it soft and it’s almost like praying
Maria
I'll never stop saying, “Maria”
OUTRO
The most beautiful sound I ever heard
Maria