The Role and Importance of Structural Elements In Composition

Structural elements are a very important aspect of song composition. I have used several different types of song structure in my compositions

Formal Block structures:

Binary Form: A song which has only two repeated sections, an example structure for this would be AABA. Examples of this in my own songwriting is the developed idea of On The Hill and the starting point of Leave, which both have only two sections of music.

Ternary Form: A musical form where the first section is always repeated after the second section e.g. ABA. There is also complex ternary which has more than two sections which still work in a ternary pattern, e.g. ABACDCABA. My song Leave follows a ternary form, but incorporates variations in its A1 B A2 A1 B A1 structure.

Arch Form: Music which is repeated in reverse order e.g. ABCCBA

Developmental Forms:

Theme and Variation: This is where a piece of music begins with and is based around a melody which is repeated throughout. When the melody is repeated however, it is varied slightly each time. A theme and variation structure would usually be written out as A1 B A2 B A3 with the numbers referring to the different variations.

Ground Bass: A consistent and repeated bass melody that stays the same while other parts of the song change. This helps maintain structure in a song, particularly during soloing. This can be heard in the song I wrote with Orange Excuse 'Untitled'

Sonata Form: Found in a lot of classical music, sonata form focuses on three parts. The first part is known as exposition, where musical ideas are first presented and introduced. This is then followed by development where the musical ideas from the first section are varied and completely new ideas are introduced. Finally there is the recapitulation where the exposition is repeated in a slightly varied way.

Common Song Structures:

12 Bar Blues: A classic song structure based around the I IV and V chords, that repeats every 12 bars. A typical example of this would be I I I I IV IV I I V IV I V. This has been a very popular song structure, and I used it in my blues influenced starting point idea called Bluesy Demo on soundcloud.

Verse-Chorus constructions: These are the most common structures used in popular music, and they consist of two sections- a verse and a chorus. Verse chorus structures can come in different forms but some common ones include ABA and AABA as well as the use of variations like A1BA2. I use Verse Chorus constructions in a lot of my songwriting, for example Leave which follows an A1 B A2 A1 B A1 pattern while my developed recording of On The Hill is an AABAB structure.

Riff Based Songs: A riff is a short repeated melodic phrase most commonly found in rock music. Some songs are centred around riffs and use them as the basis of the song. In most of these cases the riff would be used as the intro to the song and would be featured prominently throughout. My untitled song that I wrote with Orange Excuse is a riff based song, as the intro and verses are based around my simple staccato guitar riff.

Structures I have used in my songs:

D.G. F.D.: This song has the most complicated structure of all the songs I have written. It is largely a verse chorus construction, featuring two verses and three choruses, as well as varied choruses for the intro and outro. This song does also have some additional sections, which set it apart from verse chorus construction songs, which are a pre chorus and a middle eight section. Overall it follows this structure:

Intro A

Verse B

Pre Chorus C

Chorus A

Verse B

Pre Chorus C

Chorus A

Middle Eight D

Chorus A

Outro A

Leave: In this composition I have used a ternary pattern meaning an A section follows every B section. I have added a slight twist to the normal ternary form, by using a variation on the first section after the second section. This makes it a combination of ternary and theme and variation The overall structure is

Intro A 1

Verse A 2

Chorus B

Bridge A 3

Verse A 2

Chorus B

Outro A 1

On The Hill: This song is mainly a verse chorus construction, but could also be considered another ternary piece. To start with the song follows a fairly standard AABAB structure, but this is changed after the second B section. Another verse is played in another key with varied chord patters which sounds very different to the first verse, however it has the same vocal melody and the guitar does have a lot of similar melodic elements to the first verses, so could be considered a substantial variation on the first verse. It follows this structure:

Verse A

Chorus B

Verse A

Chorus B

Verse (C or A2)

Orange Excuse- Untitled: This is another example of a verse chorus constructed song. In a similar way to 'On the Hill' It almost follows a ternary structure, however it changed after the second chorus to a new section. As I mentioned earlier, this is a riff based song, which is centred around my guitar riff. It also has a ground bass melody which follows the chords in all of the sections. Its full structure is:

Intro Riff A

Verse A

Chorus B

Verse A

Chorus B

Verse/Bridge C

Chorus B

Outro Riff A

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