IndieSongwriter.net

One of the most popular posts on this site is about the 32 bar song structure.

That structure is quite old fashioned, but lots of modern forms developed from it.

 Compound 32-Bar structure.

 The standard 32 bar follows an AABA structure, with B providing a contrast to the A sections. It’s pretty much a ternry structure, with the first a section repeated.

The usual pop song structure, (verse chorus verse chorus middle 8 chorus) can be seen as a variation on this. Instead of one musical idea in the A section, it can be divided into two, the verse and chorus.

• A Verse Chorus
• A Verse Chorus
• B Middle 8
• A Verse Chorus

You are Not Alone

This Michael Jackson song, while sentimental and a little unpleasant,with a genuinely disturbing video, nevertheless illustrates another way of adapting the 32 bar structure.

It does this by using a 32-bar structure as a verse (nearly. It’s actually 40 bars AABAA).

After the first of these there’s a small interval that uses some chromatic chords. The second verse is then a repeat of the 40 bar structure (with different words). This if followed by a middle section that takes us out of key again, before returning to the main melody, and repeating in ascending keys.

 This too is a compound version of the 32 bar structure.

• A (A’A'B’A'A’)
• Interlude
• A (A’A'B’A'A’)
• B Bridge
• A (A’ section repeated in ascending keys)
• Outro

What should you take from this for your own songwriting? The ternary structure is a basic structural idea, but a very useful one. The basic idea of using one idea, contrasting it with another, then returning to the original idea, is always effective.

Listeners like comprehensible structures. That doesn’t mean they always need the same structure, but it does mean that adapting well known structures a little can be very effective. How could you adapt the 32 bar structure to your own ends?

A Small Aside

You Are Not Alone also uses some interesting chromatic chords. It’s in the key of B and several times goes to a G major chord. That’s a major chord built on the minor sixth, which isn’t part of the key but does contain the root note. Always worth a try.