Okay. So, in a, in an an a, a B, a song, what does the letter A stand for? Put it in the chat if you know, or shout it out really loud. So you freak out your neighbors bathroom and kitchen. Exactly. Thank goodness you’re listening. That’s great. Yeah. Verse, okay. And what does the letter B stand for guys? Okay, for those putting bridge, you are right for those putting chorus, it’s not a chorus in an a, a, b, a song.
The B stands for bridge. It doesn’t stand for chorus. Let me just clarify that because it is, unusual in A, A, A, A, A, B, A songs A stands for verse, and B stands for bridge.
So the key thing to take away from this is there’s no chorus in an a, a b, a song. Okay? So aa, a, a b, a classic song form. You start with a verse, you repeat the verse, you go to a bridge section and you go back to the verse at the end. Yeah, exactly. What I totally get that. So it’s a really beautiful song form.
And the spotlight of a BA song form is on the verse. That’s why you have three verses and one bridge sometimes more, but we’ll get to that. in original, a, a BA classic song form. each section would normally be eight bars long. So there’d be 32 bars in total, but even 10 years, you know, after 10 years of aa ba form, people were stretching these out and adding sections and stuff.
So we’ll get to that. But if you wanted to write the most perfect classic aa ba form, you would write eight bar verse, another eight bar verse, an eight bar bridge, and then finish with another eight bar verse. Okay. Are you with me so far? So we’ve now established there’s no chorus in aa BA form, and there are three verses and there is one bridge.
Okay, clear with everybody. Give me a little wave. Yeah, that’s cool. I, I I need more people to, to to convince me that you know what’s going on. Okay. Okay. That’s more like it. That’s right. Yeah. Get your fingers active. That’s great. Fantastic. Okay. This is what’s confusing about the letters.
I think for some people that in an a pop song, an a BAB song, that’s songs on the radio, the B stands for chorus. It’s confusing. We need to have a moratorium and big meeting of all the songwriters and the decide what things are gonna be called. ’cause it’s confusing, you know, middle eights bridges, pre choruses, ramps, intros. We need names for these that are, unified. I’m going to get on that immediately and, perhaps you could all pay me to do that or someone could pay me.
Does that be a great job? Okay, so as I’ve already said, this is crazy. We are learning about a song form, no chorus. Can you believe it? this is one of the reasons I love this song form ’cause it’s not got a chorus, but it’s still brilliant. It goes against almost everything you are taught, about songwriting and yeah, no pre chorus either.
This is so easy, isn’t it guys? you are probably wondering which famous songs have this form. Some of you already put a few in in the chat. There are a lot of them. if you want to hear more of the early stuff, like somewhere of the Rainbow, if you’re not familiar with this kind of music, then listen to Cole Borderer, George Gershwin, Irv in Berlin. If you go to Spotify and just search Great American Songbook, you’ll find a lot of these songs in this form.
And they’re just beautiful for, for listening to and also from learning from. so it’s all old songs, isn’t it? Well, it’s not all old songs. here are a few of many, many hit songs in this form. Hey, Jude, by the Beatles. Oh, darling, by the Beatles. Something by The Beatles. Why am I Guitar Gently Wheat by the Beatles, long Winding Robe by the Beatles.
Every breath you take by the Police, crazy by Patsy, Patsy Klein performed Willie Nelson song, have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Dunno, why by Nora Jones, yellow, by Coldplay in my place, by Coldplay. Will you still love me tomorrow? Carol King, just the way you are, Billy Joel, wake me up. When September ends Green Day, there are, these songs have sold, I mean, yesterday’s the most successful song of all time.
every Breath You Take was the most successful song of the whole, of the 1980s, and they’re still one of the biggest selling songs of all time. to, to Feel My Love has been covered a whole bunch of times. These songs are called Classic Song Forms for a Reason They Last. So I was Saving All My Love for You by Whitney. Yeah, that’s a great one. Yeah, I wish I’d thought of that one. there are many, many more, and you should do a bit of research and look into it, but it’s more common than you think and more common in big hits than you think.
so let’s talk a little bit more about how we recognize it and, how we can write it, because it’d be fun to do, wouldn’t it? So how do I recognize it? Okay, this is my Go-to method for recognizing an a a a song aa ba song. Someone says to you, oh, how does that song yesterday go? You are not probably gonna go, you know, it goes well.
She had to go. I don’t know if she wouldn’t say no, you are not gonna sing that. If someone said, oh, how does that, oh, somewhere of the rainbow go, you won’t go someday. I’m gonna, you’re not gonna sing that bit, are you? That’s, you’re gonna sing the verse with the title in it. The title was yesterday. So Trust Your Gut. that’s my platinum tip, one of the two I’m doing today, which is like, trust your ear and trust your gut.
If the bit you’re remembering and the bit you would sing to someone if they had to, like, you know, remember what’s that song go? Like if it was living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, you’d be much more likely to sing, whoa, we’re halfway there, whoa, than Sing Johnny’s good. You wouldn’t probably sing that bit, you might if you started right at the beginning of the song. But if you said, if they said, oh, no, quick, I need to be quick, I need to just hear the, the memorable bit.
So in a A BA songs, the memorable bit is meant to be the verse. I know someone put in the, the chat that, but yesterday, the B section is really chorusy. I don’t think it is that Chorusy. Why is she her to go? I dunno, she wouldn’t say it’s high. It has some of the things you’d relate to a chorus, but it hasn’t got a lot of repeated words or, you know, repeated melody. I, I would say it’s beautiful, but it’s not what you would, you know, max Martin wouldn’t be calling that a chorus Woody.
So I think trust your gut, and if the bit You Are Me, you’re remembering, and the bit you wanna sing to somebody when they ask about the song is the verse, then you are probably listening to an aa ba song. I hope that makes sense to people. That’s one of the ways I found it was easier to, without being technical, just like what’s the, where’s the spotlight of the song shining?
Is it shining in the verses or is it shining in the bridges? And I would say in an a, a b, a song, it’s shining in the verses for a reason. Okay? There are other really great clues to whether a song is an A a b, a song. First of all, it’s got two sections. Most of the time, I’d say not all, not all the time, this is songwriting. There are always exceptions. The other really big clue I’d say that my next biggest clue to if it’s an a a BA song is that the title of the song is in the verse yesterday.
Title’s in the verse, the title’s also at the end of the bridge. So Paul’s a bit clever, but in, feel My Love that’s in the verse Somewhere of the Rainbow. It’s in the verse. There’s a theme developing here. It may not be in every verse, but it’s generally the title is in definitely the first verse and the last verse in nearly all a, a aa, BA songs.
The same is also true of a, a, a songs that their title is generally in the verse as well. So, the verse is more memorable than the bridge. When you’re a great songwriter like, Dylan or like McCartney, the bridge section is certainly really good. It’s not just treading water in either of those songs and in Summer of the Rainbow, it’s absolutely beautiful, but a is meant to be the most singable and hookier part of the song.
something that often happens in these songs that doesn’t happen in verse chorus songs, is it modulates that the song changes key or goes into different chord, the top of the, the B section. often in pop song chorus stays in the same key as the bit before. So if it feels like, oh, it’s, it’s shifted a gear into something new, but it hasn’t hit you over the head like a chorus, that’s another clue that it’s an aa BA song.
where do you feel at home when you listen to the song? I often feel that, like in verse Chorus songs, the verse is taking you somewhere, you know, it’s leading to some big payoff. Now in an a, a, a aa BA song, the verse is just leading. It’s taking you on a journey back to where it started. And then again, it’s not this kind of build up ramp going all the way to Big Chorus. It has a different character. I’ve already said if someone asked you to sing the hook, you’d be well more likely to sing them.
The verse. Another big giveaway is in verse chorus songs. They nearly always finish on a chorus. I mean, there are a few exceptions, but generally you would end on a chorus in a verse chorus song in a a BA songs, they nearly always end on a verse. Some of the rainbow didn’t, but yesterday does with a little coder, a little repeat of the last line.
The same with the Adele song we listened to as well. if it sounds old fashioned or classic or timeless, that’s another clue that it may be an A, a B, a song.