Lessons

Lesson 13: Form

The "Form Language"

When speaking about form, a unit is normally

4 bars in 12- and 16-bar forms
8 bars in 32-bar forms

A complete unit is denoted by a letter. In that way it is very easy to recognize and remember the form of a tune.

AABA

AABA is the traditional 32-bar pop song form. This is very common in jazz, especially in the so-called Standards repertoire.

The Blues

The blues form in its purest form is 12 bars long and goes something like this ( in C):

|C7    |      |      |      |
|F7    |      |C7    |      |
|G7    |F7    |C7    |      |

The AAA Form

A modern pop song form is the strophic AAA form. This is a one-part song form where a series of verses with identical music, but different lyrics in each, follow each other. Some of the earliest songs ever written used this form.

The ABAB aka the Verse - Chorus Form

Another modern pop song form is the binary ABAB aka the verse - chorus form. In this two-part song form each verse with different lyrics is followed by an identical chorus part in the following manner:

Verse - chorus - verse - chorus - bridge - chorus

This form is the most common in today's pop music. The chorus ( aka refrain) may be preceded by a distinct part called the pre-chorus.

Other Forms

There are numerous other forms, such as:

AABC
AAB
ABAC
ABC
ABCD
AB