Deep Theory: Song Forms

Okay. Welcome to another special edition of Deep Tracks in Rock History. This is another deep theory episode in which I'm once again joined by my clones to love what's up.

Go through some of the twisty turns of music theory, basic music theory, so twisty, um, that I think will for, for those who have more of an interest in this type of thing, and, and really like to look in at music and think about music, and listen to music in a. All those things critical way, not critical as in harsh, but you know, like critical thinking, deep thinking.

Uh, this will maybe help flesh that out for them. Sure. Yeah. Maybe give 'em some more stuff to think about and yeah. And uh, as you know, it's just kind of fun to, to list, look at songs that you enjoy and realize what it is about them that makes 'em so great. Right? Yeah, exactly. So let's do this thing. It is time, time, time for deep theory.

Expand your music mind. Like Timothy Leary. Take your listening experience to a whole new level. See all the nuts and bolts from air supply to heavy metal, deep theory. Oh. Oh, deep theory. Uh uh, deep theory. Uh, uh, uh, deep theory. I lack all my seventh dominant. Yeah. How's that for a sting? Okay. Just answer me this.

What happened to you as a child to make you the way you are? That wasn't even a sting. That was like too long to be a sting. It's like it's borderline song. Okay. You know, you know what you guys, uh, fine. You know what? Next time I'll make you come up with a sting for when we dive into deep theory and then.

I will sit back and criticize all of your ideas. Okay. Nice. Fake cry. And the Oscar goes to, uh, let's, let's start, shall we? So last time we talked about chord progressions. Yeah. And so, uh, it just seems only natural that, uh, from that we can start talking about songs form because, uh, the, the structure of songs very often is built around the chord progressions.

Exactly. And the, because chord progressions. They expand into phrases, phrases expand into forms, forms create songs. So it's, it's all the things. Yeah. I mean, it's not unlike, uh, literature, you know, just in literature. Yeah. You know, like our written language, it has words and then sentences and those sentences are formed using different.

Types of punctuation. You have a sentence that ends with a period or an exclamation mark, or, or you might have a semicolon to, to join two similar ideas, you know, but you don't want to completely close off one of them with a sentence, you know, but it's, but it's too long to, to not have a semicolon. Right?

Or you, or you might wanna use a colon because you're trying to continue an idea. I think they're getting the point. Um, but yeah, there's all kinds of ways you can end a musical phrase. In fact, there's even, um, All right. There's even a, a piece of music, orchestral music called, uh, the question. You mean The Unanswered Question, right?

Yeah, the Unanswered Question. Thank you. Um, and it's, uh, it's a piece by Charles Ives. Our Man Ives is coming up a lot in these deep theory episodes. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, it's, it's a great example of, so in the, in the piece there, you have this, this instrument that's asking a question. Um, and the way he kind of creates the music to make it sound like the, the trumpet is asking a question and, and then the other in instruments come in.

It's kind of a spin on call and response really. The, the other instruments come in as a response, but they're not answering the question. They sound more like either they're mocking it or they're just kinda knitting and chattering and, and talking around it. It's, it's definitely a very great musical, um, analogy for life.

You know, for, for people who toss out kind of deep questions or just questions that have been bothering them and, and just the people around them are just trying to answer it, you know, but they really don't know the answer, but they don't want to appear that they don't know the answer or, yeah. So-called experts or, yeah.

Or it's an answer that works for them. Right. It's just, anyway, this is a great, this, this whole piece is a beautiful art piece for life. Yeah. Let's stop talking about it and listen to it. All right. Yeah. So it opens with the strings playing these long tones.

No vibrato makes 'em sound very pensive and they just slowly shift from chord to chord. So like we mentioned in, uh, the chord progression episode, um, that creates, can create a sense of drifting.

It's very beautiful and moving. Yeah. Here, let's actually jump ahead to where the trumpet comes in with the question.

Notice the pitches that it's using are outside the pitch collection of the strings, so it really stands out. It's very stark and kind of disjointed, right? But the, even the contour of that musical line, it feels like a question. It starts high, kind of goes back up again. Then the other instruments come in and these discordant, um, sort of tense harmonies that are kind of a response to the trumpet, but, but not really, right?

So the trumpet's asking this question and what's coming back is not helping at all. Yeah, I mean, how many of us can, can relate to that in some way? Um, when you're going through something and you're, you're kind of looking for answers or looking for comfort or just, you know, whatever you're looking for is just, is not being provided.

Whether, you know, the people around you might have the best of intentions or not. Um, but, uh, I think we can all relate to that in some way. I, I like the, um, I usually avoid reading. The comments on YouTube videos 'cause it's, the comment section's always kind of a dumpster fire. But I remember one time, um, Uh, just listening to this piece on YouTube.

I mean, I, I own it on iTunes, but I, I just happened to pull it up on YouTube one time, and, and I, I, I remembered there was a comment that stood out to me, and, and luckily I was able to go back and, and find it again, and so I'm gonna quote it here. Um, it's from like four years ago. Uh, from the commenter says Pipino or maybe pipe.

No, I'm not sure how to say it. But, uh, anyway, this person said some years ago, my father introduced me to this fantastic piece of music. Now he has been, uh, diagnosed with Kretz felt. Jacob, a very lethal and sporadic type of dementia. Uh, I've never heard of it. Um, he has become delusional, completely aphasic at times.

Yesterday, in another bittersweet moment, we sat on a nearby park watching the kids play, and I questioned him, is there any meaning to this? He just smiled and kept silent. This song just came to my mind that brought some weight to this episode. Yeah, totally. But I, I like it. It just shows how music, even as an abstract sort of a, a thing in life, it, it can just, sometimes it can tackle very concrete experiences, which is for me, as a musician, as a composer, as just a music fan boy.

Um, that's espec, that's especially exhilarating and exciting, especially shut up. Alright, let's, uh, how about we demonstrate, um, just some of the stuff we've talked about in terms of like punctuation in music, how you can create different types of phrases using chord progressions, and then we can start going into how those phrases form together to create song forms.

Uh, especially in this, we're going to be focusing on one. Form in particular called 12 Bar Blues that has already come up in this show and will continue to come up, especially with this earlier, um, with these earlier rock artists. Um, but, but then down the road, as we look at other blues based, Rock artists.

Um, yeah. 12 Bar Blues will continue to, to percolate to the top of our discussion. So it's good to tackle it now and, and then people kinda know what, what we're referencing when we, when we talk about it. Yeah, exactly. I mean, so last, in our, our first deep theory episode, we talked about the DO WAP progression, and that was a, a specific chord progression.

You know, it starts on the one chord, then it goes to the six chord, and then the four, and then the five. So it is, it is talking about specific. Chords, um, that kind of cycle around. It doesn't, it doesn't necessarily talk about the, the, the structure, the overall structure of the song. Now, 12 Bar Blues is a little bit more along those lines where we're talking about kind of the, the structure of the song.

So yeah, like the. It can be different chords. So we're not, there's all kinds of different, um, chord progressions that are used within this structure. So again, this is kind of more so like we're stepping out a little bit more, you know, if the chords are like the actual sentences, you know, within, um, you know, with within something you can't think of.

The name of something that is a written work. So think of like haikus. Haikus have a specific structure to them. The words within the haiku are different, the message is different, but there's still a, a similar structure. So we could, we could look at the same thing with something like 12 bar blues where the chords could be different.

I mean, you. Actually, you could even do a doo-wop chord progression within 12 bar blues if you wanted to. Yeah. So 12 Bar blues are essentially phrases that are 12 measures or 12 bars long, and it, it's kind of distinctive because of the way that these, these measures fall into three groups of four. So actually a lot of the music we've looked at so far is in 12 bar Blues Rocket.

88 is 12 bar blues. Two D Fruity is 12 Bar Blues. Johnny B. Good is 12 Bar Blues. Exactly. In fact, you know, there's that, um, part and, uh, back to the Future where Marty McFly, you know, the famously plays Johnny B. Good on stage. Um, you know, and, and, uh, and then the, the one guy who was the front man who injured his hand, you know, he calls up and says, you know, Chuck, this is your cousin Marvin.

You know, you know that new sound you're looking for, but when, when he's first, when Marty McFly is first going to play Johnny B. Good. He turns around to the band and you might think that he just kind of says, you know, like, maybe the writers just put in some, some stuff that sounds musical and it was just, you know, gibberish.

But he's actually giving them legit information. He says, this is a blues riff in B. And so what he's telling them when he says, this is a blues riff, he's, he's telling them what pitch collection to use. You know, they're gonna be using a blues scale, but also more importantly, he's telling them that it's gonna be in.

12 bar blues so they know the structure of the music. And then when he says in B, he's telling them the key. Although, um, if you listen to the original recording of, um, John B, good, it's actually in B Flat, but that's neither here nor there. All right, so now we're first gonna look. At, uh, rocket 88. So I put together just this, um, little really paired down version of it that just has a simple drumbeat in the background.

And then I just play the, the bass riff, or not the bass, the, the guitar riff on a, like a seventies funk, clove sound that I have on my keyboard. And what we'll do is, um, I will go ahead and I will count the beats and then alpha Doug, how about you? Will give us the, you'll shout out which section we are. So there's, remember this is three groups of four measures, and that's what makes it distinct.

So how about Alpha? You'll, you'll kind of shout out each time we're in the, as we go through each group of four. And then I'll, I'll, like I said, I'll count the beats. Does that sound good? Yeah, that sounds good. And we should also point out that we're gonna be doing, uh, actually all the songs that we'll be looking at today, uh, in a, we'll be performing them in a much slower temple than the originals, just to help people process what's going on.

But also just a reminder, so as, um, as we're counting out the beats, Um, these songs are, are all, um, in some kind of quadruple meter. And so each time you'll hear when we're counting, 1, 2, 3, 4. We'll start over again, back to 1, 2, 3, 4. 'cause each measure has four beats. So as we're counting, 1, 2, 3, 4, That's one measure.

And then we count 1, 2, 3, 4, again, that's the next measure. And so what this is demonstrating is just how many measures there are in each group, but you know, within each measure there's four beats and then there's four measures within each of these three groups. There's gonna be a lot of numbers coming at you guys, 'cause later on we'll also be calling out.

Um, the cord numbers so holy, it doesn't get too confusing with all the numbers. Um, but we'll try and make it clear. If we're saying the chord, we'll say the one chord, the two chord. If we're saying the, you know, talking about the grouping of measures, we'll say the first group, the second group, and then the, the beat numbers.

We'll just, yeah, I think they get it. Let's do this. All right. Here's the first group of four. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3. Four. 1, 2, 3, 4. And now our second group of 4, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2. And now our last group of 4, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, and even the chord progression. So this is just all a one chord here.

We're still on the one chord, still on the one chord, and now to the four chord and the four chord, and back to the one chord. And still the one chord. And then we go to the five and then to the four, and back to the one. And then briefly we go to the five again, and then it would normally go back to the one after that.

So even the, the chords themselves we're just using three chords, the one, the four, and the five. But the structure itself is, is kind of what gives it that distinct, uh, blues sound. So whenever you listen to blues music and you're like, man, it just kind of feels. Like a blues song. What's interesting is that's really a lot of that has to do with just the structure of the music.

Just that, I mean, tons of millions, trillions of songs use one, four, and five, but it is the way those chords are structured that gives it that bluesy kind of feel. Let's see how this shakes out in some of the other songs we've talked about. So, uh, I also mentioned Tu de Fruity and Johnny Be Good Earlier.

So let's take a look at Tu de Fruity. So what we'll do is, is I will go in, go ahead and, um, just read off the lyrics to Tu de Fruity. And then how about beta? Doug, do you want to, um, shout out the cord? Sure. Uh, the cord number that we're on, I can do that. Meanwhile, gamma Doug is going to juggle dynamite while balancing on a unicycle.

Oh, yeah, no problem. Uh, unfortunately our listening audience will not be able to see this, but trust me, it's going to look amazing here in the studio. Oh yeah, definitely. Dude. Fruity. This is the one coach. Oh, Rudy. Tu de fruity all Rudy. Now the four two de fruity all Rudy. Back to the one chord Tu de Fruity, all Rudy.

Five Tu de fruity. Four. All Rudy back to one A Wa Babalu. The WA Babo got a gal to the one chord named Sue. She knows just what to do now to the four. Got a gal name Sue back to the one she knows just what to do. She rocks to stay on the one she rocked to the west. Stay on the one, but she's the gal that I love.

Best dude De Fruity. Still on the one Ah, Rudy dude. De fruity All Rudy. Now to the four de Fruity ah Rudy, back to the one dude de Fruity. Ah, Rudy. Two to fruity five. Ah, Rudy four, bam. Right. So the same thing we saw before. It's just three chords, one, four, and five. But the, the only thing that, and it's even the same structure as we saw in Rocket 88.

Yeah. The 12 barbs. So the thing that's different is, um, you know how the, the one, four and five, there's a little bit of differences. Yeah. Like he really hovers on the one cord for a while. Rather than shifting to the four and five as frequently as Rocket 88. Other differences are the performers, their performance style, and then just the melody and the words.

Yeah. I remember when I first started taking music theory in college and just. Being blown away. Uh, once it dawned on me just how simple most music out there is. You know, like just how many songs out there use. Just the one, the four, and the five. And, uh, you know, every once in a while you get songs that use chords outside of that.

But it's, it's, it's just crazy how many songs, how many different songs you can get from just using the same three chords. And then of course, the things that make 'em sound different like you just said, is, is um, even in this case where they're using the same structure, these two songs using 12 bar blues, you know, but you still, they're very different songs because of the, the instruments and the melody and just, you know, so many of the things that, that's, that's where the variety really comes in and, and makes 'em stand out.

Oh, you know, actually we forgot to mention, um, you call compliments to Gamma Doug, by the way, for that amazing job. Juggling the dynamite wall balancing on the unicycle. That was truly extraordinary. Yes. Thank you. To better our listeners couldn't see it. Okay, so now let's do Johnny be good. And Alpha Doug, once again, how about you read the lyrics?

Um, and then I will also once again call out the chord numbers. But then Gamma Dog, go ahead and call out the which section of the three groups of four measures. Yes. Remember 12. Our blues is three groups of four measures each. Deep down in Louisiana. Close to New Orleans. We're on the one court, of course, way back up in the woods among the evergreens.

The first group, the four there, stood log cabin made of earth and wood back to the one where I lived. A country boy named Johnny B. Good. Let's end of the second group. Now, I've never, ever learned to read or write the four one that he could play guitar. Just like a ringing a bell. Go, go. Still the one chord.

Go, Johnny. Go. Go. Still the one chord. Go Johnny. Go. Go. Okay. What's happening right now? Go. This is Johnny. Go. Go. This is feeling almost like we're insulting the memory. Johnny. Be good of Chuck Berry. Okay. But I think everyone gets the point. How is the same, same structure. We have the same. A group of, of three groups of four measures.

Right. And then once again, just like those other songs, he uses the one chord, the four chord, and the five chord. And it's very similar how the chords are placed, uh, with a few differences, but very similar to how they're placed amongst, uh, or within that structure of the three groups of four. And maybe we should make it clear that as, as we're pointing out the similarities in these songs, and then just the, the simplicity of the harmony, this isn't meant to come across as like, We're, we're insulting the music or, or poo-pooing it.

Um, there's, there's something elegant about, um, being able to create, you know, a work of art Yeah. That is distinct, unique, that can Oh, yeah. Speak to a generation. Definitely. That uses just a few basic elements. Right. There's like, More is not always more. And there are places where like a greater complexity is very interesting in music.

And it can, uh, you know, I mean, I, I'm, one thing I'm excited about when we get to Radiohead is just there's a lot of harmonic complexity that they have in their music. That's right. That's super excited for me to talk about, or, or when we start talking about tool. Yeah. Um, a lot of their rhythmic complexity is gonna be a lot of fun to talk about.

And so, you know, there's, there's places for it and, and you know, and it works for certain artists and, and it has. But it was just not like, like I said, it's not like more counts as more Exactly. And is automatically better. I mean, just these artists that were writing this music, it was just, um, There's a reason why this music feels timeless.

Yeah, right. And, and just feels like it still even today feels relevant. Testify. Okay. So we're almost 20 minutes into this episode and we've still only talked about 12 bar blues, which is okay. 'cause it's, it is massively important like we mentioned before. And it's, um, especially with this, this first generation of, of rock artists.

But it would behoove us to move on and talk about a few other, um, Structures of music, so, right. Yeah. So like song form. Um, now it's as we're, we're grouping these things together and, and actually the overall title for this, um, for this episode is song form. And that that almost kind of intimates that, uh, 12 bar blues.

Song form are synonymous, like, like 12 Bar Blues is a type of song form. It's not completely true. Um, 12 Bar Blues is a, a structure of music that's sort of specific to a genre. Um, and, but it doesn't really describe how like verse and chorus are happening. Yeah, I mean, like, verse and chorus could be happening in different ways across 12 bar blues.

So 12 Bar blues is just showing us the, the phrases how, how the phrases are grouped together. Um, But with song form, that's, that's stepping out maybe a little bit more broadly. And we're just, we're gonna look at how is the song organized overall. And so, we'll, we'll look at a few examples of some early rock songs and, uh, mention some of the names of these song forms.

And again, song form is just a way to see similarities in how. Um, different composers or songwriters will organize their songs. They're just, there's certain things that are just almost standard. They, they happen so often. I mean, we're all, um, all of us grow up just absorbing the sounds around the music around us, and so, Songwriters, you know, when they sit down to start writing something, they're, they're bringing all that baggage with them.

You know, that just kind of a song will feel right. Uh, just because we've grown up, you know, recognizing that, um, you know, four, four grew four bars and four four, that feels like a phrase, or, or eight bars in four four. That feels like a phrase or. This many phrases that feels like a section, and then it's time for a new section.

And so, you know, like, oh, four phrases, it's time for a new section. You know, we, we just had these four lines within this verse. I think I need a chorus now. And now the chorus is gonna be four lines. And so now we need to go back to another verse. Or now it's time for a bridge. And so those things, they, they just feel natural because that's, we're absorbing all the time.

But the way that these organized, they're standard enough. Um, That there, there are names given to these, these forms of songs, and it's not like songwriters sit down and think, you know, today I'm gonna write something in simple verse. Uh, not at all. But, but what you can do is, is music theorists will then on the backend after the music has been composed and all that, then.

You know, music historians and theorists will look at it and say, oh, okay, this is what they did, this is how they did it. And then, so it's just really a way of describing what has already happened. It's not a tool that you use on the front end when you're trying to create something, unless, um, you know, you're like, uh, a composer who is being hired to write music that is supposed to sound a certain way.

Then that's where you use some of these things on the front end. You know, like if somebody hires you to say, Hey, I want something that's gonna sound bluesy, you'll think 12 bar blues. Or I want something that's gonna sound, you know, they could just give you a list of things. I want it to sound kinda like this or kinda like this.

And so you can say, well, okay, well the, what you're mentioning, what you want it to sound like, uh, is in simple verse form and it uses these chords. And so I'll write something that's kind of in a similar structure. And sort of a similar chord, uh, chord progression. And this is where I'm going to, um, dive into using the John Kovac and Andrew Flore textbook that I've cited numerous times in other episodes.

Uh, the section he has on song form is, is well done. And, and I like the examples that he uses. And so I'm going to borrow from, from him. I'm gonna quote some of the, the, um, Quote some of his descriptions that he has for song form and his definitions as well as use the, the examples that he, that he uses.

'cause I, I think they're just perfect. Yeah. So I'll, I'll be the first one to read from our ash textbook and for the, um, the section on simple verse form. He actually points out what we were just trying to stumble through and, and of course he says it perfectly. He says, quote, repetitive structures like the 12 bar blues and the doop progression often combine to form larger structural patterns.

End quote. And then, um, down here, he says, uh, as these patterns repeat, we may think of them differently depending on what aspects are repeated. A verse is defined as a section with repeating music and non repeating lyrics, and that's an important distinction to make. So what you just heard there, right, the verse is the music repeats, but the lyrics are different each time the music repeats.

As opposed to a chorus. The chorus, you know, the music will repeat and usually it'll be like a contrasting sort of material from the verse material. Um, but also, not only does the music repeat, but the lyrics repeat as well. I mean, that's why so many all of us know the chorus to a song, you know, that we listened to, but, But very often people don't know the verses quite as well.

Yeah, I mean, just the other nights, uh, I had the opportunity to, um, a friend of mine had, uh, two tickets to the Smashing Pumpkins concert down here in, in, in Chula Vista. And, um, and so, you know, he brought me along, which was, was. Really cool. Shout out to James Larsson, my good buddy. And, uh, what was funny is, is there's so many parts of, you know, actually right before Smashing Pumpkins was the, you know, the Reimagined Stone Temple pilots, um, with Jeff Goot as their, their new vocalist.

Um, which, you know, he did a great job. It's just, it's not Scott Wayland. I just, you know, miss having him there. But anyway, um, what was funny with both Stone Temple pilots and Smashing Pumpkins, There's throughout the songs that are the big hits that everyone knows. You know, there are portions, there's, there's quite a few people that are singing during the verses, but I mean, just when the choruses come along,

That's where like everyone would just, everyone starts singing, you know, everyone's standing up and chiming in and, and, uh, gets all excited. Yeah. And that's sometimes, uh, you know, the difference between a song that's a, a radio hit and then one that just kind of becomes a deep track on the album is the chorus.

Right. Does it have a catchy enough chorus to, to really, um, appeal to a lot of people? Yeah. So the first song form that, uh, John Ash and Andrew Floyd talk about in this section is simple verse form. And in here, just quoting from him again. Um, simple verse form is a form that employs only verses and the, one of the examples he uses in, in here is Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel.

Yeah. I mean, heartbreak Hotel has uh, five verses, so it has first four verses and then it has. An instrumental verse and then a verse five, I guess that makes six verses. Okay. It has five vocal verses and one instrumental verse, but there's no course. So if you ever listen to it, um, the first verse is eight measures.

Then the second verse is eight measures. The third verse is eight measures. The fourth verse is eight measures. The instrumental verse is eight measures, you know, with having a guitar solo for the first four and then a piano solo after that. And then verse five is, Eight measures. Yeah. But one thing we could point out is, um, at the end of each of the verses, you know, he repeats the, you know, I'll be so lonely, baby.

I'll be so lonely, so lonely, I could die. That's verse one, right? Verse two. They'll be so lonely. They'll be so lonely, they could die. Uh, verse verse three is, Again, we are so lonely, they could die. So each of them ends similarly, which almost functions like a chorus. Um, even though the rest of the verse is different.

Even within that, that final section, there's a few little differences, but just that, that, uh, so lonely, so lonely, someone could die. That feels very coy to me. So it almost has like a, a faux course in there. Could we say that? I will allow it. Um, okay, so the next. Song form that he talks about is called a a b A form.

Now this is not a form of, um, behavioral intervention. My wife's a behavioral scientist, and it just seems like the letters a, b, a are like incorporated into like every single acronym that. That that whole field uses. But anyway, um, so aa b a form, this is talking about, uh, within music, when we break it down to sections, a lot of times, um, when we see like repeating sections, we will label them.

So the a section, uh, Obviously is the first one and then the B section. And then sometimes it might be followed by another, a section or sometimes the A section and it might repeat, and then you have a B section and then the A section comes back again. And that's, that happens so much where the, you have an A section followed by an A section followed by a B section that goes back to the A section that is an actual like standardized song form called A A B A.

And so, yeah, I mean, It's so standardized. I mean, this is like Tin Pan Alley. Every song ever written by Tin Pan Alley practically is, this is what they do right here. Is this a a b form? Well, yeah, and the, and the Kova Flory textbook even points that out. So quoting from the textbook, the song form most associated with mainstream pop before the birth of rock and roll is a A b A form.

This is one of the most common formal patterns in tin pan alley songs. So that what you just said right there and usually occurs in a 32 bar scheme that combines four. Eight bar phrases. And then, um, here's some of the, the songs that it gives as examples, um, that use this form over the rainbow. I am sitting on top of the world.

Hey, good looking. Remember that's, uh, Hank Williams song and uh, and then actually also one of our, our Fat Domino songs. Blueberry Hill. Yeah. And, and it should be noted that, um, I. Often what happens is that that pattern, the aa, b, a, those, those four sections us a lot of times that's then repeated. So he'll, you'll have aa, B, a, and then you'll have aa, b, A again, and when that happens, it's called a full reprise.

Jerry Lee Lewis is Great. Balls of Fire is an example of aa b A with full prize Sometimes, however, though, is you'll only have what is called a partial reprise. So you'll have a A, B A. Followed by then. Just a ba wait. That was confusing. So aa, ba. And then ba it's hard to use the, you know, like the a and when you're talking about the letters A Oh my gosh.

Stop talking. This makes sense. No, it's not. All right. So, so for example, blueberry Hill, um, it starts off with a four measure introduction followed by the A section the first time, which is a. Eight measures. Then the A section again for another eight measures. Then the B section, which functions like a bridge, that's eight measures.

Then the A section again, which is eight measures, so that was our aa, B eight, and then we have a partial reprise, so the B section comes back one more time. For eight measures followed by the A section. One more time for eight measures. Yeah. So you just really only have two musical ideas, and then what you're doing is you're just milking 'em for all their worth to make a whole song.

Right. And you have one kind of main idea that's the A and that's the one that comes back the most. That's usually gonna be maybe kind of thought of like a verse, and then you're. B idea, even though you don't have verse in chorus in aa, B, a, but, um, but your B will be, a lot of times it's, it's repeated, so it almost feels like a chorus.

Um, although sometimes it'll just be like, in this case, a bridge. Yeah. So songwriters don't really need to come up with a ton of material for a song. They just need to come up with just a couple of decent ideas, and then from there they can just structure it out to create the entire song. Okay. Our next song form we're gonna talk about is called Simple Verse Chorus.

So, uh, quoting from the KOAs textbook when a single musical pattern is used as the basis for both verses and choruses in a song, the resulting form is called Simple Verse Chorus. So as that mean, it is talking about, uh, basically when the same. Musical material is used for both the verse and the chorus.

So you might have, right, the verses are different lyrics. The chorus. The chorus are the same lyrics, but all the way through for both the verse and chorus, you're gonna have the same music. Right? And so the example that Kovash has in the textbook is, can The Circle be Unbroken by the Carter family? Which is a song that we.

We looked at way back in episode three, right? And so then the last, uh, song form we'll look at is called contrasting verse chorus, which I'm sure you can guess what this is. This is where the verse and the chorus is, uh, different material contrasting material. So the example that they have in here for this is, is, uh, the Crickets song.

That'll be the day. And, uh, actually that's a song we'll be looking at when we cover Buddy Holly. So we don't need to go too much into it now. But, um, just quickly, the structure of it, it starts off with an introduction, that's two measures, and then the chorus is eight measures, then a verse for eight measures, then back to the chorus for eight measures.

Then it does an instrumental bridge for 12 measures, followed by chorus. For eight verse for eight, chorus for eight, and then kind of a little outro ending kind of thing for eight more measures. But yeah, as opposed to can the circle be unbroken where the musical material is the same for the verse and the chorus.

Um, and that'll be the day you have. Different musical material for the verse and the chorus. And this is actually more common, you know, seeing the, the contrasting verse chorus. Uh, it's, it's not as often that you see the same material being used, at least in, in, um, more modern music, I guess in, in older folk music you might see that a little more often with, uh, the, just the same reverse chorus material used throughout.

But that actually wraps up all of our song forms that we wanted to talk about today. So quick review, we talked about 12 bar blues, which is a structure of having three groups of four measures. Uh, and then we also talked about simple verse form, which is all the verses based on the same music with no chorus.

And then there's simple verse chorus, which is, Verses and chorus based on the same music. Then contrasting verse chorus, which is verses and courses based on different music. And then A A B A, which is verses and bridge based on different music can employ full or partial reprise and. I think that's, that kind of wraps up everything we wanted to talk about, right?

Yeah. So as we look at more music, uh, throughout the progression of this podcast, uh, we'll probably bring up these terms again. Don't worry. Each time I bring them up, I'll, I'll definitely throw in like a, a real brief little reminder of, of what it is, just so that, um, you know, 'cause I'm not expecting people to be memorizing this, although if this was my class, I would be expecting you to be taking notes, memorizing it, and preparing for the quiz.

Yeah. 'cause there's nothing more rock and roll than taking notes and taking quizzes, right? Yeah. You. A lot of times music theory kind of sucks the fun out of the music for, for a lot of people. But I know that there are some people out there who really are legitimately interested in this. I cannot be the only one.

So hopefully this helps. Um, just give, shed some light on the structures of music. And until next time, you know what to do. All. Yeah. Keep it deep, it deep. Maintain a maximum level of depthness. Anna, Doug, you're this close to joining Delta Doug in the car.