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Believe it or not, music has structure. Form in music describes the structure used to organize the composer’s musical thoughts. You can think of form in music to form you use in composing a business letter, a recipe of a favorite dessert, or the process you use to get ready for school in the morning. Some of the most successful composers throughout history have broken the rules of form, and helped create new ways of communication through music.
I’m going to cover three basic musical forms that you can use for the basis of your compositions. There are many more. You’ll find some different views about musical form in the Wikipedia.
There are many variations on arch form. Like the form of an arc, the music starts simply, gets more complex to a point called the climax, and “comes back down” to a simple state. This is an easy form to see and create using GarageBand. Adding layers (tracks) builds in volume and complexity.
Arch form can play a part alongside other musical forms, or act as a “free form.” The basic idea again is: simple—complex—simple. What gets more complicated is up to you: volume, number of instruments, musical ideas, rhythms, etc.
The Rondo form was popularized during the classical era of music history. It is sometimes written out like this: A B A C A D A E A F A, etc. The point is, the “A” section comes back between episodes of new music. Rondos are fun, but challenging to write. If you write a good “A” section, you get to repeat and hear it often in your rondo.
In this example, listen to the “A” theme in a rondo by Mozart from his serenade entitled Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
In this second example, we hear the end of another section, and a return to the A theme once again.
You don’t need to be Mozart, or a classical composer to write rondos. All you need is a good theme that can keep coming back!
You might say ab ab caba, but then you’ll just sound silly. This is a form that’s used in a lot of popular music, like rock-‘n’-roll. An “A” and a “B” section get repeated. A middle section “C” comes next. Then the song ends with more of A, B, and A. While the “A” and “B” sections may have the same music, they may have different lyrics. Then again, the “B” section might be considered a “chorus” where all “B” section lyrics are the same. You decide, you can be the composer.
Many times the “C” section will feature an instrumental solo. It’s your time to shine on your electric guitar, on the drums, or whatever you want to play.
The “bridge” isn’t a musical form, but is many times found in different musical forms. A bridge pulls together different sections together. Many bridges involve the transposition of musical keys; others might include moments of silence. A bridge can also be as short and simple as a one-measure block that sounds different and signals a change to the listener.
Listen to the bridge used here to combine the vocal and instrumental version of a phrase in this Elton John and Kiki Dee hit from the 1970s.
Did you hear it? The bridge was only a small part of that excerpt. After the bridge, the instruments take over and play the melody that was sung earlier. Listen to this clip of just the bridge heard in the example above. The longer clip includes an instrumental version of “A” and the sung version of “B” (woo hoo) in the song’s structure. The bridge is used to connect one “A” to an instrumental version of “A.”
If the “A” and “B” in your song are too different, you may need a “bridge” to pull them together. Mozart used bridges. So do the Rolling Stones.
© 2005 by John G. Hendron.
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