Verse–Chorus Form

Verse–chorus form is the most common plan in popular music. A song alternates two main kinds of section:

• Verse: the same melody each time, with new lyrics. The verses move the story or the idea forward.
• Chorus: the same melody and the same lyrics each time. It usually contains the song's title and its hook, and it is often louder, higher or fuller than the verse.

A typical outline

Songs vary a lot, but this layout is very common:

1. Intro
2. Verse 1
3. Pre-chorus (optional)
4. Chorus
5. Verse 2
6. Pre-chorus
7. Chorus
8. Bridge
9. Chorus (often repeated, sometimes in a higher key)
10. Outro

In letters, that is roughly A B A B C B, where A is the verse, B the chorus and C the bridge.

The other sections

• Intro: instrumental music that sets up the groove, often using the chorus chords or a riff.
• Pre-chorus (also called a lift or build): a short section that raises the energy between verse and chorus.
• Bridge: a contrasting section, heard once, usually after the second chorus. It gives the ear a break from verse and chorus before the final choruses.
• Post-chorus: a short tag after the chorus, often a repeated vocal hook or instrumental riff.
• Outro: the ending. It may repeat the chorus and fade out, or stop with a final chord.

How it differs from older song forms

In strophic form, every verse is sung to the same music and there is no separate chorus (or the refrain is just the last line of each verse). In the AABA form of many older Broadway and jazz standards, the main section is a 32-bar tune with a contrasting bridge. Verse–chorus form became the dominant plan in pop and rock during the second half of the 20th century, and the large majority of current pop, rock, country and R&B songs use some version of it.

How to hear it

Listen for the moment the words start repeating exactly: that is almost always the chorus. Then count how many bars each section lasts; eight and sixteen bars are the most common lengths, though four-bar and odd-length sections are common too.