ABSTRACT

Songs come in an endless number of forms. A look over the long history of songs would unearth many oddities, and, who knows, you may invent one yourself. Yet as practical fact, a half-dozen song forms include ninety percent of the popular songs written in the past century, and I predict that the same forms or close derivatives will still dominate popular songs a century hence. Here are the half-dozen:

1. The Eight-Bar Folk Song: AA

The eight-bar folk song is the simplest common song form. It consists of eight measures of three-four or four-four time, usually with a tonic-dominant chord structure and a short, repetitive melody and lyric. At the end of Chord Structure-Part I are eight-bar songs, and so is “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”:

This form, called AA (though it could be called AAAAA…), is one that you must pound into your head by any and all means necessary. Play and sing “He’s Got the Whole World,” “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore,” and “Rock-a-My Soul,” until the swing of those eight bars going round and round work their way deep into your hands, your voice, and your soul. On manuscript paper, set up eight blank bars:

Then experiment with putting I, IV, and V chords in different bars. You’ll soon see that forms that begin and end on the I chord feel the most stable. You start at home, you go somewhere, and you come back home:

If you end the form on a V chord, you’ll feel a certain suspense-the V chord acts like a comma-that readies you to turn smoothly around to begin the form again:

The last time round, of course, you’ll play a ninth measure and end on a final I chordthe period-to bring you to rest at home.