JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Choruses

I can have two choruses in a song instead of 3 right.. or does three work better then two Which one is the most common?

I prefer 3 - though music shouldn't be limited in this type of way in my opinion!

Have as many or as little choruses as the song tells you to have!

I once wrote a song with six choruses.
I think there were six...there may have been seven.
It was a very repetitive song, to say the least.
Point being, have a chorus-fest if you'd like. If you just want to have a small get-together, no one is going to hold it against you.

"Yesterday" had NONE!

How can anyone tell anyone else how many choruses to have in a song unless they heard the song?

Welcome to JPF. I imagine you will get a good variety of answers.

I had to count but one of mine has 7, since that one is set as a sing-along or a Minnesota/Swedish form dance it seems to work. Most of what I write have none. AABA type. Like Johnny said "unless they heard the song?" Listen to all, learn what you can, go with what YOU like.

Pam

I imagine you are writing in the Modern Country Pop Genre.

Probably the most common is
Verse Chorus verse Chorus Bridge Chorus.

But there are other formats as well.
Lifts, prechoruses or Channels Are used a lot to lead into the chorus.

Other songs only have verses but I'm sure you already know that.

Bottom line is it is your song so do what you want but if you are trying to write commercial I guess follow the trend.

Unfortunately what you hear today is probably already a year behind.

Without hearing the song in question it is impossible to say

I'm really surprised that you have asked this question like this on a message board when the answer is all around you on every music radio station. I suggest you listen to a few songs and count the choruses for yourself.

Having said that, the number of choruses is unlikely to be the tipping point as to whether a song is any good or not.

If the chorus is well-written, I say you can repeat it as many times as you want to in a song. I'd take Nigel's suggestion and listen to a few music stations and count up the choruses you hear. Off the top of my head, I think most popular songs repeat the chorus at least 3 or 4 times.

Great topic. I usually use three - v,c,pc,c,v,pc,b,pc,c.

But I use variations also. Occasionally no pc - for example in blues songs there is traditionally no pc.

Just wrote a teen pop song with intro,c,v,c,b,c,c. A bubbly dance song.

I think that usually it is desirable to use pc's and a bridge - I guess 80% of commercially successful teen pop and country songs use them.

TFunk

Thank you all for the answers i write but don't play yet though i'm learning to play i know verse chorus bridge lift but what is pc..

PC is prechorus. It is a lift before the chorus that kind of sets the mood and picks up the tempo for the chorus.

Ultimately it depends on how it feels to you.

Even if you're new to writing songs I'm sure you're not new to listening to them.
So as you are putting the song together trust your gutt to let you know when there's too much in a song or if it could use something more.
Another verse, another chorus or a bridge.
Trust me if you don't get too caught up in how it should be and just trust your ears and allow the song to tell you when it's done and when it need more.

This is not the right way to do it ... it's just the way I do it but I'm still pretty new at it.

Welcome and Good Luck

Nelson

Meadows, Nelson gave you solid advice. Go with your gut and your ear. It'll tell you how many choruses each song needs. But if in doubt, try a chorus after each verse and see how it sounds to you.

The components of songs serve functions. Verses are for exposition, setting the scene, setting up the story, exposing the character of the singer-character, if he is in the song, as opposed to a third-person narrator, explaining the conflict or situation.

The function of the Chorus is summing up, making the point, delivering the punch-line, THE hook/title.

There is a Refrain-Type Chorus, a single line and/or musical refrain ending each Verse. And there is a Stanza-Type Chorus, comprised of several lines, and occupying its own space, independent of the Verses.

How many 'givings' of the Chorus a song has depends on structure, and time. Time is dictated by how long the song can sustain listener interest. A song with too many Verses and/or Choruses can be too long, leaving me to drift off to other thoughts. The song ends and I realize I haven't been paying attention.

Regarding structure, depending on how the Verses are built, two Choruses may serve the function. Or, depending on how the Verses are built, three Choruses may suffice, or be needed to serve the function. There could be more, depending on how the song is structured.

To make any judgment about Choruses in YOUR song, I'd have to hear it.

There are no rules carved in stone...you do what sounds right and suits each song....and what suits the genre and style of the particular song.......I have written songs without any chorus and songs which have several........so i suggest you do not get bogged down with preconceived ideas....experiment...learn the craft and you will not need to ask such questions.

Yeah, Jim, I carved these in stone one time and along came some kid who wrote a great song and erased some of them and scrambled the rest! And it worked just fine.

The 'rules' are very flexible and are more like options than rules. People have been writing songs for 100,000 years and are yet to exhaust the possibilities.