From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: The Fundamentals
Unlock the full course today
Join today to access over 23,400 courses taught by industry experts.
The chorus
From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: The Fundamentals
The chorus
- In the early strophic song forms, the chorus was designated in contrast to the verse as the section of the song where the lyrics repeated. As a result, it's often referred to as the part of the song we remember. in ancient Greece, where the term stroph is derived from, there was a tradition of the Greek chorus, a group of actors that would provide commentary on a performance by chanting in unison. This was later adapted to songs to notate the part the audience is supposed to sing along to. We see this function of the chorus evolve first with the music of Stephen Foster, who's referred to as the Father of American music, and further with the composers of the American Song Book like Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Richard Rogers, Cole Porter, and Harold Arlen. In the first half of the 20th century, the chorus became identified as a 32 bar section that followed an AABA form. Something we'll look at shortly…
Practice while you learn with exercise files
Download the files the instructor uses to teach the course. Follow along and learn by watching, listening and practicing.
Contents
-
-
-
-
-
-
(Locked)
The importance of song form2m 34s
-
(Locked)
Beats, bars, and phrases5m 54s
-
(Locked)
The elements of song form1m 2s
-
(Locked)
The intro48s
-
(Locked)
The verse2m 6s
-
(Locked)
The chorus1m 23s
-
(Locked)
The hook1m 7s
-
(Locked)
The refrain1m
-
(Locked)
The bridge or middle 845s
-
(Locked)
The pre-chorus44s
-
(Locked)
Familiar pop song forms50s
-
(Locked)
Verse, chorus, and bridge forms1m 19s
-
(Locked)
Simple verse form2m 2s
-
(Locked)
Verse without chorus form1m 18s
-
(Locked)
AABA 32-bar form1m 24s
-
(Locked)
Through-composed song forms1m 26s
-
(Locked)
Looking at a song's form5m 53s
-
(Locked)
-