Bridge question

[lyricist]

I have a quick question for any lyricists in here...


Do you think it is possible to create a "good" song with a scheme like this:


verse
chorus
verse
chorus
bridge

or should this scheme always be followed:

verse
chorus
verse
chorus
bridge
chorus



there is a song i am currently working on and i realized it ended in the "bridge"

Are there any other songs that end like that? i suppose maybe it wouldnt be referred to as a bridge if it ends the song.. what would it be called?


When I converted my song into the 2nd scheme i posted, knocked the bridge down to the initial 4 lines, and had the chorus at the end..it sounded well but I'm wondering if it would be "OK" to have the song end in a "bridge"

I can't seem to think of a song that ends in something other than the chorus?

[Garry Sharp]

It would be called a Coda if it ended the song. There is a fundamental difference, as a bridge is designed to take you to a different part of a song (or to hear a familiar part differently) whereas a Coda is more a sort of postscript. The bridge should build up, the Coda let down.

You can certainly experiment as you suggest, the danger is that you will leave the listener confused, as it won't "resolve" in the way that most songs do. If you have mainstream commercial ambitions then it is best avoided as it lengthens the odds against you, if you are writing for personal reward then go for it if you like it.

[mikeh]

Great response from Gary Sharp - I agree that a bridge "should" resolve into another verse or a chorus (as a general rule, I think a bridge into a chorus works better than into a verse, unless the verse has a key change or in some other way takes a different musical approach - such as going acapella, or whatever). That being said, if ending with a bridge (or CODA as Mr. Sharp suggests) is what your heart tells you to do then that's what you should do.

[famous beagle]

Yes it's definitely possible. There are lots of songs that use that structure (with the Coda).

One that pops into my head right off the bat is Radiohead's "Kharma Police."

[HapiCmpur]

Codas are pretty rare in pop music, but they can be very cool and can earn you lots of kudos for you musicality. Garry's right that they can confuse the listener, but you can lessen the risk by keeping your codas short.

[Garry Sharp]

I'll just shyly mention that my song Loving On The Edge (link below) has a little coda

[lyricist]

Thanks guys.

So it's called a "coda." Cool, learned something new.


Actually the whole time I was preparing the song I had it as


verse
chorus
verse
chorus
coda (What I was labelling a bridge)


And i really liked it. But I realized I didn't have another "chorus" set at the end of what I was calling the "bridge"...then I began to wonder- "Is this even a bridge?"

The lyrics in itself sound really elementary but the song has a good sound. Here I will post 1 verse(there are 2 verses before the bridge, though), the chorus and what could be the bridge or coda. It makes sense either way, I don't feel it is confusing. However i wrote it so it probably wouldn't be confusing to me. I'll have to look at it through the listeners eyes more so.

It's a Christian-themed set of lyrics, mind you.


(verse)
you wait and you can't escape
you're afraid of the night
you stayed a little too late outside
you played a little too far from the Light
and now you've journeyed over the hills
so we'll reconsider the past

(chorus)
cause it's coming back to haunt you
and I'm so glad I didn't follow you
but He loves you so I'll wait, I'll wait
and if you fall if you stumble I can relate
but His redemption is at hand to lead you


(bridge)
go on, take it
see the scar on His side
go on, take it
there's holes in His hands to bring you life

go on, take it
see the scar on His side
go on, take it
there's holes in His hands to bring you life

so go on
go on, go on, Redemption

And this is how I had it- to end the song. I feel it ended nicely and made sense. The main point of the song was about "Redemption" and with the coda ending like that I feel it really ignited the idea of running to and taking a hold of redemption instead of away from it, as the character in the song was doing.

However, If I knocked the "coda" down to 4 lines and put a chorus at the end, it also makes sense and sounds good as well.


(chorus)
cause it's coming back to haunt you
and I'm so glad I didn't follow you
but He loves you so I'll wait, I'll wait
and if you fall if you stumble I can relate
but His redemption is at hand to lead you


(bridge)
go on, take it
see the scar on His side
go on, take it
there's holes in His hands to bring you life


(chorus)
cause it's coming back to haunt you
and I'm so glad I didn't follow you
but He loves you so I'll wait, I'll wait
and if you fall if you stumble I can relate
but His redemption is at hand to lead you


I'm going to give this some thought and experiment a bit and see which one turns out better. The ending coda has a lot of progressive emotion build up in it and I really did like that, it basically "made" the song- an ernest plea for this person to "come back." If i turn it into a bridge it will no longer have that. Hmm I shall see. Thanks again for the info!

[lyricist]

Originally Posted by Garry Sharp

I'll just shyly mention that my song Loving On The Edge (link below) has a little coda

Ha ha. I'm listening now.

[famous beagle]

Originally Posted by HapiCmpur

Codas are pretty rare in pop music, but they can be very cool and can earn you lots of kudos for you musicality. Garry's right that they can confuse the listener, but you can lessen the risk by keeping your codas short.

I'm not trying to be devil's advocate, but I don't necessarily think they're all that rare in pop music, nor do they need to be kept short.

Here are several songs I can think off the top of my head with codas (many of them quite lengthy):

Radiohead: "Kharma Police" (as I mentioned before), "Fake Plastic Trees"
Nirvana: "All Apologies" (quite a long one)
Our Lady Peace: "Superman's Dead"
Eric Clapton: "Bad Love" (REALLY long coda guitar solo, and of course "Layla" (with an even longer solo coda)
Tesla: "Love Song" (that's actually a VERY interesting song structure if you listen to it. It only has one verse!)

Anyway, I'm sure there are many more, but that's some I can think of right now.

I think it's nonsense to shy away from codas. They're many times my favorite parts of songs!

[lyricist]

I think I'm going to leave it. It gives the song extra flavor!



No pop for me. This is going to sound really weird but i'm honestly not sure what genre my music would fall into, it's pretty eclectic. It is on the alternative side, though.

[LfO]

Originally Posted by lyricist

This is going to sound really weird but i'm honestly not sure what genre my music would fall into, it's pretty eclectic.

It may sound wierd, but not unusual. IMHO, most of us have a hard time describing our music in genre terms, from complete newbies up to major stars. For one thing, we don't want to be boxed in; boxes are no good for creative expression!

I think another thing, though, is that most musicians tend to listen to a wide variety of styles, and we feel that we are influenced by many genres. Then, we spend so much time with our own music, that we just can't get the mental distance to be able to categorize or describe it.

While I certainly don't think that we should box ourselves in, or that we should be expected to be able to describe our style, neither should we be too afraid to use genre names or compare ourselves to well-known artists when talking about our music, especially to non-musicians. If you go out to music.download.com and just browse around, you'll find a lot of people describing themselves as "uncategorizable" and "completely different." Frankly, that makes me ignore them - they simply sound concieted.

If a musician can help give people an idea of what they sound like, even in general terms, I think they have a much better chance of getting people to give them chance.

End of rant. Sorry to go off-topic, but this stuff's been bouncing around in my head for a while, and I needed to get it out