Ases

Definition of Verse A verse is a series of lyrics that tell the main story of the song and keep the action or thoughts moving forward. Verses are an important part of a song. A song may have one verse or many. Whatever the number, they take the main idea and explore it in different ways.

In music, a section is a complete, but not independent, musical idea. Types of sections include the introduction or intro, exposition, development, recapitulation, verse, chorus or refrain, conclusion, coda or outro, fadeout, bridge or interlude.

The opposite of regular phrasing is irregular phrasing whereby the phrase lengths are different in length. The opening of Chopin's Ballade Op 23 No1 begins with a three-bar phrase followed by a two-bar phrase. You could also argue that this is one complete five-bar phrase.

Each verse usually employs the same melody (possibly with some slight modifications), while the lyrics usually change for each verse. The chorus (or "refrain") usually consists of a melodic and lyrical phrase that repeats.

Many people can sing the chorus to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," but few realize there are also verses, including one that starts, "Katie Casey was baseball mad." Verse comes from the Latin word versus, which means a line of writing and is based on the Proto-Indo-European root wer, meaning to turn or bend.

Typically, the song has three sections: a chorus (or refrain), which sums up the song's topic and is repeated at times throughout the song; two or three verses, which explain or expand on the topic of the chorus; and a bridge, which adds a bit of variety to the music.

Basic song structure consists of an intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus and bridge (many times, this is all tied together in an outro, too). Below, consider this breakdown of song building blocks.

A phrase is a musical thought that is typically four measures long and ends with a cadence that can be strong or weak. In a period of two phrases, the first phrase, called the antecedent phrase, ends with a weak cadence, and the second phrase, called the consequent phrase, ends with a strong cadence.

Regular rhythm – elements are repeated exactly in an evenly spaced arrangement. Flowing rhythm – movement is suggested through repeating organic shapes or through irregular repetition of repeating elements.

The verse is the part of the song where lyrics tend to vary every time - as opposed to the chorus which, in some songs, repeats the same set of lyrics whenever it's played.

In many songs, each verse brings the story forward, and the chorus is often the same words repeated. Verses are typically 8 or 16 bars long (although not a rule). A relatively common practice is to have the first two verses longer than the last one. For example 16 bars for verse 1 and 2 and 8 bars for verse 3.

In popular music, a verse roughly corresponds to a poetic stanza because it consists of rhyming lyrics most often with an AABB or ABAB rhyme scheme. When two or more sections of the song have almost identical music but different lyrics, each section is considered one verse.