So, you’ve found the perfect spot for a song in your musical – now you just have to write it! One of the first questions you’ll need to ask yourself is: “What form will this song follow?”  In songwriting, the form is the arrangement of similar and contrasting sections. There are many different forms to choose from, and each has its own unique advantages. So let’s explore some of the most common – and effective!

AABA / 32-Bar Song Form

AABA form is a staple of musical theatre songwriting. In AABA, the song is constructed of choruses, sometimes referred to as refrains. I find it helpful to say “AABA chorus” rather than just “chorus” to avoid confusion with the concept of a pop-chorus, which we’ll take a look at later.

In an AABA song, the hook should appear at or near the beginning or end of each A section, or both. (It’s important to note that, even though AABA is sometimes referred to as 32-bar form, an AABA chorus can be ANY length.)

Let’s take a look at the age-old classic, “Over the Rainbow”. This song is constructed of a single 32-bar chorus with a coda added on at the end. Its simple structure supports Dorothy’s very simple an straightforward wish. Notice how the hook, “Somewhere over the rainbow”, is placed at the beginning of each A section.

lyrics to Somewhere Over the Rainbow in a diagram illustrating its form

AABA form is particularly useful if you’d like to hit your audience with the hook right at the top of the song. While AABA form is most associated with the “golden age” of musical theatre, it’s still a thriving form that you can find in many contemporary musicals.

Let’s take a look at one of those more contemporary AABA songs, “Make Them Hear You,” from Ragtime. (Music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens)

This song is constructed of two AABA choruses. Unlike “Over the Rainbow” here the “hook” of the song, “make them hear you”, falls at the end of each A section. The A sections are unusually short, only four measures each, but sometimes that’s all you need! Because the sections are short, the rhyme falls across sections.

Let them hear you first section, divided in a diagram to show the form

Second section of Make Them Hear You, broken into sections to show its form

 

The second AABA chorus follows the same form except the last A section is slightly extended. Almost every AABA song features either a coda or an extended final A section to give the end of the song a little extra oomph!

Intro Verses

Maybe your song, or specifically your hook, needs a sort of set-up for the first A section to land. If so, you might want to consider adding an intro verse before your first chorus. It can also be helpful to think about an intro verse being like a rubber band being pulled back, and the first A section being the release.

Let’s take a look at the intro verse and first AABA chorus of “Stop” from Mean Girls. (music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin)

Lyrics from "Stop" from Mean Girls, broken into sections, part 1

Additional Lyrics from Stop from Mean Girls

Notice how the hook, “Stop”, is set at both the beginning and end of each A section. If your hook is short enough, it’s a fun technique that makes the hook immediately clear to the audience.

Bridges

Inserting a bridge is an excellent opportunity for a character to develop, change their mind, or reach a new understanding. If each AABA chorus is asserting the thesis of the song, the bridge is an opportunity to reexamine that thesis.

On a less dramaturgical, and more practical level, bridges allow us to add musical contrast to songs. While the A and B sections of “Matchmaker” are in the time signature of 3/4, the bridge is 2/2 (otherwise known as “cut time”). Additionally, The A and B sections are in a major key, whereas the bridge is in a minor key.

“Matchmaker, Matchmaker”, from Fiddler on the Roof (music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick), is constructed of an AABA chorus, underscoring for dialogue, a bridge, and the a truncated ABA chorus with an added coda. Whenever possible try not to put dialogue that would require any underscoring or vamps in the middle of an AABA chorus. We really want to keep the flow going until the third A section is finished!

Lyrics from "Matchmaker," divided to show form, part 1

Lyrics to Matchmaker Bridge

Matchmaker Lyrics Part 3

While AABA is a fantastic structure, you shouldn’t feel obligated to stick to it dogmatically after the first AABA chorus. That truncated final ABA chorus in “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” keeps the song from dragging towards the end. As long as the audience understands the form before you break it, all that matters is that you’re telling the story you want to tell through song.

A last note on AABA; it’s usually wise to avoid putting too many AABA choruses back to back. Small bits of dialogue or a bridge help to put some space between the last A section and the beginning of the next A.

ABAC Song Form

While the C doesn’t stand for “coda”, You can think of ABAC form as ABA with a small coda at the end of the second A section.

Let’s take a look at one ABAC section of “Put on a Happy Face” from Bye Bye Birdie. (Music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams)

Lyrics for Put on a Happy Face, divided to show form

If you currently have your song in AABA form and the ending of your A sections doesn’t seem to be what you’d like to end each chorus with, you might want to consider an ABAC form instead!

Strophic Song Form

Perhaps the single rarest form in all of musical theatre is called Strophic Form. A Strophic song is constructed of consecutive A sections with no B sections at all. You can probably guess why this is such a rarely used form. Almost by definition, a strophic song lacks drama, since it repeats itself without much chance to develop.

There is though, at least one example of a fantastic strophic theatre song. That piece is “One Hand, One Heart,” from West Side Story (lyrics by Stephen Sondheim).

lyrics to "Make of Our Hands, One Hand" divided to show the song form

It’s important to recognize that, dramatically, this song has to do very little. Our two leads, Tony and Maria, are making their wedding vows (it’s an imaginary ceremony, but still) to one another. There are no complications as of yet. It is the simplest, most intimate moment in the entire musical.

While I would never dare to say, “stay away from strophic form,” I believe it is very rarely a practical tool for the theatre.

Verse-Chorus / Pop Song Form

Verse-chorus form has two basic building blocks; the verse and the chorus. The hook appears in the chorus. Verse-chorus form is useful for when you’d like to withhold the hook from the audience for a bit.

The use of verse-chorus form (sometimes referred to as “pop” form) is often thought of as a newer convention but the “golden age” of musical theatre has lots of verse-chorus songs in its cannon.

Let’s take a look at “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” from Oklahoma. (Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II)

Curly is a simple, plain-spoken, fella so he gets a folky verse-chorus song free of any complicated structure. This “plainness” is reinforced by the fact that the choruses are identical to one another, much like in a pop song.

Oh what a beautiful morning song structure

More often than not though, you’ll want to create choruses that aren’t lyrically identical to one another. The hook will remain the same, and in the same place, but other lyrics will change. This allows us to make a more dynamic song with a more complex journey.

Let’s look at “Pulled’ from the Addams Family (Music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa), a song with non-identical second halves of its choruses.

Notice how the hook, “pulled” is actually used twice in each chorus. There’s no reason you have to limit yourself to using it only at the beginning and ends of your choruses!

Lyrics from Pulled, Part 1

Pulled Part 2

Not only is the hook withheld for longer in a verse-chorus song, but the hook also has a tendency to appear less frequently. So verse-chorus songs are also great when you only want to use the hook a few times.

Adding a Pre-Chorus

A more modern convention is to add a pre-chorus between your verses and choruses. It’s just a small section before the chorus, and often it sets up the chorus. If you love the verse and chorus you’ve written, but feel like some narrative glue is missing to make them fit together, a pre-chorus might be just right!

Let’s look at “Shut Up and Cheer” from We Are the Tigers (music and lyrics by Preston Max Allen) which has a pre-chorus that sets up the chorus.

We Are the Tigers Song Excerpt

Through-Composed Songs

At the end of the day, while pre-existing structures are helpful, we never want to be hemmed in by convention for convention’s sake. If your character is going through an emotional journey that doesn’t fit nicely into a single form, that’s okay! Let the character’s journey guide the form of your song.

Let’s take a look at “Rose’s Turn” from Gypsy (music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) for an example of a fantastic through-composed piece.

“Rose’s Turn” contains, roughly, four sections, starting with these lyrics:

  1. “Ya either got it, or you don’t”
  2. “Mama’s talkin loud”
  3. “Why did I do it?”
  4. “Everything’s Coming up Rose”

Through-composed pieces can be a mix of previously existing material and material the audience has yet to hear. The above sections use both lyrical and musical ideas from previous songs, often with a new perspective. (This is a common trait of through-composed songs.) The last section, in particular, takes the hook from the act I finale number, “Everything’s coming up roses” and changes “roses” to “Rose.”

Dance Breaks and Ballets

Dance has been a part of theatre since its inception. While not every song needs to incorporate dance, it should always be considered! Here are a few different types of dance-based structures to consider.

Diegetic Dance Breaks

Dance breaks are often diegetic element to them, meaning they take place in world of the play and the characters all know they’re dancing. But, even in diegetic dance, there should still be dramatic development.

For example, in “To Life” from Fiddler on the Roof, the first moment of connection between the Jewish residents of Anatevka and the Russians is shown through dance.

In “Let’s hear it for the Boy” from Footloose, Willard overcomes his fear of dancing, and in so doing wins over Rusty on their first date.

Spectacle is great, but never let it stop there. Use diegetic dance to forward the plot and develop your characters!

Non-Diegetic Dance Breaks

We can also use dance sections in non-diegetic form.  These dance breaks can be a way of expression, even forwarding the plot through motion.

The dance break in “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)”, from Hamilton (music, lyrics by Lin Manuel Miranda) takes a week’s worth of fighting and condenses it into one ultra-high-energy dance break.

In “Seize the Day” from Newsies (Music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman) the dance break allows the now striking youths to move in lockstep with each other, in a very literal sense, for the first time.

Ballets

Ballet numbers, meaning numbers comprised entirely of dance without any singing, have a storied history in theatre. Examples include Oklahoma’s “Dream Ballet,” the gritty dance brawls of West Side Story, and the tornado sequence in The Wiz.

While completely instrumental dance numbers are a rarity in contemporary theatre, they can be extremely effective! For an a modern example, let’s look at “The Story of Winnie Foster” from Tuck Everlasting. Just like in “Yorktown” from Hamilton, dance is being used in a way that allows us to “fast forward” through time. In this case, not just a week, but an entire lifetime! It’s essentially an entire epilogue as a ballet.

Conclusion

That’s it!

Now you’re ready to decide what form your song might take and start writing it! There’s no hard and fast rule about what form is best for any particular kind of song. I’d love to be able to say, “If you’re writing a persuasion song it should be AABA” or, “If you’re writing a character establishment song it should be verse-chorus.” But really, there’s just no right or wrong.

The best advice I can give is that, after you have your hook, try rewriting your song in multiple forms!

For example, try writing a single AABA chorus, and then a single verse and pop-chorus. See which you like best with your hook! You might, after a first draft, love your hook but realize it’s ineffective when it’s set in a pop chorus. Or try rewriting the piece with the same hook, but in AABA form. Experiment!