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GIRL 1: Hmm, so should we put the Bang, bang, boom, boom at the beginning or the end?

BOY 1: May be in the middle?

GIRL 2: Can’t we just repeat it forever? It’s so AWESOME!

BOY 2: Hey, I’ve got some new lyrics. “Our tempos steady like a well times yo-yo.”

GIRL 3: Actually, they’re not bad.

GIRL 1: I like them! Let’s play the song and see if we can fit them in!

MUSIC: # We’re gonna get out with a BANG BANG BOOM BOOM #

ELVIS: Elvis is in the building.

GIRL 3: Here we go again.

ELVIS: That’s one groovy chorus, baby.

BOY 1: It’s good, but where do we put it in the song?

ELVIS: Hey! A little less conversation, a little more action! Sing me that chorus again will you?

BOY 1: # We’re gonna go out with a bang bang boom boom. #

ELVIS: Woah, that’s catchy! And if you repeat the catchy bit you get a hit! # You ain’t nothing but a hound dog, cryin’ all the time. REPEAT! You ain’t nothing but a hound dog, cryin’ all the time.

BOY 2: Hey, that’s catchy!

ELVIS: # Well, you ain’t never caught a rabbit and you ain’t no friend of mine. # It’s your go, Ed.

BOY 1: # We’re gonna go out with a bang bang boom boom. #

ELVIS: Repeat it, baby!

BOY 2: # Bang bang boom boom! #

ELVIS: Now you’re making it really catchy!

GIRL 2: # Bang bang boom boom!

ELVIS: That’s one catchy chorus.

ALL: # BANG BANG BOOM BOOM!

ELVIS: Now for a little thing I like to call… STRUCTURE! The structure is like making a cake. You got the ingredients, you just got to know what order to put them in the bowl.

BOY 2: Well, we could use my yo-yo lyrics for the verse.

GIRL 2: And then we have a chorus!

ELVIS: Verse. Chorus. Now your song has two sections.

BOY 1: We could add another verse.

ELVIS: Yeah baby!

GIRL 2: What about repeating the catchy chorus?

GIRL 1: Let’s do it! Start with the verse, then the chorus, verse then the chorus then another verse!

GIRL 3: But if we keep repeating the same chorus and verse, isn’t that like… kinda boring?

ELVIS: Uhuh. But we can add another lil’ trick to shake it up. Milkshake!

GIRL 2: Awesome!

BOY 1: What?!

GIRL 1: You’re the kind Elvis!

ELVIS: Aw, thank you very much.

Mr Smith: Popular music often follows a verse-chorus structure. Let’s use these bricks to demonstrate it.

Mwaksy: These one’s say verse, and these say chorus.

Mr Smith: Yeah now pop songs often start with a verse first.

Mwaksy: Hmm, i’ll put this here first then.

Mr Smith: Yep, and then next they tend to have a bit of a catchy chorus.

Mwaksy: Okay, there we go. What’s next?

Mr Smith: Well, we can repeat that pattern again by adding another verse and then another chorus after that.

Mwaksy: Okay. Verse and chorus. Done!

Mwaksy: And the second verse can be a bit different front the. first verse right? The lyrics will change?

Mr Smith: Yeah, that’s right. Most of the time the chorus stays the same when it’s repeated, but the lyrics of the verses often change from the first to the second verse.

Mwaksy: Okay, i’ll add a 1 to this one then, and now i’ll add a 2 to this one as well.

Mwaksy: We now have verse one and verse two, so does this pattern just continue? Should i add a third verse and a chorus?

Mr Smith: Hmm, well actually there are other sections of a song that we haven’t even looked at yet. Now if we kept repeating this pattern of verse, chorus, verse, chorus what do you think would happen?

Mwaksy: Uh, we’d run out of bricks for a start. But I guess the song might sound a bit samey, repetitive.

Mr Smith: Yeah, exactly that. And that’s where the bridge comes in. Now the bridge of a song helps to mix the song up a bit. It can sound quite different from the other sections of the song.

Mwaksy: Ah, i’ve got a bridge here, that comes next?

Mr Smith: Yeah, you can put that there yeah, but there is no strict order but typically a bridge would follow a second chorus. As we said it’s a chance to change something up a bit within the song. Maybe the bridge would have different chords, or maybe a new tune, or even new lyrics. Hey you could even have an instrumental solo in a bridge too.

Mwaksy: Why is it called a bridge?

Mr Smith: Well just like a bridge in real life in music a bridge can actually help connect things together. If we add a bridge to a song it can connect two different sections like a verse and a chorus.

Mwaksy: There we go that bridge mixes up the song a bit. So how do we end the song?

Mr Smith: Well can you think of how lots of popular songs end?

Mwaksy: Don’t they keep singing the chorus again and again and again and again?

Mr Smith: Yes, that’s right yes. Again songs can have lots of different structures but a popular way to end pop songs is just to repeat the chorus a few times over.

Mwaksy: I’ll just add two, as I don’t have space for many more. And that’s that then. A perfect pop song structure. Would this have chart topper all over it?

Mr Smith: Oh, absolutely yeah. Hey does that actually help with your song?

Mwaksy: Let me see, hmm. Oooh! I think it might, this is cool. Make sure you have a go at writing your own pop song and adding verses, choruses and bridges. Play around with the structure and see which works best for your song.