Listening for form in popular music

This free course, Listening for form in popular music, explores form, or how music is organised in time. It looks at three strategies for communicating form – through the use of specialist terms (such as ‘chorus’ and ‘bridge’), alphabetic designations (for example AABA), and visual diagrams. It also considers how the form of a song works with its lyrics to create meaning.This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A234 Understanding music.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Form and popular song
• 1 Form and popular song
• 2 Verses and choruses
• 2 Verses and choruses
• 3 Identifying choruses
• 3 Identifying choruses
• 4 Identifying verses
• 4 Identifying verses
• 5 Song structure and meaning
• 5 Song structure and meaning
• 6 Other elements of song structure
• 6 Other elements of song structure
• 7 The bridge
• 7 The bridge
• 8 The pre-chorus
• 8 The pre-chorus
• 9 Music, meaning and the pre-chorus
• 9 Music, meaning and the pre-chorus
• 10 Introductions
• 10 Introductions
• 11 Instrumental interludes
• 11 Instrumental interludes
• 12 Endings
• 12 Endings
• 13 Alphabetic representations of form
• 13 Alphabetic representations of form
• 14 Studying form in traditional dance music
• 14 Studying form in traditional dance music
• 15 Strategies for representing form
• 15 Strategies for representing form
• 16 Check your learning
• 16 Check your learning
• Conclusion
• Glossary
• References
• Acknowledgements