The final chapter. Everything so far produced fragments. This is about arranging them into a song — design work rather than theory.
Chapter 21 said each section has a different job. Here we decide the order and the lengths — the step where the fragments from earlier chapters become a song.
How long should a song be?
For streaming, around three minutes is the usual target, with a short intro — most tracks have vocals starting within fifteen seconds. For game music or background scoring, one to two minutes works fine because it loops.
A song is sections, arranged.
A common running order
- Intro — a few bars. Set the air. Do not let it run long.
- Verse — start talking. Lower range, fewer notes (chapter 21).
- Pre-chorus — the run-up. Do not resolve; keep pulling (chapter 15).
- Chorus — put the highest note here and repeat heavily (chapter 20).
- Second verse, or an interlude — repeat the shape of the first half.
- Final chorus — sometimes lifted by a modulation or a semitone (chapter 17).
- Outro — end quickly. Repeating part of the chorus is enough.
Which sections go in which order, and for how long. The same melody in a different structure is a different song.
Different progressions suit different sections
The standard progressions from chapters 13 and 14 each suit particular sections: one that starts dark suits a verse, one that lifts suits a pre-chorus, one that opens up bright suits a chorus. Play the three below in order and it already sounds like a song.
- Verse (Am, F, C, G) — start dark
Am | F | C | G
- Pre-chorus (F, G, Em, Am) — lift
F | G | Em | Am
- Chorus (C, G, Am, F) — open up bright
C | G | Am | F
All three are standard progressions from part three. Not one new chord is involved. The order alone creates the rise and fall.
Think in eight-bar units
Eight bars is the default length for a section, or four if you want it short. Build in those units and rearranging later never breaks. ChordMelo handles up to sixteen bars, so a whole section fits in one generation.
Assembling a song with ChordMelo
- Decide a progression per section. The three above work as they are.
- Generate section by section, matching the mode and the section setting.
- Save only the takes you like as MIDI. Put the section name in the filename.
- Lay them out in a DAW: intro → verse → pre-chorus → chorus.
- Tidy the accompaniment's voicing using chapter 29.
- Set velocity and timing using chapter 30.
What this series covered
- Part 1 — note names, lengths, meter, scales. The raw materials.
- Part 2 — how chords are built and the seven inside a key.
- Part 3 — what chords do, and why the standards are standard.
- Part 4 — how a melody moves over chords.
- Part 5 — odd meters and what lies outside this theory.
- Part 6 — intervals, clashes, voicing, programming, structure.
That is all 33 chapters. What is here stays as somewhere to come back to when you need it. Theory is not something to finish in advance; it is something you look up when stuck. From here, only the number of things you write actually matters. Go and put them out.
One last time, over a chorus-shaped progression. It will not sound the way it did back in chapter one.
Generate over a chorus progressionA song is sections of eight bars in a row. Arrange your fragments by role and the shape appears.
Quick review
Everything here is answerable from this chapter. Pick an option and the answer appears straight away.
Question 1
What is the default length of a section?
Question 2
When is it recommended to write the intro?