Strophic form

Strophic form is a simple way of structuring music based on the repetition of a single section. It is the musical analogue of repeated stanzas in poetry or lyrics.

Typical strophic form: (A A A...) or (A A' A"...)

Most folk and popular songs (including twelve bar blues) are structured in this way with a simple repeated verse form or verse-refrain form. The popular "verse-chorus-verse" form may be interpreted as a more expansive strophic form in which small sections are always followed by a recognizable refrain.

Verse-chorus form

There exist two types of Verse-chorus form; contrasting verse-chorus form and simple verse-chorus form. Contrasting verse-chorus form is where different music is used for the verse and chorus; often creating a sharp contrast either harmonically, melodically, rhythmically, or all three. Typically, a chorus is also emphasized by louder dynamics and additional instruments but there are many cases where the chorus is comparatively quiet to the verse. Simple verse form, in contrast, uses the same music for both verse and chorus and, accordingly, the refrain is emphasized to a much lesser degree.