Song Structure in Electronic Music and Dubstep
Developing a song is more than just the pieces placed together. It’s about creating a fluid story. In this article, I
am going to go over how to arrange your track and getting a solid song structure for your music.
The Building Blocks of an Arrangement:
To start, let’s go over the parts that make up an arrangement. There are many different terms, depending on the
style of music. For our purposes, we will be looking at these basic terms and then applying them to
the electronic music arrangement:
Intro: The intro is pretty much anything you want it to be. Many songs start with just the melody that is
rising up. You can even create a melodic question that is answered by the rest of the song or something
of the sort. The important thing is to not stay too long at the intro and make it tie in quickly.
Verse: The Verse is the first main part of your melody and story of your arrangement. It repeats a few
times before moving on to the chorus. Verses are usually used in music with lyrics. Music with a verse,
or verse like aspects, can do really well by ending the melodic and harmonic line with
tension. Either with a I chord or a V chord and then resolve it in the chorus.
Chorus: This is the main part of the song. It is the hook, the thing you want people to remember and has
most of the power of the song. This part should have energy and be no longer than the verse. It will
usually repeat like: Verse, Chorus, Verse, and chorus.
Solo: This can be used anytime, preferably after a round or two of chorus and verse, to add a little jam
feel. Used a lot in jazz and can really create cool sections in music. When you are thinking of
live performance Solo parts are always fantastic, even if it’s not in your released track.
Break or Bridge: This is used to break up what the listener has paid attention to. In electronic music,
you usually take out the drums and add a rising sound to the next part. A bridge/break can be more
powerful by adding new instruments or changing the key. Try to keep this at 8 measures or less.
Riser: A Riser is just like a break except that it is arpeggiating or having some sort of buildup that is
released with the next section coming in. Usually no beat and last 8 measures or 16. When the next part
comes in, it will have a lot more energy and should be the climax of the piece.
Outro: This is used to resolve the song and come in for a smooth landing. Some son’s don’t have an
outro and others have a long outro. You can also add a final sense by adding a Coda, or
strong cadence at the end of your track.
