Music has a form and a structure to it. Many songs that we hear on the radio, no matter what the style, is typically a verse/chorus/bridge structure. You may have multiple verses, and multiple repeats of the chorus, but it can be easily be broken down into smaller chunks.
This video breaks down the Cantina Band song from Episode 4 “A New Hope”. We don’t typically get to hear the complete song in the movie, because there is dialogue over it. In more classical styles of composition, we start by labeling music in sections. We start with the letter A. And so, you’ll see in watching the video that when the A section is playing, the A section will wiggle. When it gets to B section, the B will wiggle and so on.
Most musical form is typically binary (AB) or ternary (ABA). This is quite unique because the form is ABCABCDEA. A very unusual form, but hey, we’re in outer space in a galaxy far, far away, so things can be just a little different!
Watch the video and enjoy! Then take your favorite song and try to analyze the structure of it!
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