Musical Forms Part 1

Musical Forms: Part 1

by Shawna Stewartson-Bennett

​Objectives

​Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Explain the concept of forms in music

• Distinguish between strophic and binary forms

• Start to identify strophic and binary forms in music through both listening and reading of sheet music

Multiple Choice

Which of the following would be the MOST LIKELY form of a song?

• Chorus, Chorus, Chorus, Verse

• Verse, Chorus, Chorus, Chorus

• Verse, Verse, Chorus, Chorus

• Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus

​​Form is the Basic Structure

Every piece of music has an overall plan or structure, the “big picture,” so to speak. This is called the form of the music.

​​Form is the Basic Structure

Just like writing and speaking, music is a language with rules that govern how we can compose it. It has structure and grammar – just as you can’t put a punctuation mark in the middle of a sentence. Music and language both also have multiple forms, and each form has its own guidelines and format to follow as well. 

What happens when music is not structured?

​Describing Form - Types of Forms

​Musicians traditionally have two ways to describe the form of a piece of music. One way involves labeling each large section with a letter. The other way is to simply give a name to a form that is very common. Here are the most common forms used in music.

• Strophic (AAA)

• Binary (AB)

• Ternary (ABA)

• Rondo (ABACA) or (ABACABA)

​Strophic (AAA)

​The strophic form is one of the most common musical forms. It’s also referred to as song form or verse form. It’s the most basic of all the forms because of its repetitiveness, typically featuring an AAA structure.

Strophic form is most commonly seen in popular music, folk music, or music that is verse based. This is because the material is repeated so much. Each of those A’s represents a short verse, normally 8 to 16 measures long.

​See the example in the next slide below

​Strophic (AAA)

​Letter form: AAA

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Same music each VERSE (melody). It is also called verse repeating, it applies to songs in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music or melody.

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Eg. “Amazing Grace” - each verse of the song follows the same melody seen here.

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Get your recorders and play the music to amazing grace.

​Strophic (AAA)

Strophic form is more common in early rock-and-roll (the 1950s–1960s)

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An example of a strophic song, consider “Blue Suede Shoes” by Carl Perkins (See also the Elvis Presley version).

​Binary (AB)

​Letter Form: AB or AABB

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The structure of a piece of music which is divided into 2 different sections.

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The 2 sections are usually labelled A and B.

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The melody is introduced in the first part - A (can be done twice -AA). Then there is a material or melody introduced for the second section (B or BB). The song ends after the B section.

​Binary (AB)

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​Binary (AB)

​Can you clap the rhythm of the song Engine Engine Number 9?

​Binary (AB)

​Here's another sone with a binary form.

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Practice playing "Wake Up You Lazy Bones" on your recorder

Summary

Multiple Choice

What form does BEST represent the music presented?

• Strophic

• Binary

Multiple Choice

What is binary form?

• Binary form is two melodies playing at the same time

• Binary form is two separate sections of music that are clearly different

• Binary is when two instruments are playing at the same time

• Binary is structure used for bicycles

Multiple Choice

 

How is Binary Form usually labeled?

• AD

• ABC

• AB

• ABACA

Draw

Label the start of all the sections in the music shown with the correct letter froms.

​BYE