From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: The Fundamentals

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AABA 32-bar form

AABA 32-bar form

From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: The Fundamentals

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AABA 32-bar form

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- 32-bar form, or AABA form, was the dominant form of popular music in the first half of the 20th century, the collection of songs born out of Tin Pan Alley. The 32-bar form consists of an 8-bar phrase followed by an 8-bar repetition or slight variation, followed by an 8-bar section known as the release or bridge, not to be confused with the bridge in the verse-chorus form, although it serves a similar function, followed by an 8-bar repetition of the first phrase again. Famous examples of this form from that time period are George and Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" and "The Man I Love", Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart's "My Funny Valentine" and "Blue Moon", Frank Loesser and Hoagy Carmichael's "Heart and Soul", and Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg's "Over the Rainbow". There are also famous variations of the 32-bar form. Most of the great songs of Cole Porter, "Night and Day", "I Get a Kick Out of You", and "Begin the Beguine", to…

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