Professional Guitarists
When the verse melody and chord progression become repetitive, bridges provide an opportunity to add variety. The best bridges are unique but connected clearly with the chorus and final verse; Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” features one that soars into higher registers than its verse melody and chord progression.
Verse
Bridges can help the song reach a dramatic climax musically by changing chords or modulating to another key. George Harrison’s “Something” uses this technique effectively by using its bVI chord to build tension; for instance, “If we think and wish and pray and there was nothing left inside… On that starry starry night.”).
Modulation can also be utilized effectively when writing in a major key, as changing it to its relative minor is done through borrowing chords from that key’s relative minor key (i, bIII or bVII in Simon and Garfunkel’s “America”) for their bridge melody shift (“Laughing on the bus / Crapped out, yawning / Longing my life away”). Altering rhythmic patterns also helps separate bridge from rest of song such as Bill Withers “Ain’t No Sunshine”, wherein its rhythm gets funky to set apart bridge from its rest of song counterpart (iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii).
Chorus
Writing songs featuring choruses often necessitates using bridges to set the mood and introduce contrasting ideas that help listeners understand your plight or situation better. Musically, bridges provide relief from repetitive verses while setting up for an impressive conclusion to your song.
One approach to adding contrast in a song’s bridge is changing its rhythm or tempo – for instance in “America” by Simon and Garfunkel each phrase begins on beat one, while its bridge (“Laughing on the bus…”) shifts away from this standard pattern – drawing attention to melody while giving your bridge its own feel distinct from other parts of your song.
An even bolder way to distinguish your bridge is to shift its key. In The Beatles’ song “We Can Work It Out,” for instance, the bridge (“Life is very short…”) transitions from D major to its relative minor Bm to create an unexpected yet compelling change before returning back to its bright and cheery vibe of verse singing.
Middle Eight
Middle sections can give the song new direction while offering contrast with more upbeat choruses.
Many songs include both vocal and instrumental middle 8s in their structures; this can create an overwhelming and distracting listening experience for listeners.
One way to set apart the middle from other sections is to modulate into a new key. This works especially well when writing melodies, and chord progressions as well. A great example of this technique can be seen in The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out,” where they move from D major to B minor during the bridge section.
Finale
The bridge should provide a unique sound, distinguishing itself from both verse and chorus melodies. This could include using an alternate bass note or modulating into another key for dramatic effect.
Tip: Finale supports two systems of labeling chords. The primary system follows standard chord theory, enabling Finale to recognize various types of chords, including triads, sevenths, augmented sevenths, diminished sevenths and nineths that you can enter using the chord menu and keyboard shortcuts.
The secondary system allows you to modify chords further with additional symbols, such as slashes (/), an underscore (SHIFT+hyphen), bar symbols (|), or special characters such as flat and sharp notation, Roman numerals or special characters like flat (b), #3 (SHIFT+3) etc. You can even specify font and color for these alterations (see chord suffix).