Songwriting Mini Course Part 4 – How To Write A Bridge

Welcome to part 4 of your step by step songwriting mini course. In the last 3 parts you have learned how to write the main parts of basic song structure. Since the verse and chorus contain the main ideas of a song, you’ll want to make sure you have those completed before moving on with part 4.

Today I am going to show you how to write a bridge. The bridge will often stand out from the other sections in a song, and will function to give the song some extra depth. Writing a bridge for a song can be a great opportunity to take your listeners in a whole new direction musically.

Songwriting Step #5: Write A Bridge

A bridge is a short section in a song that acts as a transition between sections and usually contains different musical elements such as chords, melodies, or lyrics that contrast with the rest of the song. If you are going to write a bridge that contains lyrics, this will be your opportunity to create a “twist”. For instance, let’s imagine that your song is about taking a trip to somewhere you have never been before. An example of the content of the lyrics could be something like this:

Song About Taking A Trip –

Verse : Where you are going.
Chorus: How you feel about going there.
*Bridge: Something new you discovered along the way.

This same concept applies to the musical aspects of the song. Think of the word “bridge” as a metaphor. You will be building a bridge to take the listener somewhere else (musically). Here are some effective ways to write a bridge for your song:

  • If you have been writing your song using mostly major (“happy”) chords, write your bridge using minor chords. So if you have been using E major, A major, and B major; write the bridge for your song using minor chords like E Minor, A minor, C# minor, etc. This applies the same if you have been using mostly minor chords in your song as well.
  • Try introducing different instruments. For example, if you have been using piano as your primary instrument, add in some guitar lines here. This will provide a great contrast, and will surprise the listener.
  • Make totally new melodies. By using new melodies for either your vocal lines or instruments, it will make the bridge really stand out.

When putting your song together section by section, the bridge will normally be placed after the chorus. However, before the bridge is used, it is common (but not required) for both the verse and chorus sections to repeat two times. Here is an example:

After the bridge ends, there are many directions you can take the song. The two most common ways that musicians will continue the song are the following:

1. Repeat the chorus of the song. In this case, the bridge can be used as a great way to build up to the chorus. When writing a bridge for this purpose, use some of the tension creating techniques discussed in previous parts.

2. Begin a new “break” section. Sometimes when writing a bridge for a song, it is used to build up to a break section. This part of a song is normally instrumental, and may contain instrumental solos and/or similar chords, melodies, rhythms, or other musical elements from other parts of the song. However, the break section may also totally different, with little or no connection to the other parts of the song. The length of this section varies.

Now that you have learned how to write a bridge for a song, you are almost ready to complete your song! In the final part of this mini course, I will show you some effective ways to end your song. Additionally, I will show you many popular song structures to give you more options to choose from when creating new songs.

In the mean time, do the following steps if you haven't already done them:

  1. Learn innovative songwriting methods for creating new songwriting ideas . This will help you not only improve the overall quality of your songs, but also understand how to consistently think of new ideas for your music.
  2. Get your song started in part 1 of this mini course by writing a song intro .
  3. Return to part 2 to and learn how to write a verse for a song .
  4. Go back to part 3 to learn about writing a song chorus .