Top 10 Possible Features in a Non-Standard Song Structure

This structure is more common in metal. These songs are often called "multi-part songs" because they transition from part to part - a series of related but distinct musical sections strung together. Since no part is repeated, there's no chorus, despite these songs usually being longer than your average song.

Songs without a chorus are harder to write and also harder for the listener to "digest." The chorus is the hook, and without it, you have to focus more intently while listening to understand what's going on (in terms of music, not just lyrics or story).

The chorus is the candy for the ears that we all wait for, but some songs don't have any candy. It took me some time, but now I completely enjoy songs without choruses. In fact, songs with too many choruses have started to annoy me.

Examples of songs with no choruses:

- Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
- Iron Maiden - "Hallowed Be Thy Name"
- Megadeth - "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due"
- Iron Maiden - "Phantom of the Opera"

(For more, check out the list - Top 10 Metal Songs Without a Chorus)

Is it possible, you may ask? Oh yes. This is the opposite of "No chorus" - here, you get only choruses, i.e., the catchy parts. For this reason, this song structure is very good for children's songs.

Example: "Love Me Do" by The Beatles. This song has no verses (by strict definition), and the song structure is as follows:

- Instrumental intro (over partial chorus chords)
- Chorus
- Chorus
- Bridge ("Someone to love..." - this is a bridge because it's different from the main chord pattern)
- Chorus
- Instrumental, part 1 (over bridge chords)
- Instrumental, part 2 (over a unique pattern)
- Chorus
- Fadeout (over chorus chords)

Usually, the guitar solo is somewhere in the middle of the song, but not in these songs:

- Scorpions - The Sails of Charon (1977)
- Annihilator - The Trend (2010) [even 2 solos in the intro]
- Slayer - Captor of Sin (1984 demo) - Ha! It even starts with the solo! And the riff comes after the solo!

Thanks for adding this, romanempire249, and for the example with the Blind Guardian song - "The Throne" is one of my favorite songs by them. "The Throne" has a chorus, but the three long "verses" have different music and structure, so the song doesn't get repetitive, even though it's 8 minutes long. Pure genius.

Blind Guardian's songwriting is unique and is non-standard for the most part - many of their song structures are like a puzzle. Off the top of my head, "Curse My Name" and "The Holy Grail" are pretty odd too, but I love them.

Instrumental intros prepare the listener for the tone and mood of the song. But there are songs where the singer just starts singing. Because most of the songs we know have some instrumental intro, even if only for 5 seconds, such songs can surprise the listener (which can be super cool though).

Examples:

- Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
- Pink Floyd - Another Brick In the Wall, Pt. 2
- Bon Jovi - You Give Love a Bad Name
- Green Day - Basket Case
(For more, check out the list - Top 10 Songs With No Instrumental Intro)

Blind Guardian's "The Throne" (2015) is about 8 minutes long and has three choruses and three pre-choruses. When I first heard the song and its first pre-chorus, I thought, "What a great chorus." When it finished and I heard the real chorus, I realized that the song had pre-choruses.

The chorus starts with "We must serve the fire..."

Here are the three pre-choruses before each chorus (the lyrics aren't exactly the same, but the music is):

Pre-chorus 1:
"I've come to tell you once more
Don't let him break this seal
But let me tell you once more
Peace shall come"

Pre-chorus 2:
"I've come to tell you once more
It's me, I hold the key
But let me tell you once more
Peace shall come"

Pre-chorus 3:
"I've come to tell you once more
As I will now reveal
But let me tell you once more
Peace is gone"

This is really crazy, but Slayer did it (Captor of Sin, on their 1984 demo). The solo is followed by the riff. One of my favorite Slayer songs.

Guitar solos in the outro happen more often than solos in the intro, but it still deviates from the rule of placing the solo in the middle of the song.

Example: Primal Fear - The Man (That I Don't Know). The song has 2 solos, but I like the 2nd, outro solo better.

Guitar solos are usually expected in rock and metal songs because the guitar solo has become an important part of the common rock song structure. When there's no solo, the listener is either surprised or doesn't notice the absence because some songs are amazing even without guitar solos.

Here are several great songs with no solos - oddly enough, some were written by famous soloists who often include 2-3 solos in a song but not here:

- Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers
- Judas Priest - Breaking the Law
- Annihilator - Human Insecticide
- Demons & Wizards - Crimson King

(For more, check out the list - Top 10 Greatest Metal Songs With No Guitar Solo)

Yes, but what about no structure at all? I feel like musicians think it is compulsory for a section in a song to repeat, either musically or lyrically. There should be many more songs that just build up without repeating melodies and lyrics.

Listen to The Commercial Album by The Residents - it's full of songs that are just 1 minute long without any repetition, and they're still full works of music.

I didn't add this item because it's the same as "No chorus," or very similar to it. As I explained in "No chorus," if a song is multi-part (with all parts being different), it has no chorus - a chorus is something that has to be repeated at least twice.

So, the songs from "No chorus" can serve as examples here as well:

- Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
- Iron Maiden - "Hallowed Be Thy Name"
- Megadeth - "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due"
- Iron Maiden - "Phantom of the Opera"

Instrumental music has no lyrics. And without lyrics, we can't talk about verses and choruses. Many people don't count instrumental songs as "songs" because they think a song should have lyrics. What do you think about that? Do you need lyrics to understand and enjoy music?

People, it's not only about instrumentals. Alcest's 2016 album Kodama has multiple tracks where all the "lyrics" are made-up gibberish that they thought fit the music.

An example of a song that ends with a verse is Blind Guardian's "The Bard's Song (In the Forest)." After the third verse, there is no chorus, and the song ends with this verse - though it's debatable if these can be called "verses" in the strictest sense, as they aren't identical. But since the song has a chorus, the rest must be "verses."

Ending the song with a verse isn't the only unusual aspect. The first two verses are similar but not the same, while the third verse is quite different and only appears once - it almost sounds like a bridge. But if the song ends with it, it's a bridge to what? (Because a bridge typically connects two points.)

A possible answer could be that it's a bridge to the next song on the album, which is related to this one: "The Bard's Song (The Hobbit)." Whether it's a verse or a bridge, the end of this song is unusual. After the third verse (or bridge?), there's no instrumental outro or anything similar, but somehow the song still feels complete.

By definition, if a song has a pre-chorus, it's the last part of the verse that comes right before the chorus. But who put a pre-chorus in the middle of the verse? Blind Guardian did, in their song "The Holy Grail." Blind Guardian rarely follows the rules. Moreover, there's no pre-chorus in the third verse, and the pre-choruses themselves have different lyrics.

Example: Blind Guardian - "The Holy Grail"
The chorus starts with "There on the battlefield..."

Pre-chorus 1:
"Don't call it hopelessly insane, Oh Oh Oh
I go and grasp the grail, Oh Oh Oh
But in a graceful way, Oh Oh Oh
Illegally, my aim
The grail will cross the border now"

Pre-chorus 2:
"So after all, in vain, Oh Oh Oh
I've met him and found the grail, Oh Oh Oh
'Cause in a skillful way, Oh Oh Oh
I'll change to keep alive
Eternal lie, I'll be the one"

Cro's "Unendlichkeit" (my favorite song of 2017) starts with the chorus, then a verse, then another chorus, a bridge, and then an instrumental outro. There are two different versions with different verses, but the structure is the same.

This was most common in the early to mid-2000s.

No, it's worse than the standard structure in the description. These are the kinds of songs that run for 5 minutes but have enough ideas to fill 2 minutes.

As heard in Scissor Sisters' "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'." It was a synthesizer solo, though.