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5 Chord Progressions for a Song Bridge | The Essential Secrets of Songwriting Blog

14-8-2014

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5 Chord Progressions for a Song Bridge

Written by Gary Ewer

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The bridge of a song is supposed to be the section that takes the energy

you’ve created in your verse-chorus structures and build on it. We’ve

been looking lately at a few things that help to build that energy:

dropping beats, and focusing on the dominant note. But what kind of

chord progression does one use to build energy? It depends on what your chorus

progression is doing.

The bridge exists mainly to give the listener a chance to be diverted away from the

material of the verse and chorus. The standard format for songs that use a bridge is:

Verse – Chorus – Verse – Chorus – BRIDGE – Chorus – Chorus

But a bridge needs to be more than simply a new melody. Because it needs to build energy,

the bridge should also be doing a couple of other things.

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First, the melodic ideas should be shorter than the ideas of the verse and chorus. While

verse and chorus melodies tend to be thought of in 4- or 8-bar phrases, bridges should

present their melodic ideas as 1- or 2-bar ideas that are move back and forth between

verse-style lyrics (“here’s the situation..”) and chorus-style lyrics (“here’s how I feel about

that..”). This back-and-forth builds energy.

Secondly, the chord progression itself needs to offer something different from what’s been

offered before. But it also needs to build energy. So what progressions work for a bridge?

When in doubt, bridges of major key songs will work well starting on a minor chord, and

it’s quite common to use the vi-chord. Here is an example:

1) CHORUS:

C Bb F G C

(4 beats on each of the C and Bb, 2 beats each for the F and G, and 4 beats

for the final C)

BRIDGE:

Am F G Am Bb F Gsus G

As you can see, whatever you choose needs to end on a chord that makes the listener not

just

want

– makes the listener

need

to hear the chorus. This is achieved by ending the

verse on the dominant chord (i.e., the V-chord). Dominant chords are resolved by moving

to the I-chord, which is the first chord of our sample chorus.

Here are two more bridge progressions

that would work, assuming your chorus is a

standard progression that starts and ends on the I-chord. (Try 4 beats for each chord, but

feel free to experiment):

http://garyewer.wordpress.com/2010/05/01/5-chord-progressions-for-a-song-bridge/

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5 Chord Progressions for a Song Bridge | The Essential Secrets of Songwriting Blog

14-8-2014

feel free to experiment):

II)

Am Em F C Am Dm F G

III)

Am Dm Am Dm F C/E F G

And what if your song is in a minor key? I find that bridges for a minor-key song work

well if they dwell on the major, but not necessarily right away. So if your song is in C

minor, and your chorus begins and ends on Cm, you may want to give something like the

following a try:

IV)

Fm Ab Eb Ab Fm Ab Bb

(4 beats each, hold the Bb for 8)

Bb Gm Eb Ab Bb Eb Fm Gsus G

(4 beats each, with the Gsus and G at the end

getting 2)

Your bridge progressions will build the necessary energy by concluding with a dominant

chord because dominant chords like to resolve to I-chords. As with every musical decision

you make, your ears will confirm if the musical effect you’re looking for – the building of

energy – is actually happening. If it isn’t, try shortening up the beats on each chord as you

approach the end of the bridge.

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