SONG

A. INTRODUCTION

        Can you sing an English song? Is it difficult for you or not?  Singing an English song can help us to learn English. It is a fun way.

        Do you have a favorite singer? Who is he/he? Why do you like him/her? Do you like his/her songs, too? One of the best tools to learn foreign language is using songs. The real songs can be very efective to help us understand English.

        There are some reasons why many people use songs to learn English. First, song are authentic materials. If we want to learn English, we should listen to English songs. Second, English songs also contain culture and history.

        The reason is that song contain repetitions and repetitions enhance learning. The next reason is it’s a good way to learn voccabulary and pronunciation. An last, English songs are fun and they can easily energize the listeners.

B. SONGS

1 .  DEFINITION OF SONGS

        A song is a single (and often standalone) work of music intended to be sung by the human voice with distinct and fixed pitches and patterns using sound and silence and a variety of forms that often include the repetition of sections.

2 .  SOSIAL FUNCTION OF SONGS

        

        The social function of song are:

a. To entertain the listeners.

b. To teach moral value through the lyrics of the songs.

c. To provide a way of managing the realitionship between our public and private emotional life.

d. To express personal feeling and cultural values.

e. To give someone to not only shares their emotions with others, but also to have an emotional connection that just can’t be experienced in any other way.

3.  GENERAL STRUCTURE OF SONGS

        The general structure of a song consists of verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus. It is better for us to learn more about the complete structure of songs.

a. Intro

        The introduction establishes melodic, harmonic, and/or rhythmic related to the main body of song.

b. Verse

        It is the section of the song structure that tells the story. This is the exposition, describing the scene or the person, or an emotion. There are usually two or three verses in a row that have the same musical structure, the same rhyme and poetic meter, but different words. The second verse builds on the picture painted in the first verse, etc.

c. Chorus of Refrain

        A chorus is the most repeated section, so it’s the easiest remembered. A chorus is the summary of the song’s story. All the verses have been leading up to the chorus, and is usually the part of the song people sing along with. A chorus can come at the beginning of the song structure; it can also start in the middle, or come at the end. In fact, some songs don’t have choruses at all. Some people are usually confused to differentiate between choruses and refrain. A refrain is any line that repeats in the song lyric, while a chorus is any group of lines that repeat.

d. Break

        A break is actually a brief “rest” or “pause” for the core melody within a song used to add further dimension and excitement. It may include a quick instrumental solo or drum interlude or it may be a brief moment of silence, or acombination of each of these elements.

e. Bridge

      This is the part of the song that shifts. It can suddenly change tempo, or volume, or instrumentation. The bridge is the section that gives the audience time to reflect on the story, or gives them the “climax” or conclusion of the story through verses and chorus. Bridges can be used to give the singer a break.

f. Outro or Coda

        This is the end of the road for the song. It can repeat the intro, chorus or a refrain as an outro, or a bridge with an instrumental solo.

Below Are Some Forms of Song’s Structure

Intro-verse-verse-chorus-break-verse-verse-break-bridge-break-out

Verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus.

4. EXAMPLES OF SONG

Earth Song

Michael Jackson

Verse 1

What about sunrise

What about rain

What about all the things that you said

We were to gain

What about killing fields

Is there a time

What about all the things

That you said were yours and mine

Chorus

Did you ever stop to notice

All the blood we’ve shed before

Did you ever stop to notice

This crying Earth, these weeping shores

Aah, ooh

Verse 2

What have we done to the world

Look what we’ve done

What about all the peace

That you pledge your only son

What about flowering fields

Is there a time

What about all the dreams

That you said was yours and mine

Chorus

Did you ever stop to notice

All the children dead from war

Did you ever stop to notice

This crying earth, these weeping shores

Aah, ooh

Aah, ooh

Verse 3

I used to dream

I used to glance beyond the stars

Now I don’t know where we are

Although I know we’ve drifted far

Aah, ooh

Aah, ooh

Aah, ooh

Aah, ooh

Bridge

Hey, what about yesterday

(What about us)

What about the seas

(What about us)

The heavens are falling down

(What about us)

I can’t even breathe

(What about us)

What about apathy

(What about us)

Drowning in the seas

(What about us)

What about the promised land

Preachin’ what I believe

(What about us)

What about the holy land

(What about it)

What about the greed

(What about us)

Where did we go wrong

Someone tell me why

(What about us)

What about baby boy

(What about him)

What about the days

(What about us)

What about all their joy

Do we give a damn

Aah, ooh

Aah, ooh