AAB Song Form

AAB Song Form

AAB Song Form, also called 12 Bar Blues Song Form is one of the main traditional song forms. Both names are regularly used by songwriters to describe this song form.

This article explains the fundamentals of AAB Song Form, and provides examples of AAB Song Form being used in popular rock and blues songs.

This article is focused on providing a basic understanding of AAB Song Form in the modern era, so some root musical forms or classifications of musical forms have been referenced for completeness.

AAB Song Form
Facebook
X
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Mix
Reddit
Threads
Email

Table of Contents

Song Building Blocks

Popular music, in particular, often uses a number of common structural song parts.

The common building blocks are:

  1. INTRODUCTION(INTRO)
  2. VERSE
  3. REFRAIN
  4. PRE-CHORUS / RISE / CLIMB
  5. CHORUS
  6. BRIDGE
  7. MIDDLE EIGHT
  8. SOLO / INSTRUMENTAL BREAK
  9. COLLISION
  10. CODA / OUTRO
  11. AD LIB (OFTEN IN CODA / OUTRO)

For details about these song building blocks please read our article, “Song Building Blocks“.

AAB Song Form – 12 Bar Blues Song Form

The 12 bar structure used in the AAB pattern is a very common structure in blues music. Many Blues songs are structured using the AAB format. Unlike AAA or AABA song forms, which describe the overall structure of the song, AAB describes the structure of an individual verse. AAB is always used as a compound form

12 bar relates to the number of bars, or measures, in this song form. Almost all Blues music is written in a 4/4 time signature, i.e. there are four beats in every measure or bar with each quarter note (crotchet) being equal to one beat.

There are a lot of rock and other blues derived songs that use 12 bar song form, it’s derivatives, or a hybrid or compound form involving AAB.

Structure Of AAB Song Form

AAB / 12 Bar Blues is the most common blues song form. An AAB pattern is used in both lyrics and melody (this is often set out in a “question-question-answer” format) made up of three 4 bar phrases in AAB Song Form.

The fundamental structure of 12 Bar Blues is three four-bar lines or sections. Often the first two and a half bars of each 4 bar section are vocal melody, while the last one and a half bars contains an instrumental melodic hook that gives a sense of completion for the line. The instrumental melody often answers, echoes, repeats, or compliments the vocal melody being sung in the first two and a half bars.

AAB-12-bar-blues-song-form

The AAB A Section

In 12 bar blues, the first and second lines (the two A sections) are often a identical in terms of both the lyrics and the melody. Often the A sections forms a question or makes a statement.

The Refrain – The AAB B Section

AAB form doesn’t have a chorus section. The last line or third 4-bar section is the refrain. The major hook of the song often makes use of the song title. The main hook is commonly a part of the refrain. The refrain often forms a response or answer to the question, or a comment on any statements, made in the previous A sections. The refrain ends with a cadence or half cadence. When leading to another verse one of many standard “turnaround” transitions are used.

Example AAB Song Form using a 12-Bar Blues Chord Progression

A standard Blues chord progression, in AAB Song Form, uses (but is not limited to) three chords. These chords are based on the first (I), fourth (IV), and fifth (V) notes of the eight-note scale.

  1. The I chord dominates the first “A” section
  2. The IV chord typically shows up in the second “A” section
  3. The V chord typically appears in the “B” section
AAB-12-bar-blues-song-form-chord-progression

In the example above, the I chord is played over the first, third and fourth bars and the IV chord is played over the second bar, but it isn’t uncommon for this first A section to only use the I chord.

Artist/Band - Songstuff Music Community Join

The second A section uses the same chord progression, the only difference being that the first I chord is replaced with one bar of the IV chord. The lyrics and melody of each A section often act as a question.

The B section, or refrain, begins with the V chord. As an answer to questions posed in the preceding A sections, the B section finally resolves to the I chord (creating a full cadence) or to the V chord (creating a half cadence). Our example uses a half cadence in bars 9-12. A cadence, of any kind, marks the end of the song or section of a song. When it cues another verse or stanza, the transition from one verse or stanza to the next is known as “The Turnaround”. There are a number of standard turnarounds that can be used. The example B section may also use a different lyrical meter and melody in when compared to the two preceding A sections.

This chord progression is not the only AAB Song Form chord progression, but it is typical of the AAB Song Form.

Video examples of AAB / 12-bar blues Song Form

  1. “Crossroad Blues” (Robert Johnson, 1936)
  2. “Sweet Home Chicago” (Robert Johnson, 1936)
  3. “Dust My Broom” (Robert Johnson/Elmore James, 1936)
  4. “Pride and Joy” (Stevie Ray Vaughan, 1983)

Not all blues songs follow the 12 bar structure. Some songs use the same essential AAB layout, with the exception that either 8 bars, 16 bars or 24 bars are used.

Example of 16 Bar Blues:

  1. “Hoochie Coochie Man” (Muddy Waters, written by Willie Dixon 1954)

Examples of 24 Bar Blues:

  1. “Mustang Sally” (Wilson Pickett, written by Mack Rice 1965)
  2. “Carol” (Chuck Berry, 1958)

Discuss this article in our Music Forum.

Related Articles

Do you want to find out more about songwriting and lyric writing? If so, you can find articles and tutorials on our our Songwriting and Lyric Writing Articles page.

For ideas about how to keep your song interesting, please read our article, “Keeping A Song Interesting“.

You might find the following articles useful:

Useful Links

Would you like to join in the discussion about songwriting, recording, music production, or music technology? For that matter, just about any music-related subject? Then join our music community!

Community boards you might be interested in:

Critique boards

… and our Discussion boards

To help you to understand specific terms, take a look at our Music Glossary. It has extensive descriptions of music technology terms and concepts. It also contains entries about music theory and terms from across the music industry including music marketing and music promotion.

Become A Contributor To The Songstuff Music Library

Contributors Wanted

Are you an experienced songwriter? Or perhaps you have in-depth knowledge about writing lyrics? Are you an experienced top-line writer? Or perhaps you are a beat maker? Would you be interested in helping musicians to build their skills and understanding by contributing demonstration videos, reviews, articles and tutorials to the Songstuff music library? We rely upon musicians, and people working within the music industry, being willing to contribute to our knowledge base.

As well as contributions to our music library, we feature contributions in our site blogs and social media portals. In particular, we add video contributions to the Songstuff Channel on YouTube.

Please contact us and we can explore the possibility of you joining our contributors asap.

Songstuff Media Player

If you would like to listen to some awesome indie music while you browse, just open our media player. It opens in another window (or tab) so your playlist can play uninterrupted as you browse.

Open the Songstuff Media Player.

Playlists are curated by SSUK for the Independent Music Stage and Songstuff.