A song's chorus is usually an arrival point.

The place in the song where the melody, harmony, and lyrics will come together and everyone

sings along.

The verse comes before the chorus and the bridge comes after, but honestly, common song structures

overrated, so why not write a song with none of those things?

Welcome to Strong Songs, a podcast about music.

I'm your host, Kirk Hamilton, and I am terrible at writing bridges, seriously.

Bridges are so hard to write.

I don't know how people write them well.

If you know the secret to a good bridge, please tell me.

Strong Songs is a one-man operation, but that's only partly true.

I couldn't make this show without support from listeners like you, and I wouldn't want

to make it if I didn't know that you were all out there listening.

If you'd like, there's a lot of ways you can support me making this show from buying

merch, to becoming a patron, to just sharing this show with your friends.

Now I've made episodes of Strong Songs focusing on two, three, even five different songs,

but those tiny numbers pale in comparison with the gigantic number I'll be tackling today.

Not 10, not 15, but 21 tiny songs by one of my favorite bands, so let's pass the milk,

knock on the wall and get into it.

The human mind has a fascinating, ever-changing relationship with music.

The more we listen and the more we learn, the more we develop subconscious shorthands and

associations between each chord progression, groove, and melody.

...