Ride vs Chorus vs Bridge

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 11 Jun 2002 2:55 pm

Most of us amatuer pickers in my area use the term chorus and bridge interchangably. Now, I have some rhythm tracks that has chorus and ride. The ride on the tracks is another version of the verse, except maybe a little beefed up in the rhythm section. The term ride is just not used in my area. Is this a real common term among the professionals? What is the meaning of the word "ride".

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 11 Jun 2002 3:02 pm

To me, the chorus is the bridge of the song, while the ride is the instrumental break. It can be done over either the verse or chorus/bridge.

Cairo Zoots · Post by **Cairo Zoots** » 11 Jun 2002 3:06 pm

Hi George! Whenever the term "Ride" is encountered, it usually means the instrumental portion of a song featuring any particular "Lead" instrument. The "Ride" usually tries to compliment the vocalists' effort..

It can be in a verse OR bridge OR chorus format.

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ree-00-dee-doo

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 11 Jun 2002 6:30 pm

In my mind (a dangerous place to hang out but someone's gotta do it), a "bridge" and a "chorus" are not the same. A "bridge" is typically played (or sung) only once, usually near the middle of the song and represents a departure from the regular "A" section. Now a "chorus" is also a departure from the "A" section, but typically the song keeps coming back to it, at least twice and sometimes more. It's usually got the "catchiest" part of the melody or lyrics in it too (the "hook").

It gets trickier in jazz, though, where a "chorus" usually refers to the complete form of the song, which may be A-A-B-A, for example. So one player may solo over the whole form twice ("two choruses") and then another soloist may play a "chorus" or two (or seven, or eight...)

Hope I haven't confused everybody and made matters worse...

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The "Master of Acceptable Tone"
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Perry Hansen · Post by **Perry Hansen** » 11 Jun 2002 7:25 pm

Jim. You didn't make matters worse, but you sure confused me.
The Ole Hill Billy, Perry

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 11 Jun 2002 8:09 pm

Yeah, I tend to think of a bridge the way Jim does. I was trying to think of an example of a song with both a repeating chorous and a bridge and came up with that old John Denver song "Country Road". The bridge to me would be the part that goes "I hear her voice in the morning hour ...." or whatever. But there must be lots of examples - I just can't think of any tonight......

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 11 Jun 2002 8:26 pm

BB, that's a good example. As I recall the lyrics from too many elevator rides, it would break down like this:

Verse:
Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there older than the trees,
Younger than the mountains, blowin' like a breeze.

Chorus:
Country roads, take me home,
To the place, I belong
West Virginia, Mountain momma
Take me home country roads.

[Then there's another verse and chorus, I think, followed by the bridge as follows:]

Bridge
I hear her voice, in the morning hour she calls me,
Radio reminds me of my home far away
Ridin' down the road I get a feelin that I should have been home yesterday-ay-ay-ay!

Chorus
Country roads, take me home,
To the place I belong
West Virginia, Mountain momma
Take me home, country roads.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 (Whew! I can't believe I actually remembered all those lyrics. You can laugh at John Denver, but I would have been happy to cash his royalty checks on that song alone.)[This message was edited by Jim Cohen on 12 June 2002 at 10:39 AM.]

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 11 Jun 2002 10:25 pm

Nice goin' Jim.

Mixing French w: the standard terms in english can be confusing.

Chorus is Refrain
Solo or Ride is Chorus
Bridge is Pont

Steel makin' out OK...

Dave Boothroyd · Post by **Dave Boothroyd** » 11 Jun 2002 11:59 pm

A common term for the Bridge in the UK is "Middle Eight" - the eight bars in the middle of the song which are different from the rest.
I'd call an instrumental solo, what you call a "Ride" a "Break" as in "Guitar Break", "Steel Break" etc.
And purely for the sake of the extra confusion, songwiters also use the term "Pre-Chorus" for the instrumental fills and vocal interjections that come between the verse and chorus.
Do you use "Intro" and "Outro" too? Or are are you musical enough to call the play out a Coda? (that's "Tail" in Italian!)
Cheers
Dave

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 12 Jun 2002 1:55 am

Well now it's clear !

tp

Nice song you typed there Jim...

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 12 Jun 2002 3:51 am

Well, I don't feel like I was asking a stupid question now. Seems like there are differng opinions on the subject, so I was not the only one confused. Thanks for all the imput, and all the answers were greatly appreciated, but just for the record, Jim Cohen gets the first place trophy, in my opinion. His line of reasoning just seemed more logical to me. I learned a lot from all the answers. You guys on the Forum are the BEST![This message was edited by George Kimery on 12 June 2002 at 05:14 AM.]

Dave Burr · Post by **Dave Burr** » 12 Jun 2002 5:36 am

Jim, Well done and good analogy. But... it's "country roads, take me home" on the first part of the chorus, not "take me home, country roads"... {insert big smiley face here}

Being from WV I couldn't resist.

Respectfully,
Dave Burr

[This message was edited by Dave Burr on 12 June 2002 at 08:21 AM.]

JB Arnold · Post by **JB Arnold** » 12 Jun 2002 5:46 am

Jm has it right. The bridge serves to keep the somg from sounding too much the same all the way thru.

I used to spend many an nour sitting behind a console with nothing to do while people rewrote bridges that didn't quite work. seemed like that's the area that got the least amount of attention coming in.

JB

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Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 12 Jun 2002 6:44 am

I'll go with Jim's explanation... that's what I've always considered a bridge.

Dave B... Don't know about non-Texans

, but around here we do Intros and Outros, not to mention Tags and Turns...

JB.. funny you say that the bridge got the least attention. In my limited song writing experience, the bridge was always the thing I spent the most time trying to make right.

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Frank Estes · Post by **Frank Estes** » 12 Jun 2002 6:45 am

Thank you, Jim Cohen! I appreciate that clarification. The way people use the terms "bridge" and "chorus" interchangeably, I figured there was no difference. Your distinction makes more sense.

What about "Four Wheel Drive?" You know where it is played in Ab. Would that be a chorus or bridge? Since Herby and Buddy go back to it more than once, then by definition it is a chorus. Does the fact that it is played in a different key come into play?

What about "Look at Us?"

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Frank Estes - 1978 Emmons D-10 8+6 #2441D

Franklin · Post by **Franklin** » 12 Jun 2002 7:11 am

The Chorus and Bridge are not the same. A bridge generally only happens once in the composition while the Chorus is almost always repeated. The Chorus lyrics are generally the summation of the songs meaning. The bridge generally adds a lyrical twist or another angle to the story if desired by the writer. The bridge will almost always have a different harmony structure from the verse and chorus. Most songs in traditional Country music do not have a bridge. The bridge is much more common in today's Country songs. {Interesting sidebar is that Europeans tend to call the bridge "The middle eight".}

Solo is the term most often used in the studio for the instrumental turn arounds some know as rides. Instead of the term kickoff we use Intro. And Outro is used to define the ending of a song.

The problem with using Coda as the definitive term for the ending is that it does not always equate to the instrumental ending or outro of the song on all charts. Depending on who has written the chart, I have seen the coda sign come as early as the second verse. I believe Intro and Outro are the most definitive and acceptable terms worldwide.
Ditto's to Jim C.

Paul

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 12 Jun 2002 7:15 am

Frank,
In "Look at us" the bridge would be the
"in a hundred years......" part.
It is also called the middle 8. Count measures in tunes when it comes to what might be called the bridge. It is almost alway 8 bars long, has some sort of different chord structure or melody and is only played once.

In classical music when sonata form is used it is called the development section and serves the same function as the middle 8 in a pop tune.

Bob

Dang Paul ! You beat me to the submit button

[This message was edited by Bob Hoffnar on 12 June 2002 at 08:21 AM.]

Frank Estes · Post by **Frank Estes** » 12 Jun 2002 9:04 am

Thanks, Paul!

Thanks, Bob. My question really was what to call that part. I suspected that bridge would be correct.

Larry Miller · Post by **Larry Miller** » 12 Jun 2002 2:22 pm

Good to see you back online Paul!

Ricky Davis · Post by **Ricky Davis** » 12 Jun 2002 2:50 pm

Gosh Paul I was just fixin' to write that and saw your brilliantly described definition of the terms.
Thanks and well done.....seems like you've done this before......ah.....ha

Oh and Bill has the Texas terms down....some more......"the head"; "the edge" "the turn" "the kick" "the out" "a section" "b section" "c section" ...and some more that are skipin' me brain.
Just got out of a session yesterday that had most of that on the chart....I told them..."Move the chart away from me and just roll the song dangit".
Ricky