Do You Use A Middle-Eight or Bridge In Your Song?
Monday, July 21st, 2008I actually KNOW for a fact that many songwriters don’t bother to incorporate a ‘bridge’ or a ‘middle-eight’ into their songs. Let’s talk about what exactly they are and if you should even bother with it.
In modern day popular music, a middle-eight would typically sit after the second chorus …and in theory it would consist of 8 bars. Many great pop ballads would illustrate a good use of a middle-eight, such as Mariah Carey’s Hero…
…or Elton Johns I Want Love
Sometimes, the song will have an additional bar at the end of the middle-eight, just to maximise the climax. A great example of this would be Aerosmith’s I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing.
The job of a middle eight would be to take the listener to new grounds …away from the verse and chorus. It can be to somehow escalate the track while retaining the original feel for the song. A middle-eight also takes away the monotony of the song. This is great if your song has en extremely repetitive chord progression or lyrical/melody line. Which let’s face it, can be quite often! 
Now, the middle-eight doesn’t always have to be eight-bars. Like all rules in life, some were just bound to be broken. Music is no exception. Many (if not MOST) songs of today don’t follow the ‘eight-bar’ pattern and often just have just 4 bars - or sometimes odd numbers, such as 5 or 7. This is totally fine.
So what about a bridge? Well, according to Wikipedia, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section. So, a middle-eight CAN be perceived as a bridge too. This is why there can be some confusion over the definitions.
But I’ll add to that. A bridge can also be a ‘link’ between a verse and chorus. Some of us know this as a ‘pre-chorus’.
So here’s the point. If you aren’t including a middle-eight or a bridge into your songwriting, than you may be doing an injustice to your song. I’m not saying ALL songs must have this …what I’m saying is that many songs come alive because of it.
Are you making the use of these components?
You should start incorporating a middle-eight into your songs, don’t you think? 
Shamir
