# Song Form

> Build and balance song structure with Pat Pattison's methods. Section identification (verse/chorus/bridge/refrain), forms (AABA, verse/chorus, verse/refrain), the candy-bar rewrite, hook placement and hot spots, repetition/repainting (You-I-We, Past-Present-Future, hidden questions/commands), verse development and the box model, bridge writing, and Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure worked examples. Use when: 'is this verse/chorus or AABA', 'where should the title go', 'my chorus does not land', 'my second verse repeats the first', 'what goes in verse 2/3', 'write me a bridge', 'do I need a bridge'. For stability/scansion use /songwriting:meter-prosody.

- Skill: `melodic-software/song-form` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add melodic-software/song-form`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/melodic-software/song-form/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: melodic-software (https://skillmd.com/u/melodic-software)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/melodic-software/song-form

---


## Mandatory pre-flight. Response Filter

Before emitting a form recommendation, section rewrite, hook placement, or bridge, run
**§6 Form filter** of [response-filter](../../context/pat-pattison/research/response-filter.md)
(add **§5 Title + hook** for hook/title placement). NAME each box's pass / fail / skip-with-reason
(aloud or in reasoning); correct before emission. Skips are valid; silent skips are not.

## Purpose

The architecture layer: how sections are identified, contrasted, balanced, and repeated so the form
serves the song. Covers form selection, hook/title placement, repetition and repainting, verse
division of labor (box model), verse development, and bridges.

Method content is Pat Pattison's, under the plugin-root `../../context/pat-pattison/`; a future
author's method plugs in at `context/<author>/` without changing this skill, the author seam per
the plugin-root `../../README.md` "Method content and the author seam".

## Action Router

`/songwriting:song-form <action> [args]`. Parse `$ARGUMENTS`: first token = action when it matches a listed action, remainder = args; otherwise treat all of `$ARGUMENTS` as payload for the default.
No action → route on context (a structural question → `form`; "write me a bridge" → `bridge`).

| Action | Use when the user asks for | Load |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `form` (default) | verse/chorus/bridge balance, section contrast, candy-bar rewrite | [form](../../context/pat-pattison/research/form.md), [section-building](../../context/pat-pattison/research/section-building.md), [song-forms](../../context/pat-pattison/research/song-forms.md) |
| `song-forms` | AABA, verse/chorus, verse/refrain, bridge validity, four-times-a-lot / third-system risk, 1991 worked examples | [song-forms](../../context/pat-pattison/research/song-forms.md), [song-forms-examples](../../context/pat-pattison/research/song-forms-examples.md), [repetition](../../context/pat-pattison/research/repetition.md) |
| `hook` | title placement, hook hot spots (section + phrase level), hook rhythm, targeting | [hook](../../context/pat-pattison/research/hook.md), [form](../../context/pat-pattison/research/form.md) |
| `repetition` | chorus repetition, repainting, stagnant repeats, You-I-We, Past-Present-Future, hidden Q/cmd | [repetition](../../context/pat-pattison/research/repetition.md), [box-model](../../context/pat-pattison/research/box-model.md), [song-forms](../../context/pat-pattison/research/song-forms.md) |
| `verse` | second-verse problems, travelogues, verse development, power positions, trigger lines | [verse-development](../../context/pat-pattison/research/verse-development.md), [box-model](../../context/pat-pattison/research/box-model.md), [repetition](../../context/pat-pattison/research/repetition.md) |
| `box-model` | verse division of labor, second-verse stagnation, what goes in verse 2 / 3 | [box-model](../../context/pat-pattison/research/box-model.md), [verse-development](../../context/pat-pattison/research/verse-development.md) |
| `bridge` | "write me a bridge", "do I need a bridge", bridge as restatement, three bridge functions, AABA homecoming | [bridge](../../context/pat-pattison/research/bridge.md), [templates/bridge-writing-prompt](../../context/pat-pattison/templates/bridge-writing-prompt.md), [form](../../context/pat-pattison/research/form.md), [song-forms](../../context/pat-pattison/research/song-forms.md) |
| `section-building` | building or contrasting a single section from the ground up | [section-building](../../context/pat-pattison/research/section-building.md), [form](../../context/pat-pattison/research/form.md) |

## Handlers

- **Pre-flight ALWAYS:** run response-filter §6 (+ §5 for hook/title) before output.
- Name the form and what each section is DOING; recommend the smallest structural change that fixes
  the problem, not a wholesale rewrite.
- Repetition is repainting, not stagnation, a repeated chorus should mean something new by its
  surrounding context each time.

## Persistence and template overrides

Write generated files to the paths in
[artifact-persistence](../../context/pat-pattison/research/artifact-persistence.md)
"Where generated work persists", and honor a consuming project's own songwriting layout when it
defines one. Before loading any bundled `templates/<name>.md`, check
`${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}/songwriting/templates/pat-pattison/<name>.md` first: a project-level
override wins over the bundled skill default, first match, per that file's "Template override".

## Boundary. What this skill must NOT emit

This skill's domain is architecture: which sections exist, what each one is doing, how they
contrast, balance, and repaint. **It does not write finished lyric lines**, and having diagnosed a
section's problem does not authorize it to write that section's replacement.

| If you are about to emit | STOP and route to |
| --- | --- |
| A finished verse, chorus, or bridge line | `/songwriting:co-write` line-brainstorm |
| A rhyme partner, or any line whose end-word was chosen for its rhyme | `/songwriting:rhyme` |
| Sensory or metaphorical raw material for a thin section | `/songwriting:object-writing generate`, then `/songwriting:metaphor` |
| A stress map, syllable count, or line-length claim | `/songwriting:meter-prosody` |

Routing means invoking that skill, not summarizing what you believe it would say.

**Why this boundary is load-bearing.** A structural skill in the middle of a structural
conversation is exactly where line emission gets substituted for structural work: the generative
checks get named as passed rather than run, and a chorus draft ships with zero rhyme candidates
against a mandatory eight, zero mosaic against a mandatory three, and no object writing behind it.
Naming a filter box is not running it.

Two section-type rules bind before any line-level judgement here, both from
[repetition](../../context/pat-pattison/research/repetition.md):

- **Verses show; the chorus tells.** Verses carry specific situation, image, and action; the chorus
  makes the broader statement the verses keep recoloring. State which mode a section is in before
  judging its material, a chorus full of concrete inventory is verse material in the wrong box.
- **A chorus is sung back.** Length and singability are structural properties, not polish.

## Related skills

- Line generation and variations → `/songwriting:co-write`
- Sensory raw material → `/songwriting:object-writing`
- Metaphor systems across a form → `/songwriting:metaphor`
- Stability and scansion of the sections → `/songwriting:meter-prosody`
- Rhyme within sections → `/songwriting:rhyme`
- Whole-draft diagnosis → `/songwriting:diagnose`