Editing Song structure (section)

===Pre-chorus===<!--[[Pre-chorus]] redirects directly here-->
An optional section that may occur after the verse is the '''pre-chorus'''. Also known as a "'''build'''", "'''channel'''", or "'''transitional bridge'''", the pre-chorus functions to connect the verse to the chorus with intermediary material, typically using [[subdominant]] (usually built on the IV chord or ii chord, which in the key of [[C Major]] would be an [[F Major]] or [[D minor]] chord) or similar transitional harmonies. "Often, a two-phrase verse containing basic chords is followed by a passage, often harmonically probing, that leads to the full chorus."<ref>Everett (2008), p.146.</ref> Often, when verse and chorus use the same harmonic structure, the pre-chorus introduces a new harmonic pattern or harmony that prepares the verse chords to transition into the chorus.

For example, if a song is set in C Major, and the songwriter aims to get to a chorus that focuses on the dominant chord ([[G Major]]) being tonicized (treated like a "home key" for a short period), a chord progression could be used for the pre-chorus that gets the listener ready to hear the chorus' chord (G Major) as an arrival key. One widely used way to accomplish this is to precede the G Major chord with its own ii–V<sup>7</sup> chords. In the key given, ii of G Major would be an [[A minor]] chord. V<sup>7</sup> of G Major would be D<sup>7</sup>. As such, with the example song, this could be done by having a pre-chorus that consists of one bar of A minor and one bar of D<sup>7</sup>. This would allow the listener to expect a resolution from ii–V to I, which in this case is the temporary tonic of G Major. The chord A minor would not be unusual to the listener, as it is a shared chord that exists in both G Major and C Major. A minor is the ii chord in G Major, and it is the vi chord in C Major. The chord that would alert the listener that a change was taking place is the D<sup>7</sup> chord. There is no D<sup>7</sup> chord in C Major. A listener experienced with popular and traditional music would hear this as a [[secondary dominant]]. Harmonic theorists and arrangers would call it V<sup>7</sup>/V or ''five of five'', as the D<sup>7</sup> chord is the dominant (or fifth) chord of G Major.