Making different sections fit together

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
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Hi Kvr.
I've been feeling pretty disillusioned with the music I have been making lately.
I seem to have the problem that my different musical sections don't fit and flow together.

For example, I have an verse > chorus > verse > chorus > bridge and all of the sections seem to be disjointed and do not go into each other (even things like IV to I seem to sound like they don't really 'fit')

Is there anyway to make the jumps in chord sequences seem less 'big'?

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EepBeepPeep wrote:Is there anyway to make the jumps in chord sequences seem less 'big'?
Yes, you can do that with careful voice-leading. Try to move every note as little as possible when connecting chords. Don't move around the same chord forms but rather try to use the inversions that give the less motion to the notes.

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Also give some breathing room on the last bar of a given progression. Don't try to slam sections together. Other ideas. throw in a rest bar or two.
Modulate on the last bar.

One thing you also don't want is something that is "Too seamless" otherwise you loose the sense of sections actually being different parts of the whole song.
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Learn about cadences and use them between sections. In some styles of music, there'll be a closing section (occasionally called a coda) built around the cadence to help move from one section to another.

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EepBeepPeep wrote:
Is there anyway to make the jumps in chord sequences seem less 'big'?
If you can show a particular problem (with an example, for instance some audio) it might be possible to identify general problems. Are the generalities you're getting helping you any? You mention a IV to I as a bad fit... I wonder if the problem is rhythmic flow... but I have no particular idea of what isn't working, we can only guess.

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making sections fit together is a skill that theory can helop with quite a bit and it's the mark of an experience/talented songwriter of how they manage to get from here to there. Some of the most creative songwriters have puzzled over the same issues and some very extraordinary changes have come about as a result.
none of which helps a specific case, but in general that's what it's about

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Take the time to dissect some of your favorite music, and try to figure out how the transitions work. How do the sections being bridged differ from one another. Take notes. You'll start to see and recognize the same tricks being used in the same situations, etc.

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