Imagine you’ve got your initial 8 or 16 bar main idea or A Section. Do you then find yourself stuck in a musical rut, unsure of where to go next?

When composing music, an effective contrasting B section can go a long way to helping you to ultimately sustain your listener's interest, as well as helping to extend a piece.

Today I wanted to give you some ideas on how you can compose an effective B section which, when used correctly, can help to give your audience an even more powerful and emotional listening experience.

I’m going to break down a variety of techniques you can use, to help ensure your B section carefully achieves a balance between contrast and familiarity.

In general, try to use a combination of at least 3 contrasting elements, along with 1 or 2 similarities for cohesiveness between your 'A' and 'B' Sections'

How to Achieve Contrast

🎵 Writing a New Melody

Perhaps the most obvious way of adding contrast is to write a new melody for the contrasting B section. If your previous A section melody has rhythms which are faster in nature, try the opposite, making use of a slower rhythm for your B Section.

An example of this is the main theme from the recent comedy 'Argylle', composed by Lorne Balfe. The melody heard in the B Section, first heard at 1:05, is different from the previous A Sections:

♯ Modulate to a Different Key

A common technique is to modulate away from your original key, for the B Section. It could be to a related key - maybe the relative major/minor key of your A section. You could also move between keys during the B section itself, say every 2 or 4 bars.

An example of a B section modulating to a different key is from the track 'Undying Love' by Two Steps From Hell. The preceding A Section is in the key of E minor, but once the B Section starts at around the 1:19 mark, it moves fleetingly between various keys, before landing on Eb minor for the start of the next A Section at 1:47.

🎻 Change the Overall Feel

Another common way of achieving contrast is to vary the core 'feel' of the music. Say your A section primarily has a legato feel - the main melody consists of smoothly played phrases in say the Strings. To achieve some effective contrast, you could use the opposite - staccato or spiccato strings as the main focus in your B Section.

Check out the track 'Above and Beyond' from Audio Machine. The main A Sections have very much a Legato feel. When the B Section starts at around 1:47, the main musical focus is short staccato string patterns.

🎹 Changing the Chord Progression and Overall Harmonic Rhythm

Instead of modulating to a new key, you could simply change the chord progression for your B Section (while staying in the original key). You could also experiment with varying the harmonic rhythm - how frequently the chords change. If in your A Section, you change chords at the beginning of every bar, consider changing the chords every half bar.

An example of changing the chord progression, as well as the harmonic rhythm would be from the main theme for Game of Thrones. The initial A Sections feature a chord progression of Cm, Gm, Bb, Fm, Cm, Gm, Bb, Cm, with each chord lasting 4 bars. During the B Section which starts at around 1:00, the progression changes to Ab, Eb, Fm, Cm, Ab, Fm7, Gm7, Cm, with the chords changing every 2 bars instead.

🎶 Varying the Overall Texture

If your preceding A section is relatively thick with lots of instruments playing, maybe with added elements such as Ostinatos or counter melodies, make your B section more simple - stripping out elements, to maybe just a melody and chords.

You can hear this approach in the B section for the track 'Empire of Angels' composed by Thomas Bergersen. The A Sections in the first half of the piece have been gradually building up - the orchestration is relatively 'thick', with elements like Ostinatos and percussion playing away in the background. However during the B Section at 2:48, this is mostly all stripped away, leaving just a soft Piano, Strings, Synth and solo Cello, before the heavier orchestration of the next A Section returns at 3:35.

🎺 Introduce New Instruments/Colours

Another way of adding contrast could be to introduce new instruments or colours not previously heard, during the B section.

​An example of this would be the piece 'When It All Falls Down' by Audio Machine. The A sections are mostly orchestral based with a solo vocal layered on top. From 2:06 during the B Section, a much more electronic instrumentation is heard. Synths, electronic percussion and risers all dominant the sound during this B section, before a return to the A Sections.

How to Achieve Cohesiveness

You want to be careful to make sure that your B section doesn't sound like a complete new piece of music though. To combat this, try to have one or two elements from the preceding A section carry on in the B Section.

🎻 Using the same Ostinato

By using a secondary element such as an Ostinato within both your A and B Sections, it can help create more cohesion between the two.

You can hear this in the track 'Undying Love' by Two Steps From Hell. Throughout the first minute of so, an ostinato is played in the strings, as an accompanying device. During the B Section, which starts at around 1:19, this previous Ostinato is now the prominent melodic device, played on the Piano.

🥁Using the Same Percussion

Using the same Non tonal percussion, such as a shaker or a low percussion groove across two sections can be a great technique for adding some 'glue' to both sections.

​You can hear the same percussion groove between the A and B Sections in the track 'Evergreen' by Two Steps From Hell. During the 4th time through the A Section, which starts at around 1:36, the percussion groove played in the Toms, is carried on during the next B Section, starting at around 1:55.

🎼 Staying in the Same Key

By simply staying in the same key, you can help to make two sections feel like they belong together in the same piece. Consider changing the chord progression though, so there is some contrast harmonically.

​Here in the Main Theme from the Series 'Yellowstone', composed by Brian Tyler, the B Section, starting at around 0:52, stays in the same key as the preceding A Section, E minor.

🪈 Using Similar Instrumentation

Finally, to keep some sense of cohesiveness between your A and B Sections, you could aim to use a similar instrumentation, while contrasting the other musical elements (harmony, melody etc).

You can hear in the B Section for the Main Title from the Series 'The Pacific', starting at around 1:38, features a similar instrumentation to the A Sections which come before and after, making use of Strings, Brass and Timpani.

.I hope you have found the blog useful. Feel free to check out my YouTube video for more information and if you would like more free training, click the button below for my tips and tricks on how to write rich, cinematic music consistently.