amymusictheorymm

[amymusictheorymm]

Two Track Analysis

In my previous blog, we discussed the basic concepts of music theory, melody, rhythm, and harmony. Let’s put our newfound knowledge into practice, shall we? In this blog, I will be breaking down and analysing two tracks that I personally love and what I appreciate about them, discussing each of their rhythms such as meter, and their melody and harmony, including their instrumentation and what makes them fall into their respective genres.

Beetlebum

This song is by the English alternative rock band ‘Blur’. Written by Damon Albarn, the lead vocalist and released in January 1997 as the lead single for their 5th album ‘Blur’.  The track is 5 minutes and 5 seconds long. Alternative rock emerged in the mid 80s, it includes the elements typically associated with classic rock such as similar instrumentation and distorted melodies, although the energy of alternative rock tends to be more laid back than pop or rock, with lyrical content less broad and more subversive often associated with the rejection of mainstream commercialism and purposefully appealing to a smaller audience.  

Instrumentation

Lead vocalist – Damon Albarn

Lead guitar and backing vocals - Graham Coxon

Bass guitar- Alex James

Drums- Dave Rowntree

Intro  

Time signature is 4/4 and 90BPM

In the key of C

Guitar plays first four bars of A5  

Verse

Damon begins singing the main melody halfway through the 5th bar.

Verse lasts for 38 bars.

Drums and bass join in later than vocal and guitar at 0:34 seconds into the song, this gives the impression of a ‘buildup’ to the chorus.

Guitar plays A C F G Bb A twice through to the chorus

Bass plays riff.

Graham Coxon adds harmony, ‘answering’ to the lead vocal with adlibs.

Guitar crescendos and quickly overpowers the rest of the instrumental to get ready for the chorus.

Chorus

The first vocal line of the chorus ‘And when she lets me slip away’ is isolated to make a more impactful chorus for when the rest of the band joins back in.

The chorus lasts for approximately 40 seconds.

Chords are C, Bm, Am, F Am, F, Fm, C, Bm, Am, F, Am, F, Fm

The tempo of the chorus appears to be slow and laid-back, Beatles-influenced music and a mood that Albarn described as "sleepy" and "sexy."

Vocal is a higher pitch, in the vocalist’s ‘falsetto’ voice.

There are harmonies sang accompanying Albarn's vocal, “Oo” sounds, giving a dreamy, psychedelic feel to the chorus, in my opinion.

Verse 2

Guitar plays A5 alone once again as an introduction into the second verse.

Verse 2 is essentially the same melody and format although with different lyrics.

Chorus 2  

Chorus is repeated with identical lyrics.

Bridge  

The lyrics “he’s on, he’s on, he’s on it” repeated continuously through the bridge.

Alongside a guitar riff A C F G Bb A is played with the vocal line, with bass and drums accompaniment and a steady rhythm.

Outro  

As Damon Albarn’s vocal gently drops out, Coxon's guitar gently repeats the riff.

Unusual sounds of voices and screeching are audible and progressively gets louder as the song fades out. This makes the listener feel uneased juxtaposed to the rest of the song

Eleanor Rigby

Written primarily by McCartney, Eleanor Rigby was released in 1966 as part of a double A-side single which also featured Yellow Submarine. Often described as a lament for the lonely, or a commentary on life in post-war Britain, it tells the story of a lonely woman who "died in the church and was buried along with her name". Baroque pop is a fusion genre that combines rock music with particular elements of classical music and the Beatles are known for experimenting with different styles and instrumentation despite being a rock and roll band. In this particular song there is an octet of studio musicians, comprising of four violins, two violas and two cellos, all performing a score composed by George Martin which is mainly what incorporates the classical sound of this song.

Instrumentation

Lead vocalist –  Paul McCartney  

Lennon and Harrison contributed to harmony vocals

four violins, two violas and two cellos played by studio musicians

Intro

Time signature is 4/4 and 136BPM

They key is in Em Dorian

The intro is essentially the chorus, an 8-bar phrase

The song begins right away, with the Beatles singing the lyrics in harmony with one another

opens with a C-major vocal harmony "Aah, look at all ...", and then shifts to E-minor (on "lonely people").  

After, the violins play a descending melody

Verse

The verse melody is written in Dorian mode, using Em and C as the chords

McCartney sings vocal line solo, mostly ascending and descending in step movements

Syncopation is used in this song played by the strings and enforces discomfort, the notes happen before the beat which is unexpected

There is no percussionist within the song, Ringo Starr not being featured

Throughout the song the strings are playing staccato quarter beat chords, with occasional countermelodies. The staccato notes gives a frantic or uneasy feel to the listener, which is intended by the Beatles.  

The cellos play broken chords through each vocal rest of the verse

Chorus  

The vocal phrase from the intro is repeated twice, signifying the start of the chorus

Strings once again play a descending melody  

in the chorus the cello has sustained notes moving down chromatically which evokes an uneasy feeling, due to this song being in Dorian mode which is a minor mode, we get a gloomy feeling, especially with the repeated vocal phrase

To me personally, the frantic playing of staccato notes on the strings over the sustained notes from the cellos after the vocal line mimics the sensation of rain, quickly falling 8th notes, adding to the grim sound of the song

Verse

The same ideas are repeated throughout the second verse

In this verse, there are fewer instruments on the drilling staccato chords and more playing sustained notes in thirds with the melody

‘Father McKenzie’ the staccato notes reappear

The final vocal line descends in melody, the strings repeat the melody almost mimicking to finally end the song.

[amymusictheorymm]

Music Theory for Beginners

Undoubtedly, music theory is commonly described as a tedious, ancient language that’s modern form dates back centuries ago. It is often said that only classical musicians and composers use music theory to further their craft. This is simply untrue, believe it or not, even the most legendary and successful of musicians from all genres are aware of the simplest to the more complex of musical theory concepts, and use these musical theories to their advantage to produce top hits in the industry!   I have produced this online music blog to explain various key music theory concepts for budding musicians and producers, providing example transcriptions of pieces that will illustrate these concepts.

Staves and Clefs

The stave of western music emerged in the 9th century and consists of 5 horizontal lines and 4 spaces in-between. The notes placed on either the lines or spaces demonstrate the relationship between pitches and are read from left to right.

Notes introduced on the stave demonstrate the distance and relationship between the pitches. These are all   whole notes that are all a tone apart, starting and ending at E.

There are 2 main clefs that staves are written on, treble clef and bass clef. The treble clef starts at middle C and represents any notes above that stave, the bass clef begins below middle C and anything below middle C is written on this clef.

Scales

A scale is any sequence of notes ordered by set intervals, most spanning an octave and repeated once the interval has been reached.  

Scales ascend in pitch in order from left to right, the higher the pitch the higher the note on the scale

Scales can be referred to as the building blocks of any song and melody. The scale of a melody is incredibly important and essential to a piece of music, dictating the key of and chords used in the piece.

There are many types of scales, each has a different set of intervals, depending on the mode. The most common modes are Ionian (major) and Aeolian (minor)

Diatonic scaled are the most popularly used in popular or contemporary music.

A song in a major key would be Africa by Toto, in A major

A Song example of a minor key is Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers, in A minor

Major

A major scale consists of 8 notes (an octave), with intervals of tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone.

Using this sequence of intervals, you can construct any of the major scales! You build a major chord by starting out with a root note and then adding other notes from the desired chord's scale.

Minor

Also consisting of an octave, the intervals of   tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone can construct any of the minor scales

Every major scale has a relative minor, sharing the same notes

The difference of the beginning and ending notes is what changes the tonality of the scale, often describing major as ‘happy’ or ‘joyful’, and minor being ‘sad’ or having a ‘darker’ sound

Struggling to find what the relative minor of a major scale? It will always be the 6th note of that particular major scale

To construct a minor scale lay the root note and add the third and fifth notes of the minor scale on top. Example, play C (root note), E flat and G.

Modes

What are modes? Well, believe it or not, we’ve already covered 2 of 7 modes above (Ionian being major, Aeolian being minor)!

Modes in a simple explanation are formed from scales, each with unique melodic characteristics and intervals, that create different focal points and even “mood” depending on which mode you use. The 7 modes are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. They were developed during the earliest forms of western music.

Each mode has a unique structure and a scale within the mode that has no sharps or flats, only using white keys on a piano, making them easy to learn on keyboard! For example, in Ionian, C major has no sharps or flats, only containing white keys, and each mode has its equivalent with no sharps or flats.

In Dorian mode, it is similar to a minor D scale, although the 6th note is left natural, and the 7th note is flattened. The most famous example of this is ‘Mad World’ by Tears for Fears, often used for its mystical feel. https://youtu.be/u1ZvPSpLxCg

If you start on E and play all white notes until you reach E once again, then you have successfully played E Phrygian. It is similar to minor, although the flattened 2nd is what gives this mode its unique sound. An example song that uses this is ‘The Moment’ by Tame Impala https ://youtu.be/3Qpf9pAkUeI

Starting on F and once again playing all white notes to the next F, that is F Lydian. Similar to Ionian, the only difference is that the fourth note of the scale is always raised. The Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack features Lydian mode, bringing an uplifting feel, keeping players engaged for hours.  

G Mixolydian is next if we follow the same method as our previous mode scales. This scale is often referred to as the ‘blues scale’ due to its flattened 7th and heavy contribution in blues music. Well known examples that use this scale include ‘Royals’ by Lorde or ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns n’ Roses. https://youtu.be/nlcIKh6sBtc

Finally, we have Locrian mode. Far less used than the other modes we have covered, B Locrian starts on B and has a diminished 5th. It is said to be more commonly used it metal genres, although a pop example being the opening guitar riff in ‘Army of Me’ by Bjork. https://youtu.be/FqfQXJSvbo4

Modes can be brought to a song either through the chords used, or even the main melody. Each of the modes brings their own unique sound to a piece of music and can be a simple way to bring a freshness to your own music, they are used more often than you would think!

Melody

When writing a melody, you need to consider 2 main components; pitch and duration, that being where the note is on the stave, and how long that note is played

Musicians tend to use either one of two methods when writing a melody, chord-based melodies or scale-based melodies.

A chord-based melody is when a musician starts their melody writing by using a chord sequence first, then base their melodies off of the notes within the chord sequence they’ve composed.

The melody can also incorporate passing notes, which is a note between 2 notes of the chord, for example, the chord of C major consists of C E G, the note in between C and E is D, and between E and G is F. D and F are the passing notes and can also be used within a melody.

Scale based melody writing consists of when a musician chooses a particular scale and use the notes within as a melody, whether a diatonic scale of a pentatonic scale, commonly used for pop melody writing.

Featuring auxiliary notes, anticipation and suspensions can make your melody more interesting to the listener

Auxiliary notes can be used within melodies. An auxiliary note falls between two identical chord notes. It can be higher or lower than the chord note called an ‘upper” or ‘lower’ auxiliary depending where it falls relative to the note

An anticipation is when we hear a chord note played in the beat before the rest of the chord, and a suspension is the opposite, hearing a chord note the beat after the chord is played.

Harmony

We must use intervals to construct a chord.

I will be discussing generic intervals

2 notes on the same line of the stave are firsts, for example C to C or F to F

The further (vertically) the notes are apart from each other, the higher the interval, C-D is a second, F-G is also a second. Often when seconds are played together, they sound dissonant and generally unpleasing.

C-E and F-A are thirds, and sound pleasing and are typically used in chords

And so on; C-F, F-B are fourths C-G, F-C are fifths, and often complete a chord C-A, F-G, are sixths C-B, F-D are sevenths and finally, C-C, F-F again are eighths, or an octave, apart

Triads are the most used chords, consisting of a first/ root note, a third and a fifth in both major and minor keys, the third is lowered by a half step when playing a minor chord

Source of table ; https://www.edmprod.com/music-theory/#h-interval-basics

Rhythm

Rhythm, just like melody and harmony, is an essential part of a piece of music, every note has a duration and every song we hear has a time signature.

The length of time a note is played is called its note duration. The note duration depends on the type of note played. Here are some examples of different note lengths.

A whole note has the longest note duration, lasting 4 quarter beats in a bar.

A half note occupies, you guessed it, half of this time, which is 2 quarter beats.

A quarter beat is a quarter of a whole note.

If a one flag is attached to a quarter note, that halves the value again, making it an eighth note, and once again if there are two flags (sixteenth note)

Above is a diagram explaining how two half notes are equal to one whole note and two quarter notes are equal to 1 half note.

The time signature is found at the beginning of the stave and indicates the rhythm of a piece. A majority of music is in 4/4 time meaning simply that there are 4 quarter note beats (or its equivalent) in a bar. 3/4 is also a common time signature found in jazz music and is referred to as a ‘waltz’, whether intended to be danced to or not. Many songs would utilize this time signature very briefly in songs such as the chorus ‘I Love Rock n’ Roll’ by Joan Jet or prior to the final chorus of ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ by Bon Jovi to create the sense of tension or the feeling that a beat was skipped. Billie Eilish’s ‘When the Party’s Over’ song’s 3/4 timing is apparent all over the tune as 4 basic open chords are strummed in the waltz rhythm.

6/8 is less common although it is still frequently used and essentially is 6 eighth note beats, or its equivalent, in a bar. An example of this would be ‘Latch’ by English EDM duo Disclosure.

Notation

Here is how a popular song would look transcribed on manuscript paper!

Billie Jean by Michael Jackson

Music Theory Blog