Song analysis: The Beatles - Something

Clarky

anyone fancy picking a song and having us all rip it appart and do a detailed analysis of it??

essentially find out what makes it tick..

don't know if any of you guys think this sort of exercise would be useful...

mike_l

Sounds like a good idea. Although probably best if we agree to not slag off anyones choice, and agree that it's ok to not want to play/learn the particular songs/genres selected.

viz

Octavarium by dream theater!!!

RedRabbit

Sounds like a good idea to me as long as we don't do a repeat of the TGP threads about what key Sweet Home Alabama is in.

jaygtr

Good idea , it's got to be something that most people know though!

Clarky

I think we should endeavour to look for a few songs that are really well writen rather than songs that are riddled with high technique stuff.. songs that have a lot of good compositional content rather than songs that are centred around insane musicianship.. the idea hear is that we all chip in with our observations and hopefully take away some interesting / thought provoking jems that we could add to our own song-writing skills

The Beatles: Something - I thnik this one has some interesting stuff in it..

feel free to chip in with song choices

frankus

The Melody Remains the Same - Chaka Khan

Barney

thats a great idea..reeling in the years...steely dan..?

Bellycaster

Barney said:

thats a great idea..reeling in the years...steely dan..?

This is a fantastic idea although I'm not sure how much "theory" I'll amaze people with seeing as there are teachers and the like on here. I'm sure it would help a lot of people understand song stucturing, harmonic structuring etc.

@Barney

Good choice with Steely Dan. They write some complex chord structures. I was going to suggest Kid Charlemange(I have Chords), but here are several more nice tunes by others.

10cc:   I'm Mandy, Fly Me. Same as with Kid Charlemange, I have the correct chords, but am damned if I know how such masterpieces were thought through.

A.W.B: Atlantic Avenue, I have transcribed 60% of this and found it interesting that they made a melody with a chord change from EMaj7 to Emin work, or is that not really rocket science? The song has a great middle section. The last verses then transposes up a semi tone.

John Lennon:    Just Like Startin' Over is a good one too.

I don't mean to overload the page, but there's some good food for thought in those.

 

viz

Clarky said:

I think we should endeavour to look for a few songs that are really well writen rather than songs that are riddled with high technique stuff.. songs that have a lot of good compositional content rather than songs that are centred around insane musicianship.. the idea hear is that we all chip in with our observations and hopefully take away some interesting / thought provoking jems that we could add to our own song-writing skills

The Beatles: Something - I thnik this one has some interesting stuff in it..

feel free to chip in with song choices

Exactly my thoughts too! How about octavarium by dream theater?

mike_l

How about we analyse a song a week, and as the idea was from @Clarky  let him pick the first one, and start dissecting it.

 

As Clarky suggested The Beatles, Something, lets start with that.

 

@ Viz, we can move up to Octavarium, next week (maybe)

Clarky

ahh... ok.. I'll start..

Viz - do you really want to rip apart a 25 minute song??

erm... it'll take a while

Clarky

The Beatles: Something

a good place to start is with the music itself

Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me

I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

Somewhere in her smile she knows
That I don't need no other lover
Something in her style that shows me

Don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

You're asking me will my love grow
I don't know, I don't know
You stick around now it may show
I don't know, I don't know

Something in the way she knows
And all I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me

Don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

Clarky

Structure [form]:

Guitar Hook

Verse 1

Chorus

Guitar Hook

Verse 2

Chorus

Guitar Hook modified

Mid-8

Guitar Solo [over a verse and chorus progression]

Guitar Hook

Verse 3

Chorus

Guitar Hook modified

Guitar Hook

viz

Clarky said:

ahh... ok.. I'll start..

Viz - do you really want to rip apart a 25 minute song??

erm... it'll take a while

No you're right. Actually i had a very slightly different idea of what we could do with the songs, but it's impractical on a forum i feel. It'd be great to have like a book club, but for rock. Anyhow, right, that beatles song. Going to listen to it and see what i can contribute. Carry on.

Clarky

chord progressions by section:

Guitar Hook

F ' Eb G/D /

Verse

C ' ' ' / C∆7 ' ' ' / C7 ' ' ' / F ' ' F/E /

D ' D7 ' / G G/A G/B ' /

Chorus

Am ' Am-maj7 ' / Am7 ' D ' /

Guitar Hook Modified

F ' Eb A / ' ' ' ' /

Mid-8

A ' A/G# ' / A/F# ' A/E ' / D ' G ' / A* ' ' ' / - A*= a descending chromatic phrasing starting from A downwards to E

A ' A/G# ' / A/F# ' A/E ' / D ' G ' / C* ' ' ' / - C*= a descending stepwise phrasing in C starting from C downwards to G

this is then followed by another stepwise phrasing in C from E downwards to C [which is the first beat of the solo chord progression]

Clarky

observations:

although the key is generally in C for the Verse and the relative minor [Am] for the Chorus

you can see that there are several modulations within the chord progression

most of these are set up by perfect cadences [chord V to chord I]

examples:

the G/D to C from the guitar hook into the verse

the C7 to F at the end of the 1st half of the verse

the D7 to G in the 2nd half of the verse

a principle theme throughout is the use of short descending chromatic lines

they seem to create a sense of 'longing' / slight sadness but not to the point of being somber

you can hear them repeatedly in the Guitar Hooks and the Verses

the verses are generally using major and mixolydian tonality

notice that the lyrical content at this point is never sad.. if anything it's kind of happy..

like the guy is falling in love...

but the chorus switches to minor tonality..

and likewise the lyrics take up a sadder context..

it's important to try to lock the vocal content to the tonality as it binds them contextually and delivers a more powerful emotional 

experience on the listener

notice that in the Mid-8, the tonality is major, the melody lines generally rise, the melody is in a higher register and the lyrics at this point are optimistic questions..

but when the answer 'I don't know' arrives, the G chord appears [which is derived from A Dorian in this context] and so gives a 'minor' mood to the uncertain answer.

another interesting lil' Beatles trick which they've done many times before is the key choice in the Mid-8

given that the general key is C and that the relative minor is Am

the Mid-8 is in the key of A

I've seen this in Beatles songs before - where there is a key change to the relative minor that is switched to major.

the guitar solo sux bad

Clarky

right guys... if you notice extra cool stuff... chip in...

Basher

I quite like the guitar solo!

Clarky has analysed the living crap out of it from a theory perspective and a damn fine job he has done.

Thinking about the arrangement....

The bass part is just sublime. However I think that Billy Preston's hammond part really helps it "tick". The simple percussive chords add lift and drive to a song that, without them, might sound a bit too sweet and precious. I think it was a brave choice to put the part in as the almost fairground tone is at odds with the sentiment of the lyrics and general floatiness of the tune.

And two things that always kill me about these blokes....

1. How do they make major key progressions sound so gloriously melancholic?

and 2. How do they throw in so many 7th chords and avoid it sounding jazzy/bluesy? 

Actually, listening to it, there are only two dominant 7th cords and they're both in the verse. They are used only fleetingly and there is a strong descending bass part in both that removes any hint of cheesiness that you get when you do that "playing the 7th chord for a bar before the chord change" in a basic blues.

Anyway they do use lots of 7ths in an unusual way in other songs. The chorus to Day Tripper blows my mind in that I don't see how in the hell that one works but it sounds brilliant. 

Clarky

I agree about sad songs in major keys..

it's so difficult to do, but can be so beautiful..

some hymns like Abide With Me are wonderful examples

Clarky

a few more observations:

Something contains some nice examples of Parallel Modulation

this is where you change key over the same tonic

examples:

in the verse C ' ' ' / C∆7 ' ' ' / C7 ' ' ' /

C and C∆7 are in the key of C. The bass remains on the note C but the chord changes to C7 which is in the key of F.

This happens again in the chorus Am ' Am-maj7 ' / Am7

Am is in the key of Am, Am-maj7 uses the scale of A harmonic minor, and then the Am7 switches back to the key of Am.

Theme and Variations:

This is where there is a common theme, motif or general idea that is repeated in modified forms.

This can be a great way of making different sections of music sound like they belong together. Also it can be an interesting way of "sweating" a very small musical idea to grow it into something much larger.

Notice in the verse the melody has a descending chromatic figure C -> B -> Bb over a C tried. The result modifies the C chord to a C∆7 and then a C7.

This idea is repeated in a modified form in the verse, this time centred around Am, where the chromatic figure A, G#, G is also moving over a triad, but this time it's Am. The result modifies the Am to Am-maj7 and then an Am7.

The whole 'stepwise descending' theme is taken further in the mid-8 but this time it's not chromatic.

When you consider these different yet similar ideas, you can hear that they seem to connect the different sections of the song together. The chorus is essentially a modification of the verse. Maybe think of them as being opposite sides of the same coin.

Theme and variations as a compositional technique is hundreds of years old and can be found in music dating back before the 1600's and irrespective of the style of music you create, this is an extremely powerful compositional technique.