Modern Music Flashcards
Describe the intro to Love Me Do.
- 8 bars long.
- harmonica has a descending phrase stated 3 times followed by a 4th contrasting phrase with static and ascending motion.
- sounds bluesy because of blue notes, bending of note and the harmonica.
What is the structure of Love Me Do-Beatles
•simple in structure, intro, verse x2, bridge, verse, instrumental (bridge), verse, outro
What is the structure of the verse of Love Me Do?
• 3 ascending phrases followed by a 4th that ascends. Good balancing of phrases.
What is the structure of the bridge Love Me Do?
•question and answer balanced phrases (2bars long) “someone to love, someone like you,” stated twice, again balanced phrasing.
What is the structure of the instrumental of Love Me Do?
•same structure as the bridge with 4 extra bars where harmonica (melody instrument) plays new melodic material to link back to the verse.
What is the overall melody like in Love Me Do?
- modal feel with flattened 7ths and blues notes creating bluesy flavour.
- interesting blend of melody within the song though there is repetition and it is relatively simple.
Describe the Melody of the Intro of Love Me Do.
- harmonica opening melody.
- 4 phrases, 3 the same and descending, 4th contrasting and static and ascending in motion.
- sounds bluesy because of blues notes and the harmonica.
What notes are used in the opening melody in Love Me Do?
- Fnatural E D G G G.
- The Fnatural against the chord of G creates G7.
- D against the C chord clashes but works due to nature of the music/stylistic features.
What are the notes used in the melody in the verse of Love Me Do?
•begins on D D Fnatural G x3 then sustained high G then final phrase G G Bb D C Bb G
Describe the melody of the verse from Love Me Do
- Pentatonic
* Bb is a blue not (minor 3rd against a major chord. GBD not GBbD)
Describe the vocal harmony in the verse of Love Me Do.
- In Perfect 5ths and 4ths.
- Modal feel
- expected to be 3rds or 6ths.
- Sustained high G has vocal movement underneath (E D C E which is held).
Describe the Bridge in Love Me Do.
- Contrast as it’s balanced phrases is pairs. “Someone to love” answered by “somebody new”.
- 1st phrase descends by step, 2nd phrase descends but leaps and starts higher with octave harmony.
- 2nd time you hear “someone like you” it resolves to the tonic (rather than dominant).
- 2nd time you hear bridge as an instrumental the harmonica plays sung melody. The harmonica adds new melodic material for a further 4 bars, extending to 12 bars overall.
Describe the harmony In Love Me Do.
- Simple I IV V harmony used, no extended chords.
- Song is in Gmajor but the tonality is blurred by the many blues notes and flattened 3rds used in the vocal line.
- Verses based in Gmajor, walking bass line descends to link to the bridge sections which are based in D but modulate back almost immediately.
- Only G D C used in whole song.
- Verse G and C
- Bridge D C G
- lots of plagal cadences. (Very popular in pop)
- bass line very basic in contrast to later songs.
- bass marking out root and 5th of each chord, sometimes 3rd too.
- walking baseline used to modulate to D using C#
Describe the Rhythm Love Me Do.
- simple drum beat, roots in skiffle.
- After sustained not on “please” in the verse, the drum stop- effect on the music is maintaining interest. Also emphasises words “Love Me Do”.
- Syncopation in the vocal line and the harmonica throughout in contrast to simple drums.
Describe the texture/timbre in Love Me Do
- Traditional band line up with harmonica for interest.
- Pauses in the song maintain interest- after sustained “please” in the verse and at the end of the bridge.
- Interest in the vocal harmony in the verse- intervals of 5ths and 4ths Instead of expected 3rds and 6ths.
- Vocals in octaves in the answering phrases of the bridge.
- use of the harmonica at the end of the verses playing the intro material to add interest.
- bending and fluttering of notes on the harmonica, generally it only plays a single melody but sometimes plays a chord, eg in the extra 4 bars in the instrumental bridge. Chords just used for colour.
- Answering phrase in the bridge, the harmonica doubles the vocal melody.
