The Major's Bass Boot Camp - Session 32

[Major-Minor]

The Major's Bass Boot Camp - Session 32

It has been suggested that I do a series of theory sessions using classic songs as my starting point.

In this first such session we will look at the Beach Boys classic "God Only Knows".
There is a lot to look at here, and I will try to keep it all bass related. And, as I intend to make this as easy to follow as possible, I might use a few generalisations.
(Those of you with Music Degrees should look away now !)

Rather than look at the whole song, I've elected to just go as far as the little instrumental bridge.

Listen to the mp3 then play the part through a couple of times.
[attachment=74135:MBBC32.pdf]
[attachment=74137:God_Only_Knows.mp3]

First let's look at the rhythm.

Although I have written the bass part out in 4/4 (common time), in actual fact the underlying rhythm is in 12/8 (compound time). In the pop/rock/jazz genres this way of writing is quite common practice, mainly because it is easier on the eye when reading and, in the old days, when music like this was written by hand, it made the copyists job easier. In fact I could have written it with just quavers rather than dotted quavers and semiquavers, with a marking like "swingy" or "shuffle" to clarify the feel.

So, in effect, each crotchet beat is divisible by 3. That doesn't mean there are always 3 quaver notes per beat actually being played. Quite the opposite in fact. If you listen to the overall rhythmic effect of this song, you will notice a sort of loping rum - te - tum character. It's mostly the 1st and 3rd quavers of each triplet that are being played. (I'm referring here not to the bass part but the overall arrangement)
So wherever you see a semiquaver or tied semiquaver, actually you place the note as if it were a triplet quaver. Listen again to the mp3 and you will see what I mean.

Now when we get to bar 32 (the instrumental bridge), you will notice that the feel changes. Here, the underlying groove is in simple time, true 4/4 common time.

You can see that I've put the key signature as E major. As the main tune starts on a chord of D (in bar 59 ) you may be wondering why I have chosen E major as the key signature. Well, if you listen to the little horn melody in the intro, the first two notes are C# and D#. That D# puts the starting key firmly into E major (it being the leading note or 7th step in the E major scale).

Let's look firstly at the intro (bars 1- 8 inclusive):

The bass is tacet to begin with. This term "tacet" means silent (as in taciturn) or "don't play". You will sometimes see this written in pencil on bass parts where a change has been made and a previous player of the part has written this in to indicate that the bass shouldn't play the written notes but come in where "play" has been marked.
Here I have put slashes to indicate the guitar chord strums. On a real bass part, there would be a multi rest (a little block in the middle of the bar) with a 3 above it, and the relevant rests in bar 4 before the bass comes in.

The interesting point to make about the intro is the chord in bar 6:
E major with a G# bass note (written as E over G#)
The G# is the major 3rd of the triad of E major (E G# B )
The melody notes in this bar, on the French Horn, are E and B, so naturally the G# fits beautifully underneath creating a complete E major triad. This is called a "first inversion".

This is one of those tunes where the key centre shifts about, creating an unsettled yet ultimately satisfying chord sequence.
So whereas the intro (bars 1 to 8) suggests E major, the start of the main melody (bars 9 to 11) suggests D major. But there is another complication which adds to the interest. Bar 9 is a chord of D major yet the bass note is A (the 5th of the triad of D). The vocal melody notes at the end of this bar are D C# D. It's often a good thing to have a different bass note to the melody note, so the A bass note fits in really well.

Similarly, in bar 12, the chord is B9, melody notes are C# F# A B (C#) (therefore only a D# is missing from the 5 note dominant chord of B9) and we have a bass note of A (the 7th in a B7 chord). Putting the dominant 7th under the chord is another of those great little tricks to spice up the arrangement.

This B9 chord in bar 12 modulates the key back into the intro key of E major (B7 being the Dominant chord of E major).

From bar 14 for 7 bars, you will see that the bass line descends, mostly chromatically (semitone steps). This is another very pleasing effect. Rather than always playing chord root notes, its a good idea to look for possible descending bass lines (using non-root notes) in any song.

I hope this is all clear !
Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.
And please suggest other songs for me to analyse.

The Major

Edited May 24, 2011 by Major-Minor

[thisnameistaken]

Wow, this will take some time to digest. The key changes really throw my ear off - is there really only two keys? I thought the first line of the chorus was another key change. It's so diffcult to understand what's happening!

[Major-Minor]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='1157464' date='Mar 10 2011, 11:46 PM']Wow, this will take some time to digest. The key changes really throw my ear off - is there really only two keys? I thought the first line of the chorus was another key change. It's so diffcult to understand what's happening![/quote]
Actually, this song is not particularly complex in its key structure when compared to music in the wider world. Admittedly, a lot of music in the pop and rock genres is really quite simple, harmonically speaking. Nothing wrong with that, of course. I'm not being critical, its just an observation.

When I first studied music, the word "modulation" cropped up constantly, and it took me a while to understand this term and its importance when applied to music.

The word literally means "change" and when applied to music it refers to the "change" of key, or key centre.

Take a melody like "God Save The Queen". It has no modulation (in the usual standard harmonisation) - it remains in one key throughout. (Of course, you can re-harmonise it with lots of modulations if you so wish. It's a standard task when learning harmony).

Some of you might know the old standard "S'Wonderful" (Gershwin). Usually in Eb major, the first 8 bars (of the chorus) is all in this key. Then it modulates in the middle 8 into the key of G major, and back to Eb for the final 8.
So this is a simple example of a modulation within a song.

If you cast your musical net wider, and listen to, say, a tone poem by Richard Strauss or a symphony by Mahler, you will hear many modulations, the music swooping from key to key, sometimes so much so its difficult to keep a grasp on what is happening. (Listen to Strauss's Opera "Salome" for an extreme example). All the classical composers like Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart use modulation all the time. Its what gives the music its forward momentum.

Looked at from an academic stance, this all sounds rather boring, but when you hear the effect of a change of key centre, from an emotional point of view it can be quite stunning. There is a moment in the Titanic theme (My Heart Goes On ?) where the key modulates with a quite dramatic effect.

Many old pop songs use the devise of taking the final chorus up a semitone. This is a modulation.

The Earth Wind and Fire song "After The Love Has Gone" is a good example of multiple modulations.

The old standard bossa nova "The Girl From Ipanema" also has some nice modulations in the middle 8.

There are several standard ways to modulate, the most common being to precede the new tonic chord with it's dominant chord
eg G7 - C or Dm7 - G7 - C (ii - v - 1)
Another (jazzy) way is to precede the tonic with the chord built on a semitone higher eg Db7b5 - C
Diminished chords are another useful tool for modulation.
Or you can sometimes just lurch into the new key with no pivot point.

So in "God Only Knows" we start in E for the intro and then when the voice comes in we have "lurched" down a tone to a key centre of D major. but this only lasts for 3 bars. As soon as you hear the B9 chord you are returning to the E key centre. The B9 chord is a pivot point.
Just to be clear:
B9 is a Dominant chord. It is a B7 chord( B D# F# A) with an added 9th - C#.

Hope this has helped !

The Major