Song structure analysis and terminology | Page 4 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

@Joe’s link is interesting but, if I may, I’d like to say that with one exception it is only a list of songs with “chord progressions” and “key changes”, but it doesn’t explain what they are or how they work in the songs. Should anybody (wink wink @muzair) be willing to give us a few examples and explain how those changes work, it would be great. Thanks, Oudis.

EDIT: @muzair, maybe we are asking too much from you. If that is the case, don’t feel obliged in any way –and we apologize.

muzair said

Joe said
@muzair Would you be OK continuing that thread? It would be useful to keep the conversation in one place.

I think I’d rather keep it on this one, if it’s all the same…

@muzair 

Thank you.

Hello again everybody.

Things seem to have clamed down in this thread; or at least I hope so. I thought I would try to analyze one of our favorite Beatles songs –Norwegian Wood – and see what you guys say in your comments. It’s going to be a very basic analysis, made by an amateur songwriter for non-musicians. Please, if you are a musician and read this, don’t laugh or be rude, I’m doing my best.

Let’s start with the ABC (literally). In music theory, a diatonic scale is a scale composed of seven distinct pitch classes. The diatonic scale includes five whole steps and two half steps for each octave. What am I talking about? I’m talking about a scale of notes, e.g. C D E F G A and B, AKA do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and ti. For each scale you have a set of chords that go with it. There’s a scale in C, one in C#, one in D, one in D#, etc. A major chord is a chord having a root (the note that gives the chord its name), a major third, and a perfect fifth; a minor chord differs from a major chord in having a minor third (half a step down) instead of a major third. The key of a piece is the tonic note and chord, which gives a subjective sense of arrival and rest (in Norwegian Wood , it’s Re). Other notes and chords in the piece create varying degrees of tension, resolved when the tonic note and/or chord returns.

Norwegian Wood was mainly written by John, with the middle eight perhaps co-written with Paul. Let’s see its structure. I include the lyrics and the chords in case someone wants to play the song.

Intro (guitar and then sitar; the melody is the melody of the verse and is repeated twice)

After the intro we have what I think can be called the first verse, in the D key:

D                                                  C        G   D

“I once had a girl or should I say she once had me

D                                                          C     G   D

She showed me her room isn’t it good Norwegian Wood ”  

Then John and Paul changed the chord (a D major turns into a D minor; such changes –also from minor to major– were a common trick of theirs I’ve noticed); they do it in what I think we can call middle eight. It’s likely that this is a change in the key of the song, or modulation. 

Dm                                                                       G

“She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere

Dm                                                               Em     A

But I looked around and I noticed there wasn’t a chair” 

Then they return to a verse 

D                                              C           G   D

“I sat on a rug biding my time drinking her wine

D                                                          C    G         D

We talked until two and then she said it’s time for bed” 

Solo (sitar twice, the same melody as the verse) 

And the middle eight again: 

Dm                                                                             G

“She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh

Dm                                                                  Em   A

I told her I didn’t and crawled off to sleep in the bath” 

And then a verse again: 

D                                                C      G          D

And when I awoke I was alone this bird had flown

D                                       C    G         D

So I lit a fire isn’t it good Norwegian Wood

Outro (sitar, same melody only once)

So we have the simplest possible structure of a song:

Intro (Verse melody) – Verse – Middle Eight – Verse – Solo (Verse melody) – Middle Eight – Verse – Outro (Verse melody)

OR

A – A – B – A – A – B – A – A

What amazes me (well, lyrics aside) is the simplicity of the song. It proves that you can compose masterpieces with very little. More sophisticated songs aren’t that good. Its structure is very simple and it only uses six chords.

For all of you musician lurking in the forum: feel free to comment, correct, add information. I’d appreciate it very much.

Oudis.