Feelings, Personalities & Scales.

This time I want to open a special space for the very makers of a good song: The feelings. In music, feelings are transimitted by sounds (that's pretty obvious isn't it?) and every sound has a note. Now in occidental music, there are a series of scales, each one with seven notes, divided in two majors groups: Majors & Minors, and today I want to talk about what feeling each of them gives when composing in the most popular of this scales:
C major: The most easy one to play, this is the "father" the "president" he's willing to transmit some kind of important message, most of it a message of hope, his favorites "allies" are the chords of Cmajor, Gmajor, Eminor, Aminor. When adding style use G7, or play Bminor.
D minor: This one is the saddest crying baby you'll ever hear, used mostly in blues, this is the kind of songs that talks about a heartache that is only expressable in music. His important chords are Dminor, Fmajor, Aminor & Cmajor.
E major: This is the kind of guy who come to you and tell him "If you see her, tell her I love her" and he won't fail, he's brillant at feelings, he wears them on the outside, he too can make you dance, or cry or feel to hope, any feeling could get to your core with a touch of hope. He best mixes with Bmajor, Amajor and C#minor.
B major: The most of romatic of all, a love song, an special key, and my personal favorite. B just has to natural notes that are E and B, the rest of them must be played sharped, and this in my opinion is very nice key for piano or keyboard, you can play something simple, but since you'll be playing white and black keys, you'll look so cool. Just be careful with tempo and chords used, or you could end up sounding more like salsa instead of transmitting a romatic low tempo song. Her chords are C#minor, Emajor, F#major.

Another think you may want to be careful when identifying the key of a song, is the fact that some keys are really to similar between them, for example Fmajor and Cmajor, the only difference is Bb in the key of F, or also G, that has a F#, but in everything else is so similar to Cmajor. Also be careful with Dminor and Aminor, they may be so alike as well as Dmajor and Amajor.

This words are just my personal opinion but as music is to break rules and dogmas, so you should try making a sad song in Cmajor or anything else more bright, to break some blues rules. (:

Wonderwall- Oasis

Morning Glory is the 2nd most sold british album, the first one is Sergeant Pepper Lonely Heart Club Band, this is such a shame for Oasis, that once claimed to be better than the Beatles.

Despite of the fact that they are in no way better, that didn't keep them from being such an awsome band, with great songs that will go through history.

The notes:

Wonderwall's acoustic guitar is legendary for being so playable, a song almost anybody could learn. With a capo on the second fret, Noel changes the whole tune, starting in a G scale with amazing chords, just like a Em7/G/D/Asus4 and besides the chords the amazing strumming pattern that's unforgettable.

The bass starts latter with a soft progression until  Liam sings "Would like to say to you" when the guitar and the bass make a walk down through G, G over F#(pretty cool chord) and Em.

And the chorus that goes practically the same by adding a C9 chord at the beginning, as you can see, even if it's easy to play and understand, the chords used in this song are somewhat unusual, and captivating.

In the video you can see someone playing the cello, but the fact is that there's no cello on the song, it was malctron tape-playback keyboard that the song was recorded with. You can hear them in every chorus, it gives some sort of "importance" and "brightness" to the chorus.

And when it turns to the battery, it's not at all complicated, you can hear its best after the first chorus.

The instruments:

It may sound simple, but the instruments that participate in Oasis' most famous song are quite variable.

The acoustic guitar that starts at the very beginning, the bass, battery, Liam's voice.

Then in the bridge: the keyboard that sounds like cello, the arpeggiated guitar.

In the chorus you can hear another guitar playing the chords.

The third verse is more complex by another guitar making some extra arrangements.

So for very simple sound that this song gives, the instruments involved are many.

The lyrics:

As the Travis' song Writing to Reach You says "and what's a wonderwall anyway?" everybody has asked the same question.

Noel once said that a "Wonderwall is anything that makes you happy and brightens your day" it could be a something or a someone, in the case of the song it clearly talks about someone.

Other's say that a "wonderwall" is the wall where a schoolboy paste his posters about bands, girls or sports' players.

There's another theory that explain that this is based on the movie "Wonderwall" the soundtrack of the movie was composed by George Harrison, and was the first album released by any of the Beatles. In the movie the main character moves in a new town and his neighbor becomes obsessed with her, until one day he starts making hole on his walls to see her through.

In my own opinion a wonderwall is someone or something in which you can have unconditional support from, and that at the same time you love.

About the rest of the lyrics most of the media claimed this song to be about Noel's girlfriend back then, but when they asked Noel about it, he said that "it was about an imaginary friend who comes to save you from yourself"

In my opinion "Wonderwall" is not a simple love song it goes deeper that that, and thought I like much of Noel's explanation, and don't totally accept it.

What I think the song tells is about someone rescuing someone, that's for sure, but we are not quite sure who is rescuing who, at the beggining you can assume the singer will save someone as he warns over how the people are going to treat the other someone, but in the chorus he says "maybe you're gonna the be the one that saves me". In this case I think about love, because somehow, when in love, two people save each other from themselves, as they get over their fears and start to trust each other.

You can recall love pretty much through all the whole song, but as I see it, it's not the typical in-love song, is another kind of love.

Even when he sing "I dont believe anybody feels the way I do about you now" sounds like a threat to me, like saying "If you go around the world, you wouldn't find someone that cares as much as I do".

The truly magic of the lyrics is that he tells how much he loves but he never tells how he loves, he tells that nobody would feel the same, warns that there are problems ahead, that the other someone may feel empty ("the fire in your heart is out") and the only clue we get is when he says "and after all, you're my wonderwall" 

With some complicated lyrics to define, and explain, I can only express that's one of my favortites song, because even if the person would like to say many thing to you and he/she doesn't know how, the fact is that even if the lights are blinding, and roads are winding, he/she will stay with you, because after all, you're his/her wonderwall

Don't Stop Believin' - Journey

Composed by Steve Perry and Neal Schon in 1981 for their album "Escape" realesed in 1982, even though in that year the song made it to #9 in billboard charts its true explodment ocurred several years after, when it became a popular karaoke song in the 00's and after being featured in the serie "The Sopranos". In 2008 it was the most downloaded song on Itunes, and as you may know, for the series "Glee" as their opening song.
Don't stop believing is a song in E scale (Mi) with an easy yet deep serie of chords, starting with the piano, with an E, B, C#m and A, pretty much the typical chords for an E-scale song, but the true magic is behind in the chords.
Th baseline moves us sweetly into the chords, a bassline that later on will become very similar to our lead guitar. Starting at E, when the E chord is played, passing through sustanained F and G slipping through B, and making making a sensacional sound between the last notes (C#, and D#) landing on an A, and a beautiful movement to the next E, this last note on the riff is the prettiest of all, because it counts with the characteristic of taking us back to the start in such a secret way.
Then the vocals start, the second verse ends in such a high note, but the fourth and last one, ends in a low way, yet the singer (Steve Perry) makes it perpetual. His ability to reach high notes, and the way he slips through it makes the song a "singer song" (A song that's worth the time of a good singer to learn).
But what can we say about the next guitar solo, yes, the notes repeat over and over through a serie of pull-off on the guitar, faster and faster everytime, the pecularity is that maybe this kind of solos are applied to metal o hard rock with a hard series of chords from behind, but this solo is by itself and the piano, and a piano! a clasical intrument with this solo on top! It's just fantastical.
Then moving through the pre-chorus, with a diferent chords progression and electric guitar there, there's a section where after he sings "walking down the boulevard" the bass makes also a walk down (nice isn't it?) supporing the silence of the voice and the chords.
Then the main riff starts very similar to the base line, the magic turns more noticiable when he starts to sing again, we now notice that the verse notes and the riff get perfectly along with each other, even though both of them are very melodic, they don't crash, the baseline traces a path through the singer's notes.
And again we get to the pre-chorus where Steve grant us with his amazing ability to reach high notes and make them last.
And then another guitar solo, this time with the main riff down, and this time more melodic, this solo caution us from the chorus that is next, a very sweet solo, like most of Journey's solos, but to say "sweet" does not means easy in any way.
Then at last the chorus, yes at last the chorus... How many songs follow this structure? Verse, solo, verse, prechorus, verse, verse, prechorus, solo and Chorus!
By the lyrics (that's my very own interpretation) they take us to daily situations that have turned boring, the first two characters (the small town girl and the boy from south detroit) have lost faith in love, but if they could have a chance they would take it, the singer has been chasing a dream but got stucked in "cheap perfumes" meaning he never got far, and the prechorus make even more obvious that this song is for typical people living typical lives that wish they could change a bit by "finding emotion"
Then it takes us through feelings, the feelings that are normal in a life time, or all the feelings happening in the same time, some loose, some win, some just sing.
And it says "the movie never ends" meaning life it's not a movie with a happy or tragical ending, it changes and passes through everything, and you never can assure the feelings you have now will go on the rest of your life.
Definitly a song you MUST listen to before dying.
Finally ending with "Don't stop believin'" ...and that's what the song it's all about.

Thank you for reading (:

Musimathics

Welcome and thanks for reading! In this blog I'll be "decoding" some of the famous rock songs and others you may suggest to me. By "decoding" I mean analizing, yes, analizing a song in musical structure, notes, story and many other facts, giving you a zoom through all the instruments, vocals and my very personal interpretation of the lyrics.