How to analyze simple songs?

[neueliteratur]

Hello folks,

Billy Jean and No Woman No Cry are extremely simple songs, there's barely anything to analyze.

What do you analyze when you're confronted with simple songs like this?

Is it possible to analyze the melody? (sorry I'm a newbie)

[psenior]

These songs stay in one key the whole time so there's no mystery. Analysis is just a tool to get you through rough spots, not something to be applied all the time. If I had perfect pitch I wouldn't know hardly any music theory and would probably be a much better musician.

[Nystul]

Well, what is it that you are hoping to gain from such songs? There are certainly things to be learned from them in terms of style. Reducing everything to a chord progression sometimes misses the point. You might ask yourself, what is it about this simple song that makes me like it so much?

[dacaumodo]

Well, what is it that you are hoping to gain from such songs? There are certainly things to be learned from them in terms of style. Reducing everything to a chord progression sometimes misses the point. You might ask yourself, what is it about this simple song that makes me like it so much?

+ 1

In the case of NWNC, a lot depends simply on Marley's interpretation. Marley had a unique voice, no one sounds like him except perhaps his sons, a little. It was both high pitched and warm, cracking and powerful, mocking and melancholy.

Next comes the arrangement and the orchestration. The hammond organ's interventions are subtle and inventive, with a lot of expression provided by the Leslie pedal.

The backing singers provide a smooth yet firm and harmonically interesting contrast to Marley's half lackadaisical, half sad delivery.

Something else to look is how Marley plays around with the bars: if you listen for the first time, you can never quite guess where his voice will fall in relation with the beats. Virtually every line he sing brings something inventive rhythmically.

There's also how his melody drags the listener always upwards, and how he moves easily from the bottom to the top of his range, he seems to be having an easy stroll.

The guitar solo on the live version we all know is another great creation. It "tells a story" and takes its own time to do so.

Finally, the lyrical content is very important. Marley manages to evoke a sense of collective destiny, something politically meaningful yet sufficiently vague to be more than topical, and mingled with a love song that avoids a lot of clichés: even the invitation not to cry is formulated in an eminently original (colloquial) fashion, and noboby before had said "don't cry" like this, and anyone doing so afterwards will have Marley's shadow to stand in.

Well that's my take on this.

[dacaumodo]

PS I could do sth similar with Billy Jean if it is of any help.

[skipscada]

Billy Jean ... barely anything to analyze.

Discuss the use of syncopation. Which parts follow a regular beat and which don't? What's the effect?
What effect does the change of key and metre at the bridge have?
Is the arrangement sparse or full (parts/frequencies)? Does that change through the song?

[psenior]

I grew up listening to both of these tunes. They are ingrained in my subconscious. Therefore, I feel absolutely no need to analyze either one of them whatsoever. If we were all in the same room playing these tunes together as a group, the only thing I would need agreement from everybody else on is what key we are going to play them in.

I analyze jazz standards mainly because I did not grow up listening to them. If I had, I'm sure I'd be a lot more familiar with the genre and have less of a need to apply music theory concepts to improve my understanding of the music.

[BERFAB]

dacaumodo- good analysis, though I think you left out the beat/drums. Most important for the reggae style. Follow how the accents fall, etc.

In what may or may not be a helpful exercise, listen to Marley's version of "I shot the Sherriff," and compare it to Clapton's version. The genre differences will be very pronounced and easy for you to break down.

-B

[Ogg Vorbis]

What do you analyze when you're confronted with simple songs like this?

I kind of think that analysis is a means to answering a question. Sometimes in a complex jazz tune my question is very broad like, "what general logic is going on harmonically?" With a simple tune, I might ask a different question.

What is it you want to know about these songs? If you can refine your question, you can sharpen your analytical approach.

[wrench45us]

Billie Jean may not be harmonically complex

but it's a brilliant song in terms of rhythm
there's the buildup of rhythm layers and there's also Jackson's vocal which is just popping with attack accents and contrast to pound the beat and play with it

even that string part has very crisp attack -- and then tails off a little smoother
it's all about lifting up on those beats
when there's a simple song harmonically there's ofetn a great deal going on with the arrangement
I don't think Quincy Jones would consider Bille Jean a simple song

[seacouch]

As Nystul said, it kinda depends upon what your objective is. Let's say you wanted to write horn parts for these songs. You'd want to know the changes, and more specifically what scales you want to use over those changes. At that point your arranging knowledge/chops take over.

[psenior]

There are many good books and videos about how these artists and their teams worked together to come up with material. You will find little or no technical discussions like you find here in this forum.

Quincy Jones is a living genius; He has more practical experience and theoretical knowledge than all of us combined. I do recall a quote attributed to him stating that his goal when producing is to "capture lightning in a bottle."

Too much analysis is a bad thing and will keep you from achieving your musical goals.

[seacouch]

Too much analysis is a bad thing and will keep you from achieving your musical goals.

I'd take that advice with a huge grain of salt. I've never met anyone, ever, who had their musical goals impeded or inhibited in any way, whatsoever, by any kind of over-analysis. I think that's just something that lazy folks say to justify not doing their homework.

[psenior]

Many legendary, professional musicians would agree with my assertion. I guess they are lazy and haven't done their homework!

[NevilleLeck]

thanks your sharing....