Wonderwall part 5

The ending of the song is the chorus progression played over and over again. an intersting note is that there is a piano outro over the chords right at the end. just 5 notes played 8 times over. Nothing fancy, no crazy guitar solo just simplicity at its best. it serves and closes the song perfectly i feel. my personal musical belief is that sometimes simplicity is perfection. i use this idea of simplicity in many of my bands songs; one cause im not much of a soloist (heheh lazy to learn scales) and secondly and most importantly, i feel that a good musician knows what notes to take out to potray a beautiful sound, instead of playin so many notes. Just liek mister eric clapton. and just like mister noel gallagher of oasis.

i guess that's it for my analysis of wonderwall

(ps; do visit my band's website- www.myspace.com/purplepaigetheband and www.myspace.com/purplepaigetheband2 . SUPPORT LCOAL MOOZIK!!!)

Wonderwall part 4

The song begins with a four bar intro, played 4 times. the chords used in the intro are the same as the chords used in the verses. there are 3 verses. however the end of the first verse uses a diff progeression compared to the end of the ohter two verses;
Dmaj7 Esus4 B7sus4

I feel that this brings about a niece sound to the song and it also prepares the listener for the next verse, as the first two verses are played one after another. thus for the second verse and the third verse, becasue they are followed by the pre-chorus, the sticks to the same four chords used in the other parts of the verses. meaning F#m7 A Esus4 B7sus4 throut the second and third verse.

the verse is followed by the pre chorus. (and all the roads we have to walk are winding blah blah blah). the prechorus starts off with two lines of D E F#m, a VIb VIIb i progression. it's a common progression used in pop songs everywhere when the song is in a minor key. HOWEVER the third line of the prechorus is intersting. it starts off with D and E chords just as well. so the listener expects an F#m chord next. This doesnt happen. THe next chord is an A chord, follwoedd by A/G# (movin bassline from A to G#; chord stays at A), F#m then B7sus4. This plays with the listernes expectations and provides a twist to the song which sets us up perfectly to receive the cchorus due to the suspended B7 which needs to be resolved.

The a note in the B7sus4 is resolved in the chorus, although not by the conventional means. the first chord in the chorus is a D(add9). By playing the D chord, the A note is resolved as tthe A note exists in the D major chord. Thus although in the previous post i said that the suspended chord isnt resolved, after analysing the song further, i feel that the suspension is resolved, in a hidden and not obvious way. the resolve is felt and not clearly heard, such as in the bach chorales. and i find this method of hidden resolving very very intersting, and not quite common in the normal pop tunes butt used quite widely in rock music. it's quite magical actually. cause the transition and resolving is so smooth and not not openly done. brilliant i say! hahahahaha..

the chorus is a 4 chord progression played 4 times. Dadd9 F#m A F#m. i find the transition between the chorus and the third verse intersting. the song stops after the last chord of the chorus, for a whole bar. then proceeds to play a B7sus 4 chord for a whole bar. This provides the suspension which needs resolve and which is resolved when the songs moves back into the verse with the F#m chord. This bar of B7 also serves as a backdrop for a drum fill that leads us back to the verse. therefore the function of this B7 i feel is to link us back to the verse.

Wonderwall part 3

ANALYSIS TIME!!!

ok firstly, the song is at a moderately slow tempo of 90 crochets per minute (i hope i got the terms right). This suits the song well as it makes the lyrics more heartfelt and sing alongable, clearly a crowd favourite. the song is played using a capo on the guitar. a capo is a device used to transpose the guitar up. this song is in F#m key. however what they play are actualyl chords that represent those in em key, as the em key chords can be played as open chords and not barre chords. the capo is attached on the 2nd fret on the guitar, hence by playing the em chord shapes, you are actually playing f#m chord sounds. i hope my explanation is clear. for a better explanation go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capo

The key signature shows 3 sharps, and the song starts and ends sentences with f#m chord, therefore i feel that it's in F#minor key. one thing to note though. the song uses a B7 chord as the last chord in many of its phrases, such as the verse which goes like this

F#m7 A Esus4 B7sus4

B7 chord doesn't actually exist in F#m key. a bminor chord is the 'correct' one. therefore i feel that in playing that B7 chord, the song actually modulates to the dominant of the seventh (E chord). so for the verse above, the first two chords are in F#minor key and the second two are in Emajor key. Is that right?

notice that there are some stylo chords such as Esus4 and B7 sus4 and Dadd9. The reason why this chords appear continuosly throut the song is because the song is played with the first two strings of the guitar depressed on the 5th fret. so although there are many chord changes, by playing it this way, you are actually only moving about two fingers throut the whole song to chagne chords, as your fourth and little finger of your left hand is contiously depressed on the 5th frets of the first two strings of the guitar. how cool is dat. makes guitar playing a wholoe lot easier eh!

becasue the two strings are continously pressed, it brings about suspensions for some of the chords played. such as for the Esus4, as can be seen by the name of the chord, the high A note, played by the little finger on the first string fifth fret of the guitar provides the suspension fpr the chord. one intersting point to note is that the A note is played throut the four chords as the little finger doesnt move at all, thus the suspension is forevre there and therefore it is already prepared form the first chord. The suspension however is NOT resolved throut the song, butt left floating in the listeners mind. i find this very intersting and different from the bach chorales we learnt in class, where all suspensions are prepared and resolved systematically and openly. differnet musical styles i suppose eh.

Wonderwall part 2

Wonderwall is taken out of Oasis' second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? THe Morning Glory album has been perceived as the best Oasis record ever as it totally redifined British pop/rock music at that time. It was the fastest selling album ever in British music history.

Wonderwall is one of the few love songs that Noel Gallagher has written. although if u read lyrics, its isn't a conventional love song ala boybands or the divas around. the word love doesnt even appear in the lyrics. Noel gallagher's lyrics have always been appreciated worldwide, and many title him as a genius in song composition. here goes, the lyrics to wonderwall.

Today is gonna be the day
That they're gonna throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now

Backbeat the word was on the street
That the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before
But you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody feels
The way I do about you now

And all the roads we have to walk along are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
I don't know how

Because maybe
You're gonna be the one who saves me ?
And after all
You're my wonderwall

Today was gonna be the day?
But they'll never throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you're not to do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do
About you now

And all the roads that lead to you were winding
And all the lights that light the way are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you
I don't know how

I said maybe
You're gonna be the one who saves me ?
And after all
You're my wonderwall

I said maybe
You're gonna be the one who saves me ?
And after an
You're my wonderwall

Said maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me
You're gonna be the one that saves me
You're gonna be the one that saves me



BUTTTTT dont ask me what a wonderwall is. It's probably just a metaphor love thing.

Wonderwall part 1

my second piece of music to be analysed is a song by Oasis called wonderwall. Oasis are a five piece Manchester outfit who 'redifined' their generation. They played music that wasn't played during their time. They were very well reknowned for their live sets, whch were not high octane, just walls of sounds, which suited them perfectly. They were the type of band that let the music speak for themselves, believeing that the4 songs hould make the artist, not anythign else. Many of you have of course heard of many stories regarding Oasis, mainly bad ones. They have had bad publicity on countless occasions. basically, they tend to get into fights and brawls and disagreements with basically everyone. internal strife between the two borthers, vocalist liam gallagher as well as lead guitarrist and the brainchild of oasis, noel gallagher. they constantly fought amongst themselves. that numerous problems for the band.

oasis is the reason that got me started on the guitar. although wonderwall wasnt the first song i learnt, it was of of the first few. it's a beautifully constructed piece, played acoutiscally but at times electrically during their live sets. the following is the music video of wonderwawll. note the beautiful cello line that provides a beautiful backdrop form the second verse onwards. (the cello line isn't shown on the scores)



the efollowing is a live set by them. ths particular concert was a 2 night even selling 70000 tickets per night. it was released as a live album called 'familiar to millions'. just listen to the crowd sing along to the chorus!!! such a high man! haha he even lets them sing the whole ending chorus!!!! liam is my idol man!



and the following is another live set by them but with the current band line up.



notice how liam gallagher sings. something dr chia will never allow in choir eh?

all the small thigns part 5

hmm lets talk about form. all the smal lthigns takes on the following structure

intro riff
verse
pre-chorus
chorus
intro riff
short verse
pre-chorus
chorus
interlude
outro

what form is dat? hmmm... i really dunno how to define it. prolly A B C A B C D B
im putting the into and the verse as an A part together. the outro is actualyl an extension of the prechorus art, hence i put it as a B part. so what form is this? anyone?

the outro takes on the tune and lyrics of the pre chorus. dat in itself is very imaginative, as the outro has two lines which are repeated twice, butt the pre chorus is jiust a one liner. this sort of builds about a longing for the prechorus to be extended as it is cut short to just one line by the introduction of the chorus. so when the outro kciks in with the first line of the prechorus, played vigorously by the whole band, it sets off into a very niece setting for the song to end. i personalyl feel dat is a touch of brilliant compositional skills by the boys form blink.

all the samll thigns part 4

why does the power chords work even though teh third is ommitted? i guess what jeanette said about the melody notes palying in the c major scale is probably the correct answer. as can be heard thruout there is no e flat note being sung, so i guess that's the reason why even though the third is ommitted, the major key is still 'established'. another give away is of course the lack of sharp and flats at the key signature.

speaking of melodies, i think blink 182 is very melodious for a punk rock band. their melodies are generally easy to the ear and sticks to yer head most of the time. for this song, most of the vocal harmonies are a third or fourth lower. tom delonge, the guitarist sings lead vocals for this track while mark hopus, mister bass man, takes on backing vocals. tuneful melodies and good harmonies diffrentiate blink 182 from other punk rock bands of their time.

all the small things part 3

i'm not really sure why they are called power chords butt in rock music, power chords refers to the playing of just three notes in the bass strings of the electric guitar,sometimes even two. the notes are the 1, 5 and (8). this gives the chords a basser (stronger) sound compared to the playing of open chords or full bar chords even. it also brigns about a rougher sound, so i guess that's why punk music use them.

The intro to the song is intersting. it goes C F G (no chord) F. Once again it ends on the IV of the key butt what i find quite interesting is the part between the G and F. It actually says there no chord, butt in actual fact they are palm muting the a minor chord (vi). palm muting is a guitar technique predominant in punk rock, where the guitarists puts the base of his palm on the strings dat he's strumming/plucking. it gives a rather muted effect to the sound, hence the term palm muting. why i find interesting is dat the palm muting brings about an interesting rhythmic change to the piece. just for that half a bar.

towards the end of the song, there is an interlude. it goes C C F/C G/D. this particular part of the song takes on the 'good' progression, a I IV V. however both the IV and the V are on a 2nd inversion. This i feel brings about not too strong a progression as the F and G basslines are not heard, merely felt. This however works when u consider what the drums are playing. the drummer is basically 'rolling', doing paradiddles and what nots and the effect created, is quite beautiful if not typical of blink's style.

all the small things part 2

above is the album cover (enema of the state)