70s Research- Eve Pitt

Mr Blue Sky- Electric Light Orchestra (Research)

This song is a loud and energetic song which holds its ambience throughout the piece. It comes under the rock genre and this is complimented by the use of loud percussion and a strong leading guitar riff.

There is a medium pitched sounding instrument which plays at the beginning of the intro, shortly followed by a lower pitched guitar, playing the same thing. When the vocals come in it is naturally quite low pitched due to the singer being male. In the first phrase of the chorus, the vocals are very low pitched. However, the phrase that follows sings the same melody an octave higher and the rest of the chorus remains high pitched. This portrays a dark day suddenly becoming bright. After the chorus there is an instrumental from a solo guitar. This is also very high pitched.

The structure of the song is as follows:

ABBCDBCEBA

Intro, Verse 1, Verse 2, Chorus, Instrumental, Verse 3, Chorus, Bridge, Verse 4, Outro

The melody throughout the song is quite repetitive throughout the verses. The chorus uses call and response with the melody, changing the octave. It moves in step as a lot of the melody goes up and down the scale. One of the only parts which move in leap is during the chorus when the phrase “so long” is repeated.

The instruments used in this track are; vocals, drums, bass, organ, rhythm, guitar, keys, a cowbell sound, cello and a vocoder. The ELO used many electric sounding instruments and also an electric symphony. I didn’t use all the instruments heard on the original track. I used piano, drums, bass, and a European string instrument for the guitar solo. At the end of the song, a choir of singers is heard which I took inspiration from and recreated on garage band.

The tonality of this song is major. This goes with the lyrics and meaning behind the song. The lyrics talk about the sun and a blue sky finally returning. The happy major tonality portrays this as it gives it a happy vibe. When the chorus is heard, the first note is a minor note, changing the mood of the song. The lyrics of the chorus are “Mr blue sky, please tell us why? You had to hide away for so long”. This shows how people remember when it was dark and grey.

This song used a variety of textures. The intro has a thin texture using basic drums, piano, and guitar. When the vocals come in, the texture gets thicker and there is a wider range of the kit used as cymbals are introduced. A synthesised organ and a cow bell are also heard in this part. The texture then changes and becomes thinner with a different sounding organ, bass guitar, electric guitar and snare. There is an instrumental where the texture is really thick. Not only is there an electric guitar playing a solo, there are many more instruments accompanying it. In the background, there is a symphony, drums, bass and guitar.

70s Research- Eve Pitt

No Woman No Cry- Bob Marley (Research)

The medium dynamics throughout the song creates a mellow and serene feel to the song. We have recreated this and took it to a further extent by not including any drums.

Rhythm wise, the first 3 notes played in the chorus are on the beat and the transition between the Am and F is quick. I will be playing bass for this song and the rhythm for keys and bass are pretty similar. There is only one difference which is when I play a walking bass riff between the final chord of the chorus and the one played after. This is how it sounds on the track too.

The pitch is low from every instrument excluding the organ which plays the notes quite high. Bob Marley's voice is low throughout and so is the bass. This also adds a calming effect to the song.

The structure is as follows:

ABCBCDBECBA

Intro, Chorus, Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Bridge, Chorus, Instrumental, Verse 2, Chorus, Outro

We decided to change the structure to not only shorten the song, but to include our style/ ideas. Our structure looks like this:

ABCBCBDB

Intro, Chorus, Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus

The melody is catchy especially the chorus. I think the chorus is more like a hook as it repeats the lyrics throughout. The melodies for the both verses are also pretty similar except for a few changes. We shook to the melody and listened to it in great detail in order to sing the correct thing, the way Bob Marley did himself.

Bob Marley uses many instruments in this track. Heard in the song are an organ, bass, rhythm guitar, drum kit, vocals/ harmonies and bongos. Due to our cover of this song being a duet, we've only included 3 of the above instruments. These are vocals, bass and an organ sound on keys.

The tonality of the song is major which gives a happy feel to it. This compliments the lyrics and meaning of the song which are "no woman no cry". Here Bob Marley wants to allow a sense of hope into a woman's life. He is telling her to stop worrying about all the bad things that have happened and start to not only reminisce on the good things, but also focus on the bright future she has.

The texture is quite thick throughout the song as all instruments are playing at the same time. We obviously couldn't recreate this as we only have two instrumentalists/ vocalists.In Bob Marley's song, there is harmony in the chorus. The first line isn't sung in harmony however more vocals come in and harmonize when the phrase is repeated. In our version of the song, we sing a harmony over the entire chorus except for the second chorus which says "hey little darling, don't shed no tears". This part is a solo.

70s Research- Eve Pitt

There are also no harmonies throughout the verses which we followed and used in our version. We also use the same harmony as the song in the bridge. However, we changed the bridge itself quite a lot. We changed the arrangement of the melody which we then layered as regards to our vocal texture.

Hotel California- The Eagles (Research)

The dynamics are fairly quiet throughout the song especially at the beginning of the song. They’re increased slightly at the chorus which emphasises the excitement of being at hotel California.

The outro of the song is quite high pitched. This is played by a string instrument- possibly a banjo. The vocals are also high pitched throughout the song as he sings it in the higher octave. The harmonies sung over the main vocals in the chorus are higher pitched than the melody vocalists. There is also a guitar solo which you can tell is played at the part of the guitar which created the highest pitching sounds.

This is what the structure for this song looks like:

ABBCBBCBBDA

Intro, Verse 1, Verse 2, Chorus, Verse 3, Verse 4, Chorus, Verse 5, Verse 6, Instrumental, Outro

For this song, we decided to change the structure slightly. Our structure looked like this:

ABBCBBCDBBCA

Intro, Verse 1, Verse 2, Chorus, Verse 3, Verse 4, Chorus, Instrumental, Verse 5, Verse 6, Chorus, Outro

The melody for the verses is the same throughout each one. When the chorus comes in, it introduces a catchy melody and hook phrase which I spent time focusing on as I knew that was my main part in the performance. I sang this chorus authentically after spending time mastering the melody and rhythm.

There is a main leading instrument used in the introduction of this song. This instrument I believe is a high pitched string instrument, perhaps a banjo. In the intro I can also hear shakers, bass, acoustic guitar and cymbals. Then when the verse begins, vocals, rhythm guitar and drums are introduced. This instrumentation remains quite similar throughout, however during the chorus; there is a lead guitar which plays separate riffs to the rhythm. We used keys, drums, guitar, bass and vocals.

At the beginning of the song the texture is really thin as there are only 2 or three instruments playing. When the vocals come in, more instruments are added, effectively adding a thicker texture. The texture gets thicker when the full kit is introduced in the chorus of the song. We aimed to

70s Research- Eve Pitt

parallel this motive of the song by just having keys and guitar in the intro and adding drums when the vocals come in.

The song has a minor tonality as the first chord is Bm. This gives the song its eerie feel to it and emphasises the meaning behind the song which could potentially be how all things of mankind may have some attractive features however they eventually come to an end.

There are no harmonies used throughout the verses. However, when the chorus comes in, it splits into a three part harmony and then uses call and response in the second and fourth phrase.