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Was this the secret of the Early Beatles Sound

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Topic: Was this the secret of the Early Beatles Sound

Posted By: Coldplay2002
Subject: Was this the secret of the Early Beatles Sound
Date Posted: June 15 2008 at 11:37

” They were using folk music chord patterns with modal forth and fifth harmonies, and combining it with elements of jazz, blues, Bossa Nova and rock 'n' roll"- Roger McGuinn

I have noticed many of their earlier songs are quite modal like "A Hard Day's Night" or even "Love Me Do" but it was done in a folksy and melodic bent. I think that is why they sounded so different than the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, and even the Beach Boys.

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Coldplay02

Replies:

Posted By: Beckham
Date Posted: June 17 2008 at 15:14

The Beatles differed even when they did blues music. The old blues masters were
content to create entire songs out of multiple repetitions . As songwriters in the Tin Pan
Alley/Brill Building mold, Lennon and McCartney weren't comfortable
with that degree of formal repetition--at least they weren't in 1964
when they started incorporating the 12-bar blues pattern into their
songwriting--so they ended up creating something more complex. In the
verses they'd follow the 12-bar, 3-chord blues pattern, but in the
bridge they'd use a chord pattern more appropriate to a pop ballad
(incorporating minor ii, iii, and/or vi chords). The result was a kind
of blues/pop hybrid. I'm not sure that there was any precedent for
the mixture of styles heard in Can't But Me Love, You Can't Do
That, and She's A Woman.

A somewhat similar approach is taken in The Word (though there the
bridge is more rock than ballad) and in Birthday (where the bridge is
sort of bubblegum). For You Blue and (strangely enough) Flying are
closer to pure blues insofar as they rely on repetitions of the 12-bar
pattern exclusively, unmediated by a bridge of any kind.
Paradoxically, Yer Blues, which would seem to be the most
"authentic" blues song the Beatles did, doesn't quite meet the
strict definition because Lennon deviates from the standard chord
pattern in the third phrase.

Posted By: chopper
Date Posted: June 17 2008 at 15:39

They did use a lot of unusual chord sequences (you only have to check out a Beatles music book to see that very few of their songs are that easy for a basic guitarist like me to play) but I suspect most of the credit for this goes to George Martin. The Beatles themselves were basically self taught and wouldn't have known much about modal fourths and fifths. Macca can't read music even now!

Posted By: Beckham
Date Posted: June 17 2008 at 16:17

George Martin did not write their chord progessions when it came to straight rock. Except only later if it involved string arrangements and even their espeically McCartney would hum the parts. You don't need to know how to read music to write complex chord progressions.. They may not have been able to read or write music but that doesn't mean they didn't understand it, the same way someone can speak english without reading or writing it. Remember, they had the best education of all: learning and studying 100's of songs during the Hamburg period. Their ability with intersting chord changes came from emulating jazz standards like "Till There Was You". The use of modal fourths and fifths comes from their skiffle background which is folk influenced .

They were naturally gifted, came up with melodies, rhythms, harmonies, chords to fit their ideas, and played what made sense to them in terms of what they were trying to accomplish. When experts marvel at how a song can contains passages in 4/4, 3/4, 5/4, etc., and "strange" modes like the mixolydian, it's all after the fact. I don't think they were aware of any of this and just went with what felt right.

Have you ever seen a note-for-note transcription of a Jimi Hendrix solo? It's like, who could possibly think of this? Well, he didn't. He just played, and someone else later figured out how to put it on paper and took note of its significance in terms of music theory.

Brian Wilson who also could not read or write music.

Posted By: Coldplay2002
Date Posted: June 17 2008 at 19:33

McCartneys ”Blackbird" is influenced by Bach and it's just him on guitar. Paul was experimenting with avant garde techniques on his own in 1965. George was playing the sitar and using Classical Indian Musical and Lennon's want to do a classic Beethoven song backwards which influenced "Because" I’d say they knew what they were doing.

They used the AABA song form popular with Tin Pan Alley so they had a strong pop influence, and were melodic. You add a strong rock backbeat with chord progressions rarely used in rock music some of them modal. Examples "A Hard Day's Night" is modal and "Eight Days a Week" uses the Lydian Progression.

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Coldplay02