The majority of pop songs can be filtered down to five different elements of music:

1. Melody

2. Harmony

3. Rhythm

4. Tone Color

5. Form

We've spent a good amount of time on the first three elements in our projects so far. Let's talk about the final two.

Tone color is the "characteristic quality of sound produced by a particular instrument or voice." Or, in plainer English, how it sounds.

Tone color is achieved through any number of means - the instrument selection, the style of music, the way a performer plays the music. 

Let's look at three different versions of the same song:

What's the same? It's pretty easy to identify these as the same song by the harmony, the melody, and even the rhythms being used.

What's different? Tone color! 

• The original version uses a basic rock band setup - guitars, bass, drums. 

• The second one is a brass band and drum set. 

• The third is what sounds like a karaoke track with recorders playing the melody.

There's no denying that these are the same song, but there's also no denying that they sound completely different thanks to the tone colors present in each one.

Form is how we put different parts of the song together. You probably already know different parts of song forms - the verse, the chorus, etc. Here's a breakdown of different parts of songs:

8 Days a week contains the following elements:

• Intro

  • 4 bars at the beginning, no vocals

  • Chords (one per bar)

    • • D / E  / G / D 

• Verse

  • Start with "ooh I need your love babe" 

  • 8 bars long

  • Chords (one per bar)

    • • D / E  / G / D / D / E / G / D 

• Chorus

  • Starts with "hold me, love me"

  • 8 bars long

  • Chords (one per bar)

    • • Bmin / G / Bmin / E / D / E / G / D

• Bridge

  • Start with "Eight days a week / I love you"

  • 8 bars long

  • Chords (one per bar)

    • • A / A / Bmin / Bmin / E / E / G / A

• Ending (or Outro)

  • "Tag" ending

  • 4 bars at the end, similar to the opening

  • Chords

    • • D / E  / G / D

Let's see how these are organized into the full flow of the song.

• Intro

• Verse 1

• Chorus 1

• Verse 2

  • Has different lyrics than verse 1

• Chorus 2

  • Second time there is a one-word change. The word "babe" changes to "girl."

• Bridge 1

• Verse 3 

  • Same as Verse 1

• Chorus 3

• Bridge 2

• Verse 4

  • Same as verse 2

• Chorus  4

  • This version of the chorus repeats the "8 days a week" at the end for four extra bars

• Ending

  • Ends on a "tag" repeating the same little melody from the intro.

For project 6.1, you are going to pick a song to analyze for its form. 

Create a copy of the google doc linked below and analyze your chosen song.

TIP: Try to pick a song that's around 3 minutes long. 

When you have finished, please upload your work to Schoology.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE GOOGLE FOLDER WITH PROJECT 6.1 AND EXAMPLES.