Pitch, Scales, Melody and Texture This paper is meant to analyze the pitch, scales, melody and the texture of Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry. Context Johnny was recorded in the year 1958 by Chuck Berry. The genre of this song is Rock’n’Roll; thus, our expectation is to see various features such as the repetition, 12 bar blues structure, solos and the use of blues scales. During the time of production of Johnny B Goode, Rock’n’Roll was amongst the most trendy music genre. Country, Jazz, Blues, and R’n’B were popular too.
Rock’n’Roll is composed of the blending of Country and Blues. Chuck Berry started playing guitar and singing in his early childhood. He is often recognized as one of the first individuals to create the Rock’n’Roll sound and the pioneer of this genre of music. Johnny B Goode is amongst the most known Rock’n’Roll piece of all the time. Structure The advanced basic structure of the song includes the; Intro (Twelve bars) Verse (Twelve Bars) Chorus (Twelve Bars) Verse (Twelve Bars) Chorus (Twelve Bars)
Solo (Twelve Bars) – 4 bars guitar breakdown (with a band accents) then eight more bars with the whole band) Solo (twelve bars) same as the previous solo Verse (twelve bars) Chorus (twelve bars) – with special accent in the last two bars. In the arrangement of the song, the Bass, Drums, Piano, and the Rhythm guitar plays the whole time, besides the first four bars of the intro and solo whereby the band plays only the accents of the song. Chuck Berry’s lead guitar joins during the solos and in the choruses immediately after the line “Go Go” in the song.
While the rhythm guitar, the bass, and the drums plays recurring parts, there is enormous variety in what plays in the piano; it seems to be soloing throughout the song, even during the time of guitar solo (Benward, 2014). The breakdowns in the guitar solo and intro provide a great disparity from the “chug-a-chug-a chug-a” rhythm. The given is distinctive because various Rock”n” Rolls songs applies similar arrangement in the productions (Benward, 2014). The structure of the song fits into a known category because it has 12 bar blues.
Another fundamental thing in the structure is, just before the final chorus, in bar 12 of the verse, the vocal section jumps to the chorus untimely by singing “Go Go. ” Additionally, the following first bar of the Chorus is sung differently. Melody The melody in the song is sung by Chuck Berry, but it will also be right to indicate that some of the guitar riffs such as the intro are highly iconic to develop the melody (Benward, 2014). The main notes of the melody are made mostly from the Bb major scale as shown. F F Eb D Eb F F Eb D Eb F Eb D Bb Bb
Go, Go Johnny Go Go, Go Johnny Go Go, Johnny B Goode, Various extractions in the guitar are not in the Bb major scale 1. Ab (the flattened 7th) 2. Db (the flattened 3rd) 3. E scale. The construction of the melody is from a recognized scale which is Bb Major, but it is also formed from the Blues and the B scale. The vocal melody spans within a short range of approximately 5th amid F and B. There are some phrasing features in the song, for instance, the artist is using a fragment of pitch bending and sliding through, though it is not very important.
There are various kind of tricks utilized in the guitar melody such as the pull offs, the hammer, the double stops, the bends, and the muting. Texture The way this song is recorded and the tones it has are quite thin in comparison to today’s standard. There is no much change in the texture besides the intro and the Guitar solos when the band completely drops out. The rhythm guitar is softer, and nearly blends in with the drum, the bass is fills in the bottom end; the piano fills in the higher register with its soothing soloing. The bass guitar is plays a four to the floor walking the line.
The rhythm guitar plays a distinctive two string chugging riff. Bb is not a usual guitar key, same as the bass (Benward, 2014). The bass only plays a single note. The rhythm guitar is plays the two notes at the same time. The piano is plays a close cluster notes higher. This helps the parts not to get too muddy; thus, they blend well. The texture of this song does not fit into a recognized category because there is no classic texture that can clearly explain this sound; it is basically the texture of a normal Rock”n “Roll song (Benward, 2014).
The song recording and mix might have affected the sound texture because the old recording technology was not very good at capturing the high end (treble) or the low end (bass) of sound. It was good at capturing the middle ranges from approximately 200-300 up to around 3000 to 6000. This mid-range is where the vital information is, though it is clear that this recording sounds thin and weak in comparison to the modern recording (Benward, 2014). Nevertheless, this “sound” has a bunch of nostalgia attached to it, and various individuals prefer it.
