What the Beatles' "Something" has to teach musicians.
My 3 year old has fallen into Beatlemania. Ever since I told him when holding hands and walking that there was a song about holding hands, he’s been hooked. Now he might saunter up on my drum throne and exclaims “I’m Ringo!” at any time, clothed or unclothed (not hyperbole).
One of my favorite later-era tunes of there’s, “Something”, is a masterclass of a song full of musical lessons that those at any level can benefit from and apply to other situations and general musical senses.
I’ll walk you through what you can take away from this tune:
-a deeper understanding of chord progressions (and the context of a key) for aid in learning new songs quickly
-a review of new chord colors, extended harmony, and various kinds of tension/release
-an example of a unique modulation trick
-several harmonic and emotional movements on stationary chords you can add to your vocabulary
This article will accompany a video lesson here.
As with anything theoretical in music, the following disclaimer might always be helpful:
Theory is just a left-brained attempt to “get” music, after the fact. However, learning theory out of obligation or not being provided explicit, crystal clear application can lead to frustration and no actual skill acquisition. It’s a common trope, but knowledge doesn’t make one an effective player, and good ear-driven players without any frameworks can also struggle in their musical understanding.
Learning a language is only as good as a daily interaction with it, speaking, appreciation, and overall focus. Music is no different. Theory must be applied for it to be useful to study.
This step of studying songs gives us the needed practice of exercising and cultivating a musical understanding. We don’t want to just learn this stuff without conviction, but to “grok” it, a helpful term that means to understand profoundly and intuitively. We want to feel this information, not just pay lip service to it.
So brush up your numbers and chord knowledge, and join me in diving deep into “Something”!
Lesson No. 1 (The Basics)- Stuff You Need to Know
The chords to ‘Something’ have a harmonically distinct sound, utilizing chord extensions and changing keys between the sections. Here’s a big picture overview (and here’s a lead sheet-style chart):
-this tune has an older form to it, one with main verses, often referred to as the ‘head’, and a bridge (only gone to once). This contrasts to the modern norm of the song centered around a strong, thematic chorus.
Modern typical song form:
Intro, V, C, / V, C, / Br. / C
Form for ‘Something’:
A, A, B, solo (A), A, tag
or
V1, V2, Br., Solo, V3, end
-A common form for many older American Songbook tunes is A A B A, and it’s such an effective form that one could see it utilized both in modern song form as well as ‘Something’.
Modern typical song form:
V, C, (1st A, first time you’ve heard either)
V, C (2nd A, 2nd time you’ve heard tune, new lyrics)
Bridge (B section, new material that develops song and story)
C (Last A, reconciling the new material in the bridge with the main character / central thesis of tune- the Chorus)
Form for ‘Something’:
V1, (1st A, first time you hear main tune)
V2, (2nd A, repeats melody, moves story along with lyrics)
Bridge (B section, new material that develops song and story, as well as new key- older bridges are often in different keys)
Solo (extra) A section
Last Verse (Last A, ties up song )
-the Head (“Something in the way…”) is in C major, while the Bridge (“You’re asking me…”) is in A major. It alternates sections and modulates a few times between the Head and Bridge.
Being in a key references groups of chords that have historically gone together. We’ll be reviewing the typical chords that go in the keys of C and A major. I’ll go over this in depth during the video lesson.
-This tune exemplifies the beauty of voice-leading. Most of the chord progressions feature either chromatic or scalar step-wise movement between the notes.
-This kind of harmony is characteristic and more diverse, with each chord sounding distinct and drawing the ear along, vs a more modern song with a one progression loop. Think of this harmony as taking us on a more autonomous, unique journey with different parts. Compare that to the trance and focused vibe of a one-progression, only-in-one-key song like Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, or Taylor Swift’s Lavender Haze (to reference the queen of one-progression songs). Of course both kinds of songs, and other formats too, can effectively get the point across.
Recap of The Form:
Intro (2 bars)
Head (A) (8 bars)
Turn Around (1 bar)
Head (2nd A) (Same melody and chords, different lyric) (8 bars)
Turn Around (1 bar)
New key of A (1 bar)
Bridge (B) in key of A (8 bars) 2x
Solo (in C) (A section changes) (8 bars)
Head (A) (8 bars)
Turn Around (1 bar)
Key of A call back (1 bar)
Turn Around (1 bar) ends in key of C
Be it in your head or in a number chart, lead sheet, etc, it’s a good goal to have a command of the form of anything you’re playing. Being able to memorize or interpret a written form is a critical defining skill pro musicians constantly use. The better we get at form, the more detailed and arranged music can become.
My preferred way of notating a form of a tune is to make a number chart (see above), outlining the harmony in detailed rhythm, over the whole form. This gives me a bird’s eye view of the overall form, every beat accounted for, as well as the harmonic map in any key. The missing information: (what chord to play for what number, the exact way to play the chord on your instrument, dynamics, how much to play the chord, etc) can be acquired through a regular practice and growing familiar with all the helpful “music geography” we can learn from playing tunes.
Number charts are optimal for harmonically simple and mostly diatonic (in one key) music, though “Something” still is easily understandable as a number chart (for me at least).
There’s no one size fits all way to learn, but finding a combination of helpful tools (learning by ear, by rote or demonstration, or making/reading a chart) is a crucial part of musical growth. Again prioritizing knowing the form well (the jazzer in me insists to emphasize again) is helpful for strengthening our tune learning.
Knowing the form of a tune well interestingly tends to enable quickly understanding of musical forms of unfamiliar stuff, as well as natural memorization from a clear-seeing of the overall form. This makes improvisation, jamming with others, or learning tunes quickly, less and less abstract.
Here are two charts with numbers and w/o that I’d make for this song.
Lesson no. 2 (Tiny Harmony)
-The tune utilizes a technique classically known as a “line cliche”, where only one note is changed from one chord to another, subtly changing the extension or quality of the chord. The beginning phrase: “Something in the way she moves / Attracts me like no other”, as well as the Bridge lyric: “You're asking me will my love grow” both feature the same overall chord with a singular changing note (the melody in the first example):
First 3 chords of the head (Note the bolded notes, C, B, Bb, descending down chromatically):
C (C E G C)
Cmaj7 (C E G B)
C7 (C E G Bb)
A bit forward, “I don't want to leave her now”, in the head (Note the bolded notes, A, G#, G, F#, descending down chromatically):
Am (A C E)
Am(maj 7th): (G# C E)
Am7: (G (A) C E)
D7 (F# (A), C, E
Finally, the first 4 chords of bridge (Note the bolded notes, A, G#, F#, E, descending down the A major scale.):
A (A C# E A)
Amaj7 (A, C#, E, G#)
A6 (A C# F#)
A (A,C#,E)
This kind of sound and progression has a long history of use in all kinds of tonal music, and is nice to be familiar with. “Something” for a beginner might be an introduction into more complex chords like maj7, etc. These different chord flavors are covered in detail in the next point, and give the ear more subtle harmonic motion and gravity.
Lesson No. 3 (Extended Harmony)
-Following from the last point, the tune is a good introduction to:
Major 7th chords (major triad with a major 3rd added, or R 3 5 7 in major scale).
(Dominant) 7th chords (major triad with a minor 3rd added, or R 3 5 b7, occurs naturally only on the 5 chord in major scale).
6 chords (major triad with a major 2nd added, or R 3 5 6 in major scale.
Minor (Maj 7th) (minor triad with a major 3rd added, or R b3 5 7). Associated often with James Bond.
Minor 7th chords (minor triad with a minor 3rd added, or R b3 5 b7).
How They Sound/Feel
Jacob Collier put it great when he said the “7th tells the chord where it wants to go”, meaning it contributes to the amount of stability or tension the overall chord has. Here are some tips to hear and recognize the vibes of these chords.
Major 7th chords have a characteristic soft, jazzy sound, comfortable where they are or wanting to become a 6 chord.
Dominant 7th (7th chords) have a characteristic light-hearted, unresolved, and perhaps bluesy/rocky sound. They love resolving in a 5 dominant to 1 style (ex. D7 to G).
6 chords have a pleasant, jazzy vibe. I associate them with an earlier jazz sonority on a major chord. 6 chords are interestingly also an inversion of their relative minor (as a minor 7th). C6 = Am7 with 3rd in bass. 6 chords are common in jazz, and often are a part of a line cliche when used in popular music, though you’ll hear the Beatles or The Beach Boys use them a bunch.
Minor (Maj 7th) and Minor 7th chords are so momentary in this tune that I’ll briefly cover them in the video lesson.
Lesson no. 4 (More Non-Diatonic Harmony)
-The Head chord progression is a great introduction to what are referred to as Secondary Dominants, or chords from outside of the key, usually resolving to a following chord in the key a 5th away (like 5 to 1):
The C7 going to F and D7 going to G are both non-diatonic (or out of the key) chords resolving 5 to 1 style to the last chord.
-To clarify, any chord with a sharp or flat in the key of C is non-diatonic, like D7 (F#) or C7 (Bb).
C7 is the 5 of F, or ‘the 5 of 4’.
D7 is the 5 of G, or ‘the 5 of 5’.
-the Bridge chord progression is a great introduction to what I’m calling “Secondary Subdominants”, or chords from outside of the key, usually resolving to a following chord in the key a 4th away (like 4 to 1):
The D to G to A in numbers is: 4, b7, 1.
The G is also the 4 from the 4 chord (in D, G is 4).
Lesson no. 5 (Melody Number Practice)
-The two single-note riffs in the Bridge are a great chance to work on viewing riffs in numbers:
The first riff is chromatic, between 1 and 5 of A.
The second riff is a descending C major scale, C-C, skipping F.
The 1 of each key, and both 1 and 5 in the first example, serve as good landmarks to think in terms of numbers.
Lesson No. 6 (Odds and Ends)
-The relationship between the keys of C and A are interesting:
C and A are a minor 3rd apart. Many composers like to modulate to keys a minor or major 3rd away. It’s a dramatic modulation that can be unexpected.
Am is the key of C’s de-facto antagonist. The always melancholy sound of Am (the music at: “I don’t wanna leave her now”) gets quite broken up by a sunny A major (“you’re asking me where…”), as if the bad guy just became a hero.
The keys have just enough harmonic overlap that can be used to transition between one another. Common tones between the keys can serve as beautiful portals from one key to the other. For example, an E in the key of A turning into E in the key of C (goes from feeling like “5 in A” to “3 in C”) feels a certain way.
The funkiest chord in ‘Something’ is funnily in neither key of C and A, but a quick Eb in the intro/interlude. Great voice-leading is what makes chord progressions work, and that Eb to G is a great example.
A great exercise for more advanced players is to replace Eb with (why not) any other triad and try to resolve smoothly to G. If you wanted to retain the melody note when the Eb is played (Bb), you could explore replacing Eb for any other chord with a Bb also in it.
Application
OK, what now?
Acquiring and being able to reuse the musical conventions in ‘Something’ can be exercised by the long lesson of transposing music (changing the key). For example, playing ‘Something’ in the key of G. Can you picture the chord progression in G of the A section?
It would begin:
G, Gmaj7, G7, C, A7, D, Em…
That’s possible for me to quickly type out (without an instrument) because I see (and perceive) the chords like:
1, 1maj 7, 1 (7), 4, 2, 5, 6m…
Zoomed in on every individual explicit chord, this is arduous and difficult. Zoomed out, thinking in numbers and armed with vital familiarity of major scales and degrees, it’s a piece of cake! It’s not only possible to play this song in another key, but it’s a good testament to actual acquisition of particular musical material and vocabulary. In my view, simply thinking in numbers and tagging the number to the emotion you feel when hearing the chord, teaches about all the theory you’d ever need. That understanding makes learning by ear, and learning about music from active listening, easy.
For polyphonic instruments like guitar and piano that can play the chords and melody, we can explore the possibilities of playing an instrumental arrangement, reharmonizing, or improvising over the form. “Something” is a great vehicle for those applications and more. I will be covering both of those topics more in depth in the next few weeks!