Happy Music Monday! Today I’ll go inside the theoretical aspects of the music….just a bit.
Like I said in the previous post, I wanted this song to be somewhat simple, with just a verse and chorus. I chose the key of C (no sharps or flats) for this song, although I use a Bb chord throughout the chorus especially, to give it personality. Here are the steps I followed to write the accompaniment.
1.Write a Lead Sheet – The lead sheet served as a guide in helping me to practice the song until I was ready to write the full accompaniment. See the following:
2. Pattern for the Verse – I wanted the verse to have a walking, strolling or rocking type of sound to it, so that’s where the left hand pattern comes in. 1 2 rest 4, 1 2 rest 4. I repeated that pattern throughout the entire verse for consistency. In the treble clef I incorporated a “scoop up” type melodic movement to reflect the country style which you hear in the vocal part.
3. Pattern for the Chorus – For the chorus, I chose to make it more fluid with an emphasis on beats 1 and 3 in the bass clef. I stuck with the main chord notes for the Left hand, but varied the order and pattern in which I placed them to keep things interesting. I chose a consistent eighth note pattern for the treble clef adding a little variation in the pattern. It was important that the chorus accompaniment sounded different than the verse. The chorus should stand out from the rest of the song.
4. Create the Sheet Music – Once I decided on the patterns, I wrote out the accompaniment in MuseScore, a free sheet music program. It doesn’t take very long to input the notes once you get to know the keyboard short cuts and cutting and pasting techniques. 🙂 When I recorded the song I varied the accompaniment even more, bringing things up an octave in the last verse and a few other note additions, but for the sheet music, I kept it basic.
Check out the post in which I share the recording for “Love, Loretta” Here.
Have a great week!
Marilee