Favorite melodies
Jul 31, 2016 12:16:27 GMT -5
Post by Ten Pound Hammer on Jul 31, 2016 12:16:27 GMT -5
Today I looked up "Take Me" by Lari White since the title wasn't ringing any bells. I recognized the song immediately as one of my late-90s "Alpena songs". But what struck me as most interesting is the melody: the chorus is in a lower key than the verses, which is very unusual -- usually songs that change keys go higher at the chorus, like "The Way You Love Me" or "Little Red Rodeo". Lari also did this on the Travis Tritt duet "Helping Me Get Over You", where her verse is in a lower key than Travis's. It also shows up on "Heart Half Empty" by Ty Herndon and Stephanie Bentley, and perhaps the most famous "lower" key change is "I'd Love to Lay You Down". It's just something that gets me on those melodies every time since it's so unexpected.
Also, I've mentioned before that I like a lot of Luke Bryan's melodies for technical reasons, such as "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)" being in Dorian. But even if I didn't know that, I'd still think it had a catchy and distinctive melody.
And we all know how much I like the "Ba-ba-da, ba-da-ba" in "Love Done Gone". That song uses the doo-wop chord progression, and the main riff uses only three notes of the scale, but damn if it doesn't make the most of it.
I also tend to like songs that are in 6/8, like "Already Gone" by Sugarland, "Stay with Me (Brass Bed)" by Josh Gracin, or "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town, since there's a "flowing" quality that such melodies often have.
A lot of ZBB's melodies are really strong too, such as "Sweet Annie", "All Alright", or "As She's Walking Away".
Finally, "Head Over Boots" has a really strong melody for its fairly basic chord pattern as well.
ETA: Another good key change song -- I like "Easy" by Rascal Flatts because the key change (E to G) comes halfway through a verse, which is really unusual.
What are some of your favorite melodies?
Also, I've mentioned before that I like a lot of Luke Bryan's melodies for technical reasons, such as "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)" being in Dorian. But even if I didn't know that, I'd still think it had a catchy and distinctive melody.
And we all know how much I like the "Ba-ba-da, ba-da-ba" in "Love Done Gone". That song uses the doo-wop chord progression, and the main riff uses only three notes of the scale, but damn if it doesn't make the most of it.
I also tend to like songs that are in 6/8, like "Already Gone" by Sugarland, "Stay with Me (Brass Bed)" by Josh Gracin, or "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town, since there's a "flowing" quality that such melodies often have.
A lot of ZBB's melodies are really strong too, such as "Sweet Annie", "All Alright", or "As She's Walking Away".
Finally, "Head Over Boots" has a really strong melody for its fairly basic chord pattern as well.
ETA: Another good key change song -- I like "Easy" by Rascal Flatts because the key change (E to G) comes halfway through a verse, which is really unusual.
What are some of your favorite melodies?
