rrayner
05-21-2014, 01:57 AM
"Can't Buy Me Love" is a Beatles song, written in 1964 by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. This arrangement is not really a reduction of their performance, as John and Paul sing in unison, I believe without any vocal assistance from either George or Ringo. The lead line was taken as is from "The Beatles Recorder Songbook" by Hal Leonard. So, the harmony/counter melody is my own doing.
The tempo marking is "Bright Shuffle" and the Beatles perform it with a Pop/Rock/Swing feel, so I have adjusted the attack/duration to make it sound more like the way the Beatles perform it. If you would like to know more about this kind of adjustment, see my discourse on "Swing Feel" at:
http://www.notation.com/vb-forum/showthread.php?t=30356
For those who might be interested -- this song is truly a standard "blues" form -- a 12-measure repeating chord pattern, which uses the basic chord sequence (in G Major, in this context -- the Beatles original key was E Major):
G for 4 measures;
C7 for 2 measures;
G for 2 measures;
D7 for 1 measure;
C7 for 1 measure;
G for 2 measures;
There are many variations of the above pattern, but this is where the blues form starts.
John and Paul add the additional twist of "blues feel" by writing the song in E Major, with the intro and the coda in E Major, but playing and singing in E Minor in the rest of the song, while retaining the written key signature of E Major.
In my arrangement in G Major, you will see that there is emphasis on a lot of Bb concert and F Natural concert notes that you wouldn't normally find in a song in G Major. This is another blues aspect, to give the song a bluesy, minor lament.
Ralph Rayner
The tempo marking is "Bright Shuffle" and the Beatles perform it with a Pop/Rock/Swing feel, so I have adjusted the attack/duration to make it sound more like the way the Beatles perform it. If you would like to know more about this kind of adjustment, see my discourse on "Swing Feel" at:
http://www.notation.com/vb-forum/showthread.php?t=30356
For those who might be interested -- this song is truly a standard "blues" form -- a 12-measure repeating chord pattern, which uses the basic chord sequence (in G Major, in this context -- the Beatles original key was E Major):
G for 4 measures;
C7 for 2 measures;
G for 2 measures;
D7 for 1 measure;
C7 for 1 measure;
G for 2 measures;
There are many variations of the above pattern, but this is where the blues form starts.
John and Paul add the additional twist of "blues feel" by writing the song in E Major, with the intro and the coda in E Major, but playing and singing in E Minor in the rest of the song, while retaining the written key signature of E Major.
In my arrangement in G Major, you will see that there is emphasis on a lot of Bb concert and F Natural concert notes that you wouldn't normally find in a song in G Major. This is another blues aspect, to give the song a bluesy, minor lament.
Ralph Rayner