Harmony:
- Diatonic harmony
- Chromatic harmony
- Modulation
- Resolution
Tonality:
- Tonal
- Atonality
- Bitonality
- Polytonality
MODERN BANDS DO KNOW MUSIC THEORY
By Spencer Farrance
A lot of people think chart hits don't take much skill or musical knowledge to write anymore. This articles purpose is to prove those people wrong. By analysing Oxfordshire's Math Rock sensations 'Foals' newest single 'Spanish Sahara' off of the new album 'Total Life Forever' I was pleasantly surprised by what they managed to achieve.
When listening to Spanish Sahara to begin with you think its just another boring piece of music that goes on for too long, I'm not going to lie, the fact that it doesn't change the chord pattern once drove me insane. I was pleasantly surprised though when the music dropped and the essence of Foals' math rock roots began to break out. This song is an under rated masterpiece which combines the feelings of dreams and peace together in harmony in order to pull you into listen to the rest of the track.
The key of this song is in A minor. Although its a rather basic key, Foals use it to compliment their different melodies perfectly. With the key being in A minor the band decided to make it very clear that they know what key it is in by constantly using the root note of the key 'A'.
In this image of the annotated score you cans see the use of chromatic harmony that Foals use in the different guitar parts within the breakdown of the song. This is done to highlight the fact that they are still a math rock band despite what the rest of the song sounds like. In the picture you can see how the second guitar is harmonised a third up from the original lick which is played by the lead guitar. The key of this lick is in A minor. In this picture you can also see how the rhythm guitar is playing a basic chord pattern that uses the root and the third of each chord, this is done to keep the song simple but still quite spacey.
Along with chromatic harmony Foals do also use a lot of diatonic harmony in their songs. This one of the key elements to their noticeably distinctive sound. Unfortunately in Spanish Sahara I don't believe they use much diatonic harmony which is worth mention, but I definitely recommend listening to some of their other stuff to get a good idea of what they can do.
All of Fouls music sticks to one key and doesn't modulate really, if they included modulation I don't really think it would fit the style of their music much. Along with modulation they also don't include many atonal features, although they do hint at some jazz, blues and expressional influences a lot of music follows one specific key that doesn't really change. In some of the previous images you can see how when harmonising the guitar Foals do use some aspects of polytonality. Polytonality is one the things that Foals do to help make their harmonies stand out more from any other band. This is perfect example of how they really do consider certain aspects of composing when writing new material.
One thing that is really important and key to Foals' music is their ability to be able to express feeling and emotion through complex rhythms. There are some good examples of this in the Spanish Sahara score.
Here you can see how they like to mix up the simple strumming patterns by playing on the off-beat (syncopating). This is done to help compliment the complexity of the drumming and how skilled Jack Beven is as a drummer.
In conclusion I believe a lot of bands do know music theory and they certainly know how to express it within their music, unfortunately those bands are usually drowned out by the less talented and more mainstream which don't even write their own music.
