With A Little Help From My Friends

About the Piece:

Key: E major on the album, E♭ major on the score Tempo: Moderate Style: Moderate Swing Feel Structure: Verse | Refrain | Verse | Refrain| Bridge | Verse | Refrain | Bridge | Refrain | Outro   With A Little Help From My Friends is the second song on the album.   Ringo is the main vocalist in this song, with the rest of the band providing backup vocals in the chorus. Lennon and McCartney wrote the baritone vocal line to suit Ringo's range and style of singing.   The song originally had a working title of Bad Finger Boogie, supposedly because John had damaged his forefinger and had to work out the melody on the piano with his (bad) middle finger. If true, this could be a reason for the simplicity of the melody.   The structure of the song is typical of this time period and of The Beatles' songs.    The overall rhythmic style of the song is that of a steady shuffle, a beat commonly found in rock`n’ roll style music.   The lyrics of this song are about sticking with your friends. The easy swing feel of the song helps to create a relaxed vibe that matches the tone of the lyrics.   The instrumentation of this song is simple, consisting of; piano, lead guitar, bass, drum kit, cowbell, and shaker.  

Introduction: Bars 1-4

The song fades in from the first song on the album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The volume of the crowd in the background is turned up to mask this fade in.    The opening 4 bars act as a fanfare introduction to the song. The tempo in the first bar is the same as the previous song, this tempo increases from 90BPM to 112BPM to match the slightly faster tempo of this piece.    The vocal chorus introduces Billy Shears (Ringo's alter ego) in these four bars. This offers a dramatic introduction before the diminuendo into the verse. We hear the drop from the polyphonic texture to homophonic texture in bar 4 to allow for the solo vocal line.   The chords of the first three bars move up in tones from C to E, introducing the key of the piece. The triplets used here help to create the moderate swing feel of the song.

Verse 1:

The verse of this song consists of 8 bars.   The harmonic structure of the verse is very simple, using only three chords, I (the tonic- E), ii (F# minor) and V (the dominant - B).    The melody is also very simple in the verse, moving entirely by step. The verse has a small range, only featuring notes between E and B.   The use of passing notes in the melodic construction of the bass line (shown below) results in inverted chords. This means that the bass line can be melodic rather than always moving in larger intervals. This is particularly noticeable in bars 8 and 10 of the piece. In the opening four bars of the verse, the bass line descends in pitch, this changes in the next four bars, with the bass line ascending.   In the beginning of the verse the only percussion being used is a hi-hat, which plays crotchets. This picks up in bar 9 with the introduction of a snare on the second and fourth beats, and a move from crotchets to a shuffle beat on the cymbals.

Chorus:

Similar to the verse, the vocal line in the chorus (first 8 bars shown below) is also restricted to a very narrow and limited range.   This very simple eight bar chorus is based on the repetition of this two bar idea three times. In the first chorus, the backing vocals enters in the third repetition, creating richer texture. In later renditions of the chorus, this richer texture is present from the beginning of the chorus.   The chorus has repeated notes followed by the leap of a fifth (E to B). Once again, the vocal melody is restricted to a range of five notes.   The chorus opens on a flattened 7th chord (D major) and then quickly resolves to the dominant (E major) in the next bar.    The first chorus ends with a two bar pause on the dominant chord (B), this creates an imperfect cadence. In these last two bars of the chorus there is a syncopated drum fill on the toms to lead back into the verse. The following choruses move to the bridge instead of this. 

Verses 2 and 3:

The second and third verses develop the ideas introduced in the first verse. There is very little melodic variation between these verses and the first verse, but there is a distinct change in the texture of the music.   Verse 2 introduces an antiphonal texture, this is a musical texture where the music is sung or played by alternate groups. In the case of these verses, there is a phrase sung by Ringo and a response given by the band.   The lyrics sung in verse 2 (shown below) illustrate the worries of the singer. In the third verse, the band poses questions to the singer and he gives a response.                         Ringo: What do I do when my love is away?                         Band: Does it worry you to be alone?                         Ringo: How do I feel by the end of the day?                         Band: Are you sad because you're on your own?       The arrangement of the choruses following verses 2 and 3 isn't vastly different to the first chorus.    The vocal harmonies that were introduced at the end of the first chorus are present throughout choruses 2 and 3.    The final two bar instrumental passage with the drum fill is omitted to allow for a lead into the bridge.

Bridge:

The bridge offers a contrast to the restricted melody in the verses and chorus.   The band asks the opening questions in a much higher range, allowing Ringo to answer in his baritone range. These questions have layers of harmonies and create a rich texture.   The bridge, like the verses and chorus, has a heavily syncopated melody to fit with the swing rhythm being played by the accompaniment. All of the accompaniment, apart from the drums, reduces in dynamic to place emphasis on the vocal line.   Bar 2 of the bridge shifts to a C# minor chord, followed by an F#7 chord to prepare for a modulation to B major, the dominant of E major. However, instead of the expected perfect cadence into B major, the harmony suddenly shifts back to E major, the use of the flattened 7th (D) chord once again resembling the chorus. As a result, the modulation isn’t quite complete.

Outro:

The final chorus is followed by a four bar outro.   The outro gives an iteration of one of the chorus lines ending with a sustained E. There is an octave jump from a low E to a high E, a note that has not been previously reached by the baritone singer.    The final bars have block chords played by the accompaniment on the first beat of the bar with the drums keeping a steady beat, this brings attention to the vocal line.    The last 3 bars feature descending descending harmonies from the backing vocals. These help the minor 4th chord (A minor) resolve back to the tonic (E).    The outro is based on the introduction link from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band that was heard at the beginning.