The Corrs Club

Sting melodies
20-May-2020 06:04:00

CorrsClub Time:
29-Mar-2024 07:51:39

Steve, I've noticed that Sting likes to make big leaps in his melodies (say, up a fifth) and uses scales that sound modal (I don't know which modes off the top of my head). And that gives it a folk/medieval sound. He also tends to write melodies that just sort of hang in the air - maybe they are called suspended second notes. Like on the word 'die'. You think the melody will go down to the tonic, but it hangs just before it.

He also does that on 'Hounds of Winter' on the line "as beautiful as day" in the first chorus. Some songwriters might take 'day' down to the tonic, but he hangs it just before the tonic.

The start of 'I Was Brought to My Senses' also has that folk/medieval-style melody.

In 'Tea in the Sahara', when Sharon sings '"joy you could not measure', she sings 'not' much higher than the other notes (a copy of what Sting does in the original). To leap up in the melody like that on a single word - that's a very Sting thing to do. (I can't think of another example of that right now though!).

He also seems to really accent words on beats 1 and 3 of the bar.

Hope that makes sense!

Wendy
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