The elements of music to consider
Melody and instrumentation
Although the song does feature very limited vocal harmonies, Someone Like You is written for a duet emulating vulnerability. The elements in this song are:
- small A short section of music, normally a melody, that could be thought of as a musical sentence. Phrases are like building blocks in music. in the verse descend, following the same shape and last only one bar. For example, the four lines 'I've heard that you're,' 'settled down, that you,' 'found a girl and you're,' 'married now' all have the same melodic shape even though their rhythms vary slightly.
- the opening phrases in the first five bars are repetitive because they are similar in rhythm and descend from E to A
- a pop-balled written for solo female voice and piano
- the piano accompaniment plays Notes of the chord played separately. throughout most of the song
An extract of audio from the bridge section of the piano supporting the vocal parts with broken chord accompaniment
Rhythm, metre and tempo
Devices are implemented in the recording to bring out emotion and story of the song. These are common elements that songwriters and performers like to use in similar style songs. For rhythm, metre and tempo these are:
- repeated semiquavers in the piano accompaniment
- An upbeat. - main melody starts on the 4th beat of the bar
- a time signature of 4/4 – Musical rhythm where each beat in a bar is a crochet and each beat can be divided in two, four or eight.
- a bar of 2/4 just before the first chorus
- an Slowly, in a singing style. tempo - about 72 beats per minute
- a small A gradual slowing down or decrease in tempo. (rall) at the end of the Sometimes called a middle 8, this part of a song is heard only once.
The rallentando at the end of the bridge is led by the piano
Structure
Like most pop songs, Adele and Dan Wilson wrote Someone Like You in a verse-chorus structure. The sections are:
- introduction
- double verse
- pre-chorus
- chorus
- verse
- pre-chorus
- chorus
- bridge
- double chorus
Timbre and texture
Timbre and texture refer to the colour of the music and the number of layers. Someone Like You possesses the following qualities:
- mid-female vocal range
- A musical texture which features a melody with accompaniment.
Tonality and harmony
Someone Like You is written with:
- a tonic centre of A major
- diatonic harmony phrases
- the chord sequence I - iii/V - vi - IV
| I | iii/V | vi | IV | I |
| A | C#m/G# | F#m | D | A |
| I |
| iii/V |
| vi |
| IV |
| I |
| A |
| C#m/G# |
| F#m |
| D |
| A |
- thin vocal Adding melodic layers to a tune that usually sound pleasing when played together. in the bridge section
- a A type of cadence where chords IV to I are played. Makes the phrase sound finished, but is softer than a perfect cadence. In the key of Bb major, a plagal cadence is the sub-dominant third (Eb) leading to the tonic chord (Bb). from chord IV (D major) to chord I (A major) every four bars
Audio of the first plagal cadence as Adele begins to sing in bar 5