The Musical Characteristics of Soul

 

Musical characteristics of Soul

Tonality 

Soul has a blend of major and minor pentatonic scales, it takes influence from gospel with it's use of dominant chords and "blue notes".

Harmony 

The vocal harmonies are complex to make a fuller, more resonant sound. However, soul songs itself have simple harmony and rhythm featuring a catchy melody.

Extensions 

Soul music typically have extensions such as 9th, 11th and 13th with minor 7th and major 7th chords being the foundation of the song.

Scales 

The most common scale for soul music is major pentatonic which is a "slimmed down" major scale using 5 notes.

Riffs 

Soul riffs are known to have a shuffle sound and can usually be played in intervals like thirds and sixths.

Rhythms 

Soul rhythms feature a strong groove with emphasized syncopation and a heavy backbeat. It often features a call and response section where the rhythms is responding to the singers call.

Melody 

Soul melodies are usually catchy and memorable that have great emotive movements supported by simple rhythms and harmonies.

Instruments 

The typical instruments featured in soul music are drums, bass, piano, electric keys, electric guitar and percussion. Soul music can also feature orchestral type instruments like horns and strings.

Textures 

The most typical texture of soul is homophonic which is usually lead vocal/ melody accompanied by chords. There's also typically call and response with a lead vocalist and a instrumental response.

Lyrics 

Soul music lyrics are usually emotional with themes of love, heartbreak and life struggle. 

Instrumental Techniques  

Guitars usually has a clean tone or sometimes a "jangly" sound. Horns often do a punchy riff and solos which harmonizes with the vocals.

Important notation  

< These are the lyrics to "For Once In My Life" by Stevie Wonder.

3 Subgenres of Soul

- Subgenres of soul are Funk, Gospel and contemporary R&B.

- The similarities of all 3 genres is that they have shared roots in black church music, powerful vocals with harmonies and call and response textures.

- Funk is more of a dance-music genre, the themes of funk tend to be about social life, empowerment and partying. The vocals are typically energetic and the instrumentation often have syncopated drums, bass, horns and guitar. Randy Crawford - Street Life - 1979

- Gospel is typically African American church music and often has themes of faith, praise and spirituality. Vocals tend to be powerful with a lot of call and response. Instrumentation usually features choir, piano and an organ. Pastor T.L. Barrett & the Youth For Christ Choir - Nobody Knows

- Contemporary R&B was heavily based in the 80s-90s, now it has a pop, hip hop influence behind it. The themes of the song's are often about love, relationships and personal experiences. The vocals tend to be smooth and layered, the instrumentals often have synthesizers and drum machines. Hit the Road Jack

Opinions on Subgenre's 

- My personal favourite is gospel because it just has such a positive sound to it, I love the use of call and response because it has this sense of community.

Famous musicians in each subgenre 

- A famous funk musician is James Brown who is known as "The Godfather of Soul". He is famous for songs like I Got You (I Feel Good) and Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, he brought new rhythmic innovations which shaped Funk music.

- A famous Gospel musician is Mahalia Jackson, she is known as the ''Queen of Gospel'', she brough Gospel to mainstream audiences. She is known for songs like How I Got Over and Take My Hands Precious Lord, these songs made her a key figure in the civil rights movement.

- A famous contemporary R&B musician is Mary J. Blige she got labelled the ''Queen of Hip Hop'', she's famous for songs like Real Love and Be Without You. She blends her soulful vocals with hip hop influences which has kept her relevant to this day.

Evolution of Soul

- Soul music began in the late 50s-Early 60s, it was primarily African American music. At first it combined Gospel type vocals with rhythm and blues instrumentation. In the late the 60's Soul music became a key part of the civil rights movement due to its origin of African American decent. In the 70s the genre began getting subgenres as more artists played around with the sound of soul making it their own. Today soul music has a more funkier sound with more influences from hip hop and R&B, which gives it a more upbeat dance sound.

What Soul has in common with other styles 

- Soul often has influences from gospel with expressionism and heartfelt lyrics. Soul has roots of jazz so it has a similar sound for example the smoother sounding instruments and vocals.