1. Area of Study 3
Moby ‘Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?’
Time signature – 4/4
Tempo is 98bpm
Released 1999
Use of samples – Vocal samples of gospel/folk singing.Did not tidy up the
samples so there is background noise.
The track uses lots of music technology. There are drum loops, reverb and EQ
(equalization – can boost or reduce certain frequencies).
Tonality – The first chord sequence is in Am. This is used in the introduction
and verse:
| Am | Am | Em | Em |
|G |G |D |D |
The second chord sequence is in C major. This is used in the chorus:
|C |C |Am | Am |
|C |C |Am | Am |
|F |F |C |C |
|F |F |C |C |
The piano at the start is a MIDI keyboard.
The structure is in eight bar blocks. New layers are added for each block to
maintain interest. For example, the first 8 bars are just piano. The second eight
bars include a vocal sample. The third eight bars includes drum loops,
synthesized bass note and counter melody.

2. Miles Davis – ‘All Blues’
Jazz style.
Recorded 1959 – one take
Instrumentation: Miles Davis – Trumpet
Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderly– Alto Sax
John Coltrane – Tenor Sax
Bill Evans – Piano
Paul Chambers – Bass
Jimmy Cobb – Drumkit
Time signature – 6/4
Tonality is modal and based on the 12 Bar Blues sequence in G. The mode is mixolydian.
The 12 bar blues sequence is varied in bars 9 and 10 (the turnaround). The chords are:
| G7 | G7 | G7 | G7 |
| C7 | C7 | G7 | G7 |
|D7#9 |Eb7#9 D7#9 | G7 | G7 |
Structure – Follows the 12 bar blues chord sequence. The piece begins with the rhythm
section playing a vampin G7. The piano plays a trill; the drummer uses brushes. The
saxophones enter playing a riff in thirds. Miles Davis plays the melody (head) over the
saxophones. The first interval is a major 6th; the rest of the melody is conjunct.
There are four improvised solos with a link section between each:
Trumpet
Alto saxophone
Tenor saxophone

3. Piano
This is followed by a return to the head, which is played twice. The trumpet then improvises
over the outro.
Comping – providing an accompaniment for the soloist, improvising on the chords, using
rhythmic fills
Jeff Buckley – ‘Grace’
Recorded 1994, from the album ‘Grace’.
Drop D guitar tuning (bottom guitar string is tuned to D instead of E)
Studio effects – EQ (telephone effect on the voice at one point), Flanger(creates a
whooshing sound), overdubbing (guitar and vocal), reverb, distortion, modulation on
synthesizer.
Pizzicato strings in the background
Time signature is 12/8
Structure and tonality
 Intro A – key is not clear, two arpeggios (Fm and Gm)
 Intro B – Full band enter. D Major.
 Verse 1 - Vocals, Guitar broken chords. E minor.
 Pre chorus – E minor
 Chorus
 Link – same as intro A and B
 Verse 2
 Pre Chorus
 Chorus
 Middle 8 -multitracked vocals. EQ effect.
 Link
 Verse 3
 Outro – Em. Vocal improvises. Very intense. Finishes with a Qawwali(Indian vocal
music) influenced phrase.