Song: Otherside

Artist: Breaks Co-Op

Album: The Sound Inside

Release date: 2005

Genre: Easy Listening, Acoustic

Key: C Major

Chords in Key: 

I

ii

iii

IV

V

vi

vii

C

Dm

Em

F

G

Am

B°

 

Otherside is written for drums, bass, acoustic guitar and vocals. As the song progresses, subtle organ parts are added. While being in the Key of C Major, the ♭VII mixture chord (B♭) makes the tonal centre of this song feel like it could be in F Major as well.

Intro

The intro begins with the acoustic guitar playing the verse chords, with some elaboration: first with a short hammer on and pull off of an open guitar string, followed by an arpeggio. The drums and bass play the same parts they will use in the verses.

Verses

The intro becomes the first verse when the vocals enter and the acoustic guitar simplifies to just play the chords. Unusually, the verse is centred around the dominant chord followed by the tonic, making it like a short authentic cadence. A mixture chord is used halfway through the chord progression (a ♭VII) followed by the subdominant. The vocals are in the male falsetto range.

Chorus

The chorus uses layers of backing vocals to create harmonies. The chords in the chorus have all been used in the verse, but are put into a different order. Harmonically, the chorus is centred around the subdominant, which makes it feel like the song has modulated to F Major, however the G major chord would need to be a G minor if this was the case.

Bridge

The bridge switches key to F Major, or arguably B♭Lydian, as it is centred around the B♭major chord. All the chords used in the bridge have been used in the song previously, so it maintains a feeling of familiarity while changing keys, keeping the relaxed vibe of the song going while keeping it from becoming repetitive. A spoken vocal sample is used over this.

Outro

The outro is the chords from the verse, although this time it has the same vocal layering from the chorus while repeating “hold your head up high, on the otherside”, making it feel more like the refrain line from a chorus.

  

For a glossary of terms visit dictionary.onmusic.org

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit: creativecommons.org/licenses

--