Don't Stop Me Now- Queen - analysis

Post by **olly** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 4:58 pm

Intro

F Am Dm Gm C
Tonight I’m gonna have myself real good time, I feel alive
F F7 Bb Gm D7
And the world turning inside out yeah, a floating around in ecstasy
Gm Dm C Gm7 Gm Dm C
So don’t stop me now, don’t stop me
Gm C7
Cause I’m having a good time, having a good time

Verse 1

F Am Dm
I’m a shooting star leaping through the sky, like a tiger
Gm C
Defying the law of gravity
F Am Dm
I’m a racing car passing by, like lady Godiva
Gm C F
I’m gonna go go go there’s no stopping me

F7 Bb Gm
I’m burning through the sky yeah, two hundred degrees
D7 Gm
That’s why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit
D7 Gm
I’m travelling at the speed of light
C
I wanna make a supersonic man out of you

Chorus

F Gm Am Dm Gm C
Don’t stop me now, I’m having such a good time I’m having a ball
F Gm Am Dm Gm D7
Don’t stop me now, if you wanna have a good time just give me a call
Gm Dm C Gm7
Don’t stop me, cause I’m having a good time
Gm Dm C Gm7
Don’t stop me, yes I’m having a good time
C7 Eb
I don’t wanna stop at all

Verse 2 (same chords)

F Am Dm
I’m a rocket ship on my way to Mars, on a collision course
Gm C
I’m a satellite, I’m out of control
F Am Dm
I’m a sex machine ready to reload, like an atom bomb
Gm C F
About to oh oh oh explode

F7 Bb Gm
I’m burning through the sky yeah, two hundred degrees
D7 Gm
That’s why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit
D7 Gm
I’m travelling at the speed of light
C
I wanna make a supersonic woman of you

Bridge (drums only)

Don’t stop me, don’t stop me, don’t stop me (hey, hey, hey)
Don’t stop me, don’t stop me (oo, oo, oo)
Don’t stop me, don’t stop me (have a good time, good time)
Don’t stop me, don’t stop me (woooaaaawwwww)

Solo

F7 Bb Gm
I’m burning thru the sky yeah, two hundred degrees
D7 Gm
That’s why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit
D7 Gm
I’m travelling at the speed of light
C
I wanna make a supersonic woman of you

Chorus

F Gm Am Dm Gm C
Don’t stop me now, I’m having such a good time I’m having a ball
F Gm Am Dm Gm D7
Don’t stop me now, if you wanna have a good time Just give me a call
Gm Dm C Gm7
Don’t stop me, cause I’m having a good time
Gm Dm C Gm7
Don’t stop me, yes I’m having a good time
C7 Eb F
I don’t wanna stop at all

Post by **olly** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 5:05 pm

I love this song primarily for the energy it has as well as how well it seems to be written. It is a great example of the way a Queen song is written - nothing straightforward it seems, musically.

The son starts with F. I take the progression as being (for the first line)

I III VI II V

Then we have an F followed by F7 - the F7 is the V chord of Bb and Bb follows this chord. Bb falls into the key of F as the IV chord. I'm not sure how this secondary dominant is written in the roman numerals but I would guess it be something along the lines of V/IV.

The D7 is where I am stuck. It sounds like it is meant to be there but it is not in the key. Is this another secondary dominant?

Instructor · Post by **Instructor** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:11 pm

Pretty Much. The D7 can pull right to G as a Tonic V i. G Major would be the first, but in reality, it CAN pull to any G, Jazz progressions do that a lot. Kind of cool, and an examples where there are no real rules, while at the same time understanding why it "works". In this instance it pulls back to Gm instead of G major. Depending on the harmonic movement, a D7 to Gm, could also be registered as a G Harmonic minor move. In that case you could see the keys changing F major to G minor.

Good stuff!

The end of the song seems to bear that theory out as you have a V (C7) bVII (Eb) to I (F) return to resolve.

Instructor

Post by **olly** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:24 pm

Thanks for this.

The thing that confuses me with the D7 is it almost doesn't need to resolve back to the Gm - it kind of sounds good on it's own.

What is really much more important to me though is how this song most likely was composed . I love this variety of chords and what this does for the melody. It keeps it totally interesting. I guess I would love to know how I could compose songs myself using this variety of chords.

I know there is no real solid answer here but how would you imagine that this song was "born" - I would guess there was the melody and lyrics but do you think that theory was even used here or was it just an open mind to any chord that fitted with the melody?

When I try and write I kind of limit myself to chords that I know will work. I would never ever consider using some of these chords and they, to my ear, are what makes the whole thing exciting, interesting and different.

Instructor · Post by **Instructor** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:41 pm

I think if its written on Keyboards it might have a lot more flexibility as we arent as constrained as we are on the guitar. Sometimes people find something on keyboard that sounded good. Knowing Queen, Id think that he compsed a lot on his keyboard. These chords and ideas may not fall as easily on the guitar when noodling, as they do on a keyboard, for the simple reason, that all notes of a keyboard chord, are played. On the guitar thats not the case, many times our fingers have zero involvement in notes on the chord, such as....open strings.

Thus modifying fingered chords on a keyboard, or inversions etc may be a simple matter of changing 1 or 2 fingers. In free composition where the piano is your native instrument, thats not as hard.

Instructor

Post by **olly** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:48 pm

To my knowledge this is a Freddie Mercury song so he would most likely be composing on the Piano.

I have considered using my keyboard to aid my composition then transfer to the guitar. I have heard others use this technique (possibly Brian May but not sure) for composing.

For me, Queen are a real inspiration when it comes to compositions. I was watching the live aid documentary last night where Queen kind of stole the show and to be able to write those sing along anthems that appeal to so many people is something really special!

jamesd74 · Post by **jamesd74** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 2:28 pm

Help what's all these 7s

Instructor · Post by **Instructor** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:58 pm

jamesd74 wrote:Help what's all these 7s

7s are extensions of triads. Do you know all your major and minor basic chords yet?

Post by **olly** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 9:11 pm

jamesd74 wrote:Help what's all these 7s

I would say just get used to your major and minor chords first of all. These chords are extensions that kind of add to the sound of major or minor!

jamesd74 · Post by **jamesd74** » Fri Dec 31, 2010 9:24 am

I have learnt G D C A E F and A and E with 3 could you suggest any-moor ????????

alun · Post by **alun** » Fri Dec 31, 2010 9:35 am

jamesd74 wrote:I have learnt G D C A E F and A and E with 3 could you suggest any-moor ????????

B

jamesd74 · Post by **jamesd74** » Fri Dec 31, 2010 10:02 am

Sorry done B and started to learn bar cords

Instructor · Post by **Instructor** » Fri Dec 31, 2010 3:05 pm

jamesd74 wrote:Sorry done B and started to learn bar cords

The big 9

A Am C D Dm E Em F and G

Do you know all these?

If so then, the next step you should do is examine what Makes a Major scale, and then study what Intervals out of a Major scale make a triad Major and what ones make a triad minor. You should have those down, and be able to write out those maj/min triads before studying 7ths. Basically 7ths are the 4 note harmoniztion of chords. If you can't first understand 3 part harmony, like I described above, 4 won't make any difference.

Instructor

Post by **olly** » Fri Dec 31, 2010 3:35 pm

Instructor wrote:If you can't first understand 3 part harmony, like I described above, 4 won't make any difference.

This is true if you want to understand what you are doing, theory wise, but if you just want to play then it would do no harm to learn some of the extended chords.

I started off by learning A7, E7 and D7 which are all easy shapes based on the ones you most likely already know. Also major and minor 7s can sound nice as well.

Instructor · Post by **Instructor** » Fri Dec 31, 2010 6:59 pm

Well if he wanted to know how to play them I suppose if he has access to Google and/or a chord book, there'd be his best bet.

You're probably right, though, maybe he just wants to know how to play them. I initially understood the question to be concerning his understanding of 7ths.

Instructor

Post by **olly** » Fri Dec 31, 2010 7:14 pm

Sorry hope it didn't come across that I was knocking your advice. I was just offering an alternative suggestion. If it's how the chords are constructed then I would agree with you 100%!