Kamryn C.

Burton
November 23, 2015
A First Look at Losing My Mind
The meter in Losing My Mind is in common time (c) with a
syncopated 4/4 feel to it. The unit of beat for this song would therefore
be a quarter note, with eight notes as the background beat. The
accompaniment is filled with quarter notes and eight notes. The feel of
the song comes from the idea of the snares ta ta ta feel thanks to
the pickup eight notes from the previous sub-phrase. The song also
changes in both key and in tempo. Whenever the bridge comes in
(All afternoon), the tempo accelerates. The second time the bridge
appears near the end on pg. 135 it modulates from Ab to B.
The key of the song is Ab Major. This can be told by the chord
changes within the piece:
Before vocal entrance: V7
On Vocal Entrance: I
Final Chords of Section: ii before key change
1st Few Chords of phrase: V/IV, vi
The introduction does include chromatics, however, the melody
doesnt. So therefore I believe its decorative. The introduction also
quotes part of the melody. Its harmonically active and sets up a strong
metric feel. Its rubato and the pianist follows the singer.
The melody line is never doubled in the piano, but is heard when
the singer isnt singing. The pull of the V7 to the I right before the
singer sings brings them to their first note. There are plenty of
repeated sections in this song. They include the 8 bar4 chorus and the
16 bar bridge.