The world is awaiting a revival of one of the biggest pop acts in history: ABBA.
The name ABBA does not need much introduction, as the swedish band has been celebrated for decades since their emergence in the early 70’s.
Not only through their vast catalogue of gigantic chart hits ABBA is a timeless phenomenon but also through various broadway productions and blockbuster films such as Mamma Mia!
This month, there will be a release of the sequel film production Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
Just the perfect time to extend Skoove’s vast song library by two more ABBA hits and dig deeper into their wonderful creation of music.
ABBA, aka Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid, are a Swedish pop group formed in 1972. For nearly a decade the group had been active. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts in history. Their music topped the charts worldwide single after single, album after album and captivated audiences across the planet.
Also their music had a long lasting effect in the history of pop music as well, as they pioneered disco pop, influencing vast number of artists to follow their lead.
So, what made their music so popular, catchy and great?
This blog will uncover some of the magic recipe inside their tunes.
Along with it come two brand new Skoove piano arrangements for “Dancing Queen” and “Mamma Mia”, carefully curated to beautiful – yet easily playable – piano songs. ***LINK!***
Let’s take a close look at Dancing Queen and its musical genius. I will talk about the three most fundamental elements of a tune:
Groove, harmony and melody.
- Groove
ABBA spearheaded a new movement called disco-pop. How music in general makes you want to dance is not fully understood yet, however one fundamental reason to get your feet going is what we call groove. ABBA’s song-arrangements are so cleverly arranged in terms of groove, that you need to be a rock not to start moving to their music.
How did they do that?
One fundament for groove is the bass performing a certain bass pattern or bass groove. Let’s have a look at the first couple of bars and the bass figure (left hand – bass clef). Dancing Queen starts off with two dotted eighth notes followed by a long sustained note.
This groovy bass figure has been used in countless dance hits all the way to present day.
To understand this bass figure and its effect on our body better, it is necessary to understand the ONbeat and the OFFbeat. It dictates the feel for the groove.
The ONbeat is where your foot-tapping takes place. It’s the inner metronome one feels and connects to immediately. Usually you can easily count 1, 2, 3, 4 along to the music. Each number is the ONbeat.
The OFFbeat is exactly the opposite of this emphasis. It goes against the onbeat, sometimes referred to as syncopation. If the offbeat is playing around the onbeat, leaving a strongly felt gap, our body or foot automatically wants to fill the gap and starts moving. As I said: Unless you are a rock 😉
For those just starting out, it may be challenging at first to play such syncopated rhythms in the left hand. It is important you spend good amount of time practicing by repeating the figure until it feels right and natural. The secret to groove is having a strong sense of “inner metronome” (tapping foot or nodding head or swaying your body, whatever feels good to you).
Here’s an example of how you could practice this bass figure to get it nice and groovy.
Listen to the left hand bass inside the Skoove lesson for ‘Dancing Queen’ until you feel the groove. Then set a metronome going at about 72 bpm (many free metronome apps out there for free download).
The first note on the bass clef, an octave of C, is an onbeat-note.
Second set of Cs is right before the second and third beat, hence on the offbeats.
Counting onbeats may help: Slowly say 1, 2, 3, 4 while tapping your foot. Once your counting and the inner-metronome is synchronized, then add “a” right before the 2 and 3 like so: 1, a 2, a 3, a 4. That “a” is where the offbeat is and the second set of notes should be played.
The stronger you can convey the onbeats through precise timing of the offbeats, the more music starts grooving and comes alive.
Your listeners won’t be able to resist feeling like dancing to it.
That’s the secret!
- Harmony
ABBA didn’t invent anything new in terms of harmony, however their knowledge and application of harmony was immense and yet – just like all amazing songwriters do – they made complex harmonic structures sound easy in their songs.
Very important to ABBA’s music is the vocal harmonization of their melodies, giving the signature-sound to their music.
Take a look at the right hand chords. The melody note is on top of the chord, whereas the other notes below are chord tones from the underlying harmony. We call this harmonization.
Do you notice that the notes of the chords are as close as possible as the previous ones? This is called “close harmony”.
These chords you play in the right hand are actually the notes that the ABBA singers performed making their vocal parts sound full and smooth.
- Melody
ABBA used plenty of motifs. Motifs are very valuable in giving the songs memorable “hooks”, what makes their songs so catchy. If that wasn’t enough, ABBA took it even further by utilizing “riffs”, brief musical phrase being repeated over changing melodies and harmony.
Let’s take a look at the beginning of Mamma Mia.
Here ABBA used a tonic and a fifth, and followed by adjusting to augmented fifth (raised fifth). This song is recognizable from the first bar on, anybody can name this song within a few moments. Addings such a strong character to each song is how ABBA made their song so popular and unforgettable. You can find the use of riffs on almost any ABBA song, and that gave rise to how dance music was perceived in later years all the up to today.
Think of the dance music today. Almost all dance music has something in common: the groove, easy to relate melodies, and repeating riffs.
ABBA weren’t the only ones pioneering this style but they were inventors and made a mark in the history of music by popularizing this particular style we all love.
At Skoove, you can learn these evergreens in step by step easy to follow lessons. Be sure to check them out!
I hope this post was helpful. Please feel free to comment or share this post.
Happy groovin’!
