Anoushka Shankar - Easy

A level edexcel Music

Describe the sonority for 'Easy'.

• Most western out of the set works based off the instruments used

• Piano

• Guitar with chorus effect

• Warm pad

• Synth bass

• Vocals are sung by Norah Jones in a relaxed R&B style and they sit to a middle to low tessitura.

Describe the texture of 'Easy'

Melody Dominated Homophony

What is the structure of 'Easy'

Verse-Chorus structure and most structured out of the 3 songs of Anoushka Shankar. Quite western-like

Describe the melody of 'Easy'

• It has a wide vocal range - a 9th (Ab to a Bb)

• There are some intervals in the vocal of a 4th and a rising octave to highlight crucial words ("the other side")

• Sitar phrases are often fairly short and well separated by rests and it has fills in the middle 8

• Sitar has loads of ornamentation (a feature of an Indian Raga)

• The sitar becomes the focus when the vocals are not there.

Describe the tonality of 'Easy'

The key signature has 6 flats which might indicate it to Gb major or Eb minor (mainly Gb major based off the regular use of a Gb chord). However, the Dbsus4 chord is treated as the tonic of the song when its meant to be the dominant of Gb major and the song ends on a Db too which makes the tonality of this piece quite ambiguous

Describe the Tempo, Metre and Rhythm of 'Easy'

• It has a chord progression which is popular in a lot of pop songs:

• Ib - Gb(sus2)/Bb

• IV - Cb(sus2)

• V - Db(sus4)

• These chords may sound dissonant

Describe the Harmony of 'Easy'

• It has a chord progression which is popular in a lot of pop songs:

• Ib - Gb(sus2)/Bb

• IV - Cb(sus2)

• V - Db(sus4)

• These chords may sound dissonant