Army song.
Usually, when analyzing musical genres, the first thing to look at is the number of instruments. But here there’s only one.
The small number of instruments signals something intimate and intimate. Sometimes you even wonder who they’re singing these songs for.
That’s the beauty of this musical genre: the song isn’t addressed to someone else, but to oneself.
Self-pitying, pitiful moans, and crooked chords—this movement quickly gained popularity among soldiers.
Let’s analyze this interesting genre a little.
Harmony
The noticeable minimalism in the chord progression allows ANYONE to pick up a guitar and hum something very, very sad.
The chord selection is often very classical. Sometimes it seems as if all the army songs were composed by one person.
The key is mostly A minor (Am), and the chords used are triads on the I, IV, and V degrees, with III and VI being less common.
There’s a lack of variety, so even the performances of songs can be stylistically similar.
After all, where I use, for example, Am7 (if the upper voice has a G of the third octave), someone else might use the usual triads G, C, Em, or a minor fourth chord Dm4, or a chord with an elevated seventh from the bass ninth F7+/9, or chords on the VII degree. Basically, there are as many variations as there are people. But the army song emphasizes simplicity and accessibility, uniformity and ease—and it wins.
There are exceptions. Very rare. These songs aren’t as popular because of the chord variety. Not everyone is interested in spending weeks learning rare chords and practicing them on the guitar until they become automatic. It’s easier to hammer out a “triangle” and sometimes surprise everyone with an A7 chord with barely noticeable pools.
Melody and Lyrics
Simple verses and narrow tessiture choruses can be handled by any voice. Recitatives can be heard, especially at the beginning of the introduction. The melody is not sweeping, close to speech, and is delimited by even pauses. The lyrics lack clear diction; there are sighs and groans. Such songs are sung with shallow, chest breathing.
Song Theme
Songs about military service, such as “the girl who didn’t wait to return from the army,” “romances in military units,” “hazing,” “the terribly similar everyday life of soldiers,” “waking up at night,” etc., have resonated with the hearts of those same soldiers for several millennia.
Transcending linguistic boundaries, the theme of the soldier’s plight has conquered new territories all over the world, dating back to the Middle Ages (the time of knights, and perhaps even earlier). And now, in the modern world, army songs occupy a well-deserved place among those who have served in the army and beyond.
A guy with a guitar, especially after the army, will be in demand among the opposite sex. Plus, if he sings about being shot at by bullets and grenades, there’s sure to be no end to the hype. And it doesn’t matter whether they served in the Airborne Forces or in the Missile Troops, everyone will still sing about the same thing.
Cover opportunity.
Take some army song and break it up into parts for a band.
What will it be?
It won’t be an army song anymore, but a group of musicians performing war songs. The chic, and even the occasional flavor of army life, will disappear. The simplicity of guitar playing will be replaced by a separation of bass and midrange. The desire to roar along with the singer will disappear.
Seriously, it won’t be the same.
This brief analysis was presented so that you can have something to base your song on when creating it, and understand whether your song is suitable for military service.
By performing an already written song according to these characteristics, you will more accurately fit into the genre classics.
A soldier sings—the service goes on.
