Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man

Music by Marcus Mumford
YouTube Video here

Key: F major
Time: 4/4
Tempo: 138

VERSES

Above is an illustration of the second half of the first verse. I found the way chords were written in the sheet music I purchased very interesting. Starting at 'rate yourself...,' we have a Csus4 and Bbmaj7. This is a simple way of notating chords for performances. However, analyzing the chord progression with Roman numerals will be confusing with these chord names. 

First, the Csus4 will be labeled as a V chord with a 4 suspension in the key of F major. Following this V4 chord is Bbmaj7 which is a IV7 chord. V4-IV7 indicates a retrogression which is not uncommon in non-Classical music. However, the 4 suspension is not resolved and leaves the analysis unsatisfactory. 

An alternate analysis of this chord progression is achieved when the Csus4 chord is spelled differently. If we make the F the root of the chord then it becomes a  Fsus2/C. In Roman numerals this is a I6/4 chord with a 2 suspension. The 2 suspension refers to the G and this resolves to the F in the following Bbmaj7  (2-1 resolution). This would make more sense because instead of a retrogression we will have a I6/4-IV7 progression. The I6/4 would serve as sort of a passing chord connecting the previous I chord to the following IV7. In my opinion, this reflects the phrasing of the vocal line because the music seems to move forward instead of retrogressing.  

I also relabeled the IV7 to a IV9 because, to my ear, the C in the vocal line belongs to the chord. 

Katy Perry - Firework

Lyrics can be found here.

YouTube video here.

Music by Mikkel Eriksen, Katy Perry, Tor Eric Hermansen, Esther Dean, and Sandy Wilhelm

KEY: Ab Major

TIME: 4/4

TEMPO: 124

VERSES

As seen in the illustration above, the chord progressions for first three verses are I-bVII-vi-IV. The '9' in Db(9) is sort of an anticipation of the Eb in the following Ab major chord (colored red). While there is no dominant chord until the bridge, the Eb serves a significant role throughout the song as a ciphering tone strengthening unity among key progressions. The illustration below shows the slightly altered chord progression for verses 4,5, and 6. The bVII is substituted with a ii chord.

PRE-CHORUS

The eight bars before the chorus section is labeled as "pre-chorus" in my sheet music I purchased. While it has a slightly altered chord progression from the previous verse section, the main purpose of the pre-chorus is to transfer the vocals to a higher tessitura. The blue notes in the illustration above are the main notes in the vocal line. The vocal line is an ascending Ab major scale starting on C. As mentioned earlier, the Eb plays a significant role here as well. The Eb is a chord tone of Ab and Fm7. However, it is held through the Bbm7 and Db chords. Therefore, Bbm7 and Db have a '4' and a '9' indicating it contains the non-chord tone Eb.

CHORUS

The chorus contains the same chord progression as the pre-chorus. The melody always lands on a non-chord tone on the downbeat, and the melody doesn't really rest on the tonic Ab throughout the chorus. The Bb in the second bar of the illustration above is a non-chord tone that serves as an appoggiatura because it resolves downward to the Ab in the third beat. The C in the third bar is anticipated in the previous bar and becomes an unresolved suspension. The same idea is repeated in the fourth and fifth bars.

BRIDGE

There is a short eight bar bridge in the song which doesn't modulate and remains in the key of Ab. The familiar vi7, IV with a scale degree 2, and I are used. In addition to these chords we have a dominant chord appear for the first and only time in the song.