Killer Queen

Question 1

melody KQ

Answer 1

• mainly syllabic
• wide range
• guitar solo uses ideas from rest of song
• vocables/backing vocals
• often conjunct
• some wide angular leaps (6ths and 8ves)
• falsetto
• spoken text
• portamento slides
• word painting
• chromatically descending sequence (inner chromatic descending pattern ‘met a man’)

Question 2

harmony KQ

Answer 2

• adventurous chord sequences
• altered/extended chords (7th, 11th, 9th)
• circle of 5ths prog in chorus
• perfect cadences
• starts with Cmin chord
• some fast harmonic rhythms eg ‘guaranteed to blow your mind’
• pedal notes
• short, detached piano chords
• dominant chords jump to secondary dominants

Question 3

tonality KQ

Answer 3

• Eb maj - unusual - hard for guitar
• frequent modulation
• Bb maj chorus
• tonally ambiguous - starts w/C min chord (functions as relative minor)

Question 4

tempo, rhythm, metre KQ

Answer 4

• mainly 12/8 compound time - swung feel
• regular beat
• syncopation
• anacrusis
• extra 6/8 bars

Question 5

instrumentation KQ

Answer 5

• high tenor voice
• piano, bass, electric guitar, drums
• overdubbing - 4 guitar parts, voices, honky tonk
• multi-track recording
• EQ
• pull-offs, slides, vibrato, bends
• drum rolls
• flanger, wah-wah, distortion, reverb, panning
• finger clicks

Question 6

texture KQ

Answer 6

• mainly homophonic
• gradually builds - at first, simple melody and accompaniment
• guitar solo is 3 part texture
• panning
• antiphonal feel - esp at climax - call and response
• imitation