Groundworks for Pop: Graveyard (Halsey)

Hey there everyone, The song I'd like to talk about today is Halsey's .single Graveyard from her 2020 album Manic. We'll look at the guitar part, some insights into the keyboards and the vocal melody through the form of the tune.

The harmony is built upon chords that share notes.

Gmajor Bminor Dmaj7

F# F#

D D D

B B

A

G

To distinguish one part of the song from another an addition chord is inserted. It's really subtle harmony, but profound when witnessed:

Gmajor Asus Bminor Dmaj7

One of the interesting elements about this song is that so much of it is monophonic (one note at a time). The guitar part is primarily a melody. The notes are sustained, so it builds chords, but not in blocks like so many songs do. As the song progresses there is more block harmony used to build intensity, but you can distill a lot of this down to several instruments playing one note at a time. As a result of this the chords are a bit ambiguous.

The guitar part translates well to the keyboard. I'd highly recommend learning it on both instruments.

If you're going to block chords, refer to verse 2. There's some play between the bass and the right hand that can be arranged well.

Practice comparing landing the right hand on the downbeat to the written upbeat.

The rhythmic syncopation is a huge element within this song. Hear the bass in the last 4 measures of the chorus. It glides into the B and D a sixteenth note after the downbeat. The synth lead in the choruses is consistently dancing around the strong beats.

The vocal melody has all sorts of interesting facets. The rhythmic vocabulary is interesting. A lot of this trick where we accent strong beats then upbeats consecutively. Measure 2 of the verses and choruses is nearly all syncopation. Halsey uses graces notes and slides between pitches. The x's are nearly whispered or spoken words. It has a nice blend of staccato (rhythmic) and legato (smooth) singing. The contrast emphasizes the uniqueness of each section despite how much of its structure is unchanged.

Play through it. I think it's one of the better pop songs to be released this year.

You can download the sheet music here.

As always,

Take your time, enjoy the process and keep playing.

Christopher