Forget Me Nots - Groove Analysis

Hello groovers!! Today we will analyze the groove of Patrica Rushen's song: Forget Me Nots.

This song has a bass groove that is easily recognized wherever it is played. Although it brings all the hallmarks of the 80s funk, the groove has its own identity and unique characteristics.

One of the main characteristics that makes this grove special is its speed. The song was composed at 115 BPM, which is a relatively low speed for that kind of music.

The song structure is divided into 3 parts: Introduction / Chorus, Verse and Pre-solo. The groove its distributed into 8 bars which is repeated 2 times for each part of the song.

The download links for this analysis is right below.

You can download the song file in mp3 here: Forget_Me_Nots.mp3

You can download the songbook file in pdf here:

Forget_Me_Nots_songbook.pdf

You can download the Guitar Pro Tab here:

Forget_Me_Nots.gp5

Let's take a look at the first part of the intro:

You can listen to this groove here!! 

If you have any trouble just hit the play button again so te buffer will be loaded. 

As we can see from the image above, the music is in the key of F#minor or A Major which is its relative major. This key will be keeped for most of the song except in the pre-solo grove. The first and most remarkable characteristic of this groove is the use of octaves. This interval is used always in the beginning of a new chord. Each note of this groove has its own space to contribute as a rhythm and melody the song.

Another interesting characteristic is the use of 3rd, 5th and 7th to move from the current chord to the next one as a passing note. When we see how those notes are related with the next chord we find out that from the F#m7 to Dmaj9 the note A which is the 3rd of F#m7 is also the 5th of the Dmaj9. This passing note gives a feeling of preparation and resolution and could easily be replaced by a A7 chord which would call for resolution in the Dmaj9.

Now in the second part of the intro the groove has some details:

You can listen to this groove here!! 

If you have any trouble just hit the play button again so te buffer will be loaded. 

I this part the groove use the 7th minor interval to emphasize the root note of the chord which is the G#m7. This create a sensation of a riff being played inside the groove structure.

Now lets take a look into the firs part of the verse groove:

You can listen to this groove here!! 

If you have any trouble just hit the play button again so te buffer will be loaded. 

Now the groove the same strategy of the previously one is used in terms of octaves and passing notes, but the most important diference of this groove is the smart use of the rest. When the bass stops playing the drums come in and fill the void. This gives a sense of complement when the bass intentionally stop playing and let the drums continue the groove.

Its important to note that the drums plays almost the same groove in both parts(intro and verse), but this bass strategy makes the groove look different allowing the drums to shine.

Now lets take a look in the second part of the verse:

You can listen to this groove here!! 

If you have any trouble just hit the play button again so te buffer will be loaded. 

Here we can see the use of the F#m scale as a lick to pass from the F#m7 chord to the Dmaj9. This part give's a sensation of drums fill being played on bass.

Now lets take a look into the last part of the groove which is the pre-solo groove:

You can listen to this groove here!! 

If you have any trouble just hit the play button again so te buffer will be loaded.

This part of the song we can identify a change of key from F#m to Em. Another important characteristic is that the chord are not played, then only the bass an drums grooves prepare the song to the sax solo. In this groove we can see the Em triad being used but with the G on the root note. The 4th is used as a passing note, this help the groove not to sound repetitive.

After that we have the saxophone solo which is amazing, and the song repeat the chorus until the fade out ends.

This is it. One of the most beautiful and remarkable grooves of the 80's.

I hope you enjoyed this analysis as much as I did.

So what should we do next?

Ge into the melody of the voice?

Try to create or own version of this groove using what we have learned?

Any suggestions please leave us a comment.

The download links will be right below.

See you in the next groove analysis.

You can download the song file in mp3 here: Forget_Me_Nots.mp3

You can download the songbook file in pdf here:

Forget_Me_Nots_songbook.pdf

You can download the Guitar Pro Tab here:

Forget_Me_Nots.gp5