Struggling to answer questions for GCSE Music: Killer Queen? Well, struggle no longer – this is the place to be!
Struggling to revise for GCSE Music: Killer Queen, and no idea where to start?
Panicking because there are only a few months left until your GCSEs?
Not to worry, this is the place to be!
As a grade 9 ex-GCSE music student myself, I know all the best tips and tricks for doing well in your exam. I have tried to make all this information as concise as possible so you can get the best value for your time spent reading. Using this guide to Queen’s Killer Queen, you can boost your grades with as little effort as possible!
.Make sure you write EVERYTHING down and learn it thoroughly. Reading alone will not help you absorb this information!
This article is all about GCSE Music Killer Queen.
GCSE Music Killer Queen
I’m tentatively assuming most of the people reading this will already have the GCSE Anthology of Music recommended by Edexcel. If not, here is a link to where you can buy it.
Unfortunately, the anthologies are very expensive. However, if you are lucky, you can find a second hand one on amazon or ebay. Charity shops might also have a copy which you can get for a very low price.
Rather annoyingly, Killer Queen is not yet out of copyright, and won’t be for at least some seventy years. This means you won’t be able to find the music for free online anywhere. Legally, that is…!
However, if you need the music last-minute, you can buy it online. It’s almost £6, which is a bit ridiculous, but if you are desperate here is a link!
Context of Killer Queen
Killer Queen was written by Freddie Mercury and was released on Queen’s 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack. It is about an upper-class prostitute. No, not joking! The song reached number 2 in the UK, suggesting it was very popular. It also reached number 12 in the USA.
Queen was a popular progressive rock band in the 1970s and ’80s whose songs are still widely loved today. Their sound also blended elements of heavy metal, music hall and opera influences. Freddie once said that their sound was more similar to Liza Minelli than Led Zepellin, which I think is quite revealing!
Just to clarify before diving right in, I will be referring to Killer Queen as pop music in this analysis. I am using the description in the broad sense of all post-1950s popular music, much like most pre-1920s ish music is called classical music, ignoring the differences between, say, the Baroque era and the Romantic era. Don’t worry, I know there is a massive difference between Queen and the pop music of today!
Instrumentation of Killer Queen
The line up of Queen was that of a typical rock band. Freddie Mercury was the singer (and pianist), Brian May was the guitarist, John Deacon was the bassist and Roger Taylor was the drummer.
Freddie Mercury was a tenor with a wide range. However, the vocal line is sung an octave lower than written. Even the great Freddie Mercury couldn’t reach those ridiculously high Fs in the chorus! Nevertheless, he still has a range of more than two octaves in this song, which is very wide.
Freddie sometimes uses falsetto – that breathy, airy sound singers have high up in their voice. An example of this can be heard in bar 11. There are also a few spoken words, such as in bar 38.
However, beyond these instruments, Queen also used some less traditional instruments. These include finger clicks in the first two bars, the triangle and the tack piano. The tack piano has a similar sound to a honky-tonk piano but it is achieved in a slightly different way.
The song uses lots of backing vocals, sometimes singing vocables (nonsense syllables such as “ooh” and “ba”) and sometimes echoing the lyrics of the main melody.
The guitar parts are very intricate and filled with details. There are examples of slides, pitch bends and vibrato throughout the song. In bar 62 you can hear an effect called the wah-wah pedal, which makes it sound playful. In bar 9 the guitar is palm muted, meaning the vibrations are limited by resting the hand against the strings of the guitar.
Studio effects of Killer Queen
Queen also used lots of studio effects to create this song. There is extensive multi-tracking and overdubbing, which means the lines were recorded individually and not live. This allowed Brian May, for example, to play each of the four guitar lines. The backing vocals were also overdubbed.
On the words “laser beam” (in the chorus) you can hear an affect called flanger. This acts as word-painting, as it literally sounds like a laser beam.
There is also panning in the song, most noticeably in bars 18 and 19. This is when the sound only comes out of one speaker or headphone – have a listen to the song and you will be able to hear what I mean!
You can also hear some reverb on Freddie’s lead vocals, which makes the song sound bigger, for want of a better word.
Structure of Killer Queen
The overall structure of Killer Queen is verse-chorus form, as is typical for many pop songs.
The song opens with a very short introduction consisting of six finger clicks. Verse 1 begins in bar 3, and Chorus 1 begins in bar 15. You can tell when these sections return as the music sounds similar in the verses and almost identical in the choruses.
There is a short 4-bar instrumental at bar 23 before the second verse arrives in bar 27.
The guitar solo begins in bar 44 and lasts until verse 3 in bar 62. It references and embellishes material from verse 1.
Chorus 2 is unusual as it is slightly shorter than chorus 1, missing out a few bars. Verse 3 is also unusual as it doesn’t use the same melody as verses 1 and 2. This adds variety to the song and keeps the listener entertained.
The song ends with an outro, which begins at bar 79. It fades out at the end, with bar 83 repeated, meaning there is no sudden stop.
Interestingly, Killer Queen uses lots of uneven phrase lengths. For example, you can find five-bar phrases in the verses. This is not a common feature of pop music, and demonstrates Queen once again pushing boundaries.
Tonality of Killer Queen
Queen loved to push the limits of pop music, so they move through several different keys in this song.
There are two ways you can analyse the verses of Killer Queen:
- Killer Queen begins in the key of C, as indicated by the opening C minor chord. The next chord is a flattened 7th chord (i.e. Bb, not B natural, is the root of the chord). This suggests the Aeolian mode is being used – the natural minor scale. However, by bar 7 (or its equivalent) we have modulated to Eb major.
- The entire verse is in Eb major, and the first chord is just a deceptive chord VI.
Both of these are entirely valid explanations! If you have a tonality question, you could discuss the ambiguity of these verses in terms of key centre. Alternatively, you could just pick one and focus on that.
The choruses change key to Bb major each time, the dominant of Eb major. This adds a sense of brightness to the chorus.
Melody of Killer Queen
The melody in Killer Queen is most often found in the voice part. but the guitar takes over during the guitar solo.
The voice part is almost entirely syllabic, as is typical of most pop music. This is to ensure the lyrics can be clearly heard, as these are more important to listeners today compared to listeners of classical music.
Movement is also mainly conjunct, making it easily singable for listeners. Well, by that I mean singers with a very wide, high vocal range and who are as good as Freddie Mercury.
Perhaps easily memorable is more of an explanation here…!
There is some disjunct movement in this song, however. A nice example is the major 6th on “decline” in bars 10 and 11. There are also a few octave leaps throughout, such as on “insatiable” in the chorus.
There is also a short altered descending sequence in bars 7 and 8, adding again to the memorable nature of the melody.
Queen also uses some chromatic notes in the melody, often acting as passing notes. For an example, look at bars 61 and 65.
The melody of the guitar solo from bars 51-58 is an embellished version of the verse melody. Sing the verse at the same time and see if you can hear the similarities!
There are no dynamics printed in the score, as is common with pop music.
Rhythm, metre and tempo of Killer Queen
Killer Queen has no tempo marking, as is common in pop music. it does, however, have a BPM (beats per minute). This is 112 dotted crotchets per minute, a relatively fast speed.
The song is written in 12/8, or compound quadruple metre, giving it a swung feel. This is really unusual for a pop song, most of which are written in 4/4 or at least in simple time. This shows one way Queen tried to push the limits of pop music at the time. They even change metre a few times, throwing in sneaky 6/8 bars every so often. Examples can be found in bars 10 and 34, and these help drive the song forward.
The song begins with six finger clicks, which rather interestingly enter on beat 3 of the bar. The voice joins on an anacrusis (or upbeat). These two things together create a bit of uncertainty as to where the first beat of the bar falls at the beginning of the song.
There are lots of syncopated rhythms throughout the song, giving it a relaxed feel. A lovely example of this can be found in bar 35 on “perfume came”.
The pulse is kept steady by the repeated on-beat crotchets the piano is almost always playing. However, this steady pulse stops every so often – an example can be found in bar 11, where there is a long dotted minim in every part. This adds to the metrical confusion following the 6/8 bar just before. We don’t know where the beat is.
Harmony of Killer Queen
The harmony of Killer Queen is deceptively complex for a pop song.
The opening chord is C minor, which is followed by a Bb7 chord. We explored the ambiguity these chords create in the tonality section, but there’s something else interesting about that chord. It’s the 7th – an extended chord. Others can be found in bar 10 (Bb11) and bar 24 (F11), thickening the harmony.
There are also lots of slash chords (or inversions for us classical musicians out there!). For example, look at the Eb/Bb chord in bar 9.
Perfect cadences are of course used in this song, notable ones arriving at the beginning of the choruses to emphasise the new key. Dominant preparation is also used, for example in bars 68 and 69, increasing the tension and thus the feeling of relief when we finally cadence into verse 3.
Here are a few more interesting features of the harmony in this song:
- From bars 7-9 the guitar plays a descending chromatic scale
- There is a tonic pedal (as long as we assume we are in C minor) in the left hand piano in verse 2
- There is a lovely arppeggiated bell chord in bar 55, meaning the notes of the chord are played one after the other in different parts
- You can see the influence classical music had on Queen in the circle of fifths in bars 20 and 21
Texture of Killer Queen
As is typical of vocal music, Killer Queen has a predominantly melody and accompaniment texture, or more specifically, melody-dominated homophony. All this means is that there is a melody with block chords in the accompaniment. This enables the listener to hear the lyrics.
The first verse has a thin texture, with just a chordal piano accompaniment and voice. The texture gradually thickens throughout the first verse with the left hand piano in bar 5, followed by guitars, drums and backing vocals.
The guitar takes over the melody during the guitar solo. This allows for some variety in the song. Two other overdubbed guitars join in bar 48, creating a three-part guitar solo. There is lots of imitation between these guitars, with bar 48 being a good example of this.
The texture is pretty much the same for the rest of the song. However, here are some interesting moments:
- The left hand piano uses lots of octaves, an idiomatic interval for the piano – meaning that pianists like playing in octaves!
- The guitar parts use lots of 3rds (e.g. bars 23 and 24), creating a nice thick harmony
- There is some imitation between the voice and guitars in bar 62, adding further to the playful atmosphere here
Coda
And there we have it! A rather detailed dissection of everything you need to know for the GCSE music Killer Queen questions, from harmony and instrumentation to structure and studio effects.
This article was all about GCSE Music: Killer Queen.
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