A Day In The Life Full Description
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For the 50th Anniversary of the Sgt. Pepper album, mattiboo presents a full cover of the album’s final track, “A Day In The Life.” The basic rhythm track (Take 4) consisted of John on acoustic guitar, Paul on piano, Ringo on congas, and George on maracas. This simple version of the song had no bass, drums, or vocals yet and is quite poignant when compared to the final overdubbed product. The song recorded during Take 4 was performed in full length, consisting of an intro, 3 verses, 24 bars of piano (where the orchestra buildup went), a middle section, a “dream” section, another verse, and 24 more bars of piano, congas, and maracas. Each of these elements of “A Day In The Life” will be discussed in full detail below.
John begins “A Day In The Life” with what appears to be a simple “down-up” strumming pattern, but he peppers in subtle nuances to give the part movement. These include a hammer-on from the open A string to the second fret slightly before the B minor chord and hammer-ons from the open strings to the E minor chord. Throughout the verses, John plays the open strings as a passing sound during chord changes, especially G to B minor and B minor to E minor. The acoustic guitar is panned totally left in the stereo mix.
Paul’s piano begins at the C chord during the intro, playing a light fanfare during Take 4. He would later overdub extra piano at key points during the first half of the song at (0:06, 0:55, 1:08, 1:36). Since the original piano track was relatively soft, these powerful overdubs are important in adding to the drama. The original Take 4 piano can be found left in the stereo mix and the piano overdubs on the right. Paul’s piano during the verse follows the descending chord progression in the left hand while playing rhythmic patterns with the B and D notes in the right. The most noticeable of these rhythms is during the third verse (1:11).
The remaining instruments in the original Take 4 are Ringo’s congas and George’s maracas. Heavily drenched in reverb, these percussion parts create the groove for the song during the verses. If counting the song in 2/4 as I did, George plays eighth notes during the verses, slipping in a shuffle pattern occasionally starting at the second verse. Ringo’s congas are tuned high and provide a light tapping goes somewhat unnoticed in the fully produced version of the song. His congas were transcribed for this cover and are an accurate representation of what he actually played. Both of these Take 4 percussion parts are panned left in the stereo mix.
After the third verse, all instruments except the piano dropped out for 24 bars. The Beatles had decided that they would leave it to a later date to decide what would occur in this space. During Take 4, Paul gently tapped out a climbing scale on the piano consisting of F#, G, A, B, C, D in the left hand while hypnotically vamping on E and B notes in the right. Near the end of these 24 bars, Paul played random notes by hitting the keys with the palm of his hand. This charming piano bit segued directly into Paul’s middle section, a driving piece that provides a perfect counterpoint to John’s mysterious ballad. The piano and palm muted acoustic guitar begin by playing an E chord on the beats. Mal Evans’ alarm clock goes off, “waking up” Paul’s character in the song before he “fell out of bed.” John loosens up and accents beats 2 and 4, later changing to accent each beat. Paul then plays a whimsical piano figure while John strums out a Dsus4 chord. The left hand piano part starts up with a descending line from E to B, a line that Paul would double in his electric bass. Notice John’s use of a jazzy B9 chord! Throughout this section, the maracas, congas, and later overdubbed tambourine fill in the rhythm.
The dream section before orchestral overdubs involved Paul playing the beats on piano, John very lightly strumming his acoustic guitar, and percussion in full force. The chord sequence in this section is two repetitions of C, G, D, A, and E. In the second repetition, Paul lays down on the sustain pedal and really lets the low octaves ring out in formidable fashion.
YouTube description leaves off here!
After playing these considerably faster moving sections, the four Beatles put more step into their rendition of the fourth verse. The tempo had increased from 77 BPM in the first verse to 82 BPM in this last verse. Instead of the “down-up” strumming pattern found in the earlier verses, John switches to a quicker “down-down-down-down” pattern while palm muting his chords. Likewise, Paul’s piano becomes more complicated than the first three verses. Check out the octave C chords at (3:42)! Unlike the first buildup, the second 24 bar buildup includes Ringo’s congas and George’s maracas. Paul plays even more crazily, slapping out random notes with his palm to create avant-garde rhythm. Take 4 ends with a piano slide, something that was faded out in the final orchestrated version.
The Beatles’ overdubs include John’s and Paul’s vocals, Paul’s bass, Ringo’s drums, and tambourine during the middle and “dream” sections. The bassline that Paul bestows upon “A Day In The Life” is one of the most well thought out lines of his career. From the first ringing bass C chord during the intro to the last bouncing E notes in the second orchestral buildup, the bass is always in motion; constantly evolving and taking on new forms. The bass is panned slightly right in the stereo mix.
Ringo Starr’s epic drumming act as a second vocalist during the verses, providing a stark contrast to John’s tape delayed singing. His lonely fills begin in the second verse and are marked by the deep sound of the floor tom and giant cymbals. This sound is due in part to the removal of the tom’s resonant heads as per the suggestion of engineer Geoff Emerick. At this point in his career, Geoff was at a peak in getting new sounds and his technique of individually micing the floor tom and running the entire kit through Fairchild compressors paid off in what is arguably Ringo’s best drum sound. For this cover, an Audio-technica AT2035 condenser was used as an overhead, a Shure SM57 was used on the snare, and Rockband vocal mic was used on the floor tom to give more control over the drum mix. These recordings were run through the Waves Puigchild compressor, a digital recreation of the famous Fairchild compressors.
In Paul’s middle section, Ringo pounds out the beats on a closed high hat and snare. He occasionally opens the high hat, adding to the groove. Ringo’s swinging drumming style is presented in its full glory during the “dream” section (2:49), marked by wide high hat hitting and opening of the high hat to reflect the sustain pedal in Paul’s piano track. Noticing the more uptempo style of the fourth verse, Ringo plays snare on the beats and his fills become more wild. Ringo’s tripping fills are the perfect lead into the final orchestral buildup that end the song.
The orchestral overdubs consist of two 24 bar bulidups and unison notes during the “dream” section. Since the Beatles did not have access to a full orchestra, they decided to overdub a smaller one 3-4 times to create the large sound heard on the record. The first eight bars of the 24 consist solely of timpani on beat one, string, clarinet, and flute trilling from B to C, climbing cellos, and a low trombone part. For the next 16 bars, the orchestra goes crazy on a journey from the lower notes to a high E chord. I went about recreating this sound by looking at the orchestra in two ways: one that involved directly transcribing audible parts such as prominent string, trumpet, timpani, and crash cymbal parts and the other that involved creating blend of sound created by an entire orchestra climbing through the notes. The strings stuck together, playing a consistent rhythm that locks in with Paul’s piano and Ringo’s high hat tapping. They climb a scale similar to the one Paul played on piano, splitting into harmony about ⅓ of the way through the 16 bars. Some trumpet players may have been closer to the microphone/played louder, therefore it is easier to distinguish certain runs that they performed. I accurately recreated three of these runs for authenticity. A flute part was recreated in a similar manner. The three timpani parts along with two crash cymbal parts during the buildup were also performed in the same manner as the original. The most noticeable timpani was the one that played a constant roll, but two other chime in with individual hits and rolls. Finally, a descending chromatic trombone starting at (2:11) conflicts with the climbing orchestra, causing even more tension that ultimately resolves in an E chord. This trombone part and others were performed by a skilled trombonist friend of mine. I very much appreciate you taking the time to help me in this project!
While these arranged parts to the buildup help to create a noticeable connection the original Beatles recording, the sound is cannot be filled without the chromatic ascent of other strings, trombones, trumpets, flutes, and clarinets. These parts were played with random timing and spread across the stereo field to immerse the listener in the sound and to create sonic chaos. The buildup ends with a trumpet/flute flourish to a high E note along with a cymbal crash. As the original, a few trumpets were treated with a quick, high feedback delay at the buildup’s conclusion. This delay cannot be heard very well in the finished recording due to the quick fade out of the orchestra.
The “dream” section sees the introduction of the orchestra playing unison notes on the roots of the chords. The sound builds up with intensity after every note change, especially at the D chord (2:54). Additional tambourine was played during this section along with timpani and harp. The three harp parts make for an interesting sound, especially noticeable at the end of the “dream” section as they swoop from low to high. The orchestra in this section is incredibly powerful, just listen to that final melodic phrase at (3:15)!
Due to the increased tempo by the end of the song, the second orchestra buildup is even more intense than the first. The strings and brass are in full force here while sizzling crash cymbals and rolling timpani keep the intensity high. Once again, the descending trombone line plays counter to the ascending orchestra, but all instruments are going to the same place: E. Everything freezes as the trumpets reach the top, and as the reverb drifts away, the mightiest sound of all hits your ears: countless pianos playing an E major chord.
John, Paul, Ringo, and Mal Evans all played this conclusionary E chord (with Paul and Ringo sharing the Steinway Vertegrand upright piano) at the same time, letting it ring out for over 40 seconds. Engineer Geoff Emerick pulled up the faders as the sound died out, ensuring that as much of the piano made it onto tape as possible. This process was repeated 3 times, with one version being slowed to half speed, causing the pitch to drop an octave lower. Since they were playing in the lowest regions of the piano, this half speed technique allowed The Beatles to “play” notes that are not on an actual piano! Notice how in one overdub, Ringo plays the right hand part of the E chord slightly late. For this cover, I used isolated tracks from each overdub and photos from the piano overdub session to recreate as best possible the actual notes played during this epic chord. With George Martin’s overdub of a harmonium to the final chord, the recording of “A Day In The Life” was technically finished. After the mixes had been done, Paul decided he wanted to record another piano part to the intro on a distinctly out of tune piano. The part followed along with John’s introductory guitar strumming. Perhaps realizing even more piano was not necessary, this part was never used.
That concludes my description of this legendary Sgt. Pepper song! The greatest album of all time, Sgt. Pepper broke new musical ground and is as powerful as ever 50 years later. Special thanks to The Beatles, George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Richard Lush, and the Abbey Road Studios staff for creating this great music!
Instruments Used:
Acoustic Guitar: Gibson J-160E Standard
Piano: Baldwin Baby Grand
Bass: Hofner 500/1 '62 Reissue Violin Bass
Drums: Gretsch Catalina Club Classic and Sabian SR2 Cymbals
Strings: Native Instruments Session Strings Pro, Garageband Smart
Strings/String Ensemble
Woodwinds: Special guest trombonist, Native Instruments and
Garageband trumpet, French horn, flute, clarinet
Beatles Percussion: Congas, maracas, tambourine
Orchestral Percussion: Timpani, crash cymbals, Garageband harp
Final Piano Crash: Baldwin Baby Grand, Pianoteq 5 Upright Honky
Tonk
For the 50th Anniversary of the Sgt. Pepper album, mattiboo presents a full cover of the album’s final track, “A Day In The Life.” The basic rhythm track (Take 4) consisted of John on acoustic guitar, Paul on piano, Ringo on congas, and George on maracas. This simple version of the song had no bass, drums, or vocals yet and is quite poignant when compared to the final overdubbed product. The song recorded during Take 4 was performed in full length, consisting of an intro, 3 verses, 24 bars of piano (where the orchestra buildup went), a middle section, a “dream” section, another verse, and 24 more bars of piano, congas, and maracas. Each of these elements of “A Day In The Life” will be discussed in full detail below.
John begins “A Day In The Life” with what appears to be a simple “down-up” strumming pattern, but he peppers in subtle nuances to give the part movement. These include a hammer-on from the open A string to the second fret slightly before the B minor chord and hammer-ons from the open strings to the E minor chord. Throughout the verses, John plays the open strings as a passing sound during chord changes, especially G to B minor and B minor to E minor. The acoustic guitar is panned totally left in the stereo mix.
Paul’s piano begins at the C chord during the intro, playing a light fanfare during Take 4. He would later overdub extra piano at key points during the first half of the song at (0:06, 0:55, 1:08, 1:36). Since the original piano track was relatively soft, these powerful overdubs are important in adding to the drama. The original Take 4 piano can be found left in the stereo mix and the piano overdubs on the right. Paul’s piano during the verse follows the descending chord progression in the left hand while playing rhythmic patterns with the B and D notes in the right. The most noticeable of these rhythms is during the third verse (1:11).
The remaining instruments in the original Take 4 are Ringo’s congas and George’s maracas. Heavily drenched in reverb, these percussion parts create the groove for the song during the verses. If counting the song in 2/4 as I did, George plays eighth notes during the verses, slipping in a shuffle pattern occasionally starting at the second verse. Ringo’s congas are tuned high and provide a light tapping goes somewhat unnoticed in the fully produced version of the song. His congas were transcribed for this cover and are an accurate representation of what he actually played. Both of these Take 4 percussion parts are panned left in the stereo mix.
After the third verse, all instruments except the piano dropped out for 24 bars. The Beatles had decided that they would leave it to a later date to decide what would occur in this space. During Take 4, Paul gently tapped out a climbing scale on the piano consisting of F#, G, A, B, C, D in the left hand while hypnotically vamping on E and B notes in the right. Near the end of these 24 bars, Paul played random notes by hitting the keys with the palm of his hand. This charming piano bit segued directly into Paul’s middle section, a driving piece that provides a perfect counterpoint to John’s mysterious ballad. The piano and palm muted acoustic guitar begin by playing an E chord on the beats. Mal Evans’ alarm clock goes off, “waking up” Paul’s character in the song before he “fell out of bed.” John loosens up and accents beats 2 and 4, later changing to accent each beat. Paul then plays a whimsical piano figure while John strums out a Dsus4 chord. The left hand piano part starts up with a descending line from E to B, a line that Paul would double in his electric bass. Notice John’s use of a jazzy B9 chord! Throughout this section, the maracas, congas, and later overdubbed tambourine fill in the rhythm.
The dream section before orchestral overdubs involved Paul playing the beats on piano, John very lightly strumming his acoustic guitar, and percussion in full force. The chord sequence in this section is two repetitions of C, G, D, A, and E. In the second repetition, Paul lays down on the sustain pedal and really lets the low octaves ring out in formidable fashion.
YouTube description leaves off here!
After playing these considerably faster moving sections, the four Beatles put more step into their rendition of the fourth verse. The tempo had increased from 77 BPM in the first verse to 82 BPM in this last verse. Instead of the “down-up” strumming pattern found in the earlier verses, John switches to a quicker “down-down-down-down” pattern while palm muting his chords. Likewise, Paul’s piano becomes more complicated than the first three verses. Check out the octave C chords at (3:42)! Unlike the first buildup, the second 24 bar buildup includes Ringo’s congas and George’s maracas. Paul plays even more crazily, slapping out random notes with his palm to create avant-garde rhythm. Take 4 ends with a piano slide, something that was faded out in the final orchestrated version.
The Beatles’ overdubs include John’s and Paul’s vocals, Paul’s bass, Ringo’s drums, and tambourine during the middle and “dream” sections. The bassline that Paul bestows upon “A Day In The Life” is one of the most well thought out lines of his career. From the first ringing bass C chord during the intro to the last bouncing E notes in the second orchestral buildup, the bass is always in motion; constantly evolving and taking on new forms. The bass is panned slightly right in the stereo mix.
Ringo Starr’s epic drumming act as a second vocalist during the verses, providing a stark contrast to John’s tape delayed singing. His lonely fills begin in the second verse and are marked by the deep sound of the floor tom and giant cymbals. This sound is due in part to the removal of the tom’s resonant heads as per the suggestion of engineer Geoff Emerick. At this point in his career, Geoff was at a peak in getting new sounds and his technique of individually micing the floor tom and running the entire kit through Fairchild compressors paid off in what is arguably Ringo’s best drum sound. For this cover, an Audio-technica AT2035 condenser was used as an overhead, a Shure SM57 was used on the snare, and Rockband vocal mic was used on the floor tom to give more control over the drum mix. These recordings were run through the Waves Puigchild compressor, a digital recreation of the famous Fairchild compressors.
In Paul’s middle section, Ringo pounds out the beats on a closed high hat and snare. He occasionally opens the high hat, adding to the groove. Ringo’s swinging drumming style is presented in its full glory during the “dream” section (2:49), marked by wide high hat hitting and opening of the high hat to reflect the sustain pedal in Paul’s piano track. Noticing the more uptempo style of the fourth verse, Ringo plays snare on the beats and his fills become more wild. Ringo’s tripping fills are the perfect lead into the final orchestral buildup that end the song.
The orchestral overdubs consist of two 24 bar bulidups and unison notes during the “dream” section. Since the Beatles did not have access to a full orchestra, they decided to overdub a smaller one 3-4 times to create the large sound heard on the record. The first eight bars of the 24 consist solely of timpani on beat one, string, clarinet, and flute trilling from B to C, climbing cellos, and a low trombone part. For the next 16 bars, the orchestra goes crazy on a journey from the lower notes to a high E chord. I went about recreating this sound by looking at the orchestra in two ways: one that involved directly transcribing audible parts such as prominent string, trumpet, timpani, and crash cymbal parts and the other that involved creating blend of sound created by an entire orchestra climbing through the notes. The strings stuck together, playing a consistent rhythm that locks in with Paul’s piano and Ringo’s high hat tapping. They climb a scale similar to the one Paul played on piano, splitting into harmony about ⅓ of the way through the 16 bars. Some trumpet players may have been closer to the microphone/played louder, therefore it is easier to distinguish certain runs that they performed. I accurately recreated three of these runs for authenticity. A flute part was recreated in a similar manner. The three timpani parts along with two crash cymbal parts during the buildup were also performed in the same manner as the original. The most noticeable timpani was the one that played a constant roll, but two other chime in with individual hits and rolls. Finally, a descending chromatic trombone starting at (2:11) conflicts with the climbing orchestra, causing even more tension that ultimately resolves in an E chord. This trombone part and others were performed by a skilled trombonist friend of mine. I very much appreciate you taking the time to help me in this project!
While these arranged parts to the buildup help to create a noticeable connection the original Beatles recording, the sound is cannot be filled without the chromatic ascent of other strings, trombones, trumpets, flutes, and clarinets. These parts were played with random timing and spread across the stereo field to immerse the listener in the sound and to create sonic chaos. The buildup ends with a trumpet/flute flourish to a high E note along with a cymbal crash. As the original, a few trumpets were treated with a quick, high feedback delay at the buildup’s conclusion. This delay cannot be heard very well in the finished recording due to the quick fade out of the orchestra.
The “dream” section sees the introduction of the orchestra playing unison notes on the roots of the chords. The sound builds up with intensity after every note change, especially at the D chord (2:54). Additional tambourine was played during this section along with timpani and harp. The three harp parts make for an interesting sound, especially noticeable at the end of the “dream” section as they swoop from low to high. The orchestra in this section is incredibly powerful, just listen to that final melodic phrase at (3:15)!
Due to the increased tempo by the end of the song, the second orchestra buildup is even more intense than the first. The strings and brass are in full force here while sizzling crash cymbals and rolling timpani keep the intensity high. Once again, the descending trombone line plays counter to the ascending orchestra, but all instruments are going to the same place: E. Everything freezes as the trumpets reach the top, and as the reverb drifts away, the mightiest sound of all hits your ears: countless pianos playing an E major chord.
John, Paul, Ringo, and Mal Evans all played this conclusionary E chord (with Paul and Ringo sharing the Steinway Vertegrand upright piano) at the same time, letting it ring out for over 40 seconds. Engineer Geoff Emerick pulled up the faders as the sound died out, ensuring that as much of the piano made it onto tape as possible. This process was repeated 3 times, with one version being slowed to half speed, causing the pitch to drop an octave lower. Since they were playing in the lowest regions of the piano, this half speed technique allowed The Beatles to “play” notes that are not on an actual piano! Notice how in one overdub, Ringo plays the right hand part of the E chord slightly late. For this cover, I used isolated tracks from each overdub and photos from the piano overdub session to recreate as best possible the actual notes played during this epic chord. With George Martin’s overdub of a harmonium to the final chord, the recording of “A Day In The Life” was technically finished. After the mixes had been done, Paul decided he wanted to record another piano part to the intro on a distinctly out of tune piano. The part followed along with John’s introductory guitar strumming. Perhaps realizing even more piano was not necessary, this part was never used.
That concludes my description of this legendary Sgt. Pepper song! The greatest album of all time, Sgt. Pepper broke new musical ground and is as powerful as ever 50 years later. Special thanks to The Beatles, George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Richard Lush, and the Abbey Road Studios staff for creating this great music!
Instruments Used:
Acoustic Guitar: Gibson J-160E Standard
Piano: Baldwin Baby Grand
Bass: Hofner 500/1 '62 Reissue Violin Bass
Drums: Gretsch Catalina Club Classic and Sabian SR2 Cymbals
Strings: Native Instruments Session Strings Pro, Garageband Smart
Strings/String Ensemble
Woodwinds: Special guest trombonist, Native Instruments and
Garageband trumpet, French horn, flute, clarinet
Beatles Percussion: Congas, maracas, tambourine
Orchestral Percussion: Timpani, crash cymbals, Garageband harp
Final Piano Crash: Baldwin Baby Grand, Pianoteq 5 Upright Honky
Tonk