Musical description
Form and structure
The structure follows a common verse-chorus format:
- introduction
- verse 1
- verse 2
- verse 3
- chorus
- a repeated instrumental verse
- chorus 鈥 plus an additional bar
- bridge
- instrumental outro
Instrumentation
Love of My Life combines rock and Music that originates from Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries, in particular, those in the Caribbean and United States. Strongly influenced by dance styles, rhythmic grooves and loud brass accompaniments. instruments and includes:
- guitar
- vocals
- keyboards
- bass guitar
- drums
- congas and percussion
Harmony and tonality
Santana changed the key from Brahms鈥檚 original composition in C minor to the new key of G minor.
The intro is based on a series of chords with added sevenths - Gm7, Dm7, Gm7, Dm7 followed by Cm7, Bb7, Eb7 and D7. Verse 1 is built on a two-bar chord sequence played three times. It is based on the The first degree of a scale and the central key of music. In Roman numerals this is I. , Forth tonal degree of the scale and a closely related key. and The fifth tone or degree of any of the major or minor scales.:
| Gm / / / | Cm / D7 / |
| Gm / / / |
| Cm / D7 / |
At the end of verses 1 and 3, Santana brings back the last four chords played in the introduction - Cm7, Bb7, Eb7 and D7. They accompany the words 'me' and 'free'.
Tempo
The The speed that the music is played at. is marked as crotchet = 90 Beats per minute. at the start and increases to crotchet = 105 bpm during the Latin instrumental outro.
Dynamics
The intro begins A dynamic level meaning to play moderately loud - can be shortened to mf. (mf) before dropping down slightly to A dynamic instruction often seen in the score as mp. This means perform at a moderately quiet volume. (mp) in the verse. The Latin instrumental section is Shortened to f when written in the score. It means to play the music loud. (f) until it fades out at the end.