Count on Me — Bruno Mars (2010)

Why it's in this book

"Count on Me" opens the school year in October. It has five easy chords in the ukulele's home key, a relaxed strum and a chorus the whole class sings together. In class we play it exactly as on the record, in C major: C, E minor, A minor, G and F. Four of those chords belong to the big pop loop you will play all year in Love Story, Anti-Hero and Riptide; E minor is the extra one, so we call it "the loop with one chord too many". The bridge brings a sixth chord, D minor, which you do not know yet: it arrives before Christmas. In the classroom with no instruments we sing it with body percussion; with ukuleles we strum the chords; and in the music room the ukulele bass plays the bottom note of each chord while the cajón or brushes keep the beat. The second voice sings a third above on the title line.

Why this song

The chorus line is a count: "like one, two, three". If you can count to three, you already know half the chorus.

Now listen to everything else. No loud drums, no synthesizers. One guitar, some bongos and a voice that is in no hurry.

The question on this page is: how do you make a song that sounds like an afternoon on the beach with friends? Here, the answer fits into five chords.

Historical context

Bruno Mars was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He grew up in a family of musicians and was performing in his father's shows when he was very small.

In 2010 he released his first album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans. "Count on Me" had come out a few months earlier on a short record, an EP. He wrote it with two friends, Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine. The three of them worked as a team called The Smeezingtons.

The recording is almost home-made. Mars and Levine played every instrument themselves. Critics talked about its "Hawaiian" sound: it feels like the beach, even though it was recorded in a Los Angeles studio.

Foto: Beach Photo Studio, dominio público, vía Wikimedia Commons

A Hawaiian musician with his ukulele, photographed in 1901 in Buffalo, in the United States. The ukulele is the instrument of Hawaii, where Bruno Mars comes from. Two critics compared "Count on Me" to Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's "Over the Rainbow", a version sung with nothing but a ukulele.

In the United States it was never even released as a single. Even so, it has sold enough to go platinum five times there. In Spain it reached number 7 in 2013, three years after it came out.

Musical characteristics

A calm beat. The song moves at 89 beats per minute, a walking pace. Each bar has four beats and the guitar strums gently. That relaxed strumming is what makes it feel so calm.

Five chords in a row. The verses and the chorus use the same series: C, E minor, A minor, G and F. It repeats again and again. A series of chords that repeats is called a chord progression. This one is almost the most famous loop in pop, with one chord added: E minor, a stepping stone between C and A minor.

A chorus for everyone. The chorus melody is short and easy to remember. It is made for lots of people to sing together. That is why it works so well with a choir: five thousand children from a school choir sang it together at Wembley Arena in London.

The bridge changes colour. Near the end there is a different section, the bridge. It starts on D minor, a chord we have not heard before. It is a short detour before the chorus comes back.

Beach instruments. Besides the acoustic guitar you can hear bongos: two small joined drums played with the fingers. They give the song its beach feel.

Hard facts: C major, 4/4, 89 beats per minute, 3:14. The form: intro and verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge and final chorus.

Guided listening

Play the video. At the start, tap the beat on the desk. Count "one, two, three, four" and check that the guitar fits.

In the first verse, look for the bongos. They are quiet, under the guitar.

When the chorus arrives, count the chords: there are five, and then they start again.

When you hear a section that sounds like neither the verse nor the chorus, you have reached the bridge. Listen to how the colour changes on its first chord.

In the last chorus, sing the title line yourself. Listen for other voices singing along with Bruno Mars.

Trivia and curiosities

• Not everyone liked the "one, two, three" line. A Canadian critic used it as an example of lazy rhyming. That is exactly why everyone remembers it.

• In 2014 it was used in a car advert during the Super Bowl, the American football final. That same year, Bruno Mars played the half-time show. It was a coincidence.

• It was included on a charity album to help the victims of a typhoon in the Philippines in 2013.

• In 2011 two South Korean singers, Lee Ki-chan and G.NA, released their own version on CD. In one year the song had travelled from Hawaii to Seoul.

Classroom activities

• Count the beats. The whole class taps the beat with their feet during the chorus. Then clap only on the first beat of each bar.

• Play the five chords. Ukulele: C, E minor, A minor, G and F, one chord per bar. Start with one downstroke per beat. When that works, try down-down-up-up-down.

• Sing and play together. Start with the chorus only. If the chord changes make you stop, play one strum per bar and sing on top.

• Second voice. One group sings the title melody and another sings a third above. Listen to whether the two voices blend without clashing.

• Band. In the music room, the ukulele bass plays the note that names each chord (C, E, A, G, F). The cajón or brushes keep the beat without covering the voices.

Key vocabulary

• Strumming — rasgueo
• Chord progression — progresión de acordes
• Chorus — estribillo
• Bridge — puente: la parte distinta que lleva de vuelta al estribillo
• Bongos — bongos

Resources

Official lyric video — From Bruno Mars's channel. There is no music video with actors: this is the official one.

Ukulele tutorial — Mister Row's Music. Level 1: you play along with the song, starting with open strings.

Guitar tutorial — Easy 2 Play Music. An easy version, with chords and lyrics on screen.

Piano tutorial — Betacustic. A slow beginner version, with sheet music.

Live, to compare — Bruno Mars at an MTV session. Listen for what changes when he sings it live.