Love Yourself — Justin Bieber (2015)

Why it's in this book

This song comes in November, as the month's second song alongside Love Story by Taylor Swift. Both start the same way: C, G, A minor. In Love Story the fourth chord is F; here it is D minor. It is the quickest way to learn a new chord, because you already have the other three. What you learn here is the muted strum, a dry hit that turns the ukulele into a drum, and how to sing a third above the melody on the words "love yourself". It is the ukulele song above all others: in the ukulele room it is at home; in the room with no instruments you sing it in two parts with your body keeping the beat; and in the music room the band waits in silence and only comes in for the last chorus.

Why this song

Look up "Love Yourself" and check who wrote it. Not just Justin Bieber: one of the writers is Ed Sheeran, the man behind "Perfect" and "Shape of You", two more songs in this book.

Sheeran wrote it on a bus, on tour, with the producer Benny Blanco. Then he gave it to Bieber. That is why it sounds so different from the rest of Bieber's album: it sounds like Sheeran.

The question on this page is: how much does it take to hold up a number 1? Here, almost nothing: one voice and one guitar.

Historical context

Justin Bieber is a Canadian singer. He started as a child, playing guitar in the street and posting videos on YouTube. By 15 he was already a pop star. His first big hit, "Baby", is also in this book.

In 2015 he released Purpose, an album full of electronic sounds. "Love Yourself" is the exception. Bieber described it himself: it is just me and a guitar, which is how I started, playing in the street.

Foto: Mark Kent, CC BY-SA 2.0, vía Wikimedia Commons

This is Ed Sheeran, who wrote the song, at Wembley Stadium (London) in July 2015. That same year he wrote "Love Yourself". If you listen carefully, his voice is in the backing vocals.

It was number 1 in the United States, the United Kingdom and thirteen other countries. In the US it was the best-performing song of the whole of 2016. In Spain it has gone platinum five times.

Musical characteristics

Almost empty. For nearly the whole song only two things play: Bieber's voice and a softly played electric guitar. In the second half some trumpets appear, for a very short time. When there are so few instruments, you can hear every detail of the voice.

A low voice. Here Bieber sings in the lower part of his voice, without going up to the high notes. The highest notes of the melody do not go above the B just below middle C on the piano. That makes him sound close, as if he were talking in your ear.

A strum that is a drum. Listen carefully to the guitar. Between chords there are dry hits with no note, as if someone were knocking on a box. The guitarist mutes the strings with the hand at the moment of strumming. That is a muted strum. With it, one instrument plays chords and percussion at the same time.

Four familiar chords. The verse uses four chords: in class, C, G, A minor and D minor. The first three are the ones from Love Story. The chorus changes the order and uses A minor, F, C and G: again, chords you already know.

A warning for when you play. The record is in E major. In class we play it in C major, four semitones lower: that is transposing. If you want to play along with the record using these same chords, put a capo on the fourth fret.

Hard facts: E major on the record and C major in class, 4/4, 100 beats per minute, 3:53. The form: intro, then verse, pre-chorus and chorus twice, then a short trumpet passage and the final chorus.

Guided listening

Play the music video. In the intro, count the instruments. How many can you hear?

In the first verse, listen for the dry hits of the guitar between the chords. Clap each time you hear one.

When the chorus arrives, listen to the words "love yourself". Try singing a note a little higher than Bieber's, at the same time as him: that is the third you will sing in class.

In the second half, look out for the trumpets. They appear very briefly. How many seconds do they last?

In the last chorus, compare it with the first. Has an instrument been added, or is the song still just as empty?

Trivia and curiosities

• Bieber is not the star of the music video. Two dancers, Keone and Mari Madrid, dance in a house. The dance tells the story, not the singer.

• The idea for the lyrics came from a conversation. Sheeran said he did not want to write a song about a relationship; Blanco told him to write about exactly that. That "I didn't want to write a song" ended up in the lyrics.

• Bieber recorded it in Australia, in a studio in Sydney, in September 2015.

• Although it sounds very simple, it was nominated for the Grammy for Song of the Year. Sometimes taking instruments away is harder than adding them.

Classroom activities

• The muted strum. On the ukulele, strum a C chord downwards and, on the next stroke, rest your palm on the strings as you hit them. Repeat: chord, dry hit, chord, dry hit.

• From the Love Story loop to the Love Yourself loop. Play C, G, A minor and F (Love Story). Now change only the last one: C, G, A minor and D minor (Love Yourself). What changes in the sound?

• The third. Half the class sings the melody of "love yourself". The other half sings a third above it. First slowly and without ukulele; then with the chord underneath.

• The band waits. In the music room, the ukulele plays the whole song alone. The band comes in only for the last chorus. What is the effect of saving the drums until the end?

Key vocabulary

• Muted strum — rasgueo apagado
• Chord progression — progresión de acordes
• Third — tercera: si la melodía canta do, la segunda voz canta mi
• Transposing — transportar
• Capo — cejilla

Resources

Official music video — Two dancers tell the story in a house. Bieber does not appear.

Ukulele tutorial — Ukulele Tutorials. An easy version, with the chords and the strumming.

Guitar tutorial — Kurt Berg (5 Minute Guitar). Easy chords and the strum with the muted hit.

Keyboard tutorial — PHianonize. An easy version, with the keys lit up.