Cruel Summer (Lyrics, chords) - Taylor Swift

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Hi, I am Rita. I transcribe piano sheets for popular music. All my sheet music are accurate but simple, beginner-level transcriptions with lyrics (singing is good for health) and harmonic chords.

I consider reasonable requests.

Sometimes I post free PDFs.

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“Cruel Summer Sheet Music”

Please, notice that the upper stave is written using a treble clef with the numeral 8 below it (a so-called suboctave clef). This indicates that the pitches sound an octave lower. Play the right hand one octave lower than written. I do it to avoid using ledger lines that slow down sightreading.

You can skip playing background vocals.

I also doubled note values to make sightreading easier for beginners. The track isn't recorded in the 2/2 time.

Intermediate piano players can re-arrange the left hand by breaking harmony *chords* in arpeggios or other bass patterns.

Like other Taylor Swift's songs, the track has a number of interesting formal and harmonic things going on:

"Cruel Summer" is played with a straight rhythm in common time 4/4. It is easy to count for beginners but be sure not to play in a mechanical way. Strive for a loose and bouncing feel accenting strong beats. Take care to maintain a steady pulse and play along with the recording if you find that the memory eludes you. Practice "Cruel Summer" slowly.

To keep listeners attention, the chorus was made to be the biggest part of a song. The first and second verses/choruses are different, play them differently, as expressively as possible. If some notes prove too difficult to play, simply omit them focusing on emotions instead of sightreading.

"Cruel Summer" is a song with a homophonic arrengement — the instrumental part provides a harmony to support the vocal but lacks its own melody.

Vocal in the original track is relatively rigid and precisely timed, so it produces a well-patterned yet modest melody for the right hand. A predominant vocal style is staccato.

"Cruel Summer" is transcribed in the original *key,* A Major, and uses a mix of major and minor chords.

The melodic line is built on repetition of a chord-root note. The composition lacks intervallic saturation thus its artistic meaning and expression suffer.

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