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anyone fancy picking a song and having us all rip it appart and do a detailed analysis of it??
essentially find out what makes it tick..
don't know if any of you guys think this sort of exercise would be useful...
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Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
I think we should endeavour to look for a few songs that are really well writen rather than songs that are riddled with high technique stuff.. songs that have a lot of good compositional content rather than songs that are centred around insane musicianship.. the idea hear is that we all chip in with our observations and hopefully take away some interesting / thought provoking jems that we could add to our own song-writing skills
The Beatles: Something - I thnik this one has some interesting stuff in it..
feel free to chip in with song choices
This is a fantastic idea although I'm not sure how much "theory" I'll amaze people with seeing as there are teachers and the like on here. I'm sure it would help a lot of people understand song stucturing, harmonic structuring etc.
@Barney
Good choice with Steely Dan. They write some complex chord structures. I was going to suggest Kid Charlemange(I have Chords), but here are several more nice tunes by others.
10cc: I'm Mandy, Fly Me. Same as with Kid Charlemange, I have the correct chords, but am damned if I know how such masterpieces were thought through.
A.W.B: Atlantic Avenue, I have transcribed 60% of this and found it interesting that they made a melody with a chord change from EMaj7 to Emin work, or is that not really rocket science? The song has a great middle section. The last verses then transposes up a semi tone.
John Lennon: Just Like Startin' Over is a good one too.
I don't mean to overload the page, but there's some good food for thought in those.
Exactly my thoughts too! How about octavarium by dream theater?
How about we analyse a song a week, and as the idea was from @Clarky let him pick the first one, and start dissecting it.
As Clarky suggested The Beatles, Something, lets start with that.
@ Viz, we can move up to Octavarium, next week (maybe)
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how
Somewhere in her smile she knows
That I don't need no other lover
Something in her style that shows me
Don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how
You're asking me will my love grow
I don't know, I don't know
You stick around now it may show
I don't know, I don't know
Something in the way she knows
And all I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me
Don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how
No you're right. Actually i had a very slightly different idea of what we could do with the songs, but it's impractical on a forum i feel. It'd be great to have like a book club, but for rock. Anyhow, right, that beatles song. Going to listen to it and see what i can contribute. Carry on.
Clarky has analysed the living crap out of it from a theory perspective and a damn fine job he has done.
Fuck me Clarky, that's some in depth analysis
probably good we didn't start with Octivarium
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Actually I'm not a Beatles* fan (at all) but I might learn a coupleof their songs now.
*I like the song Let it be but that's it
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Here's another observation:
for music to be memorable it's generally accepted that some sort of small musical figure is required that is often repeated in the piece.
In contemporary music this is generally referred to as a 'hook'.
Generally the hook appears in the chorus because this is repeated.
Notice however in the song Something that the hook is not sung or in the chorus and that it is in fact played on guitar.
Also notice when looking at the form of the song that the hook:
- is the first thing you hear
- follows every chorus
- provides the means [via a variation] to enter the mid-8
- signifies the end of the guitar solo and forms the bridge into the final verse
- is the final thing you hear in both the modified and unmodified form [so it's played twice back to back]
The Beatles want you to remember this hook..
It hits you 6 times.. so they are seriously force feeding it to you..
They want you to walk away humming that little hook.. all 1 bar of it..
You may well notice that if you listen to the youtube link I posted of this song just one or two times, that you may have flashbacks of this hook for many days afterwards..
This is a seriously shrewd song writing tactic
There is no flashy playing in this song..
No mind-blowing performances..
No mind-bendingly complex chords..
No vast or complex instrumentation / orchestration..
On the surface it's simple..
easy on the ear..
memorable..
all very nice but maybe a bit unimpressive
don't let that fool you
from a compositional standpoint, this one is actually a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing..
when you look around inside it you come to realise that it's actually quite the song-writing masterclass..
it's real beauty lay in the way a very clever composition is outwardly a very simple and rather pretty song..
to be honest, I'm not much of a Beatles fan either..
however, I do recognise their skill as song-smiths..
also their evolution was quite amazing..
from the early days of their pop hit factory right through to what can seriously be considered as songs that laid the foundations of progressive rock.
that said..
the Beatles songs that I do like.. I like a great deal..
anyone else spot anything interesting...??
I know I've not found it all
I'm struggling with this, particularly the open chords, any help please
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ryGCAruMu2o
or a live version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EMzly9NNBKs
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)