4/2 : Instrumentation In Class  Activity 

Instructions 
  • This will be a combination of Review and Testing your Knowledge , with some listening exercises mixed in 
  • Some Musical Examples are ones we have heard before (for familiarity..) and some are brand new 
  • Keep in mind while doing this activity that this is all material we should be solid on !
  • Pay attention to the red ACTIVITY sections - there are 3 - you will hand these in completed at the end of class !
  • *** ASK ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE ***
  • ****** THIS ACTIVITY WILL BE GRADED *******


​Definitions 

Musical Instrument 
in·stru·ment
/ˈinstrəmənt/

Long Definition: 
A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture

Short Definition: 
 a device (such as a violin, piano, or flute) used to make music

Instrumentation
in·stru·men·ta·tion
/ˌinstrəmənˈtāSH(ə)n/

Long Definition: 
In music, instrumentation is the particular combination of musical instruments employed in a composition, and the properties of those instruments individually.

Short Definition: 
the particular instruments used in a piece of music; the manner in which a piece is arranged for instruments.
​

Musical genre

A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions.

ACTIVITY #1 :  
Keep a Comprehensive list of all Songs/Artist you hear during the course of this exercise ( There are around 20)

​ Instrumentation : Different Sized Ensembles

  • For listening examples, it is always useful to listen for yourself once while jotting some observations, then read the observations I have guided (so you know what the description is talking about and can hear it in your head)
  • THE SMALLEST instrumentation - just 1 single instrument: Piano
  • Think of other songs that have just 1 instrument that you listen to......... can you think of any ? ......unless you listen to classical / jazz piano , or guitar, the answer is most likely no !
  • One important thing about instrumentation is that we like to hear a combination of different instruments, not just one !
  • Also one thing any solo instrument (solo = just one) is that we have a lack of VOCALS and LYRICS - for most peoples musical tastes, this is a big no-no !
    • 2 Instruments (Adding just 1 more instrument ) :  Piano and Male Vocals 
    • Now with the addition of vocals, we get Lyrics , which is a game changer ! If you think of how many things we have to pay attention to in the song, we just got 2 extra things added - an instrument or new sound, and words .  
    • Can you think of other instrumentations that would have just 2 instruments ?  .... Guitar/Vocals , Piano/Horn (trumpet or saxophone etc).  
    • This is considerably more common than just 1 instrument, but still not something we hear ALOT on the radio , unless someone like Jon Legend or Adelle makes a piano/vocals song...

One important thing to notice about the previous video -  There is only 1 person, but he is providing 2 instruments (piano and vocals) - often time (especially when vocals are present) we hear one person providing multiple sounds / instruments 

  • 3 Instruments : Electric Piano, Electric Bass, and Drums 
  • Now we are starting to fill out the instrumentation a little more , we have Drums to provide the Rhythm , Piano as a Melodic instrument , and Bass to cover the Low range (we will talk about all these terms later!)
  • This would be an extremely common instrumentation to back up a singer in a plethora of different genres (throw a guitar on top of that and we have the instrumentation of a large chunk of popular music)
  • 4 instruments:  Male Vocals, Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Drums
  • Here we have maybe the most common instrumentation we hear in popular music on the radio today ( with the exception interchanging Male/Female vocals )
  • Like the second example, we have only 3 people, but 4 instruments or different sounds 
  • Really , this instrumentation is similar to the 3 instrument video, with the vocals added 
Check out these examples of Musical Scores ( "Score" is the term for a piece of sheet music that has all the instruments' respective musical parts. this is what the conductor of the orchestra is looking at)
  • Notice we have each instrument listed down the left column of the page
​​

  • Even if we don't all read music, we can see the notes in the staff for each instrument (rests in the top half, notes in the bottom) representing when each instrument is playing 

  • This would be for a rock band, typical rock instrumentation listed ...
  • Contrast the rock band score with this orchestra score 
  • A couple observations here: 
    • # of total Instruments : There are far MORE  instruments (15 vs. 4)
    • Type of instruments : This combination of instruments looks much different from the more common guitar/vocals combo. Here we have male & female vocals, along with a huge case of 13 other instruments in the ACCOMPANIMENT, rather than just 4. 
SO.... 
When dealing with instrumentation, we are observing these 2 variables :
1. How many instruments are present
2. What types of instruments are present 

 Activity #2 : 

For the following examples, watch and make some observations about the instrumentation.  You should have some bullet points for our 2 main instrumentation questions : 
1.  How many Instruments are present 
  • What is the number ? 
  • is it a smaller than usual instrumentation, larger ?  
  • Does the size have any kind of direct effect on the song ? (ex. the 12 electric guitars were too loud and i couldn't hear the vocals.)
2. What types of instruments are present ? 
  • List the instruments - say the name if you know it, or describe the sound / look  - you may have to do some research !
  • is there anything unique about these instruments individually ? anything that sticks out to you about the sound ?
  • Is there anything unique about the Combination of instruments collectively as a whole ?  is this combo common ? associated with any particular genre ? 

**** Do this for EACH OF THESE 8  examples Below******

****** Sometimes instruments don't come in until later in the song - check out whole thing so you don't miss any ******

Examples

1. Between the Bars
2. Mr Tambourin Man 

**** Notice it is a test for your ears when you don't have the luxury of a visual aid like a video with the band*****

3. Tears In Heaven
4.  Junjo

*** If you are not as used to these instruments - you may have more difficulty picking them out ! *** 

5. Heart of Gold
6. Au Privave

**** It can get increasingly harder as more timbres get added in and the instrumentation gets "thicker"  
-  Some instruments are very obvious and audible - like the vocals or a guitar or harmonica solo
OR
- Some are less easily heard - such as bass or background vocals - 

7. Hey Jude

GENRE / INSTRUMENTATION

  • Here we have the same song, but the genre is changing.
  • Listen to each one- what is changing about the instrumentation / style / delivery that changes the genre ? 

Original 

Jazz 

Country

Orchestral 

SALSA

Activity #3: 

Questions to Answer about each Video :
  1. How would you categorize each of these examples 
  2. What is the instrumentation of each & What is the Genre ? 
  3. Has it changed from the original genre ?  Why  ? what are you hearing musically that makes you say that ?   
​**** Answer these 3 questions for each Video *****

ORIGINAL

#1

#2

#3

#4