Tuesday 2/21
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Objectives:
1. Timbre Listening Exercise 2. Instrumentation VS. Texture 3. Harmony 4. Timeline of Harmony 5. Scales & Chords |
Assignments:
DUE: Texture HW |
Timbre Listening Exercise
For the Song List, Try to decipher how many Timbres you are hearing in the song. We will Listen to the first 1-2 minutes of each selection.
For Each Each Song : Song Name, Number of Instruments/Diff. Timbres, List of Inst. (best you can do), Genre
- The ultimate point is to come up with a number, so you don't necessarily have to name the instruments (although this is good...) , but tally every time you are hear a new timbre
- Count Every different Timbre you hear ! Even if it is not present the entire time.
- Be specific when you are tallying.... For example, you might hear an electric guitar, and an acoustic guitar, even though these are both guitars they are different timbres. (also for male vs. female vocals etc.)
- Name the instruments if you can!
For Each Each Song : Song Name, Number of Instruments/Diff. Timbres, List of Inst. (best you can do), Genre
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Song List
1. The Needle and the Damage Done - Neil Young 2. Im Through With Love - Chase Sanborn 3. Between The Bars - Elliot Smith 4. Love Yourself - Justin Bieber 5. I Could Die For You - Red Hot Chili Peppers 6. I Was Doin Alright - Dexter Gordan 7. Mrs. Jackson - Outkast 8. Creep - Radiohead 9. Something About Us - Daft Punk 10 . Just The Two of Us - Bill Withers 11. Fantasy - Earth Wind and Fire 12. Let it Be - Beatles 13. Eleanor Rigby - Beatles 14. LandSlide - Fleetwood Mack 15. Kissing My Love - Bill Withers 16. It aint What Cha' Do - Clayton Hamilton Orchestra |
?'s To Think About
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Instrumentation VS Texture
deals with dissecting what a song is made of - What physical Instruments / Timbres are contained within the musical Example
Whereas ....
Texture
Is the the final product of that combination of Timbres - The byproduct of mixing together many unique timbres
Whereas ....
Texture
Is the the final product of that combination of Timbres - The byproduct of mixing together many unique timbres
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Example
This shirt has a "soft" texture, but is is not made up of "soft" - It is made of Cotton / Polyester threads A Song may have a " Folky" or "Country" Texture, but it Doesn't contain " folk," - It contains Violin, Guitar, Upright Bass, Vocals etc. |
Example
A cookie might taste "Sweet," But not everything in it is sweet - it chocolate/ sugar, but it also has flour, salt, butter ETC. BUT The final product comes out sweet |
Pop-Folk Texture
We wouldn't necessesarliy listen to any of these particular instruments individually - or even in pairs -
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put together in the proper combination, and played in the right style, they Compliment each other
SO....
The Texture, is a result, or byproduct, of the combination of individual Timbres (aka Instrumentation)
This is leads us to a larger concept in music (and really , all art) where many different parts come together to create a unique
We wouldn't necessesarliy listen to any of these particular instruments individually - or even in pairs -
......
put together in the proper combination, and played in the right style, they Compliment each other
SO....
The Texture, is a result, or byproduct, of the combination of individual Timbres (aka Instrumentation)
This is leads us to a larger concept in music (and really , all art) where many different parts come together to create a unique
Texture with 1 Instrument
Functional Harmony
Harmony : Combination of simultaneous Pitches
This does not specify if the simultaneous pitches sound Good/Right or Bad/Wrong Together - it simply means multiple notes played/sounded simultaneously
HOWEVER
many times when we say harmony, it is implied that we mean FUNCTIONAL HARMONY , which is harmony that sounds good/right
RULE OF THUMB: All Music on the Radio uses Functional Harmony ( The point of the radio is for A LOT of PEOPLE to listen to the station == Good Ratings)
This is the type of Harmony we would learn in school or private lessons
I.E. : Major/Minor Scales , Major/Minor Chords etc.
The difference between FUNCTION HARMONY and NON FUNCTIONAL HARMONY is drastic and can be heard IMMEDIATELY
(Generally we would not even hear this unless we seek them out...)
This does not specify if the simultaneous pitches sound Good/Right or Bad/Wrong Together - it simply means multiple notes played/sounded simultaneously
HOWEVER
many times when we say harmony, it is implied that we mean FUNCTIONAL HARMONY , which is harmony that sounds good/right
RULE OF THUMB: All Music on the Radio uses Functional Harmony ( The point of the radio is for A LOT of PEOPLE to listen to the station == Good Ratings)
This is the type of Harmony we would learn in school or private lessons
I.E. : Major/Minor Scales , Major/Minor Chords etc.
The difference between FUNCTION HARMONY and NON FUNCTIONAL HARMONY is drastic and can be heard IMMEDIATELY
(Generally we would not even hear this unless we seek them out...)
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Functional Harmony
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Non - Functional
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Classical Vocal Music
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Classical Piano Music
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Jazz
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Pop??
There are very few examples of this type of Harmony/Music in Popular Music Genres ( i.e. R&B / Rock / Hip Hop / Country Pop etc.) -
We see it much more in Classical / Jazz music Where there is more experimentation
This is for obvious reasons as most people would not like listening to these examples (myself included!!)
It is a very small group of people who enjoy this type of music that is lacking in conventional functional harmony!
We see it much more in Classical / Jazz music Where there is more experimentation
This is for obvious reasons as most people would not like listening to these examples (myself included!!)
It is a very small group of people who enjoy this type of music that is lacking in conventional functional harmony!
Timeline of Harmony
Functional Harmony - how do we know what notes sound good together?
AND...
HOW did we arrive standard for what sound's Right (i.e. 'right' is the mostly the same for everyone)
There are a couple answers for this question.....
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All pitches are made by a frequency or sound wave
The Range of the pitch (high vs. low) is dependent on the speed of the sound wave FAST = HIGH SLOW = LOW Unit of Measurement Hertz or Hz Hertz gives us a numerical value for how many cycles per second a sound wave completes MORE CYCLES = FASTER SOUNDWAVE Tone Generator
So if we think of 2 tones together , or , 2 Frequencies / sound waves together SOME Frequencies sound better together because of how their sound waves actually line up |
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The other is simpler...
We (all of us, others before us) have been hearing the same notes put together for our whole lives , and those notes have been the same for along time before us
Pentatonic Scale
(****remember from the movie howard Goodall Talks about the Pentatonic Scale - a group of 5 notes that all civilizations have in common
These notes have been drilled into us for our entire lives.... Marry had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle... Alphabet...
Bobby Macferran Pentatonic Scale
The Pentatonic scale is a small example of how our ears have been trained to be partial to certain groups of notes when they are put together
(Some people say it is actually genetic - it is in our DNA that certain notes sound better together than other)
We have all been exposed to music that abides by all the same basic rules , and have trained our ears to know what
notes sound good together and what sounds bad according to those rules
When talking specifically about what notes/pitches sound good when played together, we break it down into 2 categories:
We (all of us, others before us) have been hearing the same notes put together for our whole lives , and those notes have been the same for along time before us
Pentatonic Scale
(****remember from the movie howard Goodall Talks about the Pentatonic Scale - a group of 5 notes that all civilizations have in common
These notes have been drilled into us for our entire lives.... Marry had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle... Alphabet...
Bobby Macferran Pentatonic Scale
The Pentatonic scale is a small example of how our ears have been trained to be partial to certain groups of notes when they are put together
(Some people say it is actually genetic - it is in our DNA that certain notes sound better together than other)
We have all been exposed to music that abides by all the same basic rules , and have trained our ears to know what
notes sound good together and what sounds bad according to those rules
When talking specifically about what notes/pitches sound good when played together, we break it down into 2 categories:
Scales and Chords
Scale
OR A group of notes played in succession that sound Good/Right together This is another concept that we take from the greeks
They called these MODES
they would choose notes only from the appropriate mode This is also something that we take from the Greeks, as even until this day we associate Major Scales/Chords with Happy and Minor Scales/Chords with Sad |
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Chords
Where scales deal with groups of notes played in succession, Chords refer to notes that are played/ sounded simultaneously
A Chord is : 3 or more notes simultaneously
Think of the timeline of Harmony - We started out with just one melody line of Gregorian chant, Then they added a Drone, then a second line of Melody, giving us 3 separate notes sounding at one time. this gives us a chord!
Many of the examples of innovation in that timeline were attempts to figure out how to successfully (in a way that sounds good) put scales with chords.
If we think of 2 components of a song : Melody and Harmony
in a Given Pop song these will be represented by a vocal melody, and a chordal instrument (such as piano or guitar)
A Chord is : 3 or more notes simultaneously
Think of the timeline of Harmony - We started out with just one melody line of Gregorian chant, Then they added a Drone, then a second line of Melody, giving us 3 separate notes sounding at one time. this gives us a chord!
Many of the examples of innovation in that timeline were attempts to figure out how to successfully (in a way that sounds good) put scales with chords.
If we think of 2 components of a song : Melody and Harmony
in a Given Pop song these will be represented by a vocal melody, and a chordal instrument (such as piano or guitar)
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Familiarity VS. Contrast
Familiarity in Harmony
Harmony is one big way artists and composers provide familiarity in music....
The reason some notes sound good together is because we are familiar with the sound .. WE are used to it and we are comfortable with how it sounds
Think of how many Major/Minor Chords the average person has heard over the course of their lifetime
(Every song you or I have ever heard contains these - wit the exception of song with non functional harmony)
When we hear major and minor chords in the song, this is not the first time we are hearing that chord. we have heard it many times before!
Therefore we are already familiar with the song ( even if it is a small aspect! )
One Important Device in Music for creating Familiarity is the Chord Progression
Chord Progression: A Series of Chords played in Specific Order
Examples:
All of Me
Hello
Both songs repeat the Chord Progression right from the start of the song
This gives us a musical home and some familiarity before the vocals come in - now that we have that home established we can focus on the melody and lyrics
Further Repitition : Both songs are actually written with the same chord progression!
(The sound a little different because they are in different ranges as adele sings higher)
So we have 2 aspects of repetition: (1) The progression repeating within the song, (2) and the progression repeating from Other Songs
This happens a lot in popular music...
Harmony is one big way artists and composers provide familiarity in music....
The reason some notes sound good together is because we are familiar with the sound .. WE are used to it and we are comfortable with how it sounds
Think of how many Major/Minor Chords the average person has heard over the course of their lifetime
(Every song you or I have ever heard contains these - wit the exception of song with non functional harmony)
When we hear major and minor chords in the song, this is not the first time we are hearing that chord. we have heard it many times before!
Therefore we are already familiar with the song ( even if it is a small aspect! )
One Important Device in Music for creating Familiarity is the Chord Progression
Chord Progression: A Series of Chords played in Specific Order
Examples:
All of Me
Hello
Both songs repeat the Chord Progression right from the start of the song
This gives us a musical home and some familiarity before the vocals come in - now that we have that home established we can focus on the melody and lyrics
Further Repitition : Both songs are actually written with the same chord progression!
(The sound a little different because they are in different ranges as adele sings higher)
So we have 2 aspects of repetition: (1) The progression repeating within the song, (2) and the progression repeating from Other Songs
This happens a lot in popular music...