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Do You Speak Music?
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Coolsville - Laurie Anderson
Lesson 1: Sound
Listen to this track and write down every different instrument you can identify. If there's something you can hear but you don't know what it is, try to describe the sound of it. Of all the sounds in this particular track, which one do you find the most interesting?
Lesson 2: Rhythm
Listen to this track and find the pulse. Can you hear the "heartbeat" in the background? What are you hearing that tells you where the pulse is? What is the tempo of the song? What is the meter of the song? How do you know that? Are there any commonly recurring patterns in this song? Which instrument is playing them? What do you find rhythmically interesting about this track? How do the vocal effects enhance the rhythm?
Lesson 3: Melody
Describe the shape of the melody in different parts of the song? Are there parts of the song that seem to have a melody without any shape?
Lesson 4: Harmony
Listen for the harmonic rhythm? How often does it change? Which instruments tell you most clearly when the harmony is changing? Are there any significant harmonic changes that stand out to you? Try to describe the emotional color that the harmony provides in different places of the song.
Instruments:
Synthesizer (?)
Bass Guitar
Vocals, Female, Male
Drumsticks clapping together (?)
Bass drum
Marakas (?)
Bird whistle
The most interesting sounds I think are the synthesizer effects because they are all over the place and really set the mood to the song.
beeps, whistles, shakers, drums, sticks, keyboard, violin, guitar (bass). the single-use sounds (beeps, whistles, wonky waa waas) I found the most interesting.
Synthesizer - Playing what musicians often call "pads" which are just chords held for a long time, so you get this constant "pad" of harmony sitting underneath the melody. Very airy and ethereal. This track was recorded in the 80s when synthesizers were brand new and fascinating so most of this track is all synthesized instruments instead of acoustic.
Bass - It's hard to tell whether this is a synthesizer or an electric bass. it sounds to me like a slap bass that's been processed through some filters. It makes me think of the Blade Runner soundtrack.
Female Voice - I chose this track because I loved the intensity and immediacy of her voice. The back and forth between speaking and singing reminded me of the most elemental idea of music... as a simple emotional extension of our attempts to express ourselves. It's like she's trying to get her point across with a plain speaking voice and then just crosses this line where spoken syllables won't do and she has to stretch them out, like a wolf howling at the moon almost.
Brake Drum - Like a metronome, this industrial clank driving everything forward. It's like some metaphor to the relentless progress of industry. With the synthesizer sounds and the echo on the voice and the screeches... it gives it this incredible dystopian vibe.
Sound Effects - This is just a catch all for the random sythesized background "chatter" that sometimes runs the gamut from jungle noises to screeching trains. It has this very disorienting effect, a combination of adventure and randomness.
Listening to this track again... I never even noticed the shaker the first several times I listened. Strange how the mind ignores certain things when focusing on others. It's like deciding you want to buy a red car, then suddenly it seems like everywhere you look you see red cars.
This track starts out without a pulse, giving you this floating, spacey feeling. Then the vocals come in with an echo that extablishes a sense of pulse. But it's just a fake out, and when the bass comes in you realize the song is a lot slower.
That metal "brake drum" sound is clearly establishing the pulse. According to my metronome, the tempo is 90bpm. The meter is generally in 4, but sometimes they play only half a bar. In other words, it's not always perfect cycles of 4 beats. Listen to the bass and the vocals while you count and every so often you'll hear them change chords/harmony on beat 3 instead of beat 1.