Week Four - Identifying Instruments (Part 2)

The week we looked at less commonly used instruments- brass (trumpet, trombone and saxophone), woodwind (flute), strings (cello and violin) and other guitar-like instruments such as the banjo, mandolin and oud. Hopefully that was all straightforward. Again there are photos in the Powerpoint slides and examples in the playlist.

Recent(ish) Innovations in Music

We looked at synthesizers, drum machines and the sampler. In the past few years, drum machines (such as the Roland 808) and the 'classic' synthesizer (such as the Moog) are in one sense becoming less common, and this is in part because we can now sample these instruments and run them from a laptop with a USB controller keyboard. The sounds that they create are arguably as popular as ever however! We also looked at sampling in the original sense, i.e. taking a section of pre-recorded music and incorporating it into your own music. We discussed the creative merit of this approach and whether it merely represented laziness or even theft. I was very interested to hear everyone's opinion on this- I think we mostly agreed that when used with imagination and creativity, making music using samples can be just as valid as using an instrument such as the guitar. For particularly good examples of sample use see the playlist or the following bootleg albums that use samples from The Beatles, Fugazi and The XX and mix them with vocals from Jay-Z, Wu Tang and Notorious BIG respectively (thanks to Jago for the XX heads up). I want to emphasise that these are not merely 'mash-ups' where an instrumental is mixed with anther vocal- rather they are well-crafted mixes using various different elements from the instrumental source tracks. Listening to the Grey Album and trying to spot the samples used from The White Album will be particularly useful in training yourself to hear music in a more analytical way. There were few things I forgot to cover this week- David mentioned that the Beyonce track actually sounds quite 'old school' for a modern R&B recording- if you listen to 'Are You My Woman' by The Chi-Lites (from the playlist) you'll see why! I also mentioned that the use of sampler instruments has made live performances much easier, in that you can carry around hundreds of instruments in one keyboard or laptop. No more using a truck to get a full sized Hammond organ to the venue! Related to this Megan asked a good question about synthesizers using samples at the end which I may have got my wires crossed about. A more complete answer is that synthesizers that are trying to emulate other instruments (such as the piano, organ etc) are usually made using samples of real sounds. However other synthesizer sounds commonly heard in dance music or even the classic Moog sound are more likely to be built from scratch. This would involve the manipulation of sine waves in various ways that are far more advance than we'll be looking at. There is always a bit of grey area with these things and to be honest this isn't something that you need to get too worried about at this stage. I hope that's relatively clear! If anyone has any questions I'll try to answer them next week or you can add comments/questions to these weekly posts.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/The+Grey+Album/120338

http://soundcloud.com/wugazi

http://soundcloud.com/wait-what/sets/the-notorious-xx

Playlist

Powerpoint slides

Week Three - Identifying Instruments (Part 1)

This week we looked at the main five groups of instruments: the modern drum kit, percussion, bass, guitar, and keyboards. In various combinations these have made a large percentage of records of the past 50 years. We saw that the 'back beat' drum pattern (kick drum on the 1st and 3rd beat of a 4/4 bar, snare on the 2nd and 4th) is the foundation of many rock records, and has stayed basically the same from Elvis through to more recent bands such as And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead. The ability to identify these groups of instruments both visually and by ear is essential to a live sound engineer and tour manager. Some instruments within these groups (such as the Fender Rhodes) are maybe less important to be able to identify than others, but a good knowledge of them will certainly be helpful. The Powerpoint slides will help with being visually familiar and the tracks in the playlist (see below) should help you recognise the sound of them. If you have access to Logic or Garage Band, the sampler instruments included are very helpful in this area (especially the individual parts of a drum kit). At the end we used Logic samples to see which of these instruments worked better in different genres.

Playlist

Week Two - Pitch and Rhythm

Pitch and Rhythm

This week looked at pitch and rhythm, and the difference between the two. In the context of this course pitched instruments will refer to those that provide the melodic element of a song or piece of music. Examples are the guitar, piano (or keyboards), strings and the human voice. Rhythm instruments provide the beat or percussive element to music and commonly include the drum kit, shakers (or maracas), tambourine and bongos. It is important to remember that percussion instruments will also have a pitch (or note) and melodic instruments (such as the guitar) can be played in a rhythmical way!

Time Signatures

The main purpose of this section was to look at the 4/4 time signature and specifically to make sure that everyone can count bars of 4/4 along to a piece of music. It looked like everyone was fairly comfortable doing this, however if you are still unsure I would suggest practising along to house music (such as the Nathan Fake track in the playlist). House music is a good way to get your head around 4/4 because the kick drum (or bass drum) is generally found on each beat in the bar. Basically if you count along with the kick drum you will be counting in 4/4! We also looked at 3/4, 5/4 and 7/4 which are handy to know but not essential for this course. Examples are in the playlist if you want to practice. Examples where this skill might be useful to you might be: if you ever need to set a delay in time to the music, or perhaps be responsible for sending a click track to the drummer.

Variations in Pitch

Being able to detect different pitches is important for a number of reasons. Arguably the most important is that it will help you identify different frequencies of feedback (the sound engineer's worst enemy!). Learning to properly use EQ (equalization) will also be much easier if you can do this. For this course you need to be able to listen to a pair of notes and identify the note that has a higher pitch (or note). If you have access to an instrument make sure you practice this at home. Even inanimate objects can have a pitch- try tapping different areas of a table, couch, cushion etc and see if you can tell any difference in pitch between two areas. It might seem easy but it's all good practice!

Tracklist

1) Outhouse - Nathan Fake (4/4)
2) Port Rhombus - Squarepusher (4/4)
3) River Man - Nick Drake (5/4)
4) No. 13 Baby (outro) - The Pixies (14/4 or 3 bars of 4/4 and 1 bar of 2/4?)
5) Repeaterbeater - Mew (too many time signatures to count!)
6) The Stroller - Jaill (4/4)
7) Come Save Me - Jagwar Ma (4/4)
8) Manic Depression - Jimi Hendrix (3/4)
9) Take Five - Dave Brubeck
10) 7/4 Shoreline - Broken Social Scene (7/4)
11) Sure Shot - Beastie Boys (4/4)
12) I Walk the Line - Johnny Cash (vocal goes up and down in key throughout the song)
13) I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones (goes up in key after the solo)
14) School's Out - Alice Cooper (Goes down in key for the bridge and again in the chorus)
15) Living on a Praver - Bon Jovi (Last chorus goes up in key)

Powerpoint slides