jakito music

If you are interested in what makes music tick, you may want to read on. If not, you may find this post somewhat nerdy, and I am perfectly fine with that.

Unlike most other pop genres, a large number of songs in the RnB genre are not built upon the verse-chorus(-bridge) pattern. Listen to Ciara: Gimmie Dat or Mariah Carey: We Belong Together and try to divide it in sections. The songs are built on the same chord pattern throughout. Hooklines do appear and there is quite a lot of variation in the arrangement from one four bar group to the next, yet despite that it is difficult to determine exactly where one section ends and another begins. You could just as well claim that the whole song is one section.

This may be heritage from rhythm&blues in the past. Not sure whether my memory serves me well but at least I recall having heard more songs by Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker that were groove-oriented rather than sticking to the blues format. More likely though, it may have seeped in from Rap where a groove/beat based structure is much more convenient than a verse-chorus structure imposing limits on the rapper’s ability to improvise.

I claim that the lack of conventional verse and chorus is a major factor defining the genre. Yes, I am aware that this aspect is seen in other genres as well, e.g. some of the electronica genres, and it extends from RnB into Hip Hop and Rap as well.

It is interesting that songs a genre with such a big audience seem to be built like this. Maybe it is related to how the music is used. Please come forward with any opinions on this.

A hearing test:

In the second voice in the tonal theme (played on 2 different pianos), a single tone (the 4th) is varied, that is all. It is easiest to hear the second time when it is played on the Grand. Do you hear it? Does it make a difference?

Angel’s Feather

Is this:

1. Less is More
2. Less is Less
3. Pointless?

I put together an instrument consisting of various electronic and/or processed drum and percussion sounds. For every new note played, a sound is picked randomly from this set of sounds, doubling the acoustic drum kit. If your DAW can pick a pitch randomly note by note, this is incredibly easy to do.
I did not make any decisions about which sound should be used when, and even so (or maybe because of that) there are pleasant moments and interesting ideas that could be used in another context. Sometimes randomness can help you take the next step.

Random Percussion:

Jaco Pastorius inspired a whole generation af bass players with his innovative brass-like bass sound. I have tried to reconstruct the bass sound of this incredible artist by the means of acoustic instruments.  First half is an improvisation played on bowed double bass & tuba, second half is the same played on pizzicato double bass and tuba. I think the second part is closest to the original sound. Could this bring fusion jazz to the symphony orchestra?

I would love your thoughts on this.

Commotion

This is a longer rant about a significant shift in music currently happening. Worth debating – please chip in!

The Sonata and the Symphony as musical forms were introduced in the 1700s as what might be the first self-contained musical forms ever. These forms were similar in the sense that the had a closed structure with a climax towards the end. The novel was introduced in literature in this era as well in about the same time and with similar characteristics.

Why? For the first time ever art in a broader sense was given its own existence as a commodity. In the past, art was instrumental, not in a musical but in a broader utilitarian sense. As an example, music was used by e.g. the church og the nobility to support rituals and power, or it was used for recreational purposed, e.g. dance music. Music had a supporting role and hence it was not required to represent itself as an entity in its own right. It was often structured in a serial manner which supported the purpose well, in e.g. verses. Let us call it SEQUENCISM.

Enter the entertainment industry in a broader sense. With Concerts and Art Exhibitions as new art vehicles to satisfy the demands of the nascent bourgeosie, art – including music – responded to the new music demands by becoming more self-contained. Music played in a concert hall had to be self-contained in order not to be booed upon. With the utilitarian aspect (e.g. ceremony or dance) removed, the Work had to present itself as a seperate unit. Art wrapped itself into forms that did not need any external assistance, e.g. the novel, the sonata, the symphony. We still see the reamins of this in the entertainment industry where the verse-chorus structure of pop songs is rooted in the sonata and symphony forms of past centuries.

But new forms are emerging, fascinatingly similar to pre-industrialism’s sequencism. The whole raft of electronica genres and sub genres is dominated by it: a series of 4 bar segments, each consisting of a varying number of elements. Not only is this structure exercised by the many electronica genres, film music in its various shapes and sizes is often structured in a similar way. When music has a supporting role, its structure is determined by the primary message, i.e. the visual element, the dialogue, or both. Listen to the music in this product presentation. Go to http://www.sanzaboe.dk/examples.asp and click on the Danisco sample. Even though classical instruments play an important part in this piece, the structure is similar to electronica music: a series of sections predominantly consisting of 4 bars or multipla of 4 bars. It appears that this is in fact library music: pre-produced music aimed at being used for exactly this purpose

Why is it built this way? This particular structure very easily accomodates the needs of just about any film. You can add or remove instruments, motifs and patterns to vary the intensity. You can build towards a climax. You can reflect a change of pace. With a metronome count of 60, a typical 2/2 bar is 2 seconds, i.e. 4 bars are only 8 seconds. If 8 seconds is too long a period of time to wait for a change, you can roll up your sleeves and introduce the change within a segment.

With Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) like Cubase, Pro Tools, FL Studio etc. it is very easy to manipulate this kind of sequences and to add or remove instruments and patterns so this is also a very practical approach to fulfilling the film’s needs. I had a personal go at this way of composing in this little piece: http://www.jakito.dk/web_2_0/english-filer/Moving%20Objects%20405.mp3 . This is a mockup actually composed to fit a specific commercial movie, it does not matter which particular one. Most important is that due to its structure of 4 bar segments it could quite easily be adapted to quite a lot of different films.

Quantitatively, I am convinced that sequencism is on the raise. If you count the minutes of music played and listened to in all contexts and media, I am quite sure that the share of sequencism is growing.

Does this mean the end of the beautiful, self-contained classical forms, or not? Probably not. At least not completely. But watch the sequencism spac