Explanation of Song Elements #1 – Song Form
Today’s Pop song form contains many elements. Among those are song production, song form, song chord progression, song lyrics and music mixing. The combination of these elements are what artists and engineers use to make full use of the potential of the song; the right combination of these elements creates a more pleasant experience for the person listening.
Song Form: Pop music of today includes the use of these terms- Intro, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus and Bridge (Release).
Intro: The intro of a song (Introduction) is the portion of the song that makes the first musical statement. The intro can quote from other parts of the song, or be an entity unto itself, but it almost always should relate in some fashion to the rest of the music. The intro of a song is very important because it is the first element of the music the listener hears, and should be interesting enough to keep them listening.
Verse: The verse is the first real musical statement of any song. The first verse should include the songs most powerful lyrics to keep the listener drawn into the music. A verse of a song can range from between 8 and 16 measures, although the average verse last 8 measures. The verse of a song is an element that will be repeated throughout the song, usually 2-4 times. Chord progressions in each new verse generally stay the same, but lyrics and production techniques usually change from verse to verse.
Bridge: The Bridge of a song (sometimes referred to as the “Release”) is usually used to give the listener a sense of musical “relief” in the song. Not every pop song has a bridge, but when used in certain songs a bridge can be a needed addition to break the pattern of the other elements. The chords in the bridge of a song usually have chords not used in any other part of the song, but in some cases the bridge can use similar chords that were used previously in the either the verses or the chorus’. A musical bridge can also be used as a way to link parts of a song together.
Song Form in today’s popular music usually follows a pattern similar to these:
Intro
Verse 1
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Verse 2
Pre-Chorus
Chorus 2
Bridge
Chorus (2X)
Intro
Verse 1
Verse 2
Chorus
Verse 3
Chorus
Bridge
Chorus (2x)
Intro
Verse 1
Chorus 1
Intro (chords)
Verse 2
Chorus 2
Bridge
Chorus 3
Intro and Fade
SONG PRODUCTION:
Song production is the act of manipulating a written song or piece of music to make it sound different. Song production can use only minor changes to be effective, or it can make major changes to the music to make it be received completely differently. Production techniques can include instrument changes or additions, arrangement changes and/or chord substitutions.
FILE SHARING:
Napster:
Napster, based on peer-topeer file sharing, used a Central Index Server to keep track of who was using the system so people logged on to Napster could access the files (songs) they were lookinf for. Napster was easy for the record industry to shut down because once they shut down the central server, clients were unable to search the hetwork of users who were logged on.
Gnutella:
Another and more current file sharing system, the Gnutella system allows users to share files without using a central server. Once clients log on, if they connect to any other peer-to-peer user, they can then access the entire user network. Example of some Gnutella client software are:
* BearShare
* Gnucleus
* LimeWire
* Morpheus
* WinMX
* XoloX
MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface
Since its inception in 1981, MIDI has become a standard by which musical instruments equipped with it can communicate with one another. MIDI allows musicians to ‘sequence’ music; a process by which a user can recording MIDI data instead of actual sound into their computer. The computer then can route and re-route the selected data back through a MIDI device and giving the composer complete freedom to change sounds at any given point in a composition.
Polyphony is a term that refers to the amount of notes a MIDI device can send out at one time. A MIDI devise with 64 note polyphony, for example, can only play 64 events at one given time. If the user has more than 64 events happening on a given beat of music, event number 65 will not happen.
MIDI operates on 16 discreet channels, called MIDI channels. If a musician who is sequencing a piece of music only has one MIDI devise to work with, the maximum number of channels that can be used is 16.
A MIDI Interface is the hardware device that allows the computer to communicate MIDI data to and from the keyboard. A MIDI music system will not work without a MIDI Interface.
Program (Application)
This term refers to the actual Program (application) that you are using on the computer. Photoshop, Freestyle, and Quark are all Programs.
CPU - “Central Processing Unit” (CPU, processor) The part of a computer which controls all the other parts. Designs vary widely but, in general, the CPU consists of the control unit, the arithmetic and logic unit (ALU) and memory (registers, cache, RAM and ROM) as well as various temporary buffers and other logic.
Monitor
The screen that is hooked up to your computer that allows you to view operations.
Mouse
The device that allows you to "point and click" on your computer.
Hard Drive
Put simply, your hard drive is "storage." All of your Applications and things that you have created on your computer are stored in your Hard Drive.
RAM
"Random Access Memory." RAM is the type of memory that allows your Applications to run; for example, an application resides in "RAM" when you are actually using it.
Megahertz
The term used for defining CPU computer speeds, often referred to when talking about computer processor speeds.
Processor (RISC, CISC)
The processor is the part of the computer that has much to do with (but not ALL to do with) the overall speed of your computer. Processors are the components that do the calculating that determines a computers speed. A RISC processor is a "reduced instruction set coprocessor" (Macintosh G3, G4) and a CISC processor is a "complex instruction set coprocessor" (Pentium, Celeron, etc.).
Sequencing
Sequencing is the term that we use to identify the action of recording music in data sequence instead of actual traditional recording. "Sequenced" music can have all the attributes of traditionally recorded music, but the process is actually the computer "playing back" the parts that were played into it.
Multi-Tracking
Multi-tracking is the term that refers to recording music one track at a time while maintaining the integrity of previously recorded tracks. All professionally recorded music of today is multi-tracked to keep instruments and vocals on their own track for mixing purposes.
Hard Disk Recording
Hard Disk Recording, put simply, is multi-track recording onto a computer or external device hard drive instead of tape. Much of todays music is multi-tracked to hard disk, but analog tape is still widely used in many major recording studios.
Multi-Timbral
Multi-Timbral refers to a MIDI devices ability to operate on 16 discreet MIDI channels simultaneously. A MIDI device that is not multi-timbral will not allow the user to sequence different sounds at one time from that device.
Quantize
Quantizing is an operation available in all sequencers and sequencing software that allows the user to fix fluctuations in a performance. For example, if a piano part that is sequenced is not "locked" with the drum part, Quantizing will fix the problem completely (so that they are exactly together) or by a percentage (so they seem tight but still have a "human" feel).
Polyphony
Polyphony is a MIDI devices ability to send out certain amounts of MIDI information at any given time. A MIDI device with 64 note polyphony, for example, can only send out 64 MIDI "events" at the same time. MIDI notes, controllers (MIDI Volume, sustain, etc.) are all MIDI "events."
