Rhythm is the music component that makes us move or even just tap our foot when we listen to a song. Rhythm makes the music become hypnotic and sensuous. A simple single note doesn’t move us, it’s boring just as the metronome is. We need several notes to be put together in order to make up a song which we can enjoy and dance to. Rhythm is what brings songs to life! It keeps a song moving along giving motion making it feel slower or faster than its actual tempo. An example would be Shake it off by Taylor Swift, the drums used give off energy and hype up the song because its mix of strong and weak accents on different beats.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1enFR7NsVgl3kExPssMRYqbfn-G0wTZm4/view?usp=drivesdk

I’ve been writing music since I can remember, I love the process of writing and creating music and then being able to share it with others. I released a single called Scars about 3 years ago and I am currently working on the album. The song used for this project is actually already on the album but for the sake of the project I decided to have fun and mess around with the soundtrack. I choose this song because the album version is very sad almost too sad and I had been undecided on whether I liked the sound or if I wanted to change it, so therefore I ended up changing the entire soundtrack and structure of the song due to this project and to my surprise loved the ending results and will probably change the original to the modified version of this project.

This song is called Aftertaste the tempo is 85 BPM with the time signature of 4/4 in the key of F minor. The song starts off with a warm but rich loop (Pressure Drop Kick Piano Chords 01.) I chose this piano because it gave me the dark/sad tone needed to portray the feeling of distress. And since the song is about a heartbreak I chose to include a syncopated drop kick (Pressure Drop Kick) to emphasize the vulnerability of the heartbroken. The intro consists of 8 measures but I start singing on the 5th measure with the pre-chorus. I start of singing with my chest voice but on a higher register to help separate the tone of the chorus from the verses.

For the first verse I eliminated the piano but kept the drum kick and added (Blowing Speakers 04) along with 2 synths (Deep Sleep Synth Plucks 02) and (Sparkle and Shine Synth Arp 01.) These sounds together give off a higher range of sound which is why I shift to a lower register on my chest voice which helps create a harmonic tone. I then add a snare drum (Sparkle and Shine Snare 01) on measure 13 to help lead into the chorus. I use this structure all through the song: taking away and adding instruments to create harmonies and melodies. It’s all about finding the right instruments to create the right combination of sounds.

The piano is brought back and the drum kick, deep sleep synth, and blowing speakers are taken away. Then a second snare drum is added (Sparkle and Shine Snare 02) and (Sparkle and Shine Vox Melody 02.) This gives off a break from all that is going on in the song, there are a lot of emotions being expressed in the first verse so the chorus is meant to be mellow and signify space which is why the instrumentation is so simple. Again like in the beginning of the song my voice shifts to a higher register to keep that feeling of distress and loneliness but this time around I re-recorded double vocal harmonies and added them to the backing to emphasize the hurt and make it sound a bit more aggressive.

The second verse is identical to the first verse, the instrumentation remains the same and after the second verse the chorus is then said one last time and then the song ends with the bridge. For the purpose of this song I did shorten the lyrics and soundtrack so that the song length cut shorter than 2 minutes but the original is 4 minutes long. Overall I enjoyed messing around with the loops on GarageBand and loved the ending result of the song.

In order to appreciate a any song you first need to analyze its structure which could then also help understand the meaning of the song. In today’s post I’ll be analyzing Crowded Room by Selena Gomez ft. 6LACK.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/genius.com/amp/Selena-gomez-and-6lack-crowded-room-lyrics

Intro: 0:00 – 0:12, the intro is simple and mellow, I think of the hand claps as the ticks on a metronome which give us the time signature of 3/4. And the electric piano is sort of being played off of the hand claps which give it a more syncopated feel. In total the intro is 4 measures long.

Chorus: 0:12 – 0:22, this song used its chorus to lead into the first verse still maintaining the same beat used in the intro giving us 5 measures of 3/4 time.

Verse #1: 0:23 – 0:54, is 14 measures long and the singer starts off the verse with a talking/singing tone which sounds effortless but is very well dictated which matches perfectly with the instrumentation in the background. The singer then goes from chest voice to head voice on 0:43 – 0:54 which harmonizes with the electric piano melody. This helps separate the overall tone and feel of the song since they’ve used the same instrumentation from the intro. The chorus is then repeated again after the first verse from 0:55 – 1:16.

Verse #2: 1:17 – 1:37, adds a drum kick which is hardly noticeable because it is played at the same time as the piano. Then again the chorus is repeated once more after the second verse. But this time the electric piano has a gospel feel to it. This verse was 8 measures long.

Bridge: 2:09 – 2:41, the bridge shifted from 3/4 to 4/4 which gave us 15 measures of music. 6LACK comes in with a rap verse and along with that the instrumentation changes from the hand claps to symbols and from the electric piano to an electric guitar. We can also hear other effects fade in and out during the verse. And towards the end of the rap a drum kit is added and the electric piano is brought back to finish with the chorus changing the tempo back to 3/4.

Over the past decade I’ve heard numerous genres of music. Anything from blues to country, heavy rock to Opera, you name it I’ve heard it. With that being said I’ve put together my perfect playlist with some of the most amazing songs made by some of the most iconic musicians. My current favorite song is called overtime by Chris Brown, he recently came out with a new album and I am obsessed, the whole album is composed of unique sounds and various styles. The song overtime is very mellow and euphonious the effect is caused by the use of double vocal harmonies and a slightly higher pitched chorus. This song falls under the genre of R&B pop. Now my least favorite song would have to be Queen of the night aria by Diana Damrau which falls under the genre of opera. I would not add this song to my playlist because it is very unpleasant to the ear and it is quiet boring in the sense that the musician is making music with the different ranges of their voice. And this song especially doesn’t use lyrics so I don’t really feel the emotion which should be portrayed through music.