Today is Boxing Day which is synonymous with belly ache, boredom and regret. Let us use this day in a constructive and useful way! Either that, or write music. Let’s go:
AAAAA AAAAA AAAAA AAAAA
AAAAA AAAAA AAAAA AAAAA
AAAAA AAAAA AAAAA AAAAA
AAAAA AAAAA AAAAA AAAAA
That’s a really crap song. It just does the same thing over and over again. There’s things we can do to fix it later on, but let’s try again with a little more variety first. Ready?
EMDOE DOANE KFOLE SOQME
CLOAV VWIOF DFGWE LOABD
OQNSJ LEABC DUABD LFKMC
EPVMS AOFBN SLASF SAFQK
That’s no good either. It’s just all random and boring. Let’s think.
You likely have played Peek A Boo with a small child or perhaps a senile great uncle. If you haven’t the rules are very simple.
- Duck out of sight, and pause.
- Suddenly pop into sight.
- Say ‘Peek A Boo’.
Repeating this can keep baby or uncle in paroxysms of joy for hours if done right. It’s all in the timing. The baby knows that you are going to reappear, the mystery is just when. Not too fast – there’s some anxiety and anticipation, but the pay off is certain to come.
‘Classical’ composers are good at Peek A Boo. They give you an overture, which provides the rules. Then they start messing with the melodic structure, wandering off in apparent disregard for the game, but just when you think they’re halfway to China they pop back into view to ensure you know they’re really just teasing. Then they give you a finale that shows how it only seemed to wander off but was really SCIENCE.
In popular music we have the intro, the verse and chorus, the bridge and other structures that provide the same service. But really it’s all about anticipation and reward.
ABCDE ABCDE
ABCAB ABCAB ABCAB CDEFG
ABCAB ABCAB ABCAB CDEFG
MNOPQ CDEFG MNOPQ 12345
MNOPQ CDEFG OPQRS ABCDE
ABCAB ABCAB ABCAB CDEFG
ABCDE ABCDE
ABCDE hello I’m the main riff for the song, watch out for me. Hear me twice to get the idea.
ABCAB I’m part of the main riff but I keep pulling my punch until…
CDEFG peek a boo! I’m the missing bit of the riff and more! Often an extra chord.
MNOPQ I’m the chorus structure, I’m provide variety but I’m usually a variation on the main riff, often shifted in pitch
12345 I’m a special thing that only happens once in the chorus which adds interest. My name’s Wanda.
OPQRS meh, I’m just a way of getting back from the chorus to the main riff.
That’s not a strict map. It’s one of many ways to do the same thing – show the riff, then keep hiding it, shuffling it, then bring it out. The chorus is a way to distract the listener, give the riff a break, which anticipates the next round for more fun. Otherwise you can end up with this:
ABCDE ABCDE FGHIJ KLMNO
ABCDE ABCDE FGHIJ KLMNO
ABCDE ABCDE FGHIJ KLMNO
ABCDE ABCDE FGHIJ KLMNO …
which is basically Don Maclean’s American Pie and one of my least favourite songs of all time. Because it simply plays Peek A Boo at exactly the same pace over and over. You can set your watch by the chorus.
Can we make some simple rules? Kinda sort of. Rules that must be broken and never will be quite right.
Start by establishing the melody in the intro. As soon as you’ve made that clear, start to shuffle it around in the verse, so that it completes only part of the time. The listener should feel like they are watching a card trick, where the Queen of Hearts shows up unexpectedly.
Let’s go for a chorus. It’s usually reminiscent of the verse but it’s off in a different direction. More than likely pitched upwards it swoops up a few times, does a special trick the last time, then it glides back down into the verse structure again. If you do go up, you should usually keep the upper range of the verse structure overlapping the range of the chorus melody so that you can step down through the shared area. Think of a telescopic ladder with two sections that overlap.
You can do that a few times but you might start to get boring. So we…
Break down, drop back to the simple riff again. Stop everything except the main idea.
And then build up.
Here lurks the Gear Change. Now it’s OK near the end to repitch your melody up a third or a fifth to make a nice ‘uplifting’ section that refreshes the music. But like Iraq, it’s all about the exit strategy. Somehow you have to come back down from that high to reconnect with your original riff for the finale. When the writer goes up and never comes down – that’s called the Gear Change. Read this.
If you go up you need to have similar way to get down and likely that used for the chorus. The ladder again.
How to get out at the end? Two thoughts – from Brian Eno – who likes to fade out as if discreetly tiptoeing out of a room where the music continues to play – and from Garry Bradbury – who likes to end it as if an anvil has been hurled at your face.
Now, for our first song. The answer in this case is to do something like this:
aAaAA aAaAA
aaaaa AAAAA aaaaa AAAA
aaaaa AAAAA aaaaa AAAA
Using tonal adjustments to create the progression instead of pitch. But unpitched composition is wide field and we will have to come back to this later. Meanwhile, more ham.