Sunday, October 26, 2008

Vocal harmony and acapella

Acapela is a musical genre or style of music that is performed without the use of musical instruments but merely vocals. It requires a great use of vocal harmonies ranging from 3 or more singers. As you may know, 3 singers will create "chords" or triads that would sound enjoyable to listen to if they each use a different musical note.

The more people involved in the acapella performance the better it would be. A large ensemble of acapella performers can also be called a choir while a smaller one is often call an acapella group (3 to 8 people). The difference is that for a choir, a single musical note can be sung by more than one singer, thus having a voice doubling effect. This effect is similar to a chorus effect that you find in a guitar effects processor for example.

In a music production for albums or television / radio commercials, the use of vocal harmony can be used for two common reasons:
  • To provide a rich texture or layer of harmony in the music arrangement and to create an ethereal effect that defines space in the music.
  • To support the main vocal and lift the entire mood of the music if the singer sounded too weak or lack of characteristics in his or her performance.
To harmonize when singing can be a difficult task to accomplished. You need to practice a lot and it is best to be done with friends in a group of three or more. Use a piano or keyboard as a reference and you can start by choosing a note on the keyboard and have each and everyone of your friends to sing a different note that correspond to a triad or chords. For example, you can hum to tune of C while another friend of yours hum to the tune of E and the other one on G. This will create a triad of C Major chord.

Here's an example of a well arranged vocal harmony / acapella performance by the infamous vocal group Boys II Men. The song is "Yesterday" originally from The Beatles.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Thoughts on Songwriting

In the simplest definition, songwriting is the art of creating a combination of melody, lyrics, rhythm, and harmony through chord progressions. This is usually done along with musical forms (such as verse, chorus or bridge) to define the song’s structure.

Songwriting is a very creative process and mostly cannot be done if writer’s block is in the way. Songwriters often need the right moment to have his or her flow of ideas running. Some might find it best to write in the morning while others prefer at night when the mind is really fresh and filled with creative juice.

In my opinion, songwriting can be a taught process. It is an art that can be mastered if you have a passion for it. Anyone can be trained with the right tools just like drawing or painting.

In the context of art, the difficult challenge is to attain uniqueness in your songwriting when compared to the works of other songwriters. But most songwriters are in a way influenced by their favorite composers or artistes. This can be good or bad depending on how you see it. You can think of your songs as being good if they can make a difference and otherwise if it sounded the same with other people’s works.

The most important thing is to know the purpose of your songwriting. Is it for your self listening pleasure or do you intend to commercialize its use? The difference between these two is whose needs you are trying to fulfill for. You can think of your listeners or potential music buyers as your clients and you work for them if you want to commercialize your songs. This is perhaps the hardest part of songwriting as you try to please many listeners.

Chord progressions are greatly used in songwriting. They really go hand in hand with the melody that you create. For instance, the melody that you create must be “harmonically” correct with the selection of chords that you use thus creating some form of restriction.

Some songwriters prefer to concentrate on creating the melodies first without putting much thought into the chords used. An advantage on this is that you won’t restrict your melody as proper chord progressions can be constructed later. Alternately, you can also focus on working out the chord progressions as the first priority. This can be too restrictive to your melody and it is advisable that you avoid doing this whenever possible.

Attached video: from Berklee’s instructor Jimmy Kachulis.
Description: “Berkleemusic instructor Jimmy Kachulis explains harmonic tools you need to learn to create effective moving bridges—the move from away to away and the half cadence.”


Monday, October 20, 2008

Monetizing Beatboxing?

That might have been a not-so-weird title but that's exactly what this guy is capable of doing. Poolpo has been famous with his awesome beatboxing. Well, Beatboxing is the art of making rhythms, grooves and sound effects using the human voice. It is a form of vocal percussion connected with hip hop culture and it has been called the "fifth element" of hip-hop although it is not limited to hip hop music. Beatboxing is also referred to as multi-vocalism and vocal percussion.

I can't believe it when listening to how he could actually create more than one sounds when he is beatboxing. Sometimes it sounded like three sounds altogether but I still believe that it is actually two sounds at the most, or two timbres if you prefer it that way.

Poolpo's beatboxing is certainly amazing and it is rare to see such talent. I think the clip here is a television ads in Portugese. Getting paid for such an extraordinary talent. That was what I meant by "monetizing beatboxing". And NO, I can't beatbox as good as Poolpo.


Sunday, October 19, 2008

Introduction to Gamelan Music

Gamelan (pronounced as gum-may-land) is a form of unique and exotic music originating in the islands of Indonesia in South East Asia. It is an enchanting orchestra which includes gongs, chimes, xylophones, flutes and drums. Gamelan is used to accompany both traditional and modern dances, drama, theatrical and puppetry in court, temple, and village rituals.

Gamelan music is performed as a group effort, and so there is no place for an individual showoff or soloist. It is played on an orchestra consisting primarily of metal-keyed percussion instruments ("metallophones") and gongs, but also including hand or stick drums, flutes, and occasionally also bowed instruments and bamboo rattles.

Music and the gamelan ensembles are a natural and intrinsic part of Indonesian culture. Musicians always take their shoes off when playing, and never step over the gamelan. It can be regarded as a sign of respect and appreciation or could have been an artistic expression to some.

Javanese gamelan is more traditional and suited to palaces and temples, it is a gentler and lower pitched style of gamelan that accommodates vocalists and rhythmic patterns. Javanese gamelans frequently include singers, while Balinese gamelans consist exclusively of percussion instruments.

Balinese gamelan is often much louder, and more flamboyant and dramatic, but also includes quieter, contemplative pieces. Balinese Gamelan has a characteristic 'shimmering' sound which is due to the detuning of paired instruments playing the same musical part. Balinese gamelan is native to the island of Bali, Indonesia.

Indonesian music is often organized such that the lower registers provide the form, the middle registers are the melody, and embellishment is done through the higher registers. Indonesian tunings don't correspond with those in the West. Central Java is one of the most highly populated areas in the world and has the most artifacts and stories related to the origins of the gamelan.

Here’s a clip of a very nice Gamelan performance.


Friday, October 17, 2008

An Introduction to MIDI

For the new music makers, MIDI might totally be a new word for you if you have never had the time to really look at musical instruments or devices with midi capability. MIDI stands for Musical Instruments Digital Interface. It is a technology made in view of electronic music instruments and has been developed since 1983.

Midi is essentially a digital communication language that is used to transmit musical information among electronic musical instrument with midi features. These musical instrument or devices include keyboards, synthesizers, electronic drums, sound modules, electronic piano and even on guitar. Midi is a widely known standard for saving and transmitting musical information similar to music manuscript that has information on what note to play, key signatures, time signature and so on.

There are many types of midi files as resulted from device developers who want to make a standard of their own. You may have seen formats like XGM and so on. However, there is GM (General MIDI), a standard that has become the consensus among midi device developers. These files are usually denoted with a .mid extension for the filename. For example, “mysong.mid” is a midi data files without the quotes.

Midi files are very small compared to digital audio files such as wav or mp3. Midi data only holds certain information on musical information but not the sound or timbre itself. A midi file does not store a piano sound, but instead, it can be used to store what notes to play on the piano, how long a note is pressed and what midi channel is used to trigger the piano sound on a keyboard or a sound module with a piano sounds.

Most computers with a soundcard are able to play general midi files. But where do the sounds come from? They come from the soundcard’s internal general midi instruments built in its chipset.

In fact, midi is widely used in the music industry by composers, arrangers and performers in studio or home-based music production and also in live performances. Midi however, is greatly used only in the production phase of music, where the process of composing, arranging and editing takes place.

Midi works using 16 midi channels, each can be assigned a different sound or patch. By using a sequencer, you can actually create a performance of a full blown orchestra. Most software or hardware based sequencers support midi. Sequencers are used by musicians to record and edit their musical compositions. Software based sequencers for music production includes Cakewalk, Cubase and Finale. They are many more in the market.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Benefiting from Music Appreciation

Music appreciation is an educational perspective that teaches people to understand, to reason and to appreciate different genres of music through listening and participated discussions. In often educates a listener to have an idea of what to look for when listening to music.

Music appreciation has being taught in various educational levels, from as early as kindergarten level to advanced professor’s degree. In its most educational context, music appreciation is taught so that students will be able to recognize and understand different genres and aspects of music. Students are also exposed to the basic elements of music, major forms of music as well as stylistic periods. These studies would form an intelligent approach in the appreciation and understanding of music.

How can you benefit from music appreciation? Even if you’re not a musician, you can benefit from a music appreciation course for the reasons of

  • General knowledge – it is always good to know for the knowledge to know more in depth about music.
  • Professional careers – even if you’re not a musician, you can use the musical knowledge you gain to help you with your career such as journalists or a producer for a television production for instance.
  • Better well-being – it would be beneficial for your well-being to know what music that would help you to express your emotions well and to know what music would be to help with health-related problems such as insomnia.

Music itself is an essential part of any given culture in the world we live in. Music appreciation courses can often be tailored to non-musician as well as music students. For the music major students music appreciation is gained through various aspects of music such as compositions, performing and critical listening. Music appreciation is designed in a way to have students to look at music in all of its forms.

From the historical aspect, music appreciation teaches you the history of music in order to understand why do certain types of music are favorable in a given period or era. This is just like to why you like your type of music at this very millennium age. To add, through music appreciation you would be able to examine the lives and musical works of musicians and how those have affected them and the world’s history in their respective era.

In a nutshell, to be knowledgeable in various aspects of music proves to be beneficial for everyone who has undergone music appreciation course or self research. Without it, what you know would only be limited to a certain degree and thus reflect your knowledge about music.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Making the most out of music

Music is so universal that you can almost think about it from different perspectives. One purpose that strikes me right away is entertainment. We value music as something that is entertaining. Why do we need entertainment in the first place? Music as a form of entertainment is food to our ears. It is so artistic that it can color the paleness of actions and fill the emptiness of emotions.

So what is music to you, really? There are many definitions that can be found on the Internet but the best so far that I can relate to is from Princeton where music is defined as

“an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner”.
Another good definition taken from Wikipedia is
“an art form consisting of sound and silence. Elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, structure, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.”

Because people have the need to be entertained, music is often monetized or commercialized to gain profits. You’ve been to a live performance, you bought CDs for your own listening pleasure, you went partying in a rave event and you watched a movie with heart touching film scores in the background. The list goes on and on. It is so often that money is being involved in the examples mentioned.

Music can also be used for therapy purposes and as a form of relaxation. Going through a tedious and tiring daily routine one find it to be very relaxing to listen to music. Of course, different genres of music have different effects on your mind. When you want to relax, you don’t usually listen to an adrenaline pumping music. You are not relaxed if your adrenaline is up with high heart pulse rate.

In the film industry, music is often used to enhance the emotions of viewers when they watch movies. A scene with suspense element can be further improved with music. Without music it makes the movie felt empty and less entertaining to watch. In some cases, a viewer can be bored to the max when music is overpowering what was meant in a specific conversational dialogue for example.

Music reflects your personality, your artistic sense or your complexity of mind on how you see the world. Music is influential and it can even form a unity. People group together for the cause of music. Sometimes in the worse extent, music is used to promote hatred.

Depending on how you see it, music does leave some significant meaning to your well-being. I think it is cool to mix and match by listening to various genres of music. What I mean is to pick a certain genre for a specific purpose. You won’t go for a candle light dinner with a heart throbbing music in the background right?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Juggling between gifted and talented

Sometimes you might see the word gifted and talented used interchangeably. In my opinion, they both are different in some manner. The word "gifted" to some, is somewhat common in a phrase like "a gift from god" or the like. Because of that, gifted seems to be a stronger word than talented.

Talent is like skill but gifted is an exceptional level of talent. This is where the two words connect or link. A talented musician does not necessarily mean that he or she is gifted. Talents are skills that can be learned and developed while being gifted seemed to be of extraordinary talent quality.

Can someone with a talent become a gifted musician? Logically it is possible but it may be extremely difficult to achieve. Gifted is like being genetically hard-coded in the DNA of a person. It's like possessing genius genes with a mind to do wonders. Gifted people seemed to be highly regarded, recognized and popular because of their outstanding qualities while at the same time you can find your drummer friend who is playing the same drum pattern over the last 10 years.

You would probably have met some people with exceptional skills (gifted) in a particular field of music. For instance, I would regard John Williams as a gifted film composer. His numerous worldwide recognized works prove that he is able to outnumber other aspiring film composers. Of course there are many other gifted film composers waiting for their works to be heard. It is only a matter of time to break from the mere talents to the gifted realm.

I have seen very young performers who are not just talented but gifted because what they can do cannot be done by most people. Have a look at the performance here. Bear in mind that he's only 12 years old at the time of this video taken.



Monday, October 13, 2008

Using simplicity to reach greater audience

Simplicity can be a very subjective word if you're talking about music. But you can refer "simplicity" to various parts of the music - simple melody lines, simple instrumentation, simple chord progressions and so forth.

There's a saying that usually addresses things to be workable or acceptable so long that they are simple. You've probably heard of KISS (keep it simple stupid). Most popular songs tend to be simple because not all ears could listen to the level of complexity in the music.

For example, you might have heard of a song with a melody line that goes up and down throughout the song. Sometimes a note jumps to the adjacent note without a proper passing note that causes the singer to sound like he or she is having a difficulty to sing the tune. It is okay if this happens like one or two times throughout the song which in a way expresses uniqueness and artistry. But frequent occurrences will discourage what could have been an enjoyable listening experience.

In instrumentation, the number of musical instruments played or the timbres used along with harmony will influence the listening experience. Imagine a music with a pianist and a saxophonist and another piece of music with a full orchestra performing. The use of two musical instruments would deliver a better sound clarity compared to a lot of musical instruments such as in the orchestra. You can easily identify the piano and saxophone parts but it would be harder to differentiate violins and violas from the strings section of an orchestra because of the numbers. The point is, simple instrumentation has more appeal to the human auditory receptors. Too many instruments without correct harmonization and voicing will confuse the ears and become unpleasant to listen to.

In chord progressions, something awkward will not register easily to the listeners. Chord progressions are like mathematical formulas. The more complex the formulas, the less likely you can understand or digest. Music theory is like a rule that governs what can be done with chord progressions. An attempt to break the rule can lead to disaster similar to comparing what is logical with what is illogical to the human brain. For example, listening to the verse of a song in a certain key signature then suddenly jumping to another key signature in the following verse without proper key modulation techniques. It would feel like speeding over the bump on the road.

Keeping it simple has its disadvantages. Too simple would sound boring. On the other hand, too complex would sound difficult to register. Keeping it moderate would likely to work. Experiment more with what most ears could easily register to. A smooth flow of all aspects in the music will definitely help.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Welcome to audiosyde music talks

Hey everyone. Just had the thought of creating a blog focused more towards music. Still, music is a wide topic to discuss about but to be more specific I would post entries related to songwriting, composition, arrangement, production, opinions, tips and reviews about various musical aspects.

I do have a blog about everything under the sun but sooner or later I need to phase it out and have different blogs according to my interests. I was thinking of having a single blog and place everything nice and tidy in one place but for the sake of "niche" topic, this blog has been summoned to serve its purpose.

As you know, music is universal even to the extent that one can communicate without a common language such as English. Music itself talks as a medium - all you have to do is listen and express yourself or your thoughts using music. Music is a form of unity, people unite from the same musical interests that they have. Music reflects your personality.

Share your musical experience in the comment section. Maybe post a link back to your post regarding music. I hope you enjoy my postings. Stay tune...