Hey guys. I've been studying music theory and composition and have read that it is good to deconstruct songs to get in the heads of other producers and refine your own skills. The tracks I have made end up sounding corny and in my opinion not very good. They are in tune and all but as a composition lack any interesting properties. Music is my first ever creative sort of endeavour and I've only been at it for a few months so perhaps I am being too self critical.
Anyway back on topic -
Does anyone here deconstruct songs at all? I was wondering if anyone had any tips they could share. I tried deconstructing a beat I like for the first time this evening, Moodolude 04 by Evil Needle, which can be found here: Moodolude 04 | HW&W Recordings
I will post my deconstruction notes too, so that they can be critiqued and so you guys can tell me if I am going about it wrong etc. I'm not an expert at musical theory or composition and am a beginner so I fully expect to have made mistakes in my first deconstruction, I'm a bit wary about the outro as it kind of fades from the verse to the outro so I might have gotten the measures wrong. Anyway, here are my notes:
My ears aren't trained so I couldn't map down the melody lines so I tried to best describe the attributes of it. Same as the chord progression I can't identify them by ear so I just put down when the chords change.
Thanks for looking, and happy new year!
Anyway back on topic -
Does anyone here deconstruct songs at all? I was wondering if anyone had any tips they could share. I tried deconstructing a beat I like for the first time this evening, Moodolude 04 by Evil Needle, which can be found here: Moodolude 04 | HW&W Recordings
I will post my deconstruction notes too, so that they can be critiqued and so you guys can tell me if I am going about it wrong etc. I'm not an expert at musical theory or composition and am a beginner so I fully expect to have made mistakes in my first deconstruction, I'm a bit wary about the outro as it kind of fades from the verse to the outro so I might have gotten the measures wrong. Anyway, here are my notes:
Evil Needle - Moodolude 04
Intro - 4 measures
Harmonic rhythm
Chord stab every 2nd and 4th beat
Verse 1 - 4 measures
Harmonic rhythm
Chord stab every 2nd and 4th beat
Chord "pad" change every 2 measures
Verse 2 - 4 measures
Melody
Phrase 1 - 4 measure long - Skeleton of phrase 2
Built from structural tone possibly extended chord
Melody starts on 2nd beat. Unresolved tension at end of phrase.
Harmonic rhythm
Same as verse 1
Bridge - 4 measures
Same as intro
Verse 1 Repeat - 4 measures
Verse 4 - 8 measures
Melody Phrase 2 - 4 measures long, repeats.
Similar motif to phrase 1, more fleshed out than phrase 1.
The phrase creates tension midway through and resolves at the end and loops back to repeat.
Harmonic rhythm as verse 1
Verse 4 (repeat) - 8 measures
Fades into outro
Outro - 8 measures
Intro repeated twice
My ears aren't trained so I couldn't map down the melody lines so I tried to best describe the attributes of it. Same as the chord progression I can't identify them by ear so I just put down when the chords change.
Thanks for looking, and happy new year!