Hi, how you doing? Justin here
This is one of those lessons that might
completely transform your playing
And I'm not trying to do it
like a clickbait-y thing
This is a really big deal
I teach this all the time
And I was just doing a lesson-- a Skype lesson for a guy
one of the competitions over on
my forum yesterday: Len, how you doing, Len?
We were talking about the way you structure a song
and how you perform a song in ways of making it more interesting for listeners
He's like "dude, why haven't you got a lesson on this on your site?"
I'm like "man, I should!"
And that's this lesson
Now, what we're gonna start talking about
is dynamics--particularly loud and soft, to start off with
If you play the same strumming pattern for a whole song,
it gets really boring for the listener
I'm sure some of you have experienced it if you're out and about at a
cafe or bar or something, and somebody
plays a tune and the rhythm just gets a
little bit monotonous, no matter
how good the vocals are or whatever
if the rhythm is the same--same volume,
same texture, same pattern or whatever
it just gets a bit like:
"Stop it will you? Enough already!"
You don't want to be that person,
so you need to understand where you
should be quiet and where you
should be loud in a song
Now, in order to understand that
properly, it can be really helpful to
understand a bit about the most basic
form of song structure
And it changes all the time, so this isn't something that's kind of set in stone
cause song structures can be all over the place
there aren't really any rules, this is just like the most common song form
and if you understand that and you
understand the principles of what I'm talking about
You'll be able to apply this idea
to any song form that you enounter
So, on the most basic level
of song structure would be something along the lines of:
verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus
bridge, chorus, chorus
That is like, the standard song form
So you have the first verse
where you introduce the song,
the characters in the song,
basically what it's about
Verse 2 develops those characters,
the story a little bit more
Then you have the chorus which is the big sing-along-y bit
Then you have another verse
where you further develop the characters. Another chorus
Then you have a bridge which is usually completely different musically
Obviously the same thing with the song
it's usually the highest point in the song
Then you have a double chorus again
Now, it's important to realize that
the chorus is kinda the "hook"
usually it's the bit that people are
gonna remember, it's the bit that people
are gonna sing along with
So that really wants to be kind of
emphasized and it's usually considerably
bigger than the other sections
So, you'd have a verse
I'm just gonna kinda make up something
you know, random strumming stuff but
You might have a verse 1
So here you're introducing the song
Here comes verse 2
So it's just a little bit bigger
you're still kind of developing the idea
Into the chorus!
nice and big, everyone wants to sing along
Then we're back to the verse
Now, just in that little example,
I'm hoping to kind of get this idea that
There's not normally a strumming
pattern for a song
People often say "what's the
strumming pattern for that song?"
It's not the right question it's
"what's the strumming pattern for that section?"
Because very often you get these
The verses--the first verse is probably
the middle part, the middle level
The second verse is
a little bit above that
So usually it kind of introduces
another element
If you're playing on your own
you need to change the pattern up
But sometimes the guitar part would
stay the same, but something else
in the band might change
You might get an introduction of
a second guitar part
or a harmony on the vocals
or some some other musical element
just to kind of keep the interest
and start developing things
At the end of that second verse,
it really wants to lift and you
want to do a little build into the chorus
So where it's going from
Yeah
Going into the chorus
It's kinda lifting it up,
and that's the cue for people if they
want to have a sing-along
You'll hear it all the time
and as I'm talking about these things,
what I want you to do is take this idea and go and listen to your favorite music
and see how it applies
Cause it almost certainly will
Okay? There is always going to be
exceptions to the rules where the song is
pretty much the same all the way through
and it still wouldn't have mattered here or whatever
But you have to deal with that
there's always gonna be exceptions
it's music, it's art
sometimes the exceptions are the most beautiful things
But particularly, if you're performing
on your own, you want to
give that cue away, you want to say
"Hey man! the chorus is coming up"
if you're gonna have a sing-along
If you're doing American Pilot
or something like that
Verses are all very quiet, it's coming up
into the chorus, you want to be
telegraphing "Hey man! It's the chorus
everyone's going to sing along now"
You know, that can be a really, really
important thing
After that chorus, going into
the third verse,
It really wants to drop down
Like, the lowest point probably
So if you got verse 1, verse 2, chorus, verse 3
And that's gonna give you another
really super lift into the second chorus
Okay? So, dropping the dynamic of that
third verse kind of opens the way that
again, that build up into that
second chorus is going to feel
even bigger than the first time the chorus happened
They've already had the chorus before
You're trying to get them really to hear
the chorus as many times as possible
That's the key thing that's the hook,
that's the thing that they're going to remember
that they're going to be singing while they do the washing-up
So you've got that chorus, it's really
nice and big again
And then comes the bridge
Now, the kind of the point of the bridge
if you like in songwriting terms
is to kind of palate cleanse a bit
so you can bash it with another couple of choruses
So the bridge is always very different--
well, not always--usually very different
so the chords are usually very different
the phrasing, it's often where you get the
highest note in the song
like the kind of the climax
of the whole thing where the story
is revealed or whatever
But it wants to be different, again
so usually if you change all the chords up
then the dynamics could still stay big
Sometimes they get bigger in a bridge
or solo or whatever
Sometimes they drop right down
so usually the bridges are a bit extreme
they either go really, really quiet
or really, really big or the chords
and the musical elements being used
are completely different
Which kind of cleans your ears a bit
and then you're ready for a double chorus
so you can hear that chorus two more times
so overall in the song you will have
heard the chorus four times
That's the kind of hook-y bit
Again, going out of the bridge into
those last choruses, you want to
telegraph it for the listeners in case they want to sing along
I think that is a really important
element of this
But the key thing here is this--
the changes and how exciting it makes
it for the listener
Cause if it's just the same all the
way through, it really is dull
If you've got a recording device,
a way of recording yourself, or even your phone with a video,
pick a song that you perform regularly
particularly if you know that you're
one of those people that's guilty of doing the same strumming pattern
right the way through a whole tune
Play through the song with the same
strumming pattern, and record yourself
Then, sit and think about this--
think about the structure of the song
the fact that where the verses are,
where the choruses are
And then try and take it to the extreme
so play really quiet for the verses
and really loud for the choruses
The chances are actually,
you won't be anywhere near the extreme
you'll probably be about right
but it's worth when you're learning
about this stuff to try and go to the extreme
So really, really quiet in the verses
really, really big in the choruses
See if you can feel that and then
perform the song again with that in mind
and watch the song back
Cause I'm very sure you'll notice
it'll be like night and day, it'll be
so different, and so much better
It's that thing particularly building up for the chorus
If you're at a party and you're
just playing a tune and use that same strumming pattern,
people do switch off a little bit
If you bring the dynamic down,
people will be quieter
It's interesting, if you kind of blend in
and you're doing the same stuff over,
people will start talking, it gets
a little bit lost
If you bring it really down
and get a bit intimate, often people
will be quiet to listen to you
And then you can build up into the chorus when it gets to the chorus they're all
Oh it's the chorus! It's all exciting!
and they want to start singing along and getting involved
So for live performances
or playing at your barbeque or whatver
Whatever the situation is, really
that stuff is important
It's important for recording, to be
aware of this sort of stuff
when you're recording a tune as well
You know, the--
if you're in a band setting,
the whole band should be aware of dynamics
it's not just down to you
the drums should be changing
the way they play and what they play
Again, you'll notice this if you listen
now that I've talked a bit about this,
you want to go and listen to your favorite music and see how it happens
because you will hear the drums being on
the hi-hat is the classic thing for the verses
and then moving to the ride cymbal
so you get a lot of this
Excuse my awful beatboxing, but you get
a lot of that in the verses and then
with the ride cymbal for the choruses
you know, that kind of change really is a massive shift in the dynamics
of how you perceive the music
Now, volume is the easiest way to think about it
but it can also be to do with things like
phrasing, whether the--particularly this
is perhaps more aimed at songwriters
but in verses it can be quite wordy,
so you have a lot of words going on
And then in the choruses, you have
a lot less words, a lot more repetition
and maybe slower phrases
So, if the verses are all "dabedidap boopedidilap
booderapapap pidoo"
And then the choruses will be
"daaaayaaaa dooodoo"
or whatever, so like longer phrases
Again, it's that kind of making
things different between the sections
it really works! It's really common
because it really works
It's not like you should think
"Oh I don't want to do the same formula stuff as everyone else"
It's just a thing to think about,
to be aware of. It's something that works with us
I don't exactly understand the
psychological reason that this stuff has
so much impact, but it really, really does
By far, the best way to do this is
listen to your favorite music, cause
my favorite music, your favorite music,
and your mate's favorite music should be different
And the way different styles
and different people use this kind of
dynamic trick is different
And what you're best doing is
learning it from the music that you really love
Not just listen to say, Nirvana, who
the all-time most famous version of--
or example of dynamic stuff, you know
listen to Smells Like Teen Spirit
really, really mellow, quiet verses
and then it explodes into the choruses
But it's not just them, and if you're
not a big Nirvana fan then, probably you
don't want to take it to that kind of extreme
So, try and listen to the music that
you love, that affects and resonates
with you the most, and learn about dynamics from them
But please, do spend some time on it
cause it's the kind of thing that can
completely transform your playing
in quite a short period of time
just by being aware of it
I really hope you enjoyed this lesson
and it makes a big impact on your guitar perfomances
I'd love to know what you think
If you find this lesson really helpful let me know in the comments
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I'll see you for plenty more very soon you take care of yourselves bye