- Do you ever notice that most music analysis tells you
what is going on, but completely ignores why?
Like, I can already tell the clarinets,
come in on bar four.
I don't need to read a whole book about it.
When we analyze music,
we want to actually get something out of it and
understanding of what makes the music sound a certain way.
And more importantly,
how we can take that idea and use it ourselves.
I'm going to walk you through a simple but effective music
study guide that will help you identify the moments in music
that stand out to you,
figure out how the composer or songwriter got that effect.
And finally, how you can use that technique
to get the same results in your own music.
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the channel.
My name is Ryan.
I've written music for projects on Netflix and Disney.
And this is where I talk about the craft of writing music,
to show you how to use the study guide.
I'm going to walk you through it by actually studying a
piece of music, for the example today,
I'm going to look at the last movement from
Ravel's mother goose suite, the fairy garden.
I've set this up as a template in notion.
So check for a link in the description,
if you want to download it and use it yourself.
So what we need to do is just go here.
We'll create new and we'll be using the music study
template. We're going to put in mother goose fairy garden
as our piece, date studied is today.
Composer is Maurice Ravel, genre, now you can change these,
add these. I put in a few to get started orchestra,
I guess, year. I think this was orchestrated in 1911.
I think it was written in 1910 and orchestrated,
and then URL actually have the recording that I'm using.
So I'm going to put that in the YouTube link so that if I
want to go back to the recording, I can go into that.
Now there are three main categories,
they all kind of go over the same points,
but they approach it from three different angles.
So the first question is what did I hear? And when?
And this is really just asking what is something that
grabbed my ear? What is something that I heard and was like,
Ooh, that's interesting.
Or that's nice. Or just kinda, what was that?
How did they do that?
So the first thing that grabbed my ear was this moment in
bar 26. So I'm going to play it a little before.
That is kind of the end of the A section,
leading into the B section.
And we'll take a listen to that real quick.
(orchestra music)
So right at bar 25, 26, we can hear this harmonic change.
There's obviously some sort of chromaticism going on.
Something happens where the violin is using the same pitch
that we've already heard,
but it's being colored very differently.
And you can also hear this kind of flip, where it goes from
minor to major in the violin part.
So that's the first thing, what did I hear?
I heard the solo violin bars, 25,
26 change key.
Essentially, what I can do is I can grab a screenshot
of that section and I can drag that in to notion here.
So that way I can actually see what I'm talking about now.
Why did it get my attention? I heard the color change.
There was a clear shift
in harmonic background,
some sort of
smooth modulation.
Now next, what is technically going on?
So what actually happened, if we look at the score and we
zoom in a little bit, so we can see a better look,
this is an error in the score.
Unfortunately, that's, that's still an E natural.
I don't know how they miss that.
That's an E natural, not an E sharp.
But what we can see is we were in E minor harmony
(playing piano)
E only. And even in natural minor,
we have this scale
that runs up to the E, which has been home.
So E is expected, especially that climbing scale.
E is totally expected.
We know E is going to happen, and we get E,
(playing piano)
We get E, but not how we expected it.
The melody pitch is E,
exactly as expected from the
previous two bars and climbing scale.
However, the background harmony has changed,
so we can see it in the harp part.
All of a sudden we have all these accidentals.
We can see that it's shifted from E minor to C sharp minor.
So we were here.
(playing piano)
And this is that chords by third thing,
that Hollywood harmony that was used before
Hollywood was even a thing, you know,
impressionists were already often using this.
So he's shifted down a minor third from a minor chord,
minor triad to another minor triad, a third lower,
but using that common pitch and more importantly,
I think using the common pitch of, you know,
kind of the previous home key. So it's really smooth.
And also C sharp minor happens to be the relative minor of E
major. So we're shifting from E minor,
and a lot of ways to E Major, which is part of why it,
you know, not only do we get this cool color shift,
but there's also a bit of a brightening and you can see,
like I said, this is a typo,
but we shift the lick from E minor to major.
So it brightens up.
So however background is harmony is changed from E minor to
E to a, we'll go with C sharp, minor slash E major.
What is the effect, the effect,
and this is kind of an important,
but the effect is we feel a strong change in color.
The melody feels brighter,
it's mystical and magical in a way,
and this is a fairy garden.
And we definitely get that sense of kind of
fairies and magic. I guess the things, you know,
things are not perfectly normal and safe.
We've kind of wandered into this garden.
Chromaticism is a change in color.
So we're getting this shift in color.
So the effect is mystical and magical.
And then is there anything else supporting this effect?
So it's not only that the background chord has shifted from
E minor to C sharp minor, that's important,
but it's also that kind of the stage has been cleared.
You know, we ended the, a section, this big orchestral,
I believe it's pretty much everybody. Yeah.
This big orchestral 2d,
we had this big chord and it's faded out.
Like I said, everything has kind of cleared
the space into this solo violin, which is getting our focus.
So is there anything else supporting the effect?
The orchestra has just had a big 2d cord and has cleared the
space for the solo violin to take
center stage,
because of the solo focus, we can more clearly
feel the shift in harmony.
Let's see what else is applying with the effect?
Violin is in a
very high range,
which adds to the magical
and delicate quality
and lastly, and the most important thing.
And what gets so often missed is how can I use this?
So I can remember use a common pitch to modulate,
for example, using the tonic of a key
as third of another key,
keep the melody diatonic into the shift.
So like as a pivot into the shift,
then only change the background.
So it's not like he went
(playing piano)
into that C-sharp all of a sudden,
cause that would sound kind of weird.
The C natural and these C sharp, no, it's still,
it's still safe.
We're pivoting on kind of what we already expect to hear.
And it feels good.
So keeping the melody diatonic into the shift and only
change the background, when doing special moments like this,
you know, mid theme modulations, for example,
do it in a new, fresh section.
So it can be a highlight.
That's what it is so we can see, I love, you know,
being able to include the screenshot.
So when I come back to this,
I guess I could also put a timestamp.
So this was around 1:47, now,
to be able to go up to the URL,
and check that out if I want to.
So here I heard an interesting color change that grabbed my
ear. I was able to look at it and focus on, you know,
what was, what was really happening there.
And then thinking about how am I going to be able to use
this in the future?
And I could use this in my own writing if I had some sort of
moment where I needed magic, I could remember that that,
you know, high pitch range is very shimmery,
and that you can kind of play with colors
when you've opened the space up and play
with colors around common tones, so if your in A minor.
(playing piano)
Shifting from an, A minor to an F minor chord,
but keeping the C the same, that feels even darker,
going down a major third to the F minor feels even darker
than what we had before.
So then the next question is what did I see? And when?
And what this means is that a lot of times you might be
reading through a score and you'll notice something that you
didn't hear, and it can depend on the recording.
I mean, there's some John Williams live recordings where the
woodwinds are just completely drowned by the brass,
but then you check out the studio recording and it sounds
perfectly fine. You can hear everything.
So that can depend a little bit on the context,
but there are times where I'm looking through a score and
I'm like, you know,
I didn't actually notice that just listening through,
or there might be just this like one note in the violas.
And you're like, well, where did that random note come from?
So the next question is, what did I see? And when?
And that's when you're able to look at the score,
let's see, let's find an example of something I saw,
but didn't really hear. All right.
So here's something I see that, you know,
was not very obvious to hear that. It's kind of interesting.
If you look in bar 38, the English horn stops playing.
It has been part of all the harmony in the woodwinds before.
And now it's just kind of gone, two bars before
the theme has done.
We haven't actually finished this section yet,
which you can see the rehearsal mark.
It's almost like the English horn gave up two bars early,
so what's going on? So what did I see?
English horn in stops in bar 38 before the rest of the winds
grab a screenshot of that section.
And let's find that in the recording.
(orchestra music)
So why did it get my attention?
It got my attention because the rest of the winds keep
playing in the section isn't over yet.
So it stood out the rests stood out, you know,
look right here.
It's like, Hey, did you forget to finish the chords?
Everybody else is still still part of this.
What is technically going on?
So this is not too hard to see what is technically going on
is the English horn stopped, the English horn rests.
But I guess the bigger question, the bigger point, I guess,
is overall, there's a decrescendo,
in the orchestra,
what is the effect? The effect is subtle.
I, you know, you have to listen to it, you see it,
and then you go, okay, well, what is really going on here?
The harmony begins to become thinner,
and everything feels a little lighter.
Is there anything else supporting this effect? Yes.
The entire orchestra has these hairpins take crescendos and
the strings are climbing in register.
So not only is it thinning out,
just because everybody's trying to get quieter,
but it's also, you know, the higher textures,
the higher tambours are thinner generally as well.
Although the basses do come in right there,
for the most part, the strings are rising,
and the mid strings are dropping out
and let's see what else is happening.
Well, the oboe also stops in bar 39.
So oboe soon one,
voila, violin two also all drop out.
So that supports the effect. So what is the effect?
Harmony against them? Thinner.
Everything feels a little lighter and what's supporting the
facts. It was not just the English horn stop,
but other players begin to stop too.
He just happened to be the first one to drop out.
So how can I use this? Remember that there's,
there's more to getting quieter than just
using dynamic markings.
The number of instruments you use contributes obviously to
the power and volume of the chord,
and you can subtly shift dynamics
by introducing or taking out instruments,
mid section.
So, you know, when you're trying to,
you have a background part behind your melody,
you don't just have to like stick it down.
And the general advice is like, oh,
always keep the same number of voices.
If you establish four voices in your harmony,
in your chords, you must keep four voices going on.
And this is saying,
well, Ravel didn't think so, you know,
you don't actually have to do that.
It's you keep four voices going on,
or you will get a different effect.
And the, or the different effect is it will get quieter.
And so if you didn't mean for that, then it's like, yeah,
you keep four voices or it's going to suddenly get quieter.
And you might be like, well, yeah, I want it to get quieter.
So I'm going to drop out one of the voices in this case,
you know, it's a pretty big wind section.
We had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 winds.
If we include the horns 10 winds playing.
So going from 10 to 9,
it's not really going to change the world, but, you know,
it's that kind of subtlety that made Ravel such an
excellent orchestrator. So that's how I can use this.
I can remember to really pay attention to those details that
when we're, we're doing a decrescendo,
when I want it to get quieter, you know,
just slowly drop things out,
can really help with the subtlety can really help with the
texture. All right.
And the last question I feel is a bit interesting.
It's what did I feel? And when?
So it's kind of like, what did I hear?
Cause it's like, you know, what caught your attention,
but I want you to focus a little more on the result
in this case. And really just like, what is happening.
Maybe you didn't hear exactly why it was going on,
but there was just something like, wow, it felt majestic,
or it felt really spooky or just, you know,
what is the emotion you're getting or what is
the feeling your getting?
So for me, one of my favorite sections is
the build right before the climax, the climax happens at,
I guess, bar 50 and the build up to it is fantastic.
So let's take a listen to that real quick.
(orchestra music)
So, you know, when we hit that chord at bar 50,
it's like hurray, the fireworks and everything happened,
but it wouldn't feel that awesome.
And that much of a celebration,
if it weren't for that amazing build into it.
And that time it took to get into it.
So what did I hear is the build from bars 44 to 49,
around 3:10 in the recording.
Let's just grab the strings there.
Why did it get my attention?
Got my attention, because there was this incredible feeling
of anticipation
and suspense.
You know, that something big is coming,
and you really get excited for it.
It feels majestic and huge, and makes the final chord
and fireworks feel like a worthy payoff,
but it's technically going on.
So why does it feel so awesome when it gets there?
You know, there's, there's more to it than just,
you know, okay, there's a crescendo, great.
But there's plenty of ways you can crescendo and still be
like meh, as it gets louder more instruments are added in.
Harmonically, what's, what's going on.
Well, we're on an F chord here.
You can see that there's this pedal, pedal in the base,
holding it down, climbing, chords.
Diatonic, you know, they're very safe.
It's all white keys.
Let's see. Where does it end up?
Is this the four chord we're ending up on a seat? Yeah.
Pedal in the bass on sub dominant harmony.
Well, something that I think is interesting,
we just look at the melody.
(piano playing)
It's the same two bars over and over.
So there's, there's a repeat of the same two bars.
We hear it three times, each time, an octave higher.
It's the same lick.
And I think that contributes to that feeling of suspense,
because you're like waiting for something to happen. Okay.
We've already heard this, you hear it again.
You're like, okay, you hear it a third time.
You're like, well, wait,
are we just kind of stuck in this zone?
So that's kind of where that anticipation is coming from,
because it's just like, okay, nothing is happening.
I need something new.
What, when are we getting to the next thing?
Are we there yet?
And that's really, I think, a major part of it.
So what is the effect? Suspense, anticipate anticipation,
a craving for what comes next.
And it feels huge.
The effect is that it feels really big.
So is there anything else supporting this effect?
So I kind of already overdid the,
what is technically going on section, I guess,
because I guess what is really,
what is technically going on is this repetition thing.
And maybe we want to move this down here.
That part of what is going on and creating that suspense
effect is the building and it climbing and octave is that,
that's the main thing that's going on.
What is supporting that effect is obviously the crescendo,
the add of instruments as they come in.
And then that pedal tone in the bottom is really,
really helping keeping us just rounded and waiting for
something to happen.
Remember that repetition can be a great way
to build suspense.
The listener starts to crave something to happen.
Also remember pedal tones,
carry a lot of weight and can contribute to that,
that feeling of stasis,
take a two-bar idea and repeat it in higher octaves for a
feeling of climbing and building.
So let's take a look at this.
So we've taken this piece and we've looked at it from a few
different angles. We've looked at what did I hear?
What caught my ear? What did I see, and what did I feel?
And then there's three different sections that I've really
taken a close look at.
This is so much deeper and more useful than just like, oh,
well, you know, I heard the solo violin
come in a bar 25 and be like, yeah.
And, or even just, oh, it sounded cool.
When the violin came in, something was interesting.
It's like, okay, let's really figure out why.
So if you actually did this, you know,
there's once a day for a piece every day,
your vocabulary and just your analysis and your
understanding would just like explode.
You would really gain a lot from this. I think so.
Yeah. Just skimming through.
I love, I have the screenshots.
I think that really helps. So again,
there's a link in the description.
You can grab this template for free and I hope it's helpful
to you.
If you're learning how to write music,
make sure you check out this video about five mistakes.
You're going to want to avoid. Thanks for watching.
And I will see you in the next one.