Choosing elements and comparing music

Hello, and welcome to today's lesson entitled "Choosing Elements and Comparing Music." My name's Mr. Norris. I'm gonna take you through today as we have a look at how we can choose elements that are the most relevant and effective to discuss when we're discussing unfamiliar music. And then we're also gonna have a look at how we can compare unfamiliar music based on the musical elements as well. So let's get started. The outcome for today's lesson is, "I can choose which elements to focus on in a musical description, and can write an effective musical comparison." Our two keywords are musical element, which means the building box of music including rhythm, melody, harmony, structure, and others. And then musical purpose, and this is what the piece of music is trying to achieve. It could be to represent something, encourage an action, or to create a mood or emotion. Now, the first part of today's lesson is entitled, "Structuring a musical description." When describing unfamiliar music, there will be particular musical elements or a musical purpose to focus on. Reading and annotating a question is an important part of the planning process. The question will always include important words which will direct your thinking. I'd like to consider the key words in this example question. So the question is, "This extract is from a piece of rock music. Using your knowledge of this style, write a paragraph describing the extract. You may wish to refer to rhythm, instrumentation, tempo, or any other relevant features." So what do you think the key words are in that question there, the key words that really direct us as to what we should be trying to say? I'll give you a few seconds to have a look. So hopefully you picked up there, the genre, rock music, is really important part of that question. What we've been asked to discuss, which is rhythm, instrumentation, and tempo. And then also the fact that the question leaves open the option of discussing other relevant features as well. So that really narrows down what we're gonna be talking about based on those highlighted points there. So we start by considering each of the suggested musical elements, before other relevant features. So we know this is a bit of rock music, I'm being asked to discuss it based on our knowledge of the style. So we're gonna be thinking about the typical features of rock music in this extract, but we're gonna be focusing on rhythm, instrumentation, and tempo, those are the first things. And then we can also think about other elements. So let's have a listen, and see if you can identify some typical rock features that relate to rhythm, instrumentation, and tempo. Here we go. (energetic music) So the various things that you might have picked up on there. I wanna start with rhythm. There's repeated, driving rhythms in the riff. There's a typical rock beat on the drums which emphasises beat 1, with a backbeat on 2 and 4, and also repeated quaver hi-hats. So a few rhythmic features that are really typical of the style. For instrumentation, there are typical rock instruments, electric guitar, bass guitar, and drum kit, but there are no vocals in this clip. That could be because it's just a part of a song without singing, or it could be that it's just instrumental rock. And then tempo, there's a moderate tempo, which is typical of lots of rock music as well. What other relevant features then could we discuss? So beyond rhythm, instrumentation, and tempo, what other features could you hear that are typical of rock that are related to other elements? You can pause my video just while you have a think. And here's some of the things that you might have mentioned related to other elements. So there's a 2-bar riff that's played in unison on electric and bass guitar, and that's a common texture, that unison texture. There's the use of distortion and power chords on electric guitars that relates to the types of chords that use the harmony, but also the timbre with the distortion. It's quite simple harmony, it's based only on three different chords. The riff is based on the blue scale. And you could also mention features that are unusual for the style. So for example, the fact that there are no vocals in this example. So we've got a few things there. We've got those key features based on the elements that we're being asked to discuss, rhythm, tempo, and instrumentation. And then we've thought of some other effective points as well that answer the question, but are related to other elements. Why is it important to identify keywords in a question when describing unfamiliar music? Is it because it removes the need for planning a response, it ensures you only describe the most obvious features of the music in a response, or because it helps you to focus on specific musical elements which you can use to plan a response? I'll give a few seconds to work this one out. The correct answer then would be the third answer there, because it helps you to focus on specific musical elements which you can use to plan a response. So picking out those keywords in the question is so important for that reason. We're gonna combine the points together to form a description to answer the question. So we've made those points, and now we'll put them together into a paragraph. Let's just have a read through this here. "This clip are some typical rhythmic features of rock, including repeated, driving rhythms in a riff and a typical rock drum beat emphasising beat 1, backbeat on 2 and 4 and repeated quaver hi-hats. The instrumentation is a standard rock band with electric and bass guitars and a drum kit. There are no vocals which you would expect in a rock song. The moderate tempo is also typical of lots of rock music. The 2-bar riff is very typical of rock, it is played in unison on both guitars based on the blue scale and power chords, and with a distorted electric guitar sound. The simple harmony, the riff is based on three chords, is another common feature of rock." So this is a really effective response for a few reasons. Firstly, it covers the suggested elements with a good level of detail. So we mentioned rhythm, instrumentation, and tempo, and there's a good amount of detail for each of those ones that the question is specifically asked us to address. It links everything to the style or the context. So it's always linking it back to rock music because we know that's what the question is about. How is this typical rock? How is this not typical of rock? How does this relate to our expectations of that style? And the descriptions use technical vocabulary accurately as well. So there are few technical words in there, and it's used them all accurately and appropriately. It also identifies numerous additional points, so it's not just stuck to those suggested elements. Remember that question gave us the option of talking about other features. It's identified a few other features that are really relevant and useful to mention as well. And finally, it's quite concise. You know, there's a lot of detail in there, but there's no excess information, there's nothing that is not relevant or nothing that is extra to what we need to say. So it's really getting straight to the point with every sentence. Which two should every point in a description attempt to do? Describe what is heard, describe what is not heard, link to the style or context, or be very detailed. I'll give you a few seconds to choose two that you want for every point in a description. And these two answers here then would be to describe what's heard and to link to the style or context. You don't want to describe what is not heard for every point. Occasionally that will be relevant, for example, in that question where we're saying there's no vocals, that is relevant because that's quite unusual for rock. However, if you're doing that at every point, there'd be a lot of unnecessary information in there. And in terms of the level of detail, you want the right amount of detail but not too much. If you go into too much detail, it'll mean you end up getting stuck on one or two points rather than being able to cover a whole breadth of different points in slightly less detail. Sometimes on certain points, you might decide to go into a lot of detail if it's really relevant, but not for every point. For task A, you're gonna listen to an extract from a piece of reggae. Using your knowledge of the style, I'd like to write a paragraph describing the extract. You may wish to refer to rhythm, instrumentation, harmony, or any other features that are relevant. So this is just like the question we were looking at beforehand, except this time, it's based around the style of reggae. Remember, when you're answering this question to try and link everything back to that style, so always thinking about how it is typical or not typical, the style, how it meets your expectations or otherwise of the style. And make sure we're focusing on those elements that are suggested, rhythm, instrumentation, harmony, but then also trying to come up with some other points that are relevant related to other elements or features as well. So you can pause my video now, have a listen to this song, and give this task your best shot. Let's review this task then. So we could say some of these points here. "The repeating rhythms in this clip are typical of reggae, the off-beat quaver skank rhythm on the guitar, the one-drop drum beat that plays off-beat quavers and emphasises beats 2 and 4, and a melody that is more rhythmically varied. The organ is playing the faster typical reggae bubble pattern that uses some faster semiquavers. The instrumentation is also typical, electric guitar, bass guitar, organ, drum kit, and vocals. The harmony is simple, which is common in reggae, the two different chord sequences in this clip use only three different chords, and there is a lot of repetition of chord 1. It mostly uses primary chords." So we've got quite a few points there for rhythm, we've got a couple points for instrumentation, and then some nice detailed points there at the end about harmony. And then there's some other relevant points that you could have mentioned. You might have mentioned the combination of the different rhythms and instruments creates a very typical reggae texture. The guitar sound is clean and crisp, and this is usually the timbre of the guitar in reggae, and the crisp staccato articulation of the guitar skank is typical as well. So that gives you an idea of some of the things that you might have written there. Hopefully got a few of those points, and also gives you an idea on the level of detail and the amount of points that you want to be making in a model answer. We're gonna move on now to the second part of our lesson, which is looking at choosing elements when describing unfamiliar music. In this example question, there are no suggested elements to focus on. Let's have a look at it. "The extract accompanies a car chase scene. Explain how the music portrays the action and excitement of a car chase." The key is to explain the features or the elements that are most relevant to the musical purpose. What elements help to create the excitement of a car chase? Let's pause my video and have a listen. Which elements do you think really help to create this excitement? Let's have a look then. The most relevant and obvious musical elements to describe in this clip could be rhythm, because there are fast, repeated semiquaver rhythms, dynamics which are loud, exciting dynamics that crescendo at the end. The texture, which is a thick texture with lots of things happening at once. The articulation, with accented and staccato notes. The tempo, which is a fast, exciting tempo. So clearly, there are a few different elements there that combine together to create the action and excitement in this scene. And if we were answering this question in full, we'd want to describe all five of those elements and how they're relevant, and the purpose of this task now, we're just gonna look at three of them. When we're writing an explain paragraph, your response should follow this structure: Describe the musical element. What's the effect that it has? And what musical purpose does it serve? So we've got describe, effect, and purpose, that same three-step process that helps us really effectively structure our response. And these bottom three parts, the effect and the purpose, they're the explain parts, that describe the element to begin, and then we explain it with effect and purpose. We can use our table to plan the answer to describe the rhythm and the dynamics. So we can start with our description, the rhythm in this case is fast, repeated semiquaver rhythms. The effect of that is a feeling of movement, excitement, and action. And the purpose is to portray action and excitement. The dynamics, we got loud, forte, dynamics generally, with a big crescendo to climax at the end. The effect of that is excitement and building energy/tension. And the purpose is to portray action and excitement, to be energetic. So we're using this table to help us plan our ideas out. Let's check your understanding. What effect and purpose notes would you add for texture? You can pause my video and have another listen to the clip. Okay, let's go through that then. So we could have said that the effect of the thick texture is the sense that lots of things are happening at once so there's a chaotic scene. In terms of purpose, we might have mentioned this, this helps to build tension and excitement. So well done if you picked up on those points. Then we're gonna put it into a paragraph. So we start by describing the musical element. There are many fast, repeated semiquavers in this clip. Then the effect that it has, these create a feeling of energetic movement, action, and excitement. And then what purpose does it serve? This helps to portray the action and excitement of a car chase. So we got those three points in that really clear structure that give a really good explanation of how the rhythm really suits the musical purpose of this scene. Just have another read through that paragraph, that's a really good model example that you'd want to be basing your structures on. So that's rhythm. Now, let's have a look at how we do that with some other elements. So let's describe the element dynamics. The dynamics are loud and the crescendo to a climax at the end. We describe the musical element texture, there's a thick texture throughout this piece of music. If we're then describing the effect of the dynamics, we could say this creates a feeling of excitement and the crescendo builds the energy and excitement further. The texture, we'd say this creates a sense of lots of things happening at once and that the car chase could be quite chaotic. And then for the purpose for dynamics, this suits the purpose of the music by portraying action and excitement. For the purpose for texture, this suits the purpose of the music by portraying action as it builds tension and excitement. So again, we're using that same three-step structure of describing the musical element, explaining the effect it has, and then explaining how that links to the purpose that's trying to achieve. These explanations are effective because they identify the most relevant features or elements. They don't just mention everything, they focus in on those elements that we identified at the start that are most relevant. They're concise, so they don't use more words than are necessary. And they link everything to the musical purpose. Every point that is made is linked back to that car chase scene and creating an action and excitement for that. They also use technical vocabulary accurately. So when they're using proper musical terminology, they're using it accurately and appropriately. Let's check your understanding. Which musical elements should you choose to discuss in a question that doesn't suggest specific elements? Is it as many elements as possible, the elements that you can describe the quickest, the elements that you're most confident discussing, or the most relevant elements? I'll give a few seconds to answer this one. And the correct answer here then is the most relevant elements. If it doesn't specify which ones to use, then focus on the ones that you think are most relevant, most pertinent to the question. How should you structure your explanation paragraphs? Effect, musical purpose, and then describe musical element. Musical purpose, describe musical element, and then effect. Describe musical element, effect, and then musical purpose. Or describe musical element, musical purpose, and then effect. I'll give you a few seconds to write this one out. And the correct answer then is you describe the musical element, then you explain the effect of that, and then you link it to musical purpose. Well done if you got that correct. For task B, we're gonna listen to an extract that accompanies a scene in which scientists are about to test a terrifying new futuristic weapon. They're unsure quite how destructive it may turn out to be. You're gonna explain how the music portrays the building excitement and fear in this scene. Now, there are two parts to this question. The first, I'd like to identify up to five musical elements that are the most relevant to answering the question. So listen through to it, and identify which elements you think will be most relevant to the question, which is based on portraying excitement and fear. Once you identify those elements, I'd like to complete the table to help you explain each element, it's effect, and how it links to that purpose of portraying the building excitement and fear. So you'll write those five elements in the left hand column, and then fill in the other boxes to detail each point. So you can pause my video now, and have a go at question one and question two to get that table completed, good luck. For question three, you're gonna complete your answer by writing a paragraph based on your table. Structure each point using this structure, which is to describe the musical element, then to explain the effect it has, then to link it to the musical purpose. So you can have a go now at converting your table into a really concise, detailed paragraph, and you can pause my video. Let's go through this task then. So five musical elements that are most relevant. Well, I would've chosen from harmony, melody, rhythm, texture, dynamics, and timbre, those are probably the ones that I would say are most relevant in this case. Here's how we might describe some of those. So for harmony, we could have mentioned that there was some dissonant harmonies, some dissonance and chromatic harmony, which creates a scary feeling and a natural intense feeling. And that links to the purpose 'cause it suits the fear and tension of the scene. When we're describing melody, we might have picked up on the rising pitch, the fact that the is chromatic. And it's not very melodic, it doesn't feel like a melodic traditional melody. And the effect of this is that the chromatic notes feel unnatural, and this builds tension. And that links to the purpose because it builds tension and suits the fear of the scene. If we're talking about rhythm, you might mention the fast, repeated semiquaver rhythms. The effect of this is a feeling of excitement and energy, and this suits the excited energy of the scene. For texture, we could have mentioned that it becomes very thick with lots of parts playing at once. The effect is this creates a feeling of action, building excitement, and it suits the building excitement and energy of the scene. The dynamics are loud and they also crescendo. And this feels dramatic, intense, and also builds in intensity and anticipation. And this suits the intense emotions of the scene and how they build. Remember, they're about to test this weapon, so this buildup really suits that building excitement and tension. And then finally the timbre. There's a shrill violin timbre which feels scary and unpleasant. And this suits the fear, sort of uncertainty and weirdness of the scene as well. So we can then turn them into a paragraph with something like this. For harmony, we could have said the harmony is extremely dissonant and chromatic. This creates a feeling of something scary, unnatural and tense, suiting the fear and tension of the scene. For the melody, the melody is based on repeated and gradually ascending chromatic notes. These don't sound melodic, creating a feeling of something strange and scary, and the rising pitch builds tension. This suits the scene where there is rising fear and tension. For rhythm, we could have said the fast repeating semi rhythms create a feeling of energy and excitement. This helps to portray the excitement of the scene. For texture, the texture gets thicker, becoming very thick. This adds to the feeling of excitement and action, and shows a building of excitement. And this also portrays the building excitement of the scene effectively. The dynamics, the dynamics are loud, forte, and the crescendo. This creates an intense dramatic feeling that builds with the crescendo. This effectively portrays the intensity of feelings in the scene, and the rising tension and excitement. And finally, timbre. Timbre of the violin melody is shrill and unpleasant. This creates a feeling of something creepy, scary, and unnatural. This helps to portray the fear in the scene. So you may have made some slightly different points there, but that should give you an example or some ideas as to the level of detail you want to go in, and the structure of those answers as well. The final part of today's lesson, let's look at comparing music. Sometimes we are asked to compare two musical extracts or sections of the same extract. A comparison question might look like this: Compare the extracts using similarities and/or differences. You may wish to refer to instrumentation, tempo, metre, or any other features that are relevant to the context of the music. So the key there is we've got the word compare, similarities and differences, and then it's specified some elements, instrumentation, tempo, and metre, but also have to open the option of referring to other features or elements as well. The key in a comparison question is to make sure that you compare. For example, if we just said "Extract A is in the major key," this is not comparison. However, "Extract A is in a major key, whereas extract B is in a minor key" is a clear comparison because we're clearly comparing Extract A and Extract B together. We can use the table to plan a musical comparison. And we start with the musical elements that are mentioned in the question. So there's the three elements that were mentioned, instrumentation, tempo, and metre. And then we've got our two columns for the two extracts as well. So what I'd like you to do now is just pause my video, have a listen to those two extracts, and think about a couple of points you might make for each of those elements there, for each extract, the really key points for each one. Pause my video, and do that now. So some of the things we might have said here then would be, in Extract A, they were female vocals, synth bass, synth strings, and a synthesised drum kit. Extract B, there are female vocals, synth and vocal chords, a drum kit, synth strings, and a bass guitar. The tempo of Extract A was slow, and it was the same in Extract B. And then the metre of Extract A was 4/4, and it was also the same in Extract B. Now, I'd like to listen to the extracts again, and try and identify what relevant comparisons can you make for either tonality or harmony. So you can pause my video now and see what you think. A few points you could have made here then. So for tonality, if you were comparing them, we had identified that both are major. The harmony, both use primary chords. However, the first extract, Extract A, has a 4-beat harmonic rhythm, whereas Extract B has a 2-beat harmonic rhythm, and both use a perfect cadence. So we can see that there are lots of similarities. I think the theme in these two extracts is that there are many things they have in common. Then we turn each row into a comparative sentence or sentences if there are multiple points. So if we take the examples of instrumentation, we could say the instrumentation has some similarities. Both extracts have female vocals and synthesised strings. However, Extract A features a synth base and synthesised drum kit, whereas Extract B has a bass guitar, acoustic drum kit, and choir backing vocals. So we've looked at both similarities and differences, and in two sentences there, we've neatly summarised those as they relate to instrumentation. Let's have a look at this more thorough comparison that also now builds in tempo and harmony. Look at the bottom paragraph there, it says both extracts have a slow tempo, 4/4 metre, and a major tonality. The harmony of both extracts uses primary cause and features a perfect cadence. However, while Extract A has a 4-beat harmonic rhythm, Extract B has a 2-beat harmonic rhythm. So there are a few reasons this is a really effective comparison. Firstly, it is concise. It doesn't use more words than necessary. Every sentence is packed full of information and there's nothing extra. It covers the suggested elements and features, as well as identifying others. You can see those highlighted there. It compares both extracts in every point. So every sentence is a comparison of the two extracts, not just describing one. And it identifies both similarities and differences, that's really key. The descriptions also use technical vocabulary accurately, so there's lots of musical terminology in there that's used accurately and appropriately. Which of these is the most effective comparative sentence? Extract A has a fast speed, Extract B has a slow speed. Extract A has a faster tempo than Extract B. Extract A has a fast tempo. Or Extract A and B have different tempi. I'll give you a few seconds to work out which one you think is most effective. And the correct answer then is that Extract A has a faster tempo than Extract B. That's because that is the best comparison where it directly compares the two extracts. For task C, you're gonna compare the extracts using similarities and/or differences. Refer to instrumentation, texture, tonality, or any other features that are relevant to the context of the music. And the way I'd like to do this is to start by completing the table to describe those three elements, instrumentation, texture, and tonality, plus two more of your choice. So choose two more that you think are relevant. And then you're gonna write a comparative paragraph based on the information in your table. So you're gonna convert that table into a comparative paragraph. So you pause my video now, have a listen to the two clips, and give this your best shot. Let's look back through that task then. So if we're completing the table to describe the elements, here's what we're might come up with: In Extract A, instrumentation was based on female vocals, synth strings, synth chords, guitar, drum kit, and bass guitar. Extract B is based on female vocals, piano, drum kit, bass guitar, and synth strings. The texture in Extract A was melody and accompaniment, with chord accompaniment on strings and synth. In Extract B, it was melody and accompaniment with chord accompaniment on strings and piano. The tonality of both was major. And then I've added two extra elements or features there as well, first is metre, and both Extracts in 4/4. Then the second, it's not an element as such, it's more of a feature, which is a vocal style. And in both, we've got examples of melismatic singing, expressive style, and use of vibrato. Then we turn that into a comparative paragraph that might work something like this. There are many similarities in the instrumentation. Both extracts use female verticals, bass guitar, drum kit, and synth strings. However, Extract A also features a guitar and synth chords, whereas Extract B features a piano. The texture of both extracts is melody and accompaniment. In Extract A, the accompanying chords are played on the synth pad and strings, whereas in Extract B, the chords are played by strings and piano. Both extracts have major tonality and are in 4/4. The vocal style is also very similar. Both singers used melisma and vibrato to sing in a highly expressive style. So you may have picked up on some other points here, and you may have discussed some other elements or features at the end, but this gives you a good idea of how we can structure that comparative paragraph, the level of detail we want, and how we can make it really clear and concise as well. Let's review today's lesson. The way we structure response is dependent on the question, which will often ask you to describe, explain, or compare. If the question relates to a specific style, context, or musical purpose, for example, depicting a specific scene, every point should link to that. When writing comparisons, you need to focus on similarities and/or differences between the two extracts. Effective responses are concise, they make only relevant points, and they use technical vocabulary. So that brings us to the end of today's lesson. I hope you feel that you've got some food for thought as to how you can write really effective comparative answers when you're comparing examples of unfamiliar music, and also how you can make sure you're making your responses as effective and concise as possible, and choosing elements appropriately to the context of the question. Thanks for taking part, and I'll see you in another lesson.