Recreating As It Was by ear

Hello and welcome to today's lesson entitled Recreating "As It Was" by ear. My name is Mr. Norris, I'm gonna take you through today as we work on some different strategies that can help us recreate this iconic pop song. So, let's get to it. Our outcome for today's lesson is I can recreate a melodic hook and an accompanying part by ear. Some keywords. The first is accompaniment. This is a part that supports the melody or main melodic parts. Phrase. This is a section of a melody, and a phrase is often two or four bars long. Synth pad. This is a type of synthesizer sound that suits sustained sounds and chords. And finally, melodic shape, and this is the outline of a melodic idea and the shape that's created with different pitches. So the first part of today's lesson is looking at working out a more complex melodic hook. "As It Was" is a hit song that was performed by Harry Styles, and many of you may be familiar with it. It features a catchy hook that plays in the opening section and also in the chorus. I'd like you to listen to this hook. What instrument is playing it and how would you describe its timbre? Pause my video and have a listen. So the instrument playing there was a synth lead. That's what's playing that melodic hook there. And we might describe them as having a a bright, twangy, or resonant timbre. There are many different types of synth lead, but this one in particular is quite sort of twangy and bright. Synth leads are often used for melodic lines and hooks, and that's because they have a very prominent sound and timbre that sticks out above everything else. Now, this hook has four two-bar phrases, some of which are repeated phrases. I'd like you to listen to it again, and this time try and pick out which phrases are the same as each other. So which of the four phrases are the same? Pause my video and have a listen. So, well done if you identified there the first and third phrases are identical and the second and fourth phrases are identical. Pause my video, listen to both of these clips to familiarize yourself with the difference. So we have two different phrases to work out by ear, one that plays in the first and the third phrase, and then one that plays in the second and the fourth phrase. Let's listen to them again and like to try and identify, what are the differences in pitch between these two phrases? Pause my video, have a listen to both and see if he can work out the differences in pitch. So it's not a huge difference, a lot of the pitch is the same, but the key difference is at the end where the last few notes of the phrase are different. The first and the third phrases have leaps in the last few notes, whereas the second and fourth move by step. Have another listen to both and see if you can hear that difference at the end. The rhythm of both phrases is syncopated. That means there's emphasis on notes in between the main beats, but there is a slight difference in the rhythm towards the end. Listen again and see if you can pick out the difference in rhythm. So it's a subtle difference, but the key difference is that the second and the fourth phrases have a slightly simpler rhythm. There is one less repeated note near the end. Keeping that subtle difference in mind is gonna be key to recreating this accurately. Working out the melodic shape of the hook can help us to work out the notes as well. Here's phrase one and three, and we might write the melodic shape as something like this. So it starts with three fast, ascending notes. Then it repeats a note four times off the beat. Then it finishes with a large leap up, then a smaller leap down. So it's quite complex in terms of the melodic shape, but we can break it into those three chunks. Pause my video and have a listen and see if you can follow that melodic shape. So that's phrase one and three. Phrase two and four has a slightly different melodic shape. You'll notice it starts the same with those three fast, ascending notes. It repeats the same note four times off the beat, so so far it's exactly the same as phrase one and three. But then at the end it finishes with a small step up then back down, and if you look closely, you'll see there's a different rhythm in the last few notes as well. So there's one less note in phrase two and four than there is in phrase one and three. Pause my video and listen to phrase two and four and see if you can hear that difference in the rhythm and the pitch in those last few notes. Let's check your understanding. Which of these best represents the melodic shape of the first and the third phrase? I'll give you a few seconds. And the correct answer is C. It's got those ascending three notes at the start, then four repeated notes, and then a large leap up and a small step down, and we've got the right number of notes in that final section as well. Well done if you got that one. Let's do the same for the second and fourth phrases. There's your three options. Take a few seconds to finish your answer. The correct answer is B. That's where the only difference with the first phrase was that it's got that small step up and back in the last section, and there's one fewer note in that last section as well. So well done if you've got that as well. Then Task A, work out and record the hook for "As It Was." There, we've got the audio clip of the hook, and we've also got a backing track separately, and you use both of these during this task. Some success criteria. Make sure you've chosen a suitable synth lead timbre for the hook as close to the original as you can. Find the first note by trial and error, and then work out the rest of the phrase, considering if the notes ascend or descend and move by step or leap. Repeat that process for the second phrase, and then repeat phrase one and two in the third and fourth phrases. So matching the phrase structure of the original. The hook should last for eight bars, and make sure you've checked it for accuracy by listening to the original. Finally, consider playing the hook along with the backing track to hear it in its proper musical context. So you can pause my video now, give this task your best shot. Now I'd like you to listen to this recreated hook. What needs adjusting about the order of the phrases? Pause my video, have a listen, and see if you can work it out. And the key point to pick up here then is that the first and fourth phrases are the same at the moment and the second and third phrases are the same. It needs adjusting to make the first and third the same and the second and fourth the same. So they just need rearranging the order to make sure it matches the original perfectly. Well done if you spotted that slight error there. Now let's move on to the second part of today's lesson, and here we're looking at working out accompanying parts by ear. Listen to the verse of "As It Was," consisting of the melody, which is played here on a marimba, with accompaniment. What the different parts that you can hear in the accompaniment? Pause my video and have a listen. So let's break that down. The accompaniment consists of the drum groove, bass line playing bass notes, some rhythmic guitar patters, and some sustained notes on a synth pad. So there's four parts to the accompaniment in this. So we're gonna try and work out the sustained notes played by the synth pad, and the synth pad is that really smooth, mellow timbre that we can hear playing those sustained notes, and it's often used for playing chords or notes in accompanying parts rather than melodic lines or hooks like a synth lead might be used for. We're gonna listen again. I'd like you to identify, how many different notes does the synth pad play? Have a listen and see if you can work it out. Before we look at that closer, let's have a listen to that synth pad part on its own. Can you pick out how many notes it's playing now? Pause my video and have a go. So, well done if you identified that the accompaniment consists of four sustained notes, so there are four different pitches that the synth pad plays. Let's have another listen to it. I'd like you to try and identify which of these melodic shapes best matches the pitch. So think about where ascends and descends, where it moves by small intervals or large intervals. Here are four different melodic shapes. Listen again, which one best matches this? So have a quick look at those four options and choose which one matches that best. And the correct answer here then is it's gonna be that second one there, and that's because it starts by descending with a small leap, then it ascends with a large leap, so it goes up to a higher note than we started on, and then it descends with an even larger leap, so ending on the lowest note of all. So that's the melodic shape that we've got from these four notes. Let's check your understanding. What type of synthesizer is best suited to sustained notes in the accompaniment? Is it synth lead, pad, bass, or drums? I'll give you a few seconds. And the correct answer is a synth pad. That's the one that's best suited to creating sustained sounds and accompanying parts. Which of these best matches the melodic shape of the accompanying notes? Have a look at these three. And the correct answer then is A, where we've got a small descending leap to begin, a bigger ascending leap, and then a large descending leap to the final note. Well done if you got that. For Task B, work out and record the accompaniment notes for "As It Was." There's the audio file for the sustained notes, that's the accompaniment part, and the backing track there as well, and you use both of these while you're doing this task. Some success criteria. Firstly, make sure you've chosen a suitable synth pad timbre, matching the original as closely as possible. Find the first note by trial and error, then work out the remaining three notes in this melodic shape. So matching where ascends and descends and moves by step or leap. Make sure each note lasts for two bars and that the whole pattern lasts for 16 bars, so you've looped it so that it'll last for 16 bars. Finally, make sure you check it against the original, comparing it to check that it sounds as close as possible to that. Pause my video now and give this your best shot. For the final part of this task, I'd like you to listen to this recreated compliment. Which note is not correct in it? Can you pick it out? Pause my video and have a listen. And the correct answer then is the second note is incorrect. It's actually slightly lower pitched than it should be, so well done if you managed to pick that out. Let's summarize today's lesson. Identifying repeated phrases can make it easier to recreate melodic ideas quickly. The hook in "As It Was" uses two repeated phrases that are only slightly different from each other. Accompaniments often use synth pads, which are effective for sustained notes and chords. And identifying the melodic shape of a pattern can help to accurately work out the notes. So that's the end of today's lesson. I hope you feel like you really starting to develop the tools now to recreate things by ear, and have had a go at doing some of those more intricate accompanying parts that are often a little bit more difficult to work out by ear than melodies. So really well done if you've got stuck in today and given that your best shot. Thanks for taking part, and I'll see you in another lesson.