Texture in pop ballads

Hello and welcome to today's lesson entitled Texture in Pop Ballads. My name's Mr. Norris and I'm gonna be taking you through today as we continue to explore this genre of music and in particular have a look at our different artists and songwriters have used texture in really creative and interesting ways. We'll then build on that by exploring those concepts through composition as well. So let's get to it. Our outcome for today's lesson is, I can identify and recreate some idiomatic ways to develop chordal textures. Some key words. Broken chord. And this is a chord in which the notes are not all played at the same time. Block chord, which is a chord in which the notes are played together at the same time. Voicing. The voicing of a chord is the way that the notes are spread out on an instrument. Passing note. And this is a non-chord note that provides a melodic link between two chord notes. And finally, arco, and arco is the technique of playing a string instrument with a bow. So we'll be building on those concepts throughout the lesson. The first part of today's lesson is looking at voicings. There are a variety of composing strategies we can use to create different textures in pop music and to develop chord sequences. The first of these is called voicings. The voicing of a chord is the way that the notes are spread out on one instrument or over several instruments. So it's where those notes in that chord are placed. This F major chord is in root position. That's our basic F major chord in root position with F at the bottom. (gentle piano music) There are different ways we can play a chord while still keeping it in root position. So here's two examples here. This first one is still an F major chord. It's still in root position 'cause it has an F at the bottom. (gentle piano music) And the second example is also still a root position F major chord because it's still got F, A and C, and F is at the bottom. (gentle piano music) So the same notes is at the bottom, but the other notes are spread out differently, and we've described this as each chord having a different voicing. So the voicing is how those notes are spread out. There are different ways to change the voicing. Some voicings will use two or more of the same note so if we look at that F chord there, still an F chord, still in root position with F at the bottom, but it has two Fs and two Cs in it. Let's have a listen to what it would sound like. (gentle piano music) This example has what we call close voicing in that the notes are quite close to each other because if we can see there, they're all pretty close together on the instrument. (gentle piano music) And this final one has open voice, which means the notes are very spread out. We can see there, again, it's the same notes, but there's quite big spaces in between them. (gentle piano music) So these examples only use F, A and C, and unlike chord inversions, they don't change the bottom note. So all we're doing is we're changing where the notes are spread out rather than changing the notes themselves or changing the note at the bottom, and we're not doing that when we're changing the voicing. With open voicings, you want to try to keep the range of each chord within an octave and a half. If the notes are too spread out, the chords don't work as effectively. So try to limit the distance between the top and the bottom note to an octave and a half. In that example there we can see a huge distance of more than two octaves between the bottom note and the top note. Whereas we can improve it to this, where we've got less than an octave and a half between the bottom and the top note. That'll just sound more effective and more pleasant. We can use chord voicings to develop a chord sequence and this changes the character of the chords. We've got the same chord sequence played twice here. However, the second version uses some different voicings from the first one. Both of them work musically, but the second one sounds even more unique because it's got those different voicings. Let's have a listen to the first one to begin with. (gentle piano music) And now the second one with different voicings. (gentle piano music) So the same chords, the same inversions, but the voicings have been tweaked and have made it sound a little bit more interesting and unique. Let's have a look at a video now that shows us how to develop voicings in our chord sequences. I'm gonna look at developing the voicings of my chords. The voicing is how the notes of a chord are spread out on an instrument. So if they're really spread out with big gaps in between, we'd call that an open voicing. If the notes were chorded quite close together, we'd call that a close voicing. At the moment, all my chords have quite a close voicing because I've just played them as close as I can on the piano, but I can add a little bit more colour and interest in my chords by changing the voicing of one or two. There are a couple things we want to bear in mind. Firstly, let's make sure that the range of each chord isn't more than an octave and a half, so I don't go spreading the notes out miles on the piano. It'll sound a little bit strange. The second thing is that whatever, however we do the voicings, we still need to make sure that each chord includes the three right notes. So if for example, I'm adjusting the voicing of my C chord, it still needs to include the notes C, E, and G. Remember as well that my bass guitar is playing the bottom note of each chord so I can move the bottom note of my piano chord without affecting the chord inversion because it's already been played on my bass. So let's look at how we might do this. First of all, as you can see, I've double clicked on my region to open up the MIDI editor here. I can see the notes of each chord. I'm gonna have a look at my first chord. This is C chord, C, E, and G. I could revoice this by, for example, taking the E from the middle and moving up an octave. (gentle piano music) So I've still got C, E, and G, but they're just in a different order and they're more spaced out. (gentle piano music) It is a really nice sounding voicing that for a C chord. For my second chord, I've got a G chord with B, D and G. I could do something similar there. I could take the middle note in this case a D and move it up an octave. (gentle piano music) And then I could do something similar on my third chord here. (gentle piano music) I've got an F chord, A C, and F. I could move this up an octave. (gentle piano music) And all I'm doing here is experimenting to see what sounds good, see what I like the sound of. (gentle piano music) Let's see how this sounds. (gentle music) Now what I've ended up with is I've put some open voicings in my first four bars, and then some more close voicings in my second four bars. And I actually think that works quite well with my chord sequence. One thing you want to avoid doing though is doing too many, adjusting your voicings too much basically. Okay, so go through your chord sequence and experiment moving some of the notes. Make sure you've still got within each chord the right three notes for that chord. And maybe adjust one or two, or maybe three chords so that they have a slightly different voicing. Be mindful that if you create voicings where there's a lot of jumping around involved, So say for example, this first chord, I'd put it up here. (gentle piano music) And then my second chord right down here. (gentle piano music) There's a big jump between the first chord and the second chord, and that will sound quite unnatural. So try to make it sound as natural as possible by avoiding having big jumps on the instrument between your chords. Let's check your understanding. When changing chord inversion, what must change? Is it the bottom note, all of the notes, or the top note? I'll give you a few seconds. (no audio) And the correct answer then is the bottom note. That's what determines the chord inversion. When we're changing a chord voicing what must change? Is it the position of some of the notes, the bottom note, or the position of all of the notes? I'll give you a few seconds. (no audio) And the correct answer then is the position of some of the notes. That's what affects the chord voicing. For Task A, you're gonna develop a chord sequence by changing the voicings of some chords. Some steps to take. In the MIDI editor of your chord track, move some of the chord notes to different positions. Create a mix of some open and some closed voicings. So some of the notes quite close together and some of them they're more spread out. Only change the voicing a few chords. Keep the bottom note the same so we're not changing the chord inversions, and keep the range of each chord within one and a half octaves. Also make sure that each chord still has the correct three notes in it. So when you're changing those notes, moving them around, make sure if you're moving the notes of the F chord, for example, which are F, A and C, make sure when you've done it that the notes in that chord are still F, A and C, just in different positions. So you can pause my video now and give this your best shot. (no audio) In the second part of this task, I'd like to give some feedback to this pupil on their chord voicings. How could they be improved? I'm gonna play you a short clip and you can see some notation there as well. What could we improve here? (gentle piano music) And while you finish your answer, just quickly pause my video. (no audio) So the feedback we might give here is that the sequence works musically as the notes of the chords are correct. However, the notes are too spread out, the voicings are too open. Each chord should have a range of less than an octave and a half. Whereas if we look closely there, you'll see that every single chord has a bigger range than that. So the voicings is just a bit too open. That's easy to fix just by making the range of each chord a little bit smaller. For the second part of our lesson, we're looking at making chords melodic. Songwriters in pop music can also develop their chords by making them more melodic. What does the songwriter do in this example to make the chords sound interesting and melodic? Pause my video and have a listen. (no audio) So in that instance, the songwriter uses broken chords, where not all the notes are played at the same time in a chord, and passing notes, to make the chord sequence more melodic. We'll get a bit more into both of those in a second. Adding broken chords and passing notes to the chords mean that they sound more like a melody or a riff, and a bit less like you're just playing some chords. This example uses the chord C and F. As block chords they would sound like this. (gentle piano music) But if you listen to what the songwriter has done, they use broken chords that makes them sound much more melodic. Just pause my video and have a quick listen to that short clip. (no audio) It often works well to use the same or a similar pattern for each chord and throughout the bar. So repeating the same rhythm and the same shape of broken chord gives it a little bit of familiarity and continuity. Now, broken chords use the notes of a chord separately and in different rhythms. There are endless pattern choices. There's no limited amount of these. There's an infinite amount of broken chord patterns you can make up. Here's a C chord with an open voicing. (gentle piano music) C, then G, then E. Now as a broken chord, we could take those exact same three notes, C, G, and E and just arrange them into different rhythms and different patterns. Let's have a listen to these three. Here's the first one. (gentle piano music) The second one. (gentle piano music) And the third one. (gentle piano music) So all of those use the same chord, but by breaking them up and arranging them in a different order and a different rhythm, it creates these very different moods and characters. Which two of the following can be used to make the chord sequence more melodic? Adding passing notes, adding a riff, using broken chords or changing the root note of the chord. I'll give you a few seconds. (no audio) And the correct answers here then would be, adding passing notes or using broken chords. They help to make it more melodic. Adding a riff wouldn't make the chord sequence necessarily more melodic. And changing the root note of a chord, although it might change the character of the chord, it doesn't make it more melodic. To add passing notes, we use non-chord notes that link two chord notes by step. So remember a non-chord note is a note that doesn't come from within the chord. And a chord note is one of the notes that is included in a chord. So in this F major broken chord, we could add passing notes in those spaces there. Let's have a listen to what it sounds like with no passing notes, just as it's notated. (gentle piano music) Now let's see what it's like if we add some notes and passing notes into those gaps between the chord notes. (gentle piano music) So you can see there it's really transformed what just sounded like a broken chord into what could be a melody. And that's because we've identified those spaces where we could sort some notes in between chord notes to make it more melodic. So that's using passing notes. Now, while a passing note has to link to chord notes and fit in a gap in between them, we can also add non-chord notes to broken chords just to make them more melodic. So if we look at this example here, we've got an F major broken chord. (gentle piano music) Now we could just add some other notes from the scale and experiment with what works. This would be this example. (gentle piano music) So they don't link chord notes, but they still sound quite effective. Here's another example. (gentle piano music) So we've got that one non-chord note added in there, but it sounds really effective and sounds a little bit melodic as well. Now this works best when the other notes, non-chord notes, are reached by step. So as much as possible, if you're trying to make something sound melodic, try and use stepwise conjunct movement between notes rather than big leaps. That generally helps things sound more melodic. We're gonna watch a couple of videos there that shows how to record a broken chord pattern. And then we'll look at one how to add passing notes. So here's how we record a broken chord pattern. I'm gonna create a broken chord pattern based on my chord sequence. A broken chord is a chord in which all of the notes are not played at the same time. This is different from a block chord where the notes are all played at once. In my chord sequence so far I've used block chords where I have all three notes played at the same time. Now we're gonna develop that. To create a broken chord pattern. I need to find the notes on my chord. So my first chord has C, G, and E. (gentle piano music) Now there are lots of different patterns I can create and I can improvise to try and make some up. I could do one that is ascending, so going up. (gentle piano music) I could do the opposite. I could do descending. (gentle piano music) I could do a mixture of the two sort of up and down. (gentle piano music) Or I could even do some that play two notes at the same time so I could do. (gentle piano music) So it's still a broken chord because I'm not playing all three notes together. So I could do any of those. Now I've got one that I quite like, which is I'm gonna ascend. (gentle piano music) And then alternate the top two notes. (gentle piano music) And once I've found a pattern like that that I like. I'm gonna try and use a very similar pattern for each of my chords. So let's look at my next chord, B, G, D. (gentle piano music) I'm gonna do the same pattern, so ascending. (gentle piano music) Then alternating the top two. (gentle piano music) So let's have a look at my first two chords back to back. (gentle piano music) I can do the same with my third chord. (gentle piano music) And my fourth one. (gentle piano music) And I'm gonna carry on that pattern for my whole 8-bar chord sequence. When I've had a practise, I'm ready to record it. I'm gonna create a new track with the same instrument that I used for my first chord track. And it's important that I keep this track. It'll make sense why later on/ I'm gonna hit the metronome and I'm gonna record it in. Here we go. (metronome beeping) (gentle upbeat music) (metronome beeping) (gentle upbeat music continues) And that's my broken chord pattern recorded in. And now let's look at how we add passing notes. Now I can look at making them even more melodic by adding some additional notes. This could be just extra notes that are non-chord notes or some passing notes. For this, I'm gonna look at the second half of my chord sequence. And let's have a look at this chord here. I'm gonna start at my bar-5 chord, which has got C, E, and A, so it's an A minor chord. (gentle piano music) That's my pattern there. Now passing notes work best where you've got two chord notes that are quite close together. So in this case, C and E are quite close together and I could have a nice passing note as the D in between them. So I could do something like. (gentle piano music) So linking the C and E. (gentle piano music) I quite like that one there. That's a slightly different pattern. (gentle piano music) I might be able to do something similar with my next chord. So I've got B, D, and G. (gentle piano music) So I could do a similar pattern where I find this passing note in between these two chord notes. (gentle piano music) And I could try something similar here. I've got C, F, and A, so I might be able to find this passing note in between F and A. That's a G. (gentle piano music) And then something similar on my last chord, C, E, and G. C chord. (gentle piano music) So all I've done there is looked at the notes of my chords and found a note that will link two of those chord notes in a nice melodic way. So in my first case, I'm linking C and E with the note D. In the next one I was linking B and D with the note C, 'cause that's in between them and so on. So when you are looking at adding some extra notes in, that's your best starting point is have a look at your chords and have a look at where you could fit a note in between your chord notes to link them. And then all we need to do is create a pattern that uses that note there. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna rerecord bar 5 to 7 doing exactly what I just did there. (gentle music) (metronome beeping) (gentle music) So that now is my melodic chord sequence. I've got broken chords and in the first half I've got some quite open voicings and then I've got some additional notes added in in the form of passing notes in my second half. I think that works really well and that's transformed my chord sequence from quite a simple block chord sequence, that didn't sound particularly interesting, to a much more melodic chord sequence that's much more interesting to listen to. Let's review those steps then. So the steps we take are make your chords into broken chords, either by rerecording them as broken chords or by editing your track so that notes don't all play at the same time. Use a similar pattern or rhythm for each chord. So whatever broken chord pattern you've created, try and use a similar one for each chord. And then add some passing notes, or some non-chord notes into your pattern to make it more melodic. And finally, you want to get it recorded. Let's check your understanding. What's the difference between a passing note and a non-chord note? I'll give you a few seconds. (no audio) And the correct answer then is a passing note is a non-chord note that connects to chord notes. A non-chord note is just any note that isn't part of the chord. So a passing note has a very specific purpose of linking to chord notes. A non-chord note doesn't have that purpose. Well done if you got that distinction there. For Task B, you're gonna adapt your chord sequence to make it more melodic. Make sure you've changed your block chords to broken chords. You've ensured the notes stay the same, so you've still got the same notes in each chord in a different pattern. You've used a similar pattern of rhythm for each broken chord and you've added one or two additional non-chord, or passing notes, to make it more melodic. You can pause my video now, give that task your best shot. (no audio) For the second part of this task, I'd like you to listen to this chord pattern, and identify how it could be made more melodic. Here we go. (gentle piano music) Pause my video while you finish your answer. (no audio) Now you might have said here then that it could be made more melodic by adding some passing notes or by developing and repeating the broken chord pattern. So really thinking about how we can make it more melodic through addition of extra notes and through creating that repetitive broken chord pattern. Well done if you picked up on either of those. The final part of today's lesson is looking at using other instruments. Texture in pop ballads often develops through the song, starting with a simple texture that builds into a thicker texture, incorporating other instruments. I like you to listen to these two sections of the same song and identify how does the texture change between them? Think about the instruments and what they're doing. Here's your two clips and pause my video and have a go. (no audio) Let's have a look then. So the first clip has a thinner texture with a solo singer and a single guitar playing broken chords. The second clip, on the other hand, has a much thicker texture. The guitar is playing strummed chords. There are sustained chords sung by a choir, strings, and brass play counter melodies, and the bass guitar, and drum kit are also playing. So there's much more going on in that second clip. Much more complex and thicker texture. Let's check your understanding. What typically happens to the texture during a pop ballad? Does it get thinner, stay the same, or get thicker? I'll give you a few seconds. (no audio) And the correct answer then is it gets thicker. Generally speaking, the texture will build and thicken to a climax later in the song. Orchestral string instruments are commonly used to thicken the texture when they play arco, which means playing with a bow, they create a rich and sustained sound. Usually we hear them as an ensemble rather than just, for example, a solo violin, or viola, or cello. I would like you to listen to the effect that these strings create in this pop ballad. Let's hear the chord sequence with just the piano playing the chords. (gentle piano music) Now let's hear it with some sustained strings also playing the chords. (gentle music) So hopefully you can hear there that the addition of those strings really thickens the texture, creates this very rich sound. Now a choir sound can also be used for a similar effect. In this case, it's synthesised choir, however, a real choir can also be used. (gentle piano music) (choral singing) Sometimes you might hear just backing singers, doing a similar sort of sustained sound as well to thicken the texture. Synthesised sounds, particularly synth pads, are also effective for creating a sustained chordal texture. This synth pad is used in a similar way to both the choir and the strings by holding sustained chords. (gentle music) So you can hear that it has that same effect of thickening the texture with this really rich, lush sound. And synth pads are particularly well suited to that. Other orchestral instruments such as brass or woodwind instruments can be effective, particularly if they're combined in an ensemble. That's what gives something a thick sound is the different instruments playing together rather than a solo instrument playing. Let's watch this video now, which shows us how to develop the texture through use of other instruments. To develop my texture slightly I'm gonna now add some additional instruments, and this is gonna thicken the texture while still maintaining the same chord sequence. We've looked at a few that can be really effective for creating a thick texture such as orchestral string instruments, synth pads, and choirs. And conveniently, I've still got my block chords here recorded in from before. So all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna experiment with changing this instrument, this piano, to some different instruments that are playing sustained chords while still keeping my broken chord pattern playing in my piano and my bassline playing in my bass instrument. So I could try, for example, a synth pad. Let's see what I can find. See how this one sounds. (gentle music) That one actually works quite effectively. I could try some others. (gentle music) (gentle music continues) So there's a few there that work quite well. I quite liked the first one actually, but I could also explore choir sounds. (gentle music) (gentle music) (choral singing) That works quite well but you'll notice at the end of each chord there's a slight gap, so I might adjust the length just to make sure that they sound really sustained. I can just drag them so that they finish just when the next chord starts. That would create a really nice, sustained legato feel. I could do that for each chord. With some instruments you will need to do that. With others that have a bit of reverb and echo on them you might not need to. And the final one that I could use is orchestral strings as well. (gentle music) So experiment a little bit and see if you can find an instrument to play those nice sustained chords that thicken that texture in a really typical manner for a pop ballad. I'll summarise those steps. Change the instrument, playing your block chords. Choose an effective instrument such as orchestral strings, choirs, or sync pads. Make sure the chords are sustained, so held for a long duration, and adjust that if necessary. And then adjust the balance so that both the sustained chords, and your broken chord pattern can be heard together. You want the balance between the two. Let's check your understanding. Which of these would be least suitable for adding sustained chords to a texture? String ensemble, synth pad, piano, or choir. I'll give you a few seconds. (no audio) The best answer here then is piano. Piano cannot play sustained sounds that last for a long time. You could use a pedal, but the sound decays very quickly. Whereas both strings, a synth pad and a choir, can hold sustained notes that keep their volume all the way through so they'd be much more suitable. What does arco mean? Is it string instruments being plucked, playing fast notes, or playing together, or being bowed? I'll give you a few seconds. (no audio) And the answer here then is being bowed. So arco means played with a bow. For Task C, develop the texture of your pop ballad by adding sustained chords. The steps are as follows, choose a suitable instrument to play sustained chords such as a synth pad, strings, or choir. Record in the chords at the same time as your broken chords, Use the same chords as your original 8-bar chord sequence. So make sure the notes match with the original chords. Adjust the balance to make sure all tracks can be heard. So you can pause my video now, give that your best shot. (no audio) And let's move on to the final part of our task, which is to have a listen to this texture and identify how could this songwriter develop it more effectively? Let's have a listen. (gentle music) Just while you finish your answer, you can pause my video. (no audio) And let's review that one. So they can develop it by adding sustained chords in another instrument such as strings, choir, or synth pad. At the moment, it's quite thin, undeveloped texture, and that would help them develop it more effectively. Let's review today's lesson. Songwriters use various techniques to develop their chord sequences, including voicings and broken chords. The voicings of a chord can change how it sounds and create added interest. Chords can also be made to sound more melodic through the addition of passing notes. And songwriters develop the texture in pop ballads through the use of orchestral instruments, voices, and synthesisers. So there's been quite a lot that we've got through there today. Quite a lot of different tools that we can use to really develop the texture in our compositions, whether it's a pop ballad or whether it's another genre. I hope you really enjoy getting stuck into composition and feel like it's starting to come together now. So thanks for taking part, and I'll see you in another lesson.