Aural Assesment Retake Olly Sellwood

Style Aural Test - Re-sit

This is the re-sit for the Style Aural Test due to the ineffectual nature of Moodle. This test can be done whenever you would like before the 5th May. Only spend one hour on the test. You may use a guitar, piano and/or Logic. Don't try to look up answers on the internet - they're generally wrong anyway.

Post it on your blog and label it Unit 4. Then please e-mail me the link so that I know you've done it.

Question 1: What instruments are in these songs? 

Describe the role of two of them for each song.

Drums: The drums are playing a steady 3/4 beat. This track is very much rhythm based as the drums, percussion and bass are very prominent. As the drums and rhythm section are very repetative this leaves a lot of room for the vocalist be quite free with her singing. The drums also don't include much more that kick and snare. I think this has been done to keep a strong backbeat for the rhythm section to develop. This also allows for the horn section to keep very punchy and tight.

Horns: The horns have been added to develop and accompany the vocals to create some interesting harmony. This gives this piece and other dynamic of harmony which leads away from the rhythm based beginning. The harmony of the horns is exaggerating the vocals and bringing some harmony into the track. As these are introduced fairly early on its a good way to introduce to the listener that there is harmony coming later. This builds character to the song and excitement.

Synths: The synths in this piece are playing very long chords that creating the harmony behind the vocals. The rhythm doesn't seem to have much relation to the drums at the accents are not together which does create interest. The harmony of the synth chords and the very basic texture of the song create these fine layers of drums, synth and vocals that are all very different and all stay apart from each other but there are moments when all the harmony just comes together really nicely.

Drums: The drums are very interesting in this because rather than being played tightly with the rhythm they are accenting with the vocals more which is a really nice feature because there is very little going on that when this does happen is creates a good amount of tension and interest. Because the drums and rhythm are very slow in this song the interest is created though the snare and kick sound and how the contract with the harmonic change from the synth. 

 

Question 2: What are the intervals between the first two notes of the vocal melody in both of these pieces? 

Remember to that you need to state whether the interval is major, minor, perfect, diminished or augmented.

a) Givin Em What They Love - the first words: 'I am..'

This does not have an interval its the same note sung twice 'A'.

b) Somewhere Over the Rainbow - the first word: 'Somewhere...'
This is an octave. A flat Octave 

 

Question 3: What chord sequences do these songs have? 

Pick one section of the song and say which one it is. Be accurate in your description of the chords and try to identify any extensions or inversions.

I have chosen the opening section of this piece.

The guitar chords are A minor and E Minor in there first inversions.

The intro to this song has the chords: Bm-Bflat -D 5th-Aflat Minor 1st inversion-G-D 5th- G-D 5th-EMin
The rate of harmonic change is quite fast.

Question 4: Describe the rhythm in these pieces of music. 

You need to talk about time signature, simple and complex rhythms, syncopation, how the rhythm is constructed (not just the drums), accents, phrasing, and anything else that might be relevant. You may compare similarities and differences if that helps to make your point.

In this song the time signature is 4/4. This piece is made up of fairly simple rhythms. The snare is on beats 2 and 4 and the Hi hat is on the off beat. The rate of harmonic change is every bar. Beat 1 is not accented much like in popular music. The way the music shows the 1 beat is with a little pause because the accents are placed elsewhere.
The bass line i the chorus misses out beat 1 every other bar and joins the rhythm back on beat 2. The simp rhythms allow a lot for the lyrics which is what reggae is mostly about.
The guitar is playing a chord on the off beat with hi hat which creates the bopping feel to the rhythm going. The reggae style relies on the the off beat to keep the piece moving. The repetition is what makes the track to catchy and the harmony of the vocals is what matches the basic rhythm so well to create such a simple melody that is backed by a really energetic yet simple rhythm section. 

 
This piece is in the time signature 8/8. What makes this piece so interesting is that the signature changes throughout the piece to create interesting rhythm texture and small breaks for the vocals to take over but the bass and drums and guitar are still vamping a simple rhythmic pattern while the vocalist can freely sing. This links in closely to the track because although this one doesn't rely on the off beat quite so much and the accents have be placed in different places. This piece does have the accent placed on beat 1 and 3 but occasionally that changes. There is a middle section where the time signature changes to 7/8 where we loose a beat the whole feel and groove of the track doesn't loose out at all. personally I think the rhythmic patterns are a lot more imaginative and creative in this piece although there are many parts of this piece that have similar ideas to the more reggae style we looked at before. The idea of having the accent on beat 3 is commonly used in reggae whack i think is where this song gets its groove and movement from.