Musicality World

However, there is a new dimension of satisfaction that is brought about by playing your own music.

This week, we’re giving you songwriters (and aspiring songwriters!) some inspiration. With the arrival of two new resource packs that explore syncopation and chord tone improvisation, Musical U members can explore how to add rhythmic and melodic interest to their compositions.

Additionally, Dave Cousins of famed rock group the Strawbs drops in for an insightful interview on the state of the music industry, and the art of writing unforgettable music and lyrics. Two of the founders of the phenomenal music education tool Hook Theory share their insights on applying music theory concepts to songwriting. Finally, The Musicality Podcast looks at “the hook” of the song, why it matters, and how famous musicians have used it to great effect.

Syncopation and Chord Tone Improv

The newest additions to our instrument packs are here to help you go beyond basic rhythms and scale improvisation.

The syncopation resource pack is a must-have for anyone who wants to play off and around the beat. Our four resident pros show you how to add rhythmic interest to your playing on piano, guitar, bass, and vocals with this colourful and versatile rhythmic tool.

For those more concerned with melody than rhythm, the improvising with chord tones resource pack is the perfect way to take your improvisation beyond the constraints of scales. With instrument-specific tips that incorporate solfege, arpeggiation, and chord knowledge you likely already have, our resident pros will introduce you to a whole new way of soloing!

To learn more about what’s in store, check out Syncopation: Resource Pack Preview and Improvising with Chord Tones: Resource Pack Preview!

Syncopation and playing off the beat can add a great deal of variety to your rhythmic figures. This is the perfect way to engage the listener. Tyler at Music is Win shows how the same basic chord progression can be adapted with syncopation.

While Tyler explores syncopation through rock music, it is important to note that many of these rhythmic figures we associate with popular music originated in jazz. Syncopation is a fundamental element of jazz music, and help to make this music so irresistible! The New York Jazz Workshop explores what makes jazz jazz.

Have you ever considered that your musical training can benefit other areas of your life? An education in music can actually have positive effects on your professional life! Alain Sylvain, a highly successful entrepreneur, outlined 4 secrets that entrepreneurs can learn from studying jazz music that will yield success in the business world.

Hook Theory

There’s nothing out there quite like Hook Theory. The online tool provides a new, intuitive way of looking at music theory, and helps you understand melody and harmony in the songs you know and love.

Musical U was lucky enough to get the chance to interview two of Hook Theory’s founders about their incredible learning tool. In Multi-coloured Music, with the HookTheory team, the founders share their own musical backgrounds, how their love of music led to the development of Hook Theory, and what sets it apart from other systems for learning music theory, melody, and harmony.

If you’re already familiar with Hook Theory, this will serve as a great behind-the-scenes peek. If you haven’t experienced this tool for yourself, what better way to get acquainted?

A fun exercise in your musicality is to experiment with turning a major song into minor. This shows just how important tonality is to the overall feel of a song. You may even be surprised to hear how the meaning of a song is completely transformed. Fortunately, the team at HookTheory has built a tool that makes transposition a breeze!

Dave and Chris shared their musical journey and how they largely began playing by ear, without understanding music theory. It was only later that they began to learn the theory behind what their ears told them sounded good. Many musicians learn this way, and some methods even advocate this style! Eric from Your Guitar Sage shows how you can learn the guitar fretboard by ear.

When you first dive into music theory, it can seem a bit overwhelming. There is so much to learn, and it requires you to focus on the essential elements of music theory. Guitar Theory Revolution teaches you some easy ways to dive into this initially intimidating task.

Dave and Chris explained how you can easily transpose any of your favorite songs by using the Nashville numbering system (example 1-4-5) on a chord progression. Using chord numbers allows you to associate a chord with its relationship to the tonic rather than with a chord name. Ken Reynolds explains this concept further in a lesson on transposing any song in mere minutes.

Songwriting with the Strawbs

With a massive discography spanning numerous genres and decades of success under their belt, the Strawbs have proven that they’re here to stay.

From their early beginnings as a bluegrass band to their transition to progressive rock, founding member and principal songwriter Dave Cousins been the major driving force behind the band’s success, with his organic approach to songwriting and unforgettable guitar playing.

Musical U’s own Stewart Hilton sat down with Dave to discuss the Strawbs’ incredible longevity, how music has changed over the years in his eyes, and of course, Dave’s inimitable approach to writing music and lyrics. Head over to Lyricism and Longevity, with the Strawbs’ Dave Cousins to get a true music veteran’s take on musicality.

It was really fascinating to hear how Dave was experimenting with alternate guitar tunings very early in his musical journey. This has allowed him to create a unique sound and be very creative in his songwriting. If you are stuck in the standard tuning, My Rare Guitars has outlined 5 alternate guitar tunings and popular examples of where these tunings have been used.

Dave talked about how music is often just “pieced together” on the computer instead of being written as one musical thought. Songwriting can be a difficult process, with unexpected roadblocks along the way. Isa Burke explores the songwriting process and her frustrations with it. Don’t miss it – it’s a relateable and helpful read for any songwriter.

While most of us don’t start out as songwriters, many can already write. Can you take the skills you learned in creative writing and apply them to songwriting? Hope Clark shares five simple steps you can take to stretch your songwriting muscles.

Dave talked about how technology and the ways in which people consume music have changed the Strawbs’ approach to marketing. Currently, one of the most popular sites for distributing music is YouTube. If you want some great tips and tactics to up your YouTube game, Music Consultant interviewed an up-and-coming musician on how he built a following through this platform.

The Catchy Part

The “hook” of a song is what ensnares the listener’s ear and gets stuck in their head.

Think of the bassline from “Under Pressure” or that synthesizer melody from A-ha’s hit “Take on Me”. Simply put, the hook is what makes a catchy song catchy.

In the Musicality Podcast’s episode About the Hook, we look at what makes a good hook, how it differs from the chorus, and the variety of ways in which famous musicians have used “the hook” to turn their songs into absolute earworms.

As John Popper from Blues Traveler sang, “The hook brings you back”! Writing great melodies and hooks is one of the most important aspects to being a great songwriter. Song Talk Radio interviewed singer-songwriter Jeffery Straker on his fantastic songwriting tips.

We all know that writing melodies is important, but how do you go about doing it? Alex Rome showcases five tips for writing perfect melodies. After Alex’s lesson, try experimenting with your own melodies to implement his helpful suggestions.

Melody is important in all popular genres of music. The great Merle Haggard recently commented that “Nobody even attempts to write a melody” when he was asked about current mainstream music. Megan from Country Exclusive explores the current state of popular music, and how melody seems to be lost art.

The Joys of Songwriting

With tools such as Hook Theory, Musical U’s own resource packs, and more to make songwriting so easy to dive into, there’s nothing stopping you from taking a whack at crafting your own tunes.

Take advice from Dave Cousins and go back to basics by leaving the computer at home and spending some time with your instrument. Think of a catchy hook and build a song around it. More importantly, remember to enjoy the incredibly fulfilling process that is writing your own music!

No matter what your songwriting style is, a solid foundation in ear training and music theory are your best friends for writing an unforgettable piece of music. Join the Musical U community today to begin honing these skills!

The post Syncopation and Chord Tones, Hook Theory, Songwriting with the Strawbs, and The Catchy Part appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/11-tips-to-help-the-tone-deaf-sing-in-tune/
Too many people go through life worried that they can’t sing. You CAN sing… you just haven’t learned how to yet! 🎤 The Musical U team has put together this list of 11 tips that will help anyone learn to sing in tune. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/11-tips-to-help-the-tone-deaf-sing-in-tune/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/a-guitar-method-that-works-for-teachers-and-students-with-david-hart/
Why do some methods for learning an instrument seem to work better than others? David from G4 GUITAR METHOD joins Musical U to share the secret of the 80/20 principle that works so well for his students. 🎸 https://www.musical-u.com/learn/a-guitar-method-that-works-for-teachers-and-students-with-david-hart/

We all know the “hook”, if not by name. It’s the catchiest, most memorable part of a song, and the culprit for getting the tune stuck in your head. In this podcast episode, learn what makes a hook, what differentiates it from the chorus, and how some famous artists have used it to elevate their songs from great to unforgettable.

Listen to the episode:

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Links and Resources

• Interview with the HookTheory team
• Musicality Means… Knowing the Slang
• The genius of “Hook” by Blues Traveler

Transcript

In our last episode I was talking with the guys from HookTheory, a very cool website that helps you understand how the chords and melody in music work.

One thing we didn’t discuss but which you might have been wondering about was “Why is it called HookTheory?” – now I haven’t asked them this so I hope I’m not going to totally mislead everyone! But to me it seems clear that it’s because it’s a site that helps you understand the theory of song hooks (among other things). And also because the method itself acts as a kind of hook for learning.

So what is a “Hook”?

One important part of musicality is being familiar with the jargon that musicians use, so that you can understand what’s said and communicate yourself.

“Hook” can be a confusing word. It belongs to the world of rock, pop and hip-hop more than classical music but there are corresponding concepts in classical. Most notably the “motif” which means a repeated pattern, normally a melody line. And we could say that the hook is just the most prominent and memorable motif in a song.

So when Vanilla Ice raps “Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it”, it kicks into the catchy hook chorus “Ice, Ice, Baby”.

Where it gets confusing is that the hook is often the same as the chorus of a song – but not always!

In our recent episode on 1-4-5-6 chord progressions I quoted Blues Traveler lyrics and I’m going to do it again – because I like the way they put it, in their very meta song-about-songs called, fittingly enough, Hook. John Popper sings “The hook brings you back – on that you can rely”.

And that’s probably a good definition. The “hook” is the part of a song that sticks in your head after the song is over. Probably the part you think of first if someone mentions the song. It’s normally what makes a catchy song catchy.
And so at this point I have to add a warning. I’m going to give a bunch of examples of song hooks – and by definition these are likely to get stuck in your head! So I apologise in advance for that…

As well as from getting clear on what the term “hook” means, I also hope this episode will open up your ears, so that in future whenever you hear a song you’ll pause to ask yourself what’s the hook (or if there is even a notable hook).
So there are a few types of hook to talk about. Some song writing instructors break it down quite precisely by whether it’s the lyrics, or delivery, or arrangement, or production that make the hook hook-y. But I just wanted to do a simple split in terms of how the hook fits into the song.

The first possibility is the most common: the song’s chorus is its hook.

If someone asks you to sing part of a song, the chances are you’ll launch into the chorus rather than the intro or a verse. Most catchy songs have a catchy chorus.

This started back in the early days of pop with Beatles songs like “Help!” where that shouted “Help!” at the start of the “Help! I need somebody” chorus acted as a prominent hook. They were masters of creating varied hooks and even as their songs became less pop and more sophisticated they’d have powerful chorus hooks. Think of “Here comes the sun, Doo dun doo doo” or “Bang, bang, Maxwell’s silver hammer came down upon her head”.

Other big pop artists like Neil Diamond have nailed hooks with songs like Sweet Caroline (“Sweet Caroline, Bam bam baam”).

And it continues now – think of Carly Rae Jepsen “Hey, I just met you – and this is craaazy”, Rebecca Black singing “Friiiday, Friiiday, Gotta get down on Friiiday” or Justin Bieber singing “Baby, baby, baby”.

So having a catchy chorus is the tried-and-true way to give a song a hook.

But it’s not the only way.

Often songs will have a catchy vocal part which isn’t the chorus.

Coming back to the Beatles, “Hey Jude” is one of their biggest hits – and although the first verse is memorable, starting with the title of the song, the most catchy part comes at the end with the classic “Naaa nah nah na-na-na-nah, na-na-na-nah, Hey Jude”.

Or the classic Ramones hit “Blitzkrieg Bop” which kicks off with a chanted section “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go! Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!”. These words form part of the chorus too but not in this chanted way that became the song’s hook and even part of the band’s identity.

So apart from the chorus or another non-chorus vocal part, where can we find the hook of a song? Well, sometimes it’s actually an instrumental part that’s the hook.

This is where I get to pretend I’m on the TV show “Never mind the Buzzcocks” doing the intros round. Wish me luck.
I’m going to sing the instrumental hook and you try to identify the song. We’ll have answers in the shownotes.

1. Dum dum dum, dada dum dum
2. Bawm bawm bawm, bawm bawm ba-dawm, bawm bawm bawm, bawm bawm
3. Doo doo doo doo doo doo – doo doo doo – doo doo doo
4. Bum bum bum badadum dum dum badadum dum dum badadum dum dum

Well, could you recognise the song? To me, those riffs are what make those songs as memorable as they are and although other parts of the song might be catchy, it’s those riffs that are the most prominent motif and hence the hook.
As is so often the case in music, a lot of this is debatable. And it’s not impossible for a song to have more than one hook, or have something really notable and memorable which isn’t easily categorised, such as Cher using a vocoder to transform her voice on “Believe”, or the first big dubstep hits being memorable just because their beat was so unusual.

So next time you find yourself annoyed that a song’s stuck in your head, or you hear a new song for the first time, stop and ask yourself: what’s the hook?

Of course the next question is: why is the hook so catchy!? We’ll save that one for a future episode.

Now if you’ll excuse me – I need to go sing each one of those songs on loop for the rest of the day.

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The post About the Hook appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-play-ukulele-by-ear/
No matter your instrument, a common aspect that we all must train is our ears. Dave from Ukulele Go offers his suggestions for learning the ukulele by ear in this guest post. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-play-ukulele-by-ear/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/music-mentor/
“I get by with a little help from my friends” The Beatles nailed it when they sang this iconic lyric. To get the most out of your musical journey, you need a mentor to help you. Musical U gathered these tips to help you find your mentor. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/music-mentor/

Before computers came along and “cleaned up the mess”, rock musicians bubbled forth with creativity in their burgeoning new genre, restlessly experimenting with the limited tools they had available in order to achieve a memorable sound. Idiosyncrasies were not considered to be undesirable – instead, they were given room to shine. Songs were often remembered for their lyrics as much as their melodies and hooks. Guitarists experimented with new tunings and techniques to create their own impressive and wholly unique style of playing.

Dave Cousins (right) pictured with collaborator and friend Dave Bainbridge

Dave Cousins needs no introduction to anyone familiar with the 1960s British folk and prog-rock scene. As the founding member, leader, and principal songwriter of famed rock band the Strawbs, Dave has been a prolific and distinctive songwriter for decades, in genres spanning from folk rock to bluegrass to progressive rock. His unconventional voice has garnered comparisons to Bob Dylan, and critics have praised his instantly recognizable guitar style and lyricism.

Having been involved in the world of music since the mid-60’s, Dave has watched music evolve and evolved with it. Thanks to my friend Dave Bainbridge, who was touring this summer with the Strawbs, I had the amazing backstage opportunity to pick Dave’s brain about how approaches to songwriting and making music have changed over the years, the effects of computerization on these processes, and how the Strawbs have been able to enjoy such longevity and success.

I started out as a bluegrass banjo player. Although I played guitar, it was the banjo that really captured my imagination. I learned to play bluegrass banjo, by slowing Earl Scruggs’ records down to half speed and working out what finger patterns he was using. Once you got those finger patterns it all slots into place and you can play as fast as you like. I found it became very mechanical, but what I did notice was that a lot of the Appalachian banjo players, because I had heard them on the Harry Smith collection, were playing in modal tunings. They’d tune the second string of the banjo up to a C.

And I thought, “I wonder what that would sound like on the guitar?” So I tuned my first string of the guitar down to a D, tuned the second string up to C, and the bass string down to D, and suddenly I had the most amazing sound on an acoustic guitar. And to this day I’ve never found anybody else who uses that particular tuning, but I’ve written a lot of songs in it. I experimented with tunings, using classic banjo tunings on the guitar to see what it sounded like.

I developed my musical and songwriting styles from using these alternate tunings. To this day, I use tunings that I’ve worked out myself, that I don’t think anyone else uses. There’s one definite advantage to it: you write songs that are very different to what anybody else writes. The disadvantage is that people can’t work out what the chords are. They can’t work out how to play the songs, so they often come up and say, “What are the chords to that song?”.

As I started to write songs, I started to write the words as well. And I’ve found that as I was going along, some lines were longer than others. So instead of saying, “Oh, I must cut that back and make every line regular,” I’d extend certain lines to be a different length. That gave the song a different characteristic. It made it less mechanical.

What has happened more recently as people have gotten into computerization is they take the lazy method of writing. They don’t sit down and write songs on acoustic guitar and add extra bits if it’s necessary. Instead, they work out the first verse of a song and a chorus, and they cut and paste it on the computer, and as a result, you’re getting mechanical-sounding songs with no variation in them whatsoever. And I find that incredibly sad.

You can just hear it in the songs, that they all sound much the same. There’s no variation. And the only time you can hear it is with people who use real instruments, who actually play it live and work it out by playing the song on a guitar or on a banjo if you like, but playing it live, as it makes the whole difference of the whole thing. And I think that music has deteriorated as a result of computerization nowadays.

Yes, I used to sit in my bedroom and work out songs myself. Kids now record on computers and put the records out, but again, they’re cutting and pasting and chopping and changing.

That’s not to say that we don’t use that, but on our records you’ll find that I’m not particularly accurate at it, so you’ll find your 2/4 bar in the middle of a 4/4 song coming in. And it just adds that little shuffle to it. You can find this in a couple of classic songs. The Beatles song is “All You Need is Love”, where it’s not in 4/4 all the way through, it skips a beat every now and then. You can also hear it in the Blondie song “Heart of Glass”.

It really adds something different to the music.

It gives the song a personality and a style that makes it different. Nowadays people writing at home wouldn’t think of putting an odd beat in a song like that, because they’re not writing and playing it on the guitar. They’re playing it on the computer, cutting and pasting, and it’s taken a lot of the character out of music. Now you listen to the pop channels and you hear voices all being in perfect pitch, all being pitched up.

Bob Dylan never sang in perfect pitch – it all varied! That gave his voice its character and distinctive sound. Somebody once tried to tune up my voice, but it was taken from a live recording. In tuning it up, it put all the instrumentation out of tune, so when you played it all back together it sounds as though the whole band was out of tune, even though it wasn’t. So it doesn’t work all the time and I don’t like it. It’s always a good idea to go back to the old ways: play a guitar, put it in different tunings, and suddenly you’ll come out with a whole different feel and style of songwriting.

About ten years ago, I bought a record by a Spanish group called Radio Tarifa. Tarifa is the nearest point in Spain to Africa, and so they had the mix of African instrumentation and Spanish flamenco at the same time. Gorgeous record, and on one track the rhythm section was a flamenco dancer. It’s on a record label called Nonesuch Records.

The record was made totally without computerization. They did a live album in Toronto, and then split up. It was a great shame because they were so fantastic!

A lot of records are sold on social media. And of course with older bands like us, our fans don’t necessarily use social media in blanket form as the young kids do.

So whereas our records still sell in reasonable quantities, nowadays you can get records that sell 25 million. In the early days, it was quite rare to get big records like that. Someone like Adele or Sam Smith will suddenly take off in a worldwide way. They’re distinctive voices and stylings, but if you look at the writing credits, there’s three or four writers on each track. It’s like, “We’ll just go into the studio, we’ll put you in with a team of writers so you have a share of it.”

How about working it out for yourself?

You have to think in a mercenary way. The opening track of our album is called “The Nails From the Hands of Christ”:

Dave Bainbridge came up with that wonderful instrumental opening, but I thought, “Hang on, it makes the whole thing for a start nine minutes long, so we’ll call the opening part a separate track.” So people want to buy the album and download it, they’ve got to buy that as a separate track, but when they hear it and play it through it’ll blend as it’s meant to be.

And we did that on another song that was 11 minutes long, separated out the beginning of that section, which is me playing acoustic guitar and Dave playing flute and other instruments over it. And that’s now called “The Reckoning”, and it sets up the scene for “The Ferryman’s Curse” which is the title track of the album. So that’s a separate track. You’ve got to think marketing-wise.

I learnt that very quickly when we first put out records in America. We were told that they pay 10 cents a track for the publishing, so I thought, “Hey, I’m writing songs that are ten minutes long in three sections.”

So what did I do? I called each of the three sections by a separate title so they had to pay 30 cents a track for that one song rather than 10 cents for the one track. You have to think like that, and people don’t. They don’t realize what you can do. The downloaders are making money hand over fist and the artists aren’t getting the money, so you’ve got to take them on at their own game. So if you got a song that’s very long, split it into two sections and call it two songs.

I think it’s all down to the lyrics of the songs: people identify with them. I’ve heard people who have been hospitalized say that they’ve recovered by listening to the albums! I had a young lady who had 11 electric shock treatments come to visit me when I was living down in the west country in England, and said that she’d found the whole thing eased her and gave her comfort. She just knocked on the door of my house and said, “I just want to say thank you.” She came in and stayed for a couple of days and went off and disappeared, and I never saw her again. There are even many couples, in the USA in particular, who get married to one of our songs.

That’s the last part of “Autumn”. We call it the “Winter Long”:

That was one of the songs that was divided into three sections. That is the song that couples either have their first dance to, or walk down the aisle to. The fact that people have decided to celebrate one of the most important days of their lives with one of our songs is very flattering. It means something specific to them, sometimes spiritual if you like. Not that the songs are deliberately spiritual or religious, but people seem to just find comfort in the words. That is what has given us our longevity. Concentrate on your words. Don’t just write, “I love you babe”. There’s much more to it than that.

We have a song called “The Familiarity of Old Lovers”. People just don’t write about that as a song, let alone sing it. Okay, it takes a bit of timing to get it right, but it sets the whole song into different characters. I quite often come up with song titles and then work out what on earth it’s going to be about.

Most of my songs are autobiographical. So if you want to know my life, what I’ve done in my life, it’s all there. I’ve covered them up to protect people sometimes.

I’m essentially writing about things that have happened to me or experiences that I’ve had, stories that I’ve picked up along the way. And that is what gives the music its longevity. Yes, we do nice tunes, but people also remember the words, they can relate to them. They like both music and lyrics together.

We just like playing the songs. If we all didn’t like playing the songs, we wouldn’t do it.

Some of the songs are a challenge, that’s for sure – they’re not straightforward, I use unusual tunings, and there are various sections where it changes.

It’s incredibly powerful. I’ve learned that in writing, you don’t have the use the basic chord. You can write other chords around it, and I’ve just got a new song coming in, using that different tuning. Because of that tuning you hear atmospheres and textures that keep our music fresh, challenging, and interesting for us to keep playing.

Don’t give up.

Writing Music, “Old School”

We may be living in the computer age, but as any seasoned musician will tell you, there simply is no substitute for the human touch when it comes to songwriting and recording.

The time you invest into crafting meaningful lyrics, adding variation, and experimenting with subtleties in your music will more than pay off. The advantage of this human touch over computerization is immediately recognizable – the latter will create a sound that is uniquely yours. 

The post Lyricism and Longevity, with the Strawbs’ Dave Cousins appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/3-sports-ideas-help-music/
Training for sports has nothing in common with music… does it? 🤔 There are many parallels that between the two that you can borrow in your own music learning. Here are 3 ideas from the Musical U team. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/3-sports-ideas-help-music/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/beginning-modal-improvisation-with-brian-kelly-from-zombie-guitar/
What is a mode… and how can they be used for soloing? Brian from Zombie Guitar joins Musical U to show you how to begin with modal improvisation. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/beginning-modal-improvisation-with-brian-kelly-from-zombie-guitar/