“Real Love” An Evaluation
In his book, “The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature”
(2008), Daniel Levitin identifies six fundamental song functions or types
(friendship, joy, comfort, religion, knowledge, and love) and goes on to show
how each in its own way has enabled the social bonding necessary for human
culture and society to evolve. I have chosen to compose a folk-pop inspired
ballad, which falls into the “function” of a love song. My musical inspirations
were Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Demi Lovato and James Morrisson. I chose to
write my song about an argument I had late one night with my boyfriend. Writing
about personal experience is daunting as you’re putting yourself out there for
your audience and talking about how you feel. “I've
only thought about it as a way to help me get through love and loss and sadness
and loneliness and growing up.” Swift,
T (Vanity Fair. 2013). John Lennon once said “Songwriting
is about getting the demon out of me.” (Flavorwire,
2012.) This is something I agree with, having wrote my song in the spur of the
moment, all my emotions were raw and I think that passion shows in my song.
I wrote my piece on an acoustic guitar, an instrument associated with my genre. When establishing a chord progression it was clear I have a very limited knowledge of guitar chords and so my initial melody was very simplistic featuring only Em, Am, D, C and G - which I can play myself. Because of this I asked someone else to play my melody and he suggested developing the chords into a slightly more complex melody. Changing the C chord into a Cadd9 chord. As it’s a ballad it’s written in ¾ timing, like a waltz, far more swoony and romantic with a natural momentum to it. Reminiscent of Aerosmith’s ‘I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing’. The song benefits from the slower pace and the lyrics are clearer. It also differs from the stereotypical 4/4 pop song timing. Using simple chords, with slight variations, altered lyrics and a key change for my final chorus, kept the melody of the song simplistic and allowed for the lyrics to take precedence. I also experimented with using a capo, so that I could sing slightly higher which was more comfortable for me.
I wrote my piece on an acoustic guitar, an instrument associated with my genre. When establishing a chord progression it was clear I have a very limited knowledge of guitar chords and so my initial melody was very simplistic featuring only Em, Am, D, C and G - which I can play myself. Because of this I asked someone else to play my melody and he suggested developing the chords into a slightly more complex melody. Changing the C chord into a Cadd9 chord. As it’s a ballad it’s written in ¾ timing, like a waltz, far more swoony and romantic with a natural momentum to it. Reminiscent of Aerosmith’s ‘I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing’. The song benefits from the slower pace and the lyrics are clearer. It also differs from the stereotypical 4/4 pop song timing. Using simple chords, with slight variations, altered lyrics and a key change for my final chorus, kept the melody of the song simplistic and allowed for the lyrics to take precedence. I also experimented with using a capo, so that I could sing slightly higher which was more comfortable for me.
I made the song into a duet,
meaning the song would feature my own vocals but also a male counterpart, both
singing solo vocals on the song as well as harmonies. I think the blending of
two voices connotes love which was a compositional aim of mine that I think
shows in the music. I initially decided the male part would start the song and
sing the first chorus. I would then take the second verse and chorus before we
both sang the bridge and final chorus. This was mainly because the start of the
song, which was lower, is better suited to a male vocal. However, upon hearing
it back I realised that the song would work as a call and response style, which
would also add to the sense of an argument. I wanted to communicate love and
affection between two people, therefore upon reaching the lyric, “(promise)
you’ll love me as long as I need you, that you’ll be forever true” I decided to bring the male and female vocal
together in harmony as "To sing a duet together means sharing
with someone both the pleasure and the responsibility of making music for an
audience which is there to feel enjoyment through music." - Andrea Bocelli (J, Abbott, 2012). The
idea of eternal love and being able to see past our differences was something
that I wanted to get across through my lyrics and I feel that this technique
was an effective way to communicate such emotion through music and tha because
the use of harmony was used selectively it therefore had a much more impact.
Both vocal parts were clear in diction as we both sang in vibrato, this meant
the male and female vocals fitted well together and blended nicely.
Recording the song using Cubase made
my recording sound much more professional. For the vocals I used a Shure SM-57
microphone which is a dynamic microphone with a cardiod polar pattern which "is used extensively in
amplified music and has been used by every U.S. president since its
introduction in 1965" (TECnology
Hall of Fame: 2004). "It became the
lectern microphone of the White House Communications Agency in 1965, the year
of its introduction and remains so." Charles J. Kouri,
Rose L. Shure, Hayward Blake, John Lee (2001). Bon Iver recorded the whole
of his ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ album on an SM-57. It’s a good microphone
because it has a large frequency range, from bass up to vocals. The vocals were
equalised before I compressed them and finally ran them through a reverb
effects channel. “As a general rule, equalisation should be employed only after all
efforts have been made to obtain the best sound at source. What's more, there's
a huge subjective difference in sound between a budget equaliser and a
top-quality studio equalise” (White,
P. 1997) As my equipment is budget, equalising removes any unwanted
frequencies, bringing clarity and tone to both the instruments and vocals.
Compressing ensures the audio doesn't peak and create digital distortion.
To improve the song, I would have spent more time recording the vocals. My voice wasn’t at its strongest at the time of recording and I know that I could have sounded better. I also would have taken the time to ensure that both vocal parts were singing in time with one another, as we recorded separately we each put our own spin on the song. We also took breaths at different times meaning our phrasing on the harmonised lines differed slightly. I would add a second guitar, played by myself. Even if I only played the bar chords or even a bass part I would like to be able to play my own compositions. I would record the melody on a piano and compare the two as I think a piano is more suited to a ballad, which was an initial compositional aim whereas the guitar makes my piece folk-pop. I would have also liked to experiment with piano chords as I like the sombre feel a piano can bring to a ballad and it would have given the piece a classical element to it.
Bibliography;
Levitin, D (2008) The World In
Six Songs. USA: Dutton Penguin. p.7
Swift, T. (2013). “Taylor Swift’s
Telltale Heart”. Vanity Fair.
Hawking, T. (2012). 25 Great
Songwriters on the Art of Songwriting. Available:
http://flavorwire.com/306045/25-great-songwriters-on-the-art-of-songwriting.
Last accessed 16/01/14
Abbott, J. (2012). Andrea Bocelli talks love and music. Available:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-02-10/entertainment/os-andrea-bocelli-orlando-20120210_1_pop-music-andrea-bocelli-voices.
Last accessed 20/05/15.
TECnology Hall of Fame. (2004)
Available: www.tecawards.org/hof/04techof.html. Last accessed 25/05/15
Charles J. Kouri, Rose L. Shure, Hayward Blake, John Lee (2001). Shure: sound people, products, and values 1. Shure Inc. p. xiii. ISBN 0-9710738-0-5.
Charles J. Kouri, Rose L. Shure, Hayward Blake, John Lee (2001). Shure: sound people, products, and values 1. Shure Inc. p. xiii. ISBN 0-9710738-0-5.
White, P. (1997). EQ Exploration. Available: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1997_articles/feb97/allabouteq.html. Last accessed 02/06/2015.
