Core Lesson #3: How to Understand Any Track
Have you ever listened to a track and thought “how do they do that?”
Years ago I brought a track that was inspiring me to my mentor, Gilbert. I wanted him to break it down for me, so I could understand it.
In classic Gilbert fashion, he gave a listen and shouted out "It's all just the tonic!* Go home and figure it out yourself then show me next time!"
I should have known better lol.
He had already given me the perspectives I needed to do it from our previous Transcription practices.
So I went home and transcribed the track in my piano roll.
I then analyzed the chord progression, melody, rhythms, and summarized it in a neat little write up.
I had given myself the answer - and learned much more than if he had just told me.
From then on I analyzed everything myself. As I got more into professional work, I expanded the way I analyzed to help me understand almost anything I needed to.
Because analysis is literally how you teach yourself the language of music.
It's not about copying. It's about understanding the fundamentals.
With it, you have a clear path to understand - then make - pretty much anything.
Without it, you're lost in the fog of guessing games.
Here's the 4 Intentional Analysis categories to get clear on any track.
NOTES:
How do they use notes?
Scale? Melody intervals? Chord progression? Core rhythms?
SOUNDS:
What kind of sounds are they using?
Warm pads? Bright strings? Gritty guitars?
FORM:
How do they put it all together?
Arrangement? Special moments? Fills?
EMOTION:
How does it make me feel?
Happy? Melancholic? Nostalgic? Scared? Like destroying demons?
The more specific we can answer these questions, the clearer guidelines we give ourselves.
Here's a generic example of what some answers could look like. This is just to introduce you to the idea.
NOTES:
Scale: Minor
Melody: 1, b3, 5, b7
Progression: i - VI - III - VII
Core Rhythm: 8th note drive
SOUNDS:
Harmony: Soft morphing pads
Melody: Clean electric guitar
Bass: Warm synth bass pluck
Drums: Tight electronic drum kit
FORM:
Chords alone → unfiltering melody → full beat with melody → repeat with small edits
EMOTION:
Cool, energized, moving in my body
Maybe right now you're thinking: "To answer these questions I need to get better at music so I can recognize what I'm hearing."
Yes - you do.
And that's why I'm pointing your mind in the right direction for development.
It starts with your homework from last time: Transcription.
That develops your Xray hearing accuracy and gives you the "sheet music" (MIDI transcription) so we can practice our analysis.
But what if you can't do much of any of this yet?
Start with whatever you can do.
I bet you can recognize some of the SOUNDS...
I bet you can identify basic FORM...
I bet you can name the EMOTIONS it makes you feel...
Just start there.
Which brings us to...
Your homework: Reference analysis
1. Pick a track to analyze - ideally from the playlist you made a little while ago with your favorite references. If you did the transcription homework from last week, this is what you will analyze.
2. Use the transcription to answer the NOTES questions as best as you can. If you did not do a transcription, or are struggling too much with it, skip this for today.
3. Listening to the original track, answer the rest of the questions as best as you can: SOUNDS, FORM, EMOTION.
You don't have to get it perfect - just try your best. It's about getting your mind in the right place.
Your next homework will use this analysis for actually making music... so please don't skip it. 🙂
Avery
*At the time I had no idea what he meant by "it's all the tonic." Today I see that he was making a joke about the simplicity of the music.
It was all in one key, with little tension. Technically it was exploring full tonic, subdominant and dominant functions, but to him, it may as well have all been "tonic" because it never left the safety of the home key - which for his 50+ years of abstraction felt like it went nowhere.
He was making a philosophical musing to humor himself, and push me. We can actually grab onto that musing to get a glimpse into seeing even our basic chord functions as large-scale perspective tools - but let's hold that abstraction for another time lol.
