This assignment is—as announced and discussed in lecture—an exercise in “Active listening”:
Choose a song or piece of music you know well (or think you know!). Analyze the song in terms of its form and progression in time, listening carefully to how its inner details—it’s sounds and instrumental choices—might aid in this progression. What do you think makes the music tick? What makes it move forward? What are the instruments and/or sounds and how do they develop? Are there small details, momentary or otherwise unnoticed, that you think are important?
The result should be 1) a diagram or representation of the form using letters or descriptions (A, B, C, or “Not A”, verse, chorus, bridge, etc), as shown in lecture and 2) a brief accompanying prose description of the piece and its essential elements as you hear them. Be sure to connect your observations to the form in #1.
This need not be any more than a single page.
As a guide to your listening, please read the following three sections of the book, “Making Music Creative Strategies
for Electronic Music Producers”:
Please submit the result below (PDF, doc, etc), whether created electronically or by hand. Please include a link to the song you’ve analyzed, ideally online at a source such as YouTube. You are highly encouraged to share also your analysis on the course blog.