Musicality - Salsification
Introduction
This book isn’t about knowing music in your head, it’s about connecting to it at a deeper level. It’s about feeling it in your bones. It’s about creating a rhythmic connection.
You’ll learn how to clap. This will help you connect to music, because clapping is like being an instrument in the band.
You’ll learn how to identify the structure of music. This is known as phrasing. This will start you on the path to better musicality, because it’ll help you to predict where the music is going. It’ll give you the somewhat useless skill of being able to predict and punch the air to a big accent or hit in the music (but I bet your friends will find that cool). There’s more: according to the field of biomusicology, the study of biology and music, if you can predict where the music is going, you’ll enjoy it more. Yup, lying on the couch and chilling to music is about to get better.
Being rhythmically challenged is not a lack of ability; it’s a lack of education.
It was a lack of education and training that was holding me back.
I could hear not only the sets of 8 in the music, but also how the sets of 8 came together to form the bigger structure.
Now I’m almost a virtuoso when it comes to tapping my foot and clapping my hands. I can even dance and, on a good night, not embarrass myself. Best of all, I enjoy listening to music more. At times, I even feel like I’m part of the band.
1. Count the Music
Even if you can’t hear the structure, music has structure. For non-musicians, the most important structural element to know is a set of 8, also known as an 8-count and an eight-beat mini-phrase. If you can count the sets of 8, you’ve found the underlying beat.
Also, like a sentence, a set of 8 usually has a theme. You need to listen for themes, because generally these themes are related to the musical count and the structure.
There’s one other structural element, a major phrase (not to be confused with a mini-phrase), which I’ll mention now because it’ll help you hear the sets of 8. Essentially, the musical themes of the sets of 8 (mini-phrases) can come together to form a bigger theme, which is a major phrase. So major phrases, like paragraphs in a piece of writing, are part of the bigger structure in a piece of music.
While music is made up of vocals, melody, harmony and drums, it’s the drums that create the underlying beat of music. The drums and other percussion instruments are called the percussion section of the band. When you add the keyboard and guitars to the percussion section, it’s often called the rhythm section, although the components of a rhythm section can vary from band to band.
For now, just remember that the drums and percussion have the final word in establishing the beat, because that’ll come in handy when you’re up against difficult music.
We’ll get to counting music in a moment. First, it’ll help to get a feel for the music; that is, to get a sense for hearing the sets of 8 without counting, because ultimately that’s your endgame.
The chorus runs from 0:57 seconds to 1:15. As you listen, think about the structure in terms of four sets of 8 coming together, thematically, to create a major phrase of music.
As you listen try to hear how a phrase of words aligns with a set of 8 in the music. Notice how a set of 8 stands out. Specifically, notice how, thematically, the first three sets of 8 set up something, which gets resolved in the fourth set of 8.
Ponder this concept of themes in music, and setup and resolution in particular, because they happen a lot. While resolution is more complicated than this, for now think of the music building up tension that gets released through the resolution. A resolution brings a sense of comfort or closure.
(I repeat: vocals do not always line up with the sets of 8).
For example, a bandleader often starts a band playing by saying, “One, two, three, four.” Yet a dance teacher would start a class dancing (after the music has started) to the exact same song by saying, “Five, six, seven, eight.”
- Listen for an accent or emphasis on count 1.
Also, it helps to listen for the transition between two major phrases. If you can hear the resolution or conclusion of a major phrase—likely to be a handful of beats, not just one beat—that will prep you to listen for the beginning of the next major phrase, which will be a count 1.
It’s hard to put into words what a set of 8 sounds like. Typically, a set of 8, like a sentence of words, will stand out in some way.
Also, listen for some sort of transition between sets of 8, like something coming to an end, which would tip you off that something new is about to begin.
TIP: The first four-beat measure in a set of 8 is called the heavy measure; and the second four-beat measure is called the light measure (terms courtesy of dance educator Skippy Blair). In some music, the first measure actually has a “heaviness” to it when compared to the second measure, which will sound “lighter.” You may hear this in some music, not in all music.
Video 1.1 – “Brother Louie” by Stories
Hearing the sets of 8 doesn’t get any easier than the chorus of this song. All the major phrases in this song are structured in four sets of 8 (32 beats). But the chorus, which runs from 0:57 to 1:15, is so darn easy to hear. Listen how, thematically, the first three sets of 8 set something up, which gets resolved in the fourth set of 8. I count the sets of 8 to this song in the first 40 seconds of video 1.5.
Video 1.2 – Gotta Do Some War Work, Baby by Cootie Williams
Jeez, this song brings back memories. I first heard it years ago and it was a breakthrough for me: it was the first song where I could hear the sets of 8 and the major phrases without counting. In this song, try to get a feel for the structure without counting. Like the Louis theme song above, this song also has 32-beat major phrases structured in four sets of 8. Listen how the first three sets of 8 set something up, which gets resolved in the fourth set of 8 (each major phrase runs about 12 seconds). I count the sets of 8 to this song in video 1.5 starting at the 44 second mark.
Video 1.3 – Intro to Sets of 8–How to count music
“Sets of 8” define the beat. Yeah, really. I explain it in this video, including the relationship between a set of 8 and the musician’s four-beat measure.
Video 1.4 – “Dark Love by the Robin Rogers
Jump in and try to count the sets of 8 in this next song. If you have trouble, I count the sets of 8 in video 1.5 starting at the 1:55 mark. This is easy music: tempo is slow, good downbeat and upbeat, clear sets of 8, simple phrasing (four sets of 8, which is a 32-beat major phrase) and a really nice blues song.
Video 1.5 – Hear Sets of 8–Easy Music (3:15 minutes)
I count the sets of 8 for the three songs in videos 1.1, 1.2 and 1.4, above.
0:00 – [“Brother Louie”] 0:44 – “Gotta Do Some War Work, Baby” by Cootie Williams 1:55 – “Dark Love” by Robin Rogers