Crafting structure and composition
> Crafting song sections > Style and structure > Infusing dynamics > Tying it together
In this third part of the Songzap for Pianists blog series, we’ll expand our quest toward the ‘macro’ aspect of arrangement, developing longer-form structures and pieces through the keyboard as a compositional tool. In part II, we fed off rhythmic and percussive elements to help inspire our crafting of two-hand parts, with funky basslines in the low end and rhythmic stabs and improvisation in the higher registers. We even applied our drum-driven approach to come up with layers for an external production, vamping on a single chord (in the funk tradition), and overdubbing additional piano and organ parts.
In this post, we’ll take our structural endeavours further, coming up with parts for multiple sections that comprise a full song. We’ll consider variations beyond simple A/B forms, take into account stylistic requirements, and approach composition merging cyclical (or loop-based) and linear workflows. At the top of our aims will be the quest for dynamics, variation, maintaining listener interest and creating sonic/musical excitement. We’ll use Songzap’s Arrange functionality to tie it all together, and organise the transition and linking of sections toward a complete song narrative.
Crafting song sections and variations
For one of the examples in the previous post, we altered a drum groove slightly to inspire a piano variation that would provide a B-section for our experiments. The ‘gear-change’ in the top-end of the percussion drove and complemented the rhythmic transpositions and additional syncopation in the riff, and we even came up with some new chords in our harmonic progression to keep the movement going. But how do we go from a two-section vamp to crafting a complete song? Sometimes, all you need is this kind of seed of an idea as a starting point. Add some nurturing and experimentation, and the seed will soon grow into a plant (a song!)
One way to go about this, is to prepare further drum-groove alternatives in advance, so as to fuel your piano imagination. It also helps if you study the structure of songs that you like and break down the sections they are made of. After a while, you’ll realise that many pop songs, for example, follow very similar structures, and what songwriters do is they start with a seed of an idea (an original riff, rhythm or melody) and then fill-in the blanks – so to speak – to create the remainder of the sections that a song will require. Songzap’s Arrange page provides you with a selection of ‘segment’ types which refer to the most commonly used sections in contemporary songwriting (intros, verses, choruses, middle eighths or bridges, outros etc.) and fleshing out a song using these segments is a powerful way to create a road map (and a rhythmic helping hand) for ‘filling in the blanks’.
Stylistic requirements and song structure (loop-based vs. linear approach)
Of course, the style of music you’re working in will affect not only the segments or sections required but also your creative workflow. In Pop, Rock and some Folk a song narrative may follow a pretty standard structure of intro / verse / chorus / another verse / chorus / bridge or middle eighth / chorus / outro, where the second verse is musically similar or identical to the first, and each chorus is lyrically and musically – effectively – a repeat, but with something slightly different in the arrangement (more energy, denser or additional backing vocals, an extra instrumental layer, or even an acapella version of a chorus before it repeats with full instrumentation in place of an outro). But for a techno piece, the producer may simply create three different (complementary) hooks and tease them in and out over other elements for a dancefloor audience, building toward a final climax that takes place 5 or 10 minutes into the piece (which is why ‘breakdowns’ come in very handy, giving said feet some welcome rest). A hip-hop track may be made out of consecutive verse/chorus sections, while a blues song may follow a cyclic 12-bar form.
Take pen and paper and analyse some of your favourite gems within the genre you’re working in. Note down the sections, how long they are (how many bars), their order and the elements that make them stand out. Armed with this information, go into Songzap’s Arrange page, add segments, select segment types, define their bar duration and order them around so as to reflect a representative song structure for the style of music you’re about to record. What you will find really useful is the correspondence between the Arrange page and the Groove Designer. Active segments in the Groove page can be copied and mapped to Arrange segments (we did this briefly for our two-section vamp in Post II); and you can variate these section-specific beat segments to your heart’s content (for example, switching to a Ride cymbal for chorus sections, adding or deleting drum hits to make sections rhythmically sparser or denser, bringing in a Crash cymbal every few bars, or dragging the control dots for any of the drum sounds to alter the rhythmic feel of different sections). This will mean that as your song plays through the consecutive sections you have set in the Arrange page, the corresponding drum parts will also sound with all their pre-programmed variations, effectively presenting you with a (well-practised) virtual drummer that is able to perfectly play throughout your song structure. Tapping in the middle of Arrange segments even opens up an editable notation window, so you can keep modifying your grooves without ever having to leave the Arrange page. See the video below for a step-by-step demonstration of how to populate the Arrange page with song segments incorporating a variety of beat patterns. At this point, you’ll be able to practise and record long-form piano and keyboard performances that have been crafted to correlate to the drum pattern arrangement, and which allow you to experiment with both harmonic and rhythmic variation in support of a full song narrative. This workflow represents a linear approach to recording parts (just as players would have done when recording to tape – and session players were expected to do in studio sessions – in the past); and it’s what we’ll tackle in the next section.
Note: In Songzap Premium, you are also able to record bite-sized performances directly into song segments using the Arrange page’s loop-record function (for a User Guide tutorial on Loop Recording click here). This means that you do not have to record a performance throughout using the Tracking page functionality, but you can instead record and copy sections of your performance to then populate the structure of a full song. For example, record an 8-bar chorus, a 16-bar verse, copy and order them around, then drop-in for a bridge and you’ll manifest a song structure very quickly. This kind of workflow represents a modern way of producing music facilitated by loop pedals and hard-disk recording, which may also appeal to musicians working in predominantly loop-based musical styles. Both approaches have their values but do affect the end aesthetic, and one aspect that is particularly noticeable is the degree of variation audible in performed parts for repeated sections (e.g. are the guitars identical in every verse or chorus, or do they feature discernible differences as they progress across the entirety of the song?)
Infusing dynamics, maintaining interest and creating excitement
One benefit of the linear (read, old-school) way of recording is that it ups the ante for your performance objectives. Practising to the degree of being able to record with little or no mistakes for the entirety of a song is no small feat, and it is what was expected of musicians in the past (it’s part of the reason why vintage records have a particular charm). This does not mean that you can’t practise your parts by first breaking them down into smaller sections. Each segment (or combination of consecutive segments) in the Arrange page can be looped around, allowing you to rehearse and perfect a section before moving on. But there is an art in manually tying together different sections and making the transitions work. Once you have practised every segment individually, try to play through longer sections (by looping combinations of consecutive segments) and eventually try playing (and recording) throughout the entirety of a song. In the video below, you’ll see me practise going through a series of sections before performing a piano part for the whole song. Pay attention to the dynamic variation of the piano playing (velocity increases in chorus sections), whether any repeating verse or chorus parts are identical in the performance and what other mechanisms are deployed to draw the listener in (breakdowns; use of silence, density or space; glissandos and/or passing notes to create anticipation leading to new sections; etc…)
Tying it all together
Once we have a main piano part that we like going from beginning to end, we can of course overdub additional parts to accentuate the arrangement, section progression and song narrative. For this tune, I’ll add a Moog synth bassline on Track 2 that interlocks with the drum patterns, supports the harmony of the piece and also works with the left hand of the piano. On Track 3, I’ll record some Rhodes electric piano, enhancing the acoustic piano part with open chords, arpeggios and also taking advantage of some soloing opportunities. On Track 4, I’ll add some organ padding that helps elevate the choruses and also gives the middle eighth a slightly modified timbral dimension (middle eighths are often sections where a song takes a narrative or lyrical turn, and it’s beneficial to reflect that instrumentally). Note how the bass, electric piano and organ parts attempt to work with the drum patterns, original piano part, registers and section progression, while at the same time providing links between sections (slides, passing notes and the like) effectively announcing that a new movement is about to arrive in the piece. Enjoy the video below of the whole piece coming together, and I’ll see you again in Post IV where we’ll deal with mixing, finalising and sharing our keyboard-based compositions.
Note: Songzap Premium adds a virtual bass and pad/keys player to the Groove Designer functionality (alongside the drums) that can intelligently populate your segments with basslines and chordal parts, effectively replicating what I have done above with some of the live overdubs. There are a bunch of different bass libraries and synths/keyboards available, and the parts generated are user-modifiable via interactive interfaces similar to the Beat designer. Click here, for the Bass and Pad User Guide tutorials!