For this lab you will strive to better understand a piece of music by breaking it down into simple components.   Collect/download the piece of music you wish to analyze.    Please select a complete piece of music that is no longer than 5 minutes.

Copy the piece into a new audio track in Ableton Live.

Create 7 new MIDI tracks below this track to place your analysis blocks.

Your first challenge will be to match the tempo of the session to the tempo of your recording.  If there are drums in the recording, Live may do this automatically.    To determine if Live has set the right tempo,  you will need to find and switch on/off the “warp” feature in your audio clip.  Adjust the tempo as needed so that the audio plays correctly weather warping is on or off.

Analysis step 1.  Identify the sections.  In a popular music song,  there are often sections like Verses, Choruses and Bridges.  In the piece you have selected, please identify the various sections.  If the popular music vernacular is not appropriate for your work, label the sections as you see fit, or as is proper for the music you have selected.

Analysis step 2.   Document the sections.  Before we had computer tools like Ableton Live, this documentation would require pencil and paper.   This is still a fine way to start, but for this assignment,  you will visually document the sections, by creating empty MIDI clips that align with the start/end of the sections in the audio track.   Name and color code each MIDI clip.  Sections that repeat in the song should have the same color. For example in a popular music song,  the verses should all be one color,  while the choruses are another.  If upon repeating the section is still clearly a chorus, but is quite different some how, consider making it a slightly different shade of the same color.  For example blue and light blue…

Analysis Step 3. Document Sub-sections. Within each section,  further pick things apart, by looking for repeating phrases.  Identify each phrase and record the lengths and placement using empty midi clips on a 3rd track as you did with step 2.      It is likely that you will find some longer phrases contain shorter repeating phrases,  where for example the drums may repeat a short phrase 2 or 4 times during a phrase that the other instruments repeat once.   Use additional MIDI tracks as needed to record these sub-phrases.

Advanced variation:   Program in MIDI notes for the drum patterns,  bass lines, and featured melodies.  Use generic drum packs and synths,  do not worry about matching the sounds,  that is not the point today, focus on the patterns.

Analysis Step 4.  Identify non repeating elements.   Within a piece of music defined by repetitive phrases,  there will be sounds,  musical gestures and variations of the repetition that suggest or define a change in the music.   Some examples may include a drum fill in a pop-rock song,  or a riser in an EDM track.  Find and record each of these boundary elements by marking where they start and stop via an empty MIDI clip.  Name the clip as needed.     In addition to these elements that define boundaries, there may very well be other non-repeating elements that provide interest and diversify the piece,   Also record these elements with named and color-coded empty MIDI tracks.

      Advanced variation:   Create an empty drum rack where you put in labeled place holder samples.  The specific sounds are not important, but labeling each sample with what sound needs to be there is important.  rather than separate clips, you can now record you analysis with MIDI notes,  where each note is the length of the non-repeating sound/element.  Eventually (but not today) you will populate your drum rack with sounds that match the labeled descriptions, and the MIDI notes will play those sounds.

Analysis step 5.    Look over all the sections and subsections of your analysis and look for one last detail for this assignment.    Find and record each time a piece of the music plays this pattern:  Same-Same-Different.  That is a phrase or sub-phrase played twice in a row unchanged, then something different happening on the 3rd repetition.

Advanced variation:   Play the patterns in as before,  but use clips to identify the break between the same-same and the different.

When your analysis is complete, please save your session and also take a screen shot of your arrangement view.   (Command+shift+3,  or Command+shift+4 on the iMacs). Please email me the screen shot as a .png, .jpg or .pdf.   We will present our findings a the end of class.

The lab report form must be submitted via the link here.