Describing Music: Instrumentation

Describing Music

INSTRUMENTATION

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iN BETWEEN OUR VIRTUAL LESSONS...

We will have some "mini" lessons to help us learn more about our newest tool from the previous virtual lesson! You'll learn a little bit more about the tool itself, but more importantly you'll see and hear different ways that tool can be used on a song. Then, you can use what you've learned in your mini-lesson on your next journal entry!

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Follow each step in order

Click on each box in order to go through the mini-lesson. If you jump around things might get confusing!

1. Definition

2. Listening

3. Examples

4. Assignment

Let's start with a warmup question. True or False...

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instrumentation is much more than that!

There are tons of different kinds of songs (or genres, which we'll learn more about later!) But many songs use the same kinds of instruments, while sounding totally different!

Remember, instrumentation is the way that instruments are used in a song, not just what kind of instruments are used.

Back to Lesson Steps

Let's go to the next section to learn more.

lET'S COMPARE TWO GENRES

Rock & Roll and Country music can often use similar, if not the same instruments! For each genre you might here these instruments in a song;

Main singer, backup singers, electric (or acoustic) guitar, electric bass, drum set, banjo, violin.

Main singer, backup singers, electric (or acoustic) guitar, electric bass, drum set, piano, tambourine.

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That’s pretty much the same instruments! But do you think rock & roll and country sound the same? Probably not, so let’s listen to some songs and describe how they used the instruments in the songs.

As you listen, think to yourself about how you would describe: The singers The guitar Other unique instruments you hear.

As usual I will give you some helpful adjectives to help give you some ideas.

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Remember, think to yourself about how you would describe:

• The singers
• The guitar
• Other unique instruments you hear.

Click these to open up the songs!

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AWESOME MUSIC ADJECTIVES

UpbeatBrassy Bright Mellow Calm Noisy Scary Thundering Slow

Catchy Dance-able Dynamic Epic Fresh Funky Heartfelt Moody Playful

PolishedRaw Rhythmic Sensitive Skilled Stylish Thrilling Unique Spooky

Cheerful Twangy Loud Crazy Warm Futuristic Jammin Cozy Snappy

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EXAMPLES

You might be thinking;

"I don't really know what to write about"

And that's ok!

I am going to show you some examples of how I would write about instrumentation in a song.I am going to show you a song, and then show you some ways that I would describe the instruments in the song and the songs instrumentation. You may have other ideas after listening to each song, and that's ok! Hopefully you can get a better idea of how to write about instrumentation after looking at these examples.

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writing examples

Click on a button to view an example of how to describe instrumentation.

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

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example 1

I could say things like...

"The instruments in the orchestra were bouncy, and playful. Sometimes they would play quickly and energeticaly, and sometimes they would play quiet."

"The singer was funny! He used his voice to sound like different animals and was very upbeat."

"The composer wanted you to hear the singer the most, rather than the instruments. The instruments were more in the background"

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example 2

I could say things like...

"The piano at the beginning seemed really fast and thrilling, but also a little uneasy ."

"An instrument that kind of sounds like a saxophone came in, it was softer than the piano and a little gentler."

"The piano and the saxophone seemed to go back and forth with the melody, like if two people were talking to each other."

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example 3

I could say things like...

"There were background singers at the beginning that made the song sound epic and thrilling"

"The drums in the song were really loud and made the song feel thundering and boomy"

"It seemed like there was just one main singer, with the backgorund singers being there every once and a while"

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assignment

Here's what you need to do to get credit for this mini-lesson.

Listen to our Rock & Roll song from earlier in the mini-lesson. I will also post it in the lesson page so that you can listen to it a little easier.

step 1

Think about how you would describe the instrumentation of the song. Start with your thoughts from the first time you heard it, then use the writing examples as a guideline of what to talk about.

step 2

Submit your description into Canvas. You should type your description into the page labelled "DM: Instrumentation Submission."

step 3

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TO BE CONTINUED... We'll finish up learning about Instrumentation in next week's virtual lesson!

Send me a Canvas Inbox message if you need help with anything!