Questions tagged [pop-music]
For questions about writing pop music, pop music techniques, music written for pop music, or other general questions about pop music. Pop music (term derived from an abbreviation of "popular") is a genre of popular music which originated in its modern form in the 1950s, derived from rock and roll. The terms "popular music" and "pop music" are often used interchangeably, though the former is a description of music which is popular (can include any style).
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Trying to learn a song on guitar in an odd alternate tuning. How do I find the chord shapes?
EDIT: I got the first chord and therefore the tuning completely wrong! This is going to make a lot more sense now that I realize the first shape is 10 10 9 5 5 5. So the tuning is really just DADGBD. ...
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When do you include the bass note of a chord if the bass is the b9?
I'm writing chords for a pop piano part (so definitely want to follow what is more intuitive for pop/jazz players rather than sticking hard to the music theory books). The chord in the right hand is a ...
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Accent alignment in Japanese music with English lyrics
When listening to Japanese (pop) songs containing English lyrics, I can't help but notice an interesting phenomenon. Usually for English songs, we tend to align the linguistic stress with the melodic/...
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Bb7 chord in C major , function
Could you please help me make sense of the accompaniment for 'Moon River' in terms of why certain chromatic chords seem to be the only solution and if certain modulations are implied when using some ...
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Rationale behind the modulations in Alice Cooper's Poison
I was playing along to Poison and noticed a curious chord progression:
[Verse]
(in Dm)
i VI III VII
Dm Bb F C
Your cruel, device, Your blood, like ...
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What set of notes does a singer typically do compared to the set of notes instruments play in popular music?
Suppose a song is "in C" and a guitar and bass are playing the notes of C major.
If the singer sings only thirds above the instruments and we isolate the voice, we hear a melody in E ...
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Indie pop music video with lovers on a couch [closed]
I am looking for a song, of which I only remember the music video. In the video, you see a variety of different couples sitting on the same couch one after the other in a brightly lit living room. As ...
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Can you help me analyze this approach to laying down a drum beat?
In this article music producer Rami Yacoub says the following while discussing the mixing console at Cheiron Studios:
“[Max Martin] said ‘this is the magic…’ and he routed the kick on one, snare on ...
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How to notate rhythmically arpeggiated chord vs arpeggiated melody? [duplicate]
In popular music, sounding a chord with a sort of rhythmic arpeggio is very common, both on piano and on guitar. In Hungarian we have a separate word for it, "akkordbontás". Is there an ...
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Is there a name for that unique note in pop music?
I can't put my finger on it, but in many pop songs there exists a note that stands out from the song which sounds like it has:
"gone flat"
been raised/lowered a semitone
gone into a minor ...
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Songs that end on the leading tone? [closed]
I'm looking for songs (mainly pop songs) that end their melody on the leading tone. I'm struggling to come up with any off the top of my head, can anyone help out?
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Is it possible to determine the major/minor key of a song by just looking at the chords?
I play the piano and I'm new to musical theory but I have a basic understanding of chords and keys. At the moment I'm looking at pop songs and trying to analyse the chords of the songs, determine the ...
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Arranging Pop and Jazz Songs into Piano
What is the first step in arranging a jazz or pop song into piano? I find composing classical is a little easier, but I would like to try jazz and pop. I'm a little bit confused because I don't know ...
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What are some common patterns used when playing the piano/keyboard in a pop/rock band setting?
I've been trying to learn to play the keyboard for a few years now and think it would be cool to eventually get to the point where am able to play as part of a group. The problem is that I really ...
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M / M7+ / M7 / M6 or m / m7+ / m7 / m6. How do you call these kind of progressions, what is it?
Several songs have this kind of progression: M, M7+, M7, M6 or m, m7+, m7, m6, for instance:
First verse of Sinatra's "My way":
And n[D]ow the end is n[D7M]ear and so I f[D7]ace the final ...
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How is an "eight-bar blues" different from just eight normal measures of music?
Just about everyone knows the twelve-bar blues, a common example of which would be something like:
I | I | I | I |
IV | IV | I | I |
V | IV | I | I ||
I completely understand how this can be ...
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What instrument in a drum kit is played on the second and fourth beat of a song during a verse or pre-chorus?
I've tried to locate this particular sound in a drum kit, but I can't figure out what it's called. It's equivalent to hitting your drumsticks together on every second and fourth beat of a song during ...
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Did Agnetha and Anni-Frid always sing in unison? [closed]
I was listening to some ABBA songs that I hadn't paid much attention to since my childhood, and it occurred to me that, even though they are known for being a multi-singer group, they never really ...
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Next steps for playing the piano [closed]
I've comfortably played Nuvole Bianche and Fur Elise by watching youtube videos, I can sense patterns between keys and I think have developed some musical sense(I can pick up new song, only with the ...
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How else is Girls' Generation "Into the New World" related to Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World"? [closed]
I've been listening to Into the New World (song) since 2008. But I didn't realize until today that Mindblown. : SNSD
the opening phrase in ITNW
contains the same sequence of notes as the first theme ...
user26407
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How to use a diminished triad in 1st inversion in a pop-music chord progression
I have not seen a lot of 1st inversion diminished chords (e.g.: D F B) in popular music and was wondering how this chord might be used in some standard pop chord progressions. Examples would be most ...
user35708
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Is the I - IV - vi - IV music progression common in pop music?
So I just started studying music theory, so for fun I thought I would practice by analyzing a song I remember enjoying. Marianas Trench's satirical song "Pop 101":
...
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The ambiguity of certain chord qualities in Roman numeral Analysis
Roman numeral analysis uses capitalization to disambiguate Major from minor, so the paradigm is not entirely based on inference. There seems to be a double standard as to what is explicit and what isn'...
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How do Mashup Makers Get Access to the Separate Tracks?
Mashups are pretty popular for music, such as this one that combines vocals from "Uptight" with elements of "Unchained." But in order to make these, it seems to me that the people ...
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Why do some songs change while fading out? What is it called?
I noticed that some songs repeat a theme and then fade out at the end, but before completely fading out the song "changes". For example, the singer sings different words (that don't appear ...
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What would you call these song sections between the Verse and the Pre-Chorus?
I have attempted to identify the sections of this song, but I am not sure what to call the section between the Verse and the Pre-Chorus. I have labelled it as the Refrain. Is this correct?
[Verse]
I ...
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Why do so many modern pop songs use the trap beat (tu ti ta ti)?
I apologize for the ambiguous “tu ti ta ti”, but that’s the best way I could describe it. I’m not a fan of modern pop in general, but my observation has been that Most modern pop songs are of 4/4 time ...
user73300
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When To Register With Peforming Rights Organization, such as PRS or BMI?
I am a newbie freelance musician. I make music of various genres but my main work will be in ambient type music I will be uploading on my own Youtube page and Spotify.
I will also be making a range of ...
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Middle 8 Confusion in "Yesterday"
In my understanding the middle 8 should provide contrast to a song with verse/refrain form. From the titles i've looked at, many middle 8's (and more generally, bridges) end on dominant harmony to ...
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"Maybe tomorrow - Stereophonics", is my analysis right?
I'm an amateur, self tought, musician whos's struggling to learn music theory without knowing solfège.
I'm trying to make harmonic analysis of easy pop tunes to practice and learn.
This song in ...
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Compositional techniques in top-line melody writing
I want to start this post off by mentioning that I have seen the 1/16/2017 post on a similar topic; That post related more to the lyrical/prosodic elements of the melody, and I am more interested in ...
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Is B♭ chord in C major related to Neapolitan chord？
I know what a Neapolitan chord is and know how to use it in some usual ways. But I want to talk about the B♭ chord in C major. I think B♭ here is very "Subordinate". And we can see it always ...
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Simulate "modern pop sounds" on grand piano?
Recently I saw a couple examples of people using an acoustic guitar to create music that sounds similar to the kind you would hear from a whole band, i.e. one with guitar, percussion, and melodic ...
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Would you describe 'Skyfall' by Adele as atonal?
I was watching the James Bond movie Skyfall and I noticed that the opening theme, performed by Adele, sounds quite strange in some sections. I think it's a beautiful song, but it doesn't seem to stick ...
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Contemporary pop vs. early rock composition techniques
I feel as though the most significant difference between composition of contemporary pop and oldies is form. Contemporary pop music (whoever is currently on the radio) is typically verse-chorus form, ...
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chorus construction in pop and rock
At the moment, I feel like my choruses are, in fact, just a slight and arbitrary variation in harmony from the verse. Switch to the ride cymbal and maybe play straight eight notes on the guitars, and ...
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Non-repeating chord progression in pop verse progression
I am having trouble understanding a pop song verse progression that I came across.
Please see the following screenshot of the sheet music:
Here are the two main things I notice:
1) The first "...
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You are the sunshine of my life: how is this off-beat singing called?
Stevie Wonder sings in a typical style I‘d like to know the english term. I wonder as I wander through Stevie Wonders style. What is this style called?
Just syncopated?
And when came this style up? (...
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Most useful piano exercises to memorize for playing by ear?
I'm not talented at all but I consider myself very dedicated and with a good ability to learn and memorize new material through my hands (not ears)
I'm playing the piano on my own for 2 years, ...
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Is there a way to record music with a collaborator remotely and live?
Is there a way to record music with a collaborator remotely and live? Appreciate the help!
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Are the printed editions of pop songs usually in the original keys?
To help someone who wants to identify and quantify the pitch ranges of songs, I wonder whether the printed editions of pop songs are commonly in the original key.
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From whom did The Beatles steal the extra beat in "Don't Let Me Down?"
It's well known that The Beatles made good use of every existing musical idiom in their work, a side-effect of talent borne from constant live performance. In this case, I'm curious if anyone can ...
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Are there fewer rhymes in contemporary popular music? If so, why? [closed]
Vsauce mentions a study by Joan Serra showed contemporary pop music is less complex in its musical motives than it was, which he explains by a wider diversity in form and genres.
While complexity of ...
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Difference between new-age classical and traditional classical as far as theory?
I'm wondering what the differences between new-age classical (Yiruma, Dustin O'Halloran, etc) versus classical (Bach, Beethoven, etc) are as far as theory goes.
Traditional classical always seems ...
user34288
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Is there any significance of key change of 3 semitones in pop songs?
I was listening to Nightwish's Nemo and noticed they have a key change of 3 semitones from Dm to Fm out of the blue that just sounds pretty good/unnoticeable:
And ...
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What exactly is a Christmas carol?
I looked up differences between Christmas carols and other Christmas songs. Generally about carols being about nativity or some other traditional songs not necessary religious while other Christmas ...
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Why are triple meter pop songs so rare?
Most popular music is in double, quadruple, and occasionally sextuple meter, but there are quite few pop songs in triple meter. My impressions is that songwriters write their songs in triple meter ...
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Term for chorus that sounds like pre-chorus
I'm not good with musical terms, but I like to listen to songs that have odd and strange parts while maintaining "good" structure.
There's a song called Remember Me by Oh My Girl. To my ear, the ...
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Trouble feeling rhythm in section
The song is in 4/4 but this section is giving me a hard time feeling the rhythm. Clearly it can be divided into 16ths, but the pattern feels like triplets after the first note. For example after the ...
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Term for 'key change' when going for the chorus
There are songs that change key midway. The most common one I've heard is they change the key when going for the chorus. After that, when the song goes back to the verse, they change the key back.
...
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