Moderators BATCAT Posted May 4, 2012 Moderators Share Posted May 4, 2012 One day at band practice, I was trying to communicate a song's structure to a non-instrumentalist vocalist I work with, someone who is very intuitive/creative-minded but VERY non-methodical/mathematical. She just doesn't "get it", looking at the standard "verse x2, chorus X4 etc" song map. But she's a painter as well and visually-minded, so I mapped out the song with different-colored bars for the different parts and all of a sudden we could communicate. Cool. But the other thing the rest of the band noticed was that it was a lot easier to glance at the representation of the song and take in the whole thing that way that the usual "text" method. So gradually, I've begun mapping songs out with colored bars and symbols instead, and I find it much easier to know where I am at a glance. Here's one from the dry-erase board in our space. That's also handy because you can snap a pic and put it on your phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted May 4, 2012 Members Share Posted May 4, 2012 Oh goodie! Abstract art! Can I interpret? I: Brown SoundII: 70's scratch guitarIII: Chuck BerryIV: BonoV: 70's guitar soloVI: Surf styleVII: A big brown whole noteVIII: Quote "Kind of Blue"IX: Willie Nelson style rideout (cough cough) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members drumsnbeer Posted May 4, 2012 Members Share Posted May 4, 2012 I play drums and don't read music. I find it helpful to use the lyrics as a way to refer where parts fit. What I do for myself is print out the lyrics and make notes on the margins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jimiv Posted May 4, 2012 Members Share Posted May 4, 2012 I'm following everything there until the last line. Is that a lunch reminder for subway?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members YeahDoIt Posted May 5, 2012 Members Share Posted May 5, 2012 I'm going to try this. I'm learning a song that is confusing me a little. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members trevcda Posted May 5, 2012 Members Share Posted May 5, 2012 Interesting. Kind of the Suzuki method of learning song structure. No offence inended, but probably the best thing I pulled out of this thread is putting a white board in a rehearsal space. Brilliant. As much as use them at work one would have thought I would have come up with this on my own a couple decades ago. If I'm reading it right, it looks like you deleted a chorus in the above example? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SeniorBlues Posted May 5, 2012 Members Share Posted May 5, 2012 Who leads? When? Do you use lyrics as a cue or do you count measures? Does your drummer use a particular fill to lead into the bridge? Does your bass player "walk up" to the chorus? I'm surprised at how often I hear a song that goes from section to section without any kind of transition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators BATCAT Posted May 8, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted May 8, 2012 I'm following everything there until the last line. Is that a lunch reminder for subway?? The blue parts are choruses, and the brown parts are verses... the song ends with the vocals and guitar parts for ther chorus played with the drums and bass patterns of the verse. Hence, both colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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