How to Analyze Music and WHY

all right what is the point of analyzing music and what does that mean anyway now when we're first learning a piece we're probably most concerned about learning the actual notes given to us by the composer most likely in the form of a score and we're given instructions about what pitches to play when to play them the dynamics temple all of that so why bother and take extra steps to analyze the score further and how do we even go about doing that for me analyzing a piece of music has a lot to do with gaining clarity and insight into the music beyond certain impressions I have of it while practicing it or listening to it either through a recording or someone else's performance also there are so many different ways in which we can analyze a piece so let's actually start by talking about those we can first start off by identifying the genre or form say for example you're learning a Chopin mazurka this is opus 59 number one one of my favorite mazurkas [Music] knowing that it's a mazurka we can take note of a few things first of all it's in triple meter we know that it's a dance form coming from the Polish tradition that it has a certain tempo and lilting quality and a lot of times there's an emphasis on the second and third beats knowing all of these can influence the way that you carry on with a piece with phrasing pacing and tempo of course when we look at the score we have all kinds of markings there for us including phrase marks those lines above the notes that tell us how the melodies and phrases are organized but if we further look at the direction of these lines we can gather some more clues in terms of the inflection of these lines here we can observe how there are phrases in dialogue with each other first we have one going downwards then upwards which is sort of like a reply and then we have another one going downwards but starting from a higher pitch and then a reply upwards as well and that one is elongated with a trill [Music] followed by an afterthought maybe you're like me and you want to know more about how a certain melody or phrase was constructed and how it sits on top of the underlying harmony knowing that Chopin's harmonic language is tonal and more traditional we can identify the key of the piece by looking at the key signature and bookends of the piece with that we can know the piece is in a minor and we can analyze this opening melody here in relation to the underlying chords first outlining the a minor chord which is our minor one chord followed by a five chord a major and then back to a minor now that we're familiar with the opening section it can serve as a crucial starting point for us literally for analyzing the rest of the piece for form and structure a lot of this type of analysis involves paying attention to where melodies or sections are repeated transformed or abandoned and in this way we can organize the piece as a whole in larger chunks now there are a lot of ways to do this and a lot of pre-existing forms and labels to work with for example letters a B a is ternary form you can pay attention to maybe the Sonata Allegro form which has intro exposition development recapitulation coda that sort of thing so there are a lot of different ways of organizing these sections with form in the realm of harmony and music theory in general there are a bunch of technical terms being used which honestly can get quite overwhelming augmented 6 chord enclosure accent and encore tones sequence passing tones but at the same time they come in handy because in general not always but in general they serve as a universal language or coding for us musicians and music lovers to use amongst ourselves to communicate these ideas you can also describe the different sections of the piece in a narrative way such as describing the first section as having longing and nostalgic gestures then moving into a more nonchalant and daydream like excursion and then here maybe a quiet prayer with a sense of purpose [Music] and then an emotional build-up here where there's tension building wild maybe searching for answers or maybe describing music in other illustrative ways such as using colors textures or shapes suits you much better so as you can see analyzing a piece of music can mean so many different things and what I mentioned so far in the video are things that I think can help you out especially if you're a player or performer because with all these different bits and pieces of information it'll help you form your own interpretation of a certain piece how you'll deal with the dynamics phrasing pacing articulation all of that and also speaking of performing having these different points of clarity and having a variety of them I think really helps solidify your memorization on stage or away from stage because memorization is tricky I think it's hard because it's such an abstract concept and it's really hard to be comfortable with the idea or it's hard to feel secure about remembering something especially something with so many different details and that's something that I personally have always struggled with so I always try to find different ways many different ways of analyzing a piece or just becoming familiar with a piece in order to feel more comfortable about memorization how about we go for a walk alright so if you're like me and you like composing and improvising analyzing pieces in these ways can give you new musical ideas for example after analyzing this particular mazurka i was inspired to write a piece which I'll edit so that you'll hear it in the background and what's interesting is that lately I've been writing a lot of music that is highly repetitive pretty jagged minimalistic and fast but with this piece I was in a different headspace and it allowed me to just have a change of pace literally and I really loved it because perhaps I allowed me to express something that was rather dormant as of late in terms of my music writing language and I had a lot of fun with it one of the main ways I think of the mazurka is in this very narrative and descriptive way using I don't know maybe a story made up in my head so in similar fashion when writing this particular piece which is not a mazurka it's it has circle light qualities but it's certainly not a mazurka and I wasn't following any kind of form that Chopin was using but when writing this I was also thinking of a sort of storyline that was drifting in and out of my head when I was writing the piece so I think there's something to be said about that and when we're inspired to create something new I think that's always a beautiful thing [Music] honey another thing I want to add is that of course everyone has different ways of approaching music different ways of understanding music listening to music studying music and everyone has a different personality for me these things really helped me create really helped me as a player and as a listener but I understand it's not for everyone and I think it can be a distraction if you are stuck with those details and you never end up leaving some of those analytical details behind and giving the piece the breathing room that it needs one thing is certain though I do think that there's value in considering all of these different options and not shy away from being too analytical because sometimes there is a stigma against that and it reminds me of this particular quote by I think EB white I could be wrong I just looked it up it is by EB white it says explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog you understand it better but the frog dies in the process and I think a lot of people think that analyzing music is similar to this because you know you're overthinking it or you're over examining it and you take away from something sacred about it but I disagree I think analyzing music there are many different ways and that being said it's just about paying attention to music in different ways different ways that you prefer some are more technical than others and I think we shouldn't overthink about overthinking things anyway these are just some of my thoughts around analyze music I'm all for it I think it's wonderful and that is all by the way I have a patreon if you don't already know I upload additional content there in between the videos that you see on YouTube and if you're already supporting me there thank you so much I have already uploaded a formal and harmonic analysis of the mazurka that I talked about in the video as well as the score and recording of the little waltz I wrote that is all I appreciate you all thank you so much and I'll see you in the next video so I asked the same question on my Instagram and here are some responses building on my intuitions by informing them it's a great answer to grow your musical vocabulary to understand why it moves you thank you Amy train your ears based on the analysis try to understand concepts cuckoo to improve one's understanding of music and build a stronger musical vocabulary yes Ben Levin it helps me connect my emotional response to music with the notes on the page Erico to understand how its build how it works how it was created Antonio perhaps analyzing music helps to achieve a deeper appreciation and experience also what is the point of analyzing anything in life I like this one to enjoy less obvious parts of music and to dive into the composer's lines to get inspired with more creative and innovative ideas to enhance our music playing to unlock the mystery to find their fingerprints in the music new techniques ideas etc to be able to copy it and yet make something new Oh difficult but a short answer would be imitate internalize and innovate Wow to delay practicing Kim yes to add different perspectives and draw out alternative meanings and messages then intended to help you better articulate why you like it I like that as well to learn the rules so you can break them yes thanks again see you next time

Channel: Nahre Sol

Views: 168,204

Rating: 4.9762106 out of 5

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Id: i2T8pDvtIf8

Length: 12min 19sec (739 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 14 2020