Why This Song is Genius (Deadmau5)

today I'm going to break down the compositional Masterpiece that is strobe by dead mouse this song is one of the most beautiful Arrangements in the history of electronic music and it is by far one of the best songs to study if you struggle with arranging songs or you are learning how to arrange music so here's how I break this song Down the song starts off at 88 beats per minute but it has two tempos in the whole track and the song starts off playing a massive 16 Bar Melody most modern music uses four or eight bar Melodies sound of I'm going to use to make this melody sounds like this that is the classic dead mouse pluck as we used to call it this haunting 16 Bar Melody plays quarter notes that trigger on every [Music] upbeat but there's another part to it there's a Harmony that triggers quarter notes on on every down beat and it plays simultaneously with this melody to make it come to [Music] life and together we just get this haunting Melody isn't that haunting now here's what's so pretty about this song we have this haunting Melody that's really long right but he plays this melody four times and each time gets an additional layer of instruments to add expression to it let me show you what I mean the first Loop of the melody plays by itself right we just listened to it the second Loop of the melody brings in a new instrument the synth pads and the synth pads play these bass notes that were used in the harmony only the notes are sustained now these pads introduce another note we have the base notes plus a fifth but this fifth is up an octave and the way they work themselves into the song is slowly so we go to the second Loop of the melody isn't that [Music] tense isn't that [Music] haunting I remember when I first heard that sound I was like what is that sound I never heard a sound like this in my life once they work their way in they play out for the remainder of the melody but let's go to Loop number three of the melody we get another instrument to add expression and that is a piano the song is great to learn on piano the piano plays the exact same Melody notes but it plays its own bass notes as well and then the song goes from like an electronic song to a symphony ready here's the [Music] piano isn't that beautiful and then this brings us to the last Loop of this melody before the song changes up and we get a string [Music] Melody but the strings play their own Melody they don't copy or layer any of the [Music] Melodies now we have this beautiful [Music] Symphony don't you feel like you're in a moov [Music] isn't that haunting so I think there's a huge lesson here to keep your Melody interesting you don't even have to change it sometimes sometimes what it takes is just adding instruments which add expression every time the melody Loops now shorter length Melodies you might not have to do this with but the idea is the same adding expression with layered instruments is a great way to keep a song interesting so this part of the the song ends here and then the song completely changes up this slow moving Melody morphs into this fast moving eight bar long dance Melody so we're going to load up the dead mouse pluck again and this melody is three lines the first line is a baseline that triggers eighth [Music] notes then the next line is the main Melody line [Music] isn't that nostalgic and then there's a third line I love this line it just sits on this note that is like barely [Music] comfortable see how it's like almost not perfect perfect like you get that [Music] tension love this melody so much now this dance Melody doesn't just come in right after this cinematic melody in between these two Melodies a breakdown happens and this breakdown is one of the greatest breakdowns in the history of electronic music music like he displays such a deep level of Music intellect here let me show you what I mean it's crazy when this cinematic Melody finishes he takes just a couple notes of the [Music] melody he takes two Notes From The Melody and he creates this little tension building kind of bridge [Music] here but it doesn't just happen like that it's at this time that the song goes from 88 beats per minute all the way up to 128 beats per minute and it does it gradually here it getting faster now it's turning into a dance track I wish more songs did that so I think this whole sequence happens two times and then it happens two more times but something different happen happens over here so remember we're trying to get to this melody so what he does he takes these second two repetitive Melodies and starts hinting at this melody watch it's kind of cool on these second two Loops we get these little hits of dopamine down here that start hinting at the main Melody isn't that kind of sick and just like that this repetitive pulsing Melody morphs into one of the most beautiful haunting Melodies of all [Music] [Applause] time then for the second half of this melody brings in this counter [Music] [Applause] I remember when I first heard that I was like what is going on like music didn't sound like this before 2011 or at least it didn't like on the radio but yeah then the kit comes in here and this entire sequence repeats all over again so yeah that is one of the greatest Arrangements in electronic dance music of all time thanks so much for watching guys that's a video for you if you would like to learn more about arranging your own electronic songs I have a course at the top of the description below that helps you do that my course for a limited time comes with lifetime access to my inner circle that's where you can send me your songs for feedback and ask me any question that you would like if that sounds like something that interests you like I said there's a link at the top of the description below and I will see you in there stay tuned for the next video

Channel: Alex Rome

Views: 496,850

Keywords: deadmau5 tutorial, deadmau5 ableton, deadmau5 skrillex

Id: okGUv5eH4EE

Length: 9min 21sec (561 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 22 2023