AUD110.3 Structural Map of a Piece of Music

In this blog post, I will be analysing a piece of music and describing the musical characteristics of that piece.

The piece I have chosen to analyse is the pop-punk band Blink 182’s song titled All The Small Things. The musical characteristics I will be analysing are the time signature, tempo, key signature and instrumentation. I will also talk about how my chosen piece of music might influence people and analyse its structure.

Time Signature, Tempo, Key Signature and Instrumentation

The time signature of All The Small Things is 4/4. This means this piece of music has four quarter note beats. The tempo of the song is 148 beats per minute and the key signature is C Major. The instrumentation of All The Small Things consists of male vocals (lead and backing), two electric guitars, bass guitar and drums (percussion).

How the Piece of Music Might Influence People

This piece might influence people emotionally by giving them a happy, upbeat, carefree felling. This is because of the tempo of the song, the timbres of the vocals and guitars (electric and bass), the harmonies of the electric guitars and the rhythm of the drums. The tempo of the song is relatively fast (148 bpm), making it easy to move to and giving it an energetic feel. The timbre of the vocals is mellow, the timbre of the bass guitar is bright and the timbre of the electric guitars is a little bit distorted but bright. These timbres help to uplift the song. The harmonies of the electric guitar are simple, which sound relaxed. The rhythm of the drums is complex and moderately fast, which, like the tempo, gives the song energy.

Visual Representation

This is the visual representation of All The Small Things I created using the Variations Audio Timeliner program. (http://variations.sourceforge.net/vat/ )

Analysis

• Intro: The song begins with an instrumental segment, containing both the electric guitars, the bass guitar and the drums.

• Verse 1: The texture of the song becomes thinner in this verse. The lead vocals join in this verse while the electric guitars continue on with their chord progression from the introduction. The bass guitar continues playing something similar to the notes it was playing in the introduction.

• Verse 2: The texture of this verse stays the same as the first verse. The backing vocals join in the beginning of this verse. The electric guitars and bass guitar continue the chord progression from the first verse.

• Bridge: The texture of the bridge gets thinner as the electric guitars and bass guitar fade out. The rhythm of the drums also become simpler before becoming more complex in the chorus.

• Chorus: The texture becomes thicker again in this chorus. The lead vocals drop out as the backing vocals continue singing the chorus.

• Interlude: In the interlude, the backing vocals from the chorus drop out, leaving only the electric guitars, bass guitar and drums.

• Verse 3: The vocals join back in this verse. The texture of this verse is the same as the first two verses. The electric guitars and bass guitar continue the chord progression from the verses.

• Bridge: The texture of the bridge gets thinner as the electric guitars and bass guitar fade out. The rhythm of the drums also become simpler before becoming more complex in the chorus.

• Chorus: The texture becomes thicker again in this chorus. The lead vocals drop out as the backing vocals continue singing the chorus.

• Breakdown: In this instrumental section, the electric guitars and bass guitar play different notes to the first, becoming slower and making this section the 'breakdown' of the song (a breakdown is part of a song in which various instruments have solo parts (breaks). This may take the form where all instruments play the verse together, and then several or all instruments individually repeat the verse as solo parts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakdown_(music)). The vocals have also dropped out in this section and the drums have are playing a different rhythm to what they were in the chorus.

• Bridge: In this bridge, the texture is much thicker compared to the previous bridges. The guitars play the same chord progression from the chorus. The dynamics have also gotten louder from the breakdown.

• Verse 4: In this verse, the guitars continue playing the chords from the chorus. The dynamic of this verse compared to the previous ones is louder. The texture is also thicker.

• Bridge: Like the bridge before Verse 4, the texture is thicker than the ones before them. The guitars continue the progression from the previous verse. The dynamics from the previous are also the same in this bridge.

• Outro: the beginning of this outro closely resembles the fourth verse with texture and dynamics. The guitars also continue playing the chord from the previous bridge. At the end of this section, all the instruments fade out.

Reflection

I learnt from this exercise how to look at bpm within tempo and a better understanding of bars. And how to use an audio timeliner. I would've liked to know more about some of the musical elements. If I were to do this exercise again I would probably include more musical elements.