Please talk about the incredible elvis feeling in the song"surrender" and how he expresses every single word meaning.he pronounces " fire"and differently "disire" the pride of "story "and "glory" the continuity of"forever" the immediacy of" tonight" and the supply of " please" twice in the song really big lesson from that big singer.long live the king.
It's not word painting, but the Ben Folds example made me think of one of my favorite examples of sneaking some dirty language in... in Lou Reed's Take a Walk on the Wild Side there is that great line "Holly came from Miami, FLA" were most people seem to take it as just the state code and miss the dig at Los Angeles.
A nice one that I like is Kate Bush's "Watching Me Without You": ruclips.net/video/ZO8Gsy-EWKQ/видео.html The backing vocals are mumbled and indistinct. But if you listen carefully, she's singing "you don't hear me, you don't hear what I'm saying, do you?". So, indeed, if you're not paying attention - as I didn't on the first few hearings of this song, until I stopped to truly listen - then you don't hear it and she's calling you out on that (but it, of course, plays into the theme of the song about being ignored, isolated and alienated by another person. The notion that she's a ghost in her own home). There's also a few "you can't hear me" backwards in the background. An "SOS" in morse code. There's a backwards message that I don't think anyone's worked out how to decode (because she's not saying English words - some kind of code? But all still playing into the "no communication" theme). And, at the end, her appeals to be heard are all broken up and staccato.
I mean, it only makes sense to combine musical education with sex ed, since that's why most kids start doing music in the first place! 😂 (... if popular TV shows are to believed)
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody: After Freddie sings ”Shivers down my spine” Brian plays a little arpeggio with the strings behind the guitar bridge, creating a musical representation of a shiver down the spine. Pretty interesting stuff.
stekaren1337 surfplatta when they sing “landslide” at the beginning, it slightly slides down and when he sings “anywhere the wind blows” you can hear a long kind of “wushhh” sound just like a wind. The song is fill of this stuff, just keep listening to background sounds and interesting melodies and you’ll find a lot more. The song is pure art
really he shouldve said lower since his vocals were only relatively low but were objectively lower. still a classic song tho and im not cussing musical legends T-Pain and the state of FloRida
in Mary Poppins, during A Spoonful of Sugar, Julie Andrews says, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. The medicine go do-own, the medicine go down.” But on the first and last “downs” the melody goes up. The people who wrote this song said that they had the melody go up because Mary Poppins wasn’t “normal”, so naturally, down would be up.
In “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen, during the second verse: “...Like an atom bomb, I’m about to oh oh [tension building] oh oh OH EXPLODE [tension explodes into energy]...”
In "Somebody to Love" by Queen there are verses "I feel like i've got no rhythm" and "I just keep loosing my beat", where Freddie respectively sings without rhytm and off-beat
@@tiyenin word painting doesn’t necessarily have to be the exact words. The pitch changes in the words “little” yea the word high and low are played on the same note but the two “littles” are different. The first “little” is higher and the second little goes lower. Before correcting people, saying this isn’t word painting, I suggest you consider the whole phrase like an actual musician.
When using some headphones, you can hear "little high" coming from your left ear from a higher place and "little low" coming from your right ear from a lower place
Another great example of this is the pre-chorus in Smells Like Teen Spirit: _"Hello, hello, hello, how low"_ I love how it gets the lowest at "low", and how with "hello" the "-LO" is LOwer part
My favourite is in “I Got A Boy” by SNSD, when Jessica sings “don’t stop, let’s bring it back to 1:40” which not only brings back the instrumental used at 1:40 in the song, but also brings the bpm back to 140
"Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup, they slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe" has that perfect stream-of-consciousness delivery to the lyrics, rambling for ages without pausing to take a breath... before halting and letting them drift off.
In Puccini's "Tosca", when she's asked for a sex trade, the music plays the notes B A C, which in italian are Si La Do. "Sì, la do" means "Yes, I will give it to you", subtly meaning that she agreed with the trade.
Word painting is used really well in the chorus of "Into the Unknown" from Frozen 2. The song is about a character overcoming the urge to stay in safe stability and go out on an adventure. The chorus' first line jumps by a simple octave, representing safety. The second line jumps by an octave plus a step, just a little bit out of comfort before coming back to the octave. The third and final line goes all in with an octave plus three steps and ends one degree above the octave, returning to a place that is not the original safety but a triumphant note nonetheless.
The music goes further "into the unknown!" Howard Ho has a video (How Elsa Finds Herself [Musically]) about how this (and Show Yourself) both came from Let It Go.
When he showed the clip my first thought was No, that's "Great Gig in the Sky" followed by "Money". I've watched it too many times with Dark Side of the Moon playing. 👌
same thing in My Shot "When are these colonies gonna rise UP? When are these colonies gonna rise UP?" Not only does it go up but the ending part gets louder as more voices join in at the end of the song.
I think into the unknown from frozen 2 is also a cool example of word painting because each time Elsa says “unknown,” the interval she sings get bigger representing her going further away from what she knows and going into the unknown.
My favourite world painting is from Hamilton in "You'll be back" "Oceans rise, empires fall" But jokes on you, the melody goes down with "rise" and rises with "fall" because it's funny
@@fiend-off-the-grid I was replying to the original comment. The person would like studying music in grad school because you have to do a lot of that sort of analysis; creating a theory and explaining it in detail, even if it wasn't necessarily related to the composer's intent. It helps to expand critical thinking skills.
Thanks for putting these set of examples together, David. It's very useful for the classroom. Consider including "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music. It's hard to find a clearer match between lyrics and pitch.
@@bikechainimmortalis6923 Since everyone knows the melody to Take 5, it's actually really fun to play! That's from a violinist's perspective though. And I agree. It's rather odd to sight-read.
"The baffled king composing" The chord on "king" is a D. In Italian the D chord is called Re, which happens to be the same word for "king". I don't think that Cohen knew this, but it helped me remembering how to play that song.
@@azearaazymoto461 No… the key is the set of notes used to play a tune. If you transpose a song from D major to B♭ major, you will be playing different notes. E.g., if the first note is a D, you will now be playing B♭ instead for the first note. (Also, G and G♯ are just as much different notes that, say, E and F is. Don’t let the ♯ and ♭’s fool you into thinking they’re really the same notes…)
twigx when singing there is something know as a head voice and a chest voice depending on where the singing is coming from. I don’t know the exact difference but I know it’s significant enough that the sound will vary depending on head voice/chest voice and that if done wrong a head voice can be nasally 🙌🙌
twigx okay so there is this thing called voices in singers. You have head, mixed, and chest. Those are the three basics. So a chest voice is where you engage your core and a note is fully supported. You can hear the absolute power behind it. A mixed voice is a supported note but it also starts to slowly lose power. It’s supported but it might not be as powerful. A head voice is typically used when trying to get outside of the vocal range and hit higher notes. You can hear in that song that as she sings “head” her voice gets softer and softer. My explanation isn’t completely accurate but it will give you an idea. Hope thag helped. :))
A great example of ABBA using word painting is in their early song, People Need Love. In the line, "it takes a man to get matrimonial harmony", Agnetha and Frida harmonise together on the word "harmony".
You should check out New York City Cops by The Strokes (around 1:50) , it features that same resource, the band stops and only the drums go on. It's really awesome
@@ze_rubenator "U Can't Touch This" is his very first example. See 0:17 in the video; compare the images (if the bit of music isn't recognizable) to ruclips.net/video/otCpCn0l4Wo/видео.html . Perhaps edited short to avoiding RUclips copyright detection bots -- or just because it's a pretty short word.
Pretty sure he actually goes up an octave *on* that line. But it would have been, if he'd stayed.. I always thought it was a play on how the 'heavens high' right before is low, and 'all time low' is high (because the "getting high" is the lowpoint).
@@NorthernRealmJackal there's a live version on youtube where he goes an octave up, but he stays on the low octave in the studio version if I hear correctly
What kills me about "F10-D-A" is how it's on the same album as a 3-movement piano concerto. Ben Folds is a brilliant composer and THAT'S how he chooses to use his talent. I love it.
“Everything that kills meeeeeee... makes me feel alive” the beat and the background music slows down until after he says “alive.” The music basically “dies” and comes back on, fast and lively or “alive” 😳😳😳
Twenty One Pilots’ “Ride” has word paint during the “falling” lyric when it drops to a lower note. It also does the most unique thing I’ve seen which is when the lyric “ride” is sang, the pitch jumps up and down consistently as if the listener is on a rollercoaster. Wow, word painting can be found in almost any song, it’s crazy.
It very much works like that. "oh-ee-oh-ee oh oh, oh-ee-oh-ee-oh i'm" going up, and then "falling" have that feeling in the music of tripping and stumbling into a fall.
don’t forget in message man “They rip it, flip it, but these are just triplets, Wrote this in three minutes, three words to a line. It's just poetry divided” talking about the rhythm
@@CandiceGoddard Wake me up before you go-go is still legendary to Americans in the last two decades because it was featured in a classic scene of Zoolander
Neither can I believe it doesn't contain Kurt Nilsen's "She's So High", where at each "she's so HIIIIIIIIGH", he sings it in an incredibly high pitch (which I cannot even reach XD), too
How about hum hallelujah by fall out boy: The lyrics are “just off the key of reason”. The key of reason is c major, which is also the key hallelujah by Leonard Cohen is in, and hum hallelujah is played in D major so it’s literally “just off the key of reason”
My favourite case of word painting is in Bo Burnham's "pandering" where he says "y'all motherfuckers want a key change" then he changes the key. True musical genius.
AURORA has a song called Running With The Wolves where when she sings "wolves" she sings it with a prolonged "ooooo" while using a falsetto voice which makes it sounds like she's howling.
Wake Me Up (Before you Go-Go) literally has a line that says: "I'm gonna hit that hiiiiiigh" and it's a high note. (Idk if that line is speaking literally or metaphorically, I just realized it)
Nothing But Thieves - If I Get High also does that: "If I get [high falsetto:] hiiiigh, If I get [even higher falsetto:] hiiiiiiiigh enough, will I see you again?" I didn't know what word painting is when I first heard that song, but I found that absolutely hilarious! It's like the singer's saying "don't know if I'll hit that high note", while he hits that high note XD
My favourite example of word painting is in "Instant Crush" by Daft Punk where they say "I don't wanna sing anymore" right before an instrumental break. It's like the "Stop" example you gave but more unique
One thematic one I love is in The Beatles 'For No One' Where the whole song is about feeling incomplete after a break up, and it ends on a hanging chord, not being resolved to the root.
Cool to hear a Beatles one - I'm a fan of them but didn't really expect to hear many deep examples of word painting from them considering they weren't trained or knew how to read sheet music. But of course they always surprise you
@@alias3660 they weren't trained but still had the most interesting progressions/key changes/other musical techniques. this channel has some interesting beatles stuff
@@alias3660 Actually they did it all time. I dont know if this phenomenon was something to learn at the time, but you dont need to learn ot to do it. I think they simply did what feels right
Theres a great video that you should look up called « why over the rain ow takes us to a magical, musical place » by pbs. Honestly the most beautiful explanation that it made me tear.
Palmer Eldritch - I was wrong apparently - always thought the tune was from Chopin’s Fantasy Impromptu. Actually I still believe it does; can’t think how anyone would think otherwise?
“Don’t modulate the key then not debate with me” is what I immediately thought of (From Hamilton, Hamilton sings that lyric right after a key change in a song where he’s debating with someone else)
Another favorite from Hamilton: “Let’s have another round tonight” in The Story of Tonight is repeated in a [musical] round! And of course they’re all drinking.
In "To Be a Princess" from Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, the characters sing about harmonizing in thirds, and while singing they actually harmonize in thirds.
"I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high" - In Kansas' "Carry On My Wayward Son," the "high" drops dramatically, musically illustrating that the singer had a fall from grace and alluding to the story where Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting his wings, and then fell to his death. So even if you don't know the reference to Icarus, the music tells you what happened.
On the album that preceded Leftoverture, Kansas(same songwriter/lyricist for both songs) had a song, "Icarus: Borne on Wings of Steel." He used the same technique with the line, "I've climbed the mountains of the sky."
Even more so with the antici Pation in Richard O’Brien’s “Sweet Transvestite” from Rocky Horror Picture Show. Tim Curry holds that so long it gets me every time I hear it.
Green Day's Wake Me Up When September Ends has this line: "here comes the rain again, falling from the stars..." the word "falling" starts higher, then gets lower, like it's falling.
Old Fashioned Love Song is another good example, the verses and pre chorus describe the sensation trying to remember an old love song, and then the chorus becomes a familiar optimistic release of recognizing a familiar tune, but also splits into a 3 part harmony during the line “coming down in a 3 part harmony”
in fall out boy's hum hallelujah, there's a lyric that says "just off the key of reason"; the key of reason is apparently in C and hum hallelujah is in D which is just off C 🎶
@@dx.feelgood5825 I don't know, probably. Ask the video creator. Although based off the "Somewhere Over a Rainbow" song example he gave, I would say yes.
My music teacher yells at the wood winds to show her their " nasty finger" if the forget to put it down while playing WE LITERALLY GET TO FLIP OFF THE TEACHER AND SHE'S OKAY WITH IT.
There's a song in Portuguese by Amado Batista in which he sings "molhado com os pingos da chuva", something like "wet by the raindrops" and it resembles what The Doors did in Riders on the Storm. The song is called Seresteiro das Noites.
I got one, In the song "TiK ToK" By Ke$ha the line: "Tryna get a little bit tipsy" the song slows down when she says the word "tipsy" like she's drunk.
My favorite example of this is the bridge in For Forever from Dear Evan Hansen, where he's singing about climbing and falling out of a tree. The melody keeps getting higher until the climax of the song, the highest note, when he's at the top. And then gracefully comes back down both notewise and intensity with the line "And I suddenly feel the branch give way." Then the next few lines are low, and fairly stagenet, as he's describing being on the ground, and changes with the line "and everything's okay," when Connor finds him. I think about that all the time.
In the first half of Stairway to Heaven, the chord progression more or less has a bass going down while the root goes up, creating the picture of an actual stairway. Am E/G# C/G D/F# Fmaj7 G/B Am.
Page was a master painter, and he illustrated many songs. You can hear the horse's hooves in Battle of Evermore; the coxswain of the Viking flatboat in Immigrant's Song; the galloping in Gallows Pole. In Stairway, you arrive at Heaven's Gate when the solo begins.
One that I discovered this morning: In “We are Young” by fun. the lyrics go “So if by the time the bar closes and you feel like falling down, I’ll carry you home tonight”. Up to “falling down”, the melody descends, and at “I’ll carry you home tonight”, it ascends.
@@happychaosofthenorth the annoying thing as a pit musician? They're not in D. They only say D and E to make it rhyme😂 but I still enjoy the genius of the entire musical!
My favourite example of this is a pretty subtle one, Between the Bars by Elliott Smith. The entire song is a parallel for alcoholism, with the dark undertone that while you can rely on alcohol to help you ignore your problems and regrets it won't fix or get rid of them. This is communicated in the lyrics of the chorus, which ends "I'll keep them still". Behind that line, he plays Eb followed by Ebm, a IV-iv movement in the relative major of the song's native G minor. This is of course a common cadence used to resolve in a bittersweet manner down to I. However, both times he plays this, the cadence is cut off. The first time it goes straight back to Gm, which just sounds intentionally jarring, and the second time, the song completely ends on the iv chord. A song about alcoholism and how it won't resolve your problems, ends unresolved.
🎨🎼Part 2 of this video is out now: ruclips.net/video/Lm9PxXsK3gY/видео.html 🎶
Please talk about the incredible elvis feeling in the song"surrender" and how he expresses every single word meaning.he pronounces " fire"and differently "disire" the pride of "story "and "glory" the continuity of"forever" the immediacy of" tonight" and the supply of " please" twice in the song really big lesson from that big singer.long live the king.
It's not word painting, but the Ben Folds example made me think of one of my favorite examples of sneaking some dirty language in... in Lou Reed's Take a Walk on the Wild Side there is that great line "Holly came from Miami, FLA" were most people seem to take it as just the state code and miss the dig at Los Angeles.
Yay luv u bro
A nice one that I like is Kate Bush's "Watching Me Without You":
ruclips.net/video/ZO8Gsy-EWKQ/видео.html
The backing vocals are mumbled and indistinct. But if you listen carefully, she's singing "you don't hear me, you don't hear what I'm saying, do you?".
So, indeed, if you're not paying attention - as I didn't on the first few hearings of this song, until I stopped to truly listen - then you don't hear it and she's calling you out on that (but it, of course, plays into the theme of the song about being ignored, isolated and alienated by another person. The notion that she's a ghost in her own home).
There's also a few "you can't hear me" backwards in the background. An "SOS" in morse code. There's a backwards message that I don't think anyone's worked out how to decode (because she's not saying English words - some kind of code? But all still playing into the "no communication" theme). And, at the end, her appeals to be heard are all broken up and staccato.
Sound of music, "Do Re Mi"
"Stop, wait a minute"
*song pauses for an entire minute*
ruclips.net/video/A4TtS1BaUAk/видео.html
I needed this comment
Letto Same lmao
@@kimishou thx
Then everyone in the audience claps in mute and did a backflip.
I tell you guys, bruno mars concerts are something.
Me who knows jackshit about music: ah yes indeed music does that
Same lmaooo
Samee
Not same 😂
never same
Me too. :D
Seems like "word painting" largely consists of musical puns
Someone alert TheDooo
Hits a chord with a lot of people
I tried to cross the road without my glasses on, I couldn't C# so I'm probably going to Bb
Prog rock is full of them (probably).
Puns & noodles!!
*all dads approve*
"I wanna teach the kids how to cuss and what notes they can cuss from"
such a great goal
I mean, it only makes sense to combine musical education with sex ed, since that's why most kids start doing music in the first place! 😂
(... if popular TV shows are to believed)
May we all strive to such goals.
@@LRM12o8 It's a LIE!
when sex ed meets music ed
I hope you find
ha piness with a newd irection.
Word paint me like one of your French girls.
Word paint Em like 1 of your F Girls.
Maybe I should make that a Patreon perk! 👨🏻🎨
@@tonyt987 F minor girls
i'm sorry
I once had a girl.. or should I say... she once had me
@@tonyt987 Word Paint Em like 1 of your F-Gs
Screaming the word "scream" is a really common one
good idea! Maybe the sequel will start with a 'scream' compilation
Oooooh high school musical three!!
Foxey Lady.
Judas Priest - Burn In Hell
AC/DC's Jailbreak immediately comes to mind, good spot sir
I believe the most obvious one has to be "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music
Good suggestion - I’ve actually just covered that one in my new word painting video 🙂
@@DavidBennettPiano I haven't seen it yet, will check it out right now :D
weedeater thanks!
and so us Greece's Eurovision entry in 1977
😂😂😂 dying!
I really like how in Queens Don't stop me now, the song technically never ends. If just fades out
oh that's amazing
Not only does it "don't stop, " but it does so with the exact chord progression as the verse!
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody: After Freddie sings ”Shivers down my spine” Brian plays a little arpeggio with the strings behind the guitar bridge, creating a musical representation of a shiver down the spine. Pretty interesting stuff.
stekaren1337 surfplatta wow, I haven’t noticed that
@@flowerflowerflower123 Me neither, until I saw a video where Brian mentioned it.
stekaren1337 surfplatta yeah ive always noticed that wow!!!
in sold to the highest buddha by gong after the line 'my codpiece is starting to tremble' the guitarist makes wobbly trembly noises
stekaren1337 surfplatta when they sing “landslide” at the beginning, it slightly slides down and when he sings “anywhere the wind blows” you can hear a long kind of “wushhh” sound just like a wind. The song is fill of this stuff, just keep listening to background sounds and interesting melodies and you’ll find a lot more. The song is pure art
"Hey do you know how to play Hallelujah"
*me*: uhhhh, yeah, I think it goes like this.... the fourth. The fifth. The minor fall, and the major lift.
you know? the baffled king composing? hallelujah?
The baffled king composing Waluigi
Zrkled wah
wagga wagga wagga waggaaaaa
@@mal9369 hallelujah…. Hallelujah… hallelujah…. Halleluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuujah. OoOh…
shorty got low low low low low low low low
He didn't mention this particular piece, because it's simply too complicated to analyze.
really he shouldve said lower since his vocals were only relatively low but were objectively lower. still a classic song tho and im not cussing musical legends T-Pain and the state of FloRida
*shawty
T h a n k y o u
The definition of lyrical genius!
Never gonna give you up (high pitch)
Never gonna let you down (low pitch)
This is something I always noticed even before watching this video.
LMAO
Was I just technically rickrolled?
@@crispusattucks4007 Yes, yes, you were
Also the next line "Never gonna run ArOuNd" has an up and down pitch on the around word
@@james_crawford And desert you has a short pause after itr
in Mary Poppins, during A Spoonful of Sugar, Julie Andrews says, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. The medicine go do-own, the medicine go down.” But on the first and last “downs” the melody goes up. The people who wrote this song said that they had the melody go up because Mary Poppins wasn’t “normal”, so naturally, down would be up.
Teddy Rose I love that
Rachel Muckerman same
AHH I WAS GONNA SAY THAT
I first learned that when watching Saving Mr Banks, highly recommend
Yeah! I watched that in a movie.
Awesome, you watched saving mr Banks
In “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen, during the second verse:
“...Like an atom bomb, I’m about to oh oh [tension building] oh oh OH EXPLODE [tension explodes into energy]...”
I’m burning through the sky
@@benh1496 proceeds to catch fire
Great example
Ben H 200 degrees
that's why they call me mr Fahrenheit
How about , “I like the make my self believe that planet earth turns *SLOOOOOWWLLLLY*
Cat 😊classic
Fireflies is a good song
YEEEEESSSSS
My childhood favorite
"Everything is never as it seeeeeeeems, when I fall asleep.."
A recent example I love is in Bo Burnham's song "Goodbye." When he sings the word "diminish" on a dimineshed chord. Its so cool
He's also got "Beating off in A minor" but let's not talk about that 😅
little high, little low in bohemian rhapsody
but the lyrics are opposite to the melody
ethans reloading they aren’t, high is sung higher than low
@@MetalliBucket they are the same note, but the "littles" are different
@@dimitripf Well. It's still not opposite to the melody.
SuperAronGamer well little high is going low and little low is going high so...
in beetlejuice the musical a character sings “maybe seventy-eight” and the time signature changes to 7/8
Katatles that’s really clever
What song?
@@polyrhythm7236 ready set not yet
it's adam who say it
I’ve heard that song so many times and I never realized lol
Bohemian Rhapsody
"Caught in a landsliiiide....no escape from reality"
The note slides down,like, half a scale after the word "landslide" 😂
Always loved that slide
Also "look up to the skies and see" goes up and there's a C at "see".
@@mariposadelaire5390 Uh, no, there isn't.
@@lucasg.5534 There is....
True..and now that i think of it maybe they did that high octave autotune like sound in the intro to do that drop after 'landslide'?
In "Somebody to Love" by Queen there are verses "I feel like i've got no rhythm" and "I just keep loosing my beat", where Freddie respectively sings without rhytm and off-beat
Reminds me of: "Maybe I sing off key but you still love this song" in I Like Myself Most of the Time by K. Flay
Losing
@@AlphaGeekgirl thank you
I never noticed that!
I loved this part too!
In All Star when they say " we could all use a little _change_ " there is a key change.
what? no there isn't
there isnt
KarlG there definitely is. “We all need a little chaaaaAAANGEEE well the years stop coming and they don’t stop coming...” the last chorus.
im the 666th like 😏
No there isn't it's just an augmented chord
The Story of Us by Taylor Swift, she raises her voice as she sings “I’ve never heard silence quite this loud” while the instruments all go quiet.
omg my favourite, if word painting were actual paintings I'd have it framed.
When she sings "when it all broke down" it goes down.
yaass queen genius lyricist of our generationhad to be pointed out
That's also probably my favorite Taylor Swift lyric
And when she says "miscommunications lead to fall out" the notes fall
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
"little high, little low"
Also on bohemian rhapsody:
"Sends shivers down my spine" *sound of sweeping chimes*
Kinda upset this wasn’t an example lol it was the first thing that came to mind
You people realize that "high" and "low" are sung on the same melodic note AND chord, yes? It's literally the antithesis of word painting.
@@tiyenin word painting doesn’t necessarily have to be the exact words. The pitch changes in the words “little” yea the word high and low are played on the same note but the two “littles” are different. The first “little” is higher and the second little goes lower. Before correcting people, saying this isn’t word painting, I suggest you consider the whole phrase like an actual musician.
When using some headphones, you can hear "little high" coming from your left ear from a higher place and "little low" coming from your right ear from a lower place
Another great example of this is the pre-chorus in Smells Like Teen Spirit:
_"Hello, hello, hello, how low"_
I love how it gets the lowest at "low", and how with "hello" the "-LO" is LOwer part
“Oceans rise, Empires fallllllll”
Edit: for people who don’t get it I mean it’s IRONIC.
I noticed that too...a little ironic but I guess it fits because King George is predicting things that won't happen
Book Butterfly ever since I’ve got obsessed with Hamilton I’ve seen hamilton comments and it makes me happy
"Don't modulate the key then not debate with me" is the main example that comes to my mind of word painting
Rise up...
We have seen each other through it all!
My favourite is in “I Got A Boy” by SNSD, when Jessica sings “don’t stop, let’s bring it back to 1:40” which not only brings back the instrumental used at 1:40 in the song, but also brings the bpm back to 140
Iconic
That was wild
Didn't expect to see Kpop in this comments section but YES!!
@@octo-pops TBH SNSD is an exception. They're everywhere. Even though they're dead now.
Hardcorepro-Cycloid
That sounds morbid-
Bo Burnham’s “oh Bo” has a part where he get’s the runs and starts singing them as well.
i think “y’all motherfuckers want a key change?” in country song would also work
Does beating off in A minor count?
@@parkchimmin7913 Why wouldn't it?
"It was wrong on so many levels" right before the key change as well
Gordon Ramsay I don’t know what A minor sounds like ;n; (sorry, I lack knowledge on the subject of music)
"Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup, they slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe" has that perfect stream-of-consciousness delivery to the lyrics, rambling for ages without pausing to take a breath... before halting and letting them drift off.
Perhaps Lennon' s most beautiful lyrics.
In Puccini's "Tosca", when she's asked for a sex trade, the music plays the notes B A C, which in italian are Si La Do. "Sì, la do" means "Yes, I will give it to you", subtly meaning that she agreed with the trade.
Hahaha
Non ci avevo mai pensato 🤔
: o
genius
Ooooo nice!!
“Your lifestyle’s HIGH, but your funds are l o w” - Dr. Facillier from Princess and the Frog
This is the best example of word painting 😂
Dig a Little Deeper does it too!
"You got to dig a little deeper| (followed by lower note) Ooh its gonna be tough"
That's what I was thinking (I watched the movie yesterday)
"You young man are from across the sea" ends on a C
@@angeloflightsaber4687 bro I didn't even notice that one
How about the chords A-C-D-C in AC-DC's High Voltage.
@Georgie McBurnie or shostakovich's DSCH motif
clever! I didn't know that
It does use those chords, but not in that order. The chorus is A C D A x2, C D C D C G D A.
Whole Lotta Rosie also has the chords A-C-A-D-A-C-A
@@David-cu1xy That's so cool! (I must admit that I learned the "native" way of pronouncing AC/DC just recently)
Word painting is used really well in the chorus of "Into the Unknown" from Frozen 2. The song is about a character overcoming the urge to stay in safe stability and go out on an adventure. The chorus' first line jumps by a simple octave, representing safety. The second line jumps by an octave plus a step, just a little bit out of comfort before coming back to the octave. The third and final line goes all in with an octave plus three steps and ends one degree above the octave, returning to a place that is not the original safety but a triumphant note nonetheless.
The music goes further "into the unknown!" Howard Ho has a video (How Elsa Finds Herself [Musically]) about how this (and Show Yourself) both came from Let It Go.
“Over the rainbow” the notes look like a rainbow
Also "up high" are both up high.
Idk why but that song creeps me out
When he showed the clip my first thought was No, that's "Great Gig in the Sky" followed by "Money".
I've watched it too many times with Dark Side of the Moon playing. 👌
also, the pentagram represents a rainbow and some of the notes go over it
that’s what i noticed even before he started to explain lmaoooo
Lin-Manuel Miranda used reverse text-painting in “You’ll be Back” when it says “oceans *rise, [melody leaps down] empires *fall [melody leaps up]”
Same thing happens in Mary Poppins. "Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down". But there is an octave leap up.
@@Clarintheclarineter but the second time she sings it, the notes slide down
same thing in My Shot
"When are these colonies gonna rise UP?
When are these colonies gonna rise UP?"
Not only does it go up but the ending part gets louder as more voices join in at the end of the song.
MORE LIN MANUEL MIRANDA/HAMILTON FANS
Though, at least in the recording, there is a small fall off the note in "fall", and it does go up within the word "oceans"
"little high, little low"
Bohemian Rhapsody-Queen
was just gonna comment that
Same thought
Uriah Shamosh high and low are both sung on the same note tho
@@justarandomarmy115 they are, but the preceding words are higher and lower respectfully.
Just a random ARMY I have ears too you know
''And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then'' Elton John (Rocket Man)
In Janelle Monáe’s “I Like That,” when she says “I’m the random minor note you hear in major songs,” she switches to a minor note at “minor note”
Whats a minor note? You mean a note in some minor scale?
@@Mohammed8778 Probably singing the minor third of the chord
lizaliz who cares
@@vegjeezy17 Apperantly, at the time of me writing this, 682 people do.
In All-Star, on the 3rd verse, he sings "We all need a little change" and then changes the melody.
Tylo Ren key*
Well, the years start coming and they don't stop coming
Doesn’t make sense not to live for fun
Your brain gets smart, but your head gets dumb
So much to do, so much to see
"I wish I found some chords, in an order that is new"
"I wish I didn't have to rhyme, every time I sang"
I love that part in that song
Kevin Ball 🙈🙈
I don’t really like that song but that lyric is totally cool
Cheese is Jar but it’s so gooodddd
400th like
Mate I've just found your channel and it's like a gold mine of music content I never knew I needed until now.
Thank you! 😃
in “you’ll be back” from hamilton, the pitch lowers when the king says “oceans rise” and goes up when he says “empires fall.” reverse prosody!
@zauwolf - I believe that happens in places in the kite song in the Disney film, "Mary Poppins".
Also in Mary Poppins with "makes the medicine go down".
@@rfresa OR your mum! ;oP
We have seen each other through it all…
@@jookie4207 And when push comes to shove (Idk if shove is the right word at least what's I've understood)
Also with somewhere over the rainbow, the notes actually form “rainbows” from when it goes up and down
Speaking of weather, I love the instrumentation of Raining In My Heart sounding like raindrops. Simple but effective.
Wym
Jean Lucas as the notes go up and down it creates an arch shape like a rainbow
O O O
O. O
O. O
English teachers: I analyse _everything_
This guy: hold my beer
I really thought everyone did this tbh
He’s almost head to head with BTS’ fans.
Fan theorists: are you challenging me
If I hadn't left college for medical reasons, I probably would have been that English teacher.
My English teacher gave me a baked potato today
I think into the unknown from frozen 2 is also a cool example of word painting because each time Elsa says “unknown,” the interval she sings get bigger representing her going further away from what she knows and going into the unknown.
My favourite world painting is from Hamilton in "You'll be back"
"Oceans rise, empires fall"
But jokes on you, the melody goes down with "rise" and rises with "fall" because it's funny
YES
Ok but can we talk about how there is Hamilton everywhere I go?
@@ntellaS2 as it should be.
@@ntellaS2
You can't escape the Ham
Lisa Harbers YES
Bach actually wrote a whole sonata around “C A F F E E” the German word for coffee
*cantata
Uh, the German word for coffee starts with a "k" dude. "Kaffee", not "caffee"
@@arbeez4827 yeah the one take away from three years of German classes was there are almost no words that start with "C" in German.
@@evanmisejka4062 when Beethoven lived it was actually spelled with a "c". The spelling was totally different from now :)
@@blacksandthecity8999 really? I didn't know that, cool!
That analysis of Over The Rainbow was the most wholesome thing i’ve ever heard thank you
Are you sure you don’t mean the song after?
@@baileyharrison1030 no. no they don't. Not wholesome, just silly
You'd like grad school.
@@lc1715 may I ask what you are trying to imply by that?
@@fiend-off-the-grid I was replying to the original comment. The person would like studying music in grad school because you have to do a lot of that sort of analysis; creating a theory and explaining it in detail, even if it wasn't necessarily related to the composer's intent. It helps to expand critical thinking skills.
Thanks for putting these set of examples together, David. It's very useful for the classroom. Consider including "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music. It's hard to find a clearer match between lyrics and pitch.
The whole song “Take Five” was written in 5/4 time signature, that’s using the rhythm to paint the word.
The song sounds like it could’ve as easily been written in 6/4 or 6/8 but the pun was too good to pass up not writing a 5-beat song
We once played the song "take five four" with my band. It started out in 5/4 time signature but ended in 4/4. Was a cool song to play.
As a musician, I'd hate that. Anything in 5 is the most uncomfortable time signature to play in
Take Five by Atlantic five Jazz band?
@@bikechainimmortalis6923 Since everyone knows the melody to Take 5, it's actually really fun to play! That's from a violinist's perspective though. And I agree. It's rather odd to sight-read.
"I'm too sexy for this song." [song ends]
Fed in the A with a big fat D. Lololol
yes
LMAO
"The baffled king composing"
The chord on "king" is a D. In Italian the D chord is called Re, which happens to be the same word for "king".
I don't think that Cohen knew this, but it helped me remembering how to play that song.
But there's no D in the song?
G is played on "king"
@@nerady, eheh I've always played it in the key of G, I never thought about checking the original key :D
However the note of king is actually a D, if you play the song in the key of C.
The key doesn’t change notes like that. The key is the difference between G and G#
@@azearaazymoto461 No… the key is the set of notes used to play a tune. If you transpose a song from D major to B♭ major, you will be playing different notes. E.g., if the first note is a D, you will now be playing B♭ instead for the first note. (Also, G and G♯ are just as much different notes that, say, E and F is. Don’t let the ♯ and ♭’s fool you into thinking they’re really the same notes…)
Pink Floyd - Time comes to mind. When he says "Home, home again", the song goes back to how Breathe sounded
In My Head by Ariana Grande. “But it was all in my he-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-ad” she goes from chest voice to head voice. :))
I would’ve never noticed that
Chest to head? Please explain :'/
twigx when singing there is something know as a head voice and a chest voice depending on where the singing is coming from. I don’t know the exact difference but I know it’s significant enough that the sound will vary depending on head voice/chest voice and that if done wrong a head voice can be nasally 🙌🙌
twigx okay so there is this thing called voices in singers. You have head, mixed, and chest. Those are the three basics. So a chest voice is where you engage your core and a note is fully supported. You can hear the absolute power behind it. A mixed voice is a supported note but it also starts to slowly lose power. It’s supported but it might not be as powerful. A head voice is typically used when trying to get outside of the vocal range and hit higher notes. You can hear in that song that as she sings “head” her voice gets softer and softer. My explanation isn’t completely accurate but it will give you an idea. Hope thag helped. :))
"Your lifestyle's HIGH, but your funds are LOW"
-Friends on the Other Side from the Princess and the Frog
Ayyyyyy!!!!!
yES
Good one!
That’s the first one I thought of too lol
YOU NEED TO MARRY A LITTLE HONEY WHO'S DADDY'S GOT DOUGH
"take that money, watch it burn" Each time the line is said, more background singers come in, signifying the spread of the fire - Counting Stars
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
Woah
A great example of ABBA using word painting is in their early song, People Need Love. In the line, "it takes a man to get matrimonial harmony", Agnetha and Frida harmonise together on the word "harmony".
love that opening 40 seconds of STOP
You should check out New York City Cops by The Strokes (around 1:50) , it features that same resource, the band stops and only the drums go on. It's really awesome
Even with all of that, he missed "STOP... HAMMERTIME" and the transition into "Stop" by Pink Floyd. And probably another hundred examples.
@@ze_rubenator "U Can't Touch This" is his very first example. See 0:17 in the video; compare the images (if the bit of music isn't recognizable) to ruclips.net/video/otCpCn0l4Wo/видео.html . Perhaps edited short to avoiding RUclips copyright detection bots -- or just because it's a pretty short word.
David Bowie sings in Ashes to ashes "hitting an all time low" as he hits the lowest note in the song
Pretty sure he actually goes up an octave *on* that line. But it would have been, if he'd stayed.. I always thought it was a play on how the 'heavens high' right before is low, and 'all time low' is high (because the "getting high" is the lowpoint).
@@NorthernRealmJackal there's a live version on youtube where he goes an octave up, but he stays on the low octave in the studio version if I hear correctly
What kills me about "F10-D-A" is how it's on the same album as a 3-movement piano concerto. Ben Folds is a brilliant composer and THAT'S how he chooses to use his talent. I love it.
Tool - lateralus, as the full song talks about growing like a spiral and the verse are writen in Fibonacci secuence
“Everything that kills meeeeeee... makes me feel alive” the beat and the background music slows down until after he says “alive.” The music basically “dies” and comes back on, fast and lively or “alive” 😳😳😳
Someone is counting stars
You've probably been losing sleep over this
@@heyimdanielle8693 lmfaooo nah just after I watched the video it made me wonder of any other songs that had that and I’m like 😳😳 oO dat song wow
... or dreamin' about the things that we could be
These comments are genius omg
Twenty One Pilots’ “Ride” has word paint during the “falling” lyric when it drops to a lower note. It also does the most unique thing I’ve seen which is when the lyric “ride” is sang, the pitch jumps up and down consistently as if the listener is on a rollercoaster. Wow, word painting can be found in almost any song, it’s crazy.
they also extend the word ride, literally taking more time to sing it
At the beginning too
I wish I found some chords in an order that was new
I wish I didn't have to rhyme every time I sang
The verses don't rhyme
Peterson Montez that’s stressed out
It very much works like that. "oh-ee-oh-ee oh oh, oh-ee-oh-ee-oh i'm" going up, and then "falling" have that feeling in the music of tripping and stumbling into a fall.
don’t forget in message man “They rip it, flip it, but these are just triplets, Wrote this in three minutes, three words to a line. It's just poetry divided” talking about the rhythm
How has no one mentioned "I wanna hit that high" in Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go?
HAHA that’s perfect
@@CandiceGoddard Wake me up before you go-go is still legendary to Americans in the last two decades because it was featured in a classic scene of Zoolander
even just the "up" in "wake me up" is sung higher
P. Candice Goddard they mentioned many old old songs, wake me up before you go-go is definitely a valid song to put in this video
Or She's So High Above Me
I'd never heard the prosody in Somewhere Over The Rainbow before but if that was by design and not just coincidence then it is absolutely brilliant.
This one’s from “Friends on the Other Side”:
“Your lifestyles *HIGH* , but your funds are _low_ .
Yay some Disney!!! I’ve been searching the comments for Disney
YESSSSS I love that song
I can't believe this video doesn't feature Mariah Carey's _"emotions"_
"You make me feel so... *_hiii-iii-IIII-IIIII-IIIIIIIIIIIIIGH_*
lawnmower flying meme plays
Neither can I believe it doesn't contain Kurt Nilsen's "She's So High", where at each "she's so HIIIIIIIIGH", he sings it in an incredibly high pitch (which I cannot even reach XD), too
@Daver G ikr but where I live (what an ironic username I have!), Kurt Nilsen's cover made it to the radio more often somehow 🤔
How about hum hallelujah by fall out boy:
The lyrics are “just off the key of reason”. The key of reason is c major, which is also the key hallelujah by Leonard Cohen is in, and hum hallelujah is played in D major so it’s literally “just off the key of reason”
yeeees I love when people mention the little details put into FOB songs
oh YES
THAT WAS AWESOME
someone actually listens to fob i'm touched ❤️
And also “are you ready for another bad poem one more OFF KEY anthem” they ever so slightly had an off key note in there
@@junatan25 Which song is that from? I need to listen to it now
Chad Michael it's rat a tat ft courtney love
One example I love is in Hamilton's "You'll Be Back" where it's the opposite in the line "Oceans rise (⬇️), empires fall (⬆️)"
"Four out of five" by the Artic Monkeys when the lyric says : "I can lift you up another semitone"
Ooh good pick up
i was thinking that !!
I was about to say it !! Fantastic example !
TAKE IT EASY FOR A LITTLE WHIIIILE
HEY! THAT'S TRUE!
"Four out of five" by Arctic Monkeys, at the bridge Alex says "i can lift you up another semitone" and then lifts up another semitone
woah that's cool!!!
love that part of the song
and there’s also the key change when he says “key changes” in She Looks Like Fun
Eminem's Without Me: "Ever since Prince turned himself into a SYMBOL" then a cymbal plays.
Too soon
That's just what em does
Double entendres
My favourite case of word painting is in Bo Burnham's "pandering" where he says "y'all motherfuckers want a key change" then he changes the key. True musical genius.
AURORA has a song called Running With The Wolves where when she sings "wolves" she sings it with a prolonged "ooooo" while using a falsetto voice which makes it sounds like she's howling.
ruclips.net/video/WzPtrh1ABOg/видео.html
i love AURORA ♥️
i love that song ahh
Ohh I know that song
This is exactly what i thought when I watched this video lol
Wake Me Up (Before you Go-Go) literally has a line that says: "I'm gonna hit that hiiiiiigh" and it's a high note.
(Idk if that line is speaking literally or metaphorically, I just realized it)
I danced that
Yes I was thinking of that
Nothing But Thieves - If I Get High also does that:
"If I get [high falsetto:] hiiiigh,
If I get [even higher falsetto:] hiiiiiiiigh enough,
will I see you again?"
I didn't know what word painting is when I first heard that song, but I found that absolutely hilarious! It's like the singer's saying "don't know if I'll hit that high note", while he hits that high note XD
I think it does that in I want to hold your hand by the beatles
"Tomorrow gets me higher, higher, high" - Under pressure by Queen ft. David Bowie
My favourite example of word painting is in "Instant Crush" by Daft Punk where they say "I don't wanna sing anymore" right before an instrumental break. It's like the "Stop" example you gave but more unique
One thematic one I love is in The Beatles 'For No One'
Where the whole song is about feeling incomplete after a break up, and it ends on a hanging chord, not being resolved to the root.
Very nice example
Cool to hear a Beatles one - I'm a fan of them but didn't really expect to hear many deep examples of word painting from them considering they weren't trained or knew how to read sheet music. But of course they always surprise you
@@alias3660 they weren't trained but still had the most interesting progressions/key changes/other musical techniques. this channel has some interesting beatles stuff
@@alias3660
Actually they did it all time.
I dont know if this phenomenon was something to learn at the time, but you dont need to learn ot to do it.
I think they simply did what feels right
Jek Oh they did? I can only really think of 3 examples right now (For No One, Baby You're a Rich Man, and Only a Northern Song), do you know any more?
Wow, that explanation quadrupled my appreciation for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"!
Theres a great video that you should look up called « why over the rain ow takes us to a magical, musical place » by pbs. Honestly the most beautiful explanation that it made me tear.
Plus when you look at the notes themselves in the score, they themselves make little rainbows
Palmer Eldritch - I was wrong apparently - always thought the tune was from Chopin’s Fantasy Impromptu. Actually I still believe it does; can’t think how anyone would think otherwise?
“Don’t modulate the key then not debate with me” is what I immediately thought of (From Hamilton, Hamilton sings that lyric right after a key change in a song where he’s debating with someone else)
Saw it (listened to it) for the first time ever and I cracked up at this line
Another favorite from Hamilton:
“Let’s have another round tonight” in The Story of Tonight is repeated in a [musical] round! And of course they’re all drinking.
Ironically, the melody falls and then rises when king george sings
"Oceans rise, empires fall"
You could do a whole video just on the word painting in Hamilton alone.
@@gemfyre855 I WOULD WATCH THAT A MILLION TIMES OVER
In "To Be a Princess" from Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, the characters sing about harmonizing in thirds, and while singing they actually harmonize in thirds.
Ah, a true connoisseur!
"I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high" - In Kansas' "Carry On My Wayward Son," the "high" drops dramatically, musically illustrating that the singer had a fall from grace and alluding to the story where Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting his wings, and then fell to his death. So even if you don't know the reference to Icarus, the music tells you what happened.
I watched supernatural since the beginning and they used that song for every season and I have never notice that ! Amazing
On the album that preceded Leftoverture, Kansas(same songwriter/lyricist for both songs) had a song, "Icarus: Borne on Wings of Steel." He used the same technique with the line, "I've climbed the mountains of the sky."
RJ Montgomery SCREAMS IN SUPERNATURAL
“Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive”
By Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer
“Anticipation” by Carly Simon
Even more so with the antici
Pation in Richard O’Brien’s “Sweet Transvestite” from Rocky Horror Picture Show. Tim Curry holds that so long it gets me every time I hear it.
"Inar- inar- inar- inar- tic-u-late" in Queen's Sheer Heart Attack
Yesss love Carly Simon
@@mattlivingston2192 genius
Green Day's Wake Me Up When September Ends has this line: "here comes the rain again, falling from the stars..." the word "falling" starts higher, then gets lower, like it's falling.
True. Also, in the line “Seven years has gone so fast” I feel like it speeds up a little bit at the end
Misery has the lyric "He's gonna get high, high, high when he's low, low, low" and yes it goes exactly like you're thinking.
Old Fashioned Love Song is another good example, the verses and pre chorus describe the sensation trying to remember an old love song, and then the chorus becomes a familiar optimistic release of recognizing a familiar tune, but also splits into a 3 part harmony during the line “coming down in a 3 part harmony”
in fall out boy's hum hallelujah, there's a lyric that says "just off the key of reason"; the key of reason is apparently in C and hum hallelujah is in D which is just off C 🎶
I was looking for this comment xD
Has anyone mentioned when Elton John was "gonna be hiiiIIIIiigh as a kite by then" in Rocket Man?
also when Elton John said "when I say softly, slooowlyyy, pull me closer tiny dancer" in Tiny Dancer
@@nickronca1562 Would Goodbye Yellow Brick Road count too, because "this boy's too young to be singing the blues" has a bluesy thing to it?
@@dx.feelgood5825 I don't know, probably. Ask the video creator. Although based off the "Somewhere Over a Rainbow" song example he gave, I would say yes.
“I want to teach kids to cuss, and which notes to cuss from”
That- can my music teacher be like this please?
My music teacher yells at the wood winds to show her their " nasty finger" if the forget to put it down while playing
WE LITERALLY GET TO FLIP OFF THE TEACHER AND SHE'S OKAY WITH IT.
Sounds degenerate.
No. Bigly Sad.
There's a song in Portuguese by Amado Batista in which he sings "molhado com os pingos da chuva", something like "wet by the raindrops" and it resembles what The Doors did in Riders on the Storm. The song is called Seresteiro das Noites.
she’s leaving home by the beatles has loads of word painting like a descending cello (i think) line when she’s going down the stairs
Aimee Cosgrove yes such a great song too, probably the must underrated Beatles song.
Only a Northern Song is a better example from that band perhaps
I heard the remastered version today
Such a thought out song with many layers
I got one,
In the song "TiK ToK" By Ke$ha the line:
"Tryna get a little bit tipsy" the song slows down when she says the word "tipsy" like she's drunk.
Pinkajou likes that song
Also, the drum beat is literally tik/tok/tik/tok
Selene Gomez in the song "Love You Like a Love Song" when she sings "and I keep hitting repeat-peat-peat-peat-peat-peat" ... thats self explanatory
Me: *Learns what word-painting means
Me in my head: SHE HIT THE FLOOR, NEXT THING YOU KNOW, SHAWTY GOT LOW LOW LOW LOW LOW LOW LOW LOW
exactly happened with me
Lol
My favorite example of this is the bridge in For Forever from Dear Evan Hansen, where he's singing about climbing and falling out of a tree. The melody keeps getting higher until the climax of the song, the highest note, when he's at the top. And then gracefully comes back down both notewise and intensity with the line "And I suddenly feel the branch give way." Then the next few lines are low, and fairly stagenet, as he's describing being on the ground, and changes with the line "and everything's okay," when Connor finds him.
I think about that all the time.
What about “do, a deer, a female deer, re, a drop of golden sun...” or is that one too obvious? Haha
Camila Moya wow
let's not do a deer
@@Amandanumnum doh !LOL
That's a mnemonic; a way to remember the names of the notes using things that sound like the note names. Do = doe, re = ray, etc.
Alex Ritch yes! But they also say the names of the notes while they are singing that note so it counts
In the first half of Stairway to Heaven, the chord progression more or less has a bass going down while the root goes up, creating the picture of an actual stairway. Am E/G# C/G D/F# Fmaj7 G/B Am.
Page was a master painter, and he illustrated many songs. You can hear the horse's hooves in Battle of Evermore; the coxswain of the Viking flatboat in Immigrant's Song; the galloping in Gallows Pole.
In Stairway, you arrive at Heaven's Gate when the solo begins.
Yeah! I feel like this whole song is a word painting
Honestly, this is an awesome example. Any artist can say the word high and sing a high note, but this is something unique that really adds to a song
They are really up in the painting game. Epic...
Yes! 👍🏽 That would be my idea of word-painting 👍🏽 a stairway can take you up or down - depending on whether you're at the bottom or the top...
"I wanna teach the kids how to cuss."
We need more people like Ben Folds in this world.
In a way that's theoretically correct
Idk, it sounded like an excuse for an embarrassing piece. I'm sure he's written good songs, but that one was just weird and not at all for kids
Con Fidential "not at all for kids"
Ok boomer.
Con Fidential lol its amazing tho
Leon K Wait no... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
One that I discovered this morning:
In “We are Young” by fun. the lyrics go “So if by the time the bar closes and you feel like falling down, I’ll carry you home tonight”. Up to “falling down”, the melody descends, and at “I’ll carry you home tonight”, it ascends.
The “Song that Goes Like This” from Spamalot also uses this this comedic effect.
"...And then, we change the Key....now we're into E, that's far to high for me. As everyone could see, we should have stayed in D...."
@@happychaosofthenorth the annoying thing as a pit musician? They're not in D. They only say D and E to make it rhyme😂 but I still enjoy the genius of the entire musical!
And Hamilton, with Ham's argument with Seabury: "Don't modulate the key than not debate with me!"
My favourite example of this is a pretty subtle one, Between the Bars by Elliott Smith. The entire song is a parallel for alcoholism, with the dark undertone that while you can rely on alcohol to help you ignore your problems and regrets it won't fix or get rid of them. This is communicated in the lyrics of the chorus, which ends "I'll keep them still". Behind that line, he plays Eb followed by Ebm, a IV-iv movement in the relative major of the song's native G minor. This is of course a common cadence used to resolve in a bittersweet manner down to I.
However, both times he plays this, the cadence is cut off. The first time it goes straight back to Gm, which just sounds intentionally jarring, and the second time, the song completely ends on the iv chord.
A song about alcoholism and how it won't resolve your problems, ends unresolved.
Between The Bars is a masterful song. 2 mins 20 secs of intimate melancholy.
Such an insightful comment.
Excellent observation!!
Was going to mention this one because more people should go back and listen to Elliott’s work. He was a master song crafter.
Thank you sm for this song lmfao
"Don't modulate the key!" phrase in Hamilton song "Farmed refuted"
"Don't modulate the key and not debate with me!"
Also "ocean's rise (fall in melody), empires fall (rise in melody)" in you'll be back
"when are these colonies gonna rise up"
"enter me" "he says in parenthesises"
Not to mention the multiple melodic pauses in "Wait for It."