♫ Join Patreon- www.patreon.com/JbfMusic ^ Most of these videos (like this one) get totally demonetised, if you like what I'm doing here and want to support these, want to join team musical lasagne or just fancy chucking something in the hat! Chapters 0:00- Intro 1:01- Freedom 13:45- Licks, Ideas & Concepts: Dynamic Build Up 14:10- Bass Chords 15:29- Chord Progression 19:31- Guitar Part 22:43- Recap
Cheers mate! This was actually one of the first ones of theirs I saw, but got stuck in a blocked purgatory so I gave up on reuploaded for a long while, totally demonetised, but t's live now, so swings and roundabouts! My current plan is to spilt stuff in to 2 videos (a bit like I did with Puzzle) and see how that works out
On a side note during Akani's solo we see Miku and Kanami cheering, clapping, and pumping a their fists in the air for her. How many other bands have you seen that actually cheer for their band mates to do a great job??? I haven't.
Thanks for shining the spotlight on MISA. She definitely doesn't just thump the root notes for the whole concert. Using the chords in the bridge leading back into the last chorus is one of those little details that add so much to their performances. Sometimes you're told "never use chords on a bass, it makes everything muddy" which is generally true, but MISA will throw in a third but as an inversion so it's spread from the root by a sixth (and therefore does not sound muddy). I also like how you showed the palm muting and how Kanami eases off and strums the last couple of bars open-throated to lead back into the final chorus. It adds so much tension and makes the release so cathartic.
Cheers dude! You can get away with a well placed bass chord, even power chords on the lower string can work... just not all the time, haha! Great point about the 6ths to keep that distance between the notes, very true!
Great review. “Freedom” is one of their earlier songs that they’ve played well live for years, but this performance is really good. I loved Akane’s drum solo. I agree that many drum solos are too long, pretentious and kind of douchey. I rather liked how they musically bridged the drum solo to Kanami’s guitar solo. While not as flashy as in other songs, Misa’s bass work in “Freedom” is driving, solid and really carries the song, but in a subtle manner, so I’m glad you broke some of it down at the end.
Totally, I can appreactie a good poly-rhythm based drum solo, but at some point it can start to get a bit self indulgent, to be fair any solo can! Cheers dude, yeah I really liked how the parts slotted together in this one
My daughter the music teacher when she watched the song told me that MISA was playing the lead compared to what Kanami and Miku were playing. MISA wasn't playing a regular bass line, she was all over the neck throughout the entire song, playing the more than just the melody.
@@JbfMusicGuitar Thank my daughter who teaches in middle and high school and is the middle school band director. She's hoping to go back and get her Masters next year. She is primarily a Flautist, but can play Flute, Piano, Violin, Clarinet and Alto Sax very well, and she can get by with French Horn, Trumpet, Trombone and Oboe.
Composition credits : Lyrics - Miku Kobato ; Music : Ichiro Iguchi ; Arrangement : SCRAMBLES. Ichiro Iguchi is a member of SCRAMBLES who have done a lot of production work for groups such as BiS and BiSH. The live version has a instrumental section that wasn't part of the original album version.
Buy the score book for unseen world. Interviews with all the band, gig organiser, instrument tech, recording engineer and final mix engineer, all of whom have been working for them since very early when they became fully independent. Lots of wonderful details and full score of all the tracks on unseen world. 6,000 yen Inc carriage from Pony Canyon shop. Fascinating source, beautiful pictures of the band. Would definitely rate a reaction(s) of its self.
@@JbfMusicGuitar Kanami calls herself "second guitar" how mincho is that? Labour of love totally. Have to be careful not to tear the pages following HGK etc, so frigging fast. I'm waiting for the string quartet versions. Probably best to scan it in and follow onscreen.
Thanks again for another interesting and thoughtful reaction. As for going through the whole Band Maid catalog, we all will be waiting - but if you add the acoustic versions from the Christmas show then you still have another 100+ songs to go!
I'd love to see you go chronologically thru. So much improvement by all of them over time. Their sound has evolved so much! Also correct, they seem to consciously keep solos short, leaving you wanting more rather than "overstaying their welcome" like you said.
Thanks for doing Freedom - it's just such a fun song. They have said it is their favorite song to perform at concerts and you can tell they love playing it. As others have noted, they are a VERY collaborative and I think the shorter solos are the product of that. If anyone took a really long solo it would be showing off at the expense of the rest of the band playing and that would be contrary to how they work. I am going to be seeing them in Sand Diego in October and I hope I will get to hear this song live. I look forward to hearing your take on the maturation of their playing and song design from the start of their discography to now.
Oh, fun fact. The part where Miku is singing alone, Kanami is sitting nearby watching closely. This is Kanami joking with Miku because Miku has messed up the lyrics on the song in the previous show.
@@JbfMusicGuitar Yeah, Miku sang the wrong verse in an earlier performance. There is a fan-cam from Sepember 2019 in NYC where MISA and Saiki come over and stand uncomfortably close to keep close watch on her during her verse, as if saying "You better not screw this up!" In this performance Kanami comes over to encourage her before the verse, then crouches down and watches during her verse. Thing is, she crouches down right in front of her prompter so she can't refer to it for the lyrics. But it's all a joke. They have performed this song maybe more than any other in their catalog. Miku knows it very well. She just brain-farted once and they'll never let her forget it.
Great review. Again. When i first started listening to them last year it was their arrangements that really got me hooked. You can hear every instrument and Saiki doesn't sit below or above the instruments either (that may sound weird but some bands are there to back a singer or the singer gets drowned out). Usually you hear the vocal, lead guitar and drummer and the bass and/or rhythm guitar are just a wall of noise. Not this band. Like you say you can focus on each/any instrument every time you listen. And they are so much fun on stage.
Totally, vocals front and centre and pounding drums, with everything else filling out the sound is fairly standard; I mean it generally does sound 'good'; but like you say it's really great to be able to hear everything!
From the interviews I've read, Kanami is the main songwriter. She does the songs "skeleton or idea" - (guitar, drums, simple bass, and some vocal melodies) then requests input from the others.... then it evolves from there as a band effort. She does push Miku with her guitar parts, and to a certain extent, Akane with tempo's. MISA has free reign when it comes to Bass...... As in "Here's what I was thinking, knock your socks off." Actually, with the song Blooming, Kanami gave the others homework.... come up with some riffs/melodies/phrases. They did. She arranged them. And we saw the result.... A mega song.
It's interesting, I'm not sure a band like them could exist Pre-digital recording? Being able to send files and ideas and hear how things work in a studio environment (rather than just a practice room) can really shift how you put a song together!
This song, which was written for them, is one of their simpler ones. It's also one of the ones they've played the most. Since Kanami can play this in her sleep, it's pretty easy for her to put on a show during her solo. Sometime, crowd engagement trumps technical prowess.
Thank you for another great reaction and analysis. I would love to hear your take on Band-Maid's acoustic version of Catharsis. It's yet another totally different aspect of Band-Maid you haven't heard yet. However, you will need to hurry since the Catharsis Acoustic Live is up on RUclips for a very limited time and I think it will be taken down by March 25. It was put up on RUclips to promote the sales of tickets to the archived stream for their 14 song acoustic set they did on Christmas Day and set to expire on March 25.
My understanding of how the songs are composed is this :- Kanami composes the music (usually on piano and acoustic) and also programs the drums. She sends that to Akane. Akane has said that usually Kanami's drum program requires 4 hands and 4 feet to play so she works on that (with consultation with Kanami). That is then sent to Misa who comes up with the bass part. Miku then creates the lyrics and involves Saiki to some extent. Blooming was done slightly different in that Kanami came up with the broad idea and then asked the others to compose a section each which she then incorporated into the track. If I have this wrong, I'm sure others will correct me.
One interesting tidbit. In the UW scorebook interviews....Akane said in Kanami's earlier BM songs that the drums were pretty basic so Akane would make a lot of changes. However, in the more recent songs Akane said she changes very little because Kanami does such a good job writing the drum parts. This confirms what I suspected about Kanami being a sponge.
Thanks for your analysis of Band-Maid, Freedom. Band-Maid are very good at firing up the crowd. This is what they do at the start of the song very effectively, easy to tell from the crowd response.
Love your analysis as always but i have a little thing to say that caught my eye... In the timestamps you named the song "Blooming" and not "Freedom", just a totally minor thing, but because of my work i catch details like this. Just to let you know, you do not have to change it of course, just a friendly hint. Otherwise it was a treat again to learn so much about Band-Maid and their song structure from you, i really appreciate your knowledge about music! Greetings from Germany
Nice and very instructive on bass and guitar :-) Very helpful for those who want to learn the song. Great content, I believe you are the only one that do these kind of instructional videos, highly appreciated.
This is the most technical solo you've see from Kanami? Maybe 'Blooming was so far back you've forgotten it. Kanami writes all the music on Cubase which she sends to MISA, who switched from Garage Band to be compatible. Then Akane gets a crack at replacing the drums. She sometimes complains to Kanami, 'This cannot be played by a human.", but she always finds a way to make it work. Then Miku writes the words, which if they need any tweaking Saiki chimes in.
I've had syncopation explained to me in numerous reaction videos, but I've never connected it to the sound before; this one made it finally click. Thanks!
Another great listen. I think this is the first Band-Maid song you've looked at that wasn't written by Kanami? (EDIT: correction, you've also done Thrill.) They tend to be a lot simpler than her compositions, so it'll be interesting to see how obvious the difference is to you as you look at more songs.
@@JbfMusicGuitar Took me 3 listens to kind of get a handle on Black Hole. Freedom is a fun song and fun performance. Black Hole is an adventure. Here's to embracing anticipation.
From what I gather- Mostly from the interviews from the Unseen World score book. Kanami comes up with the original score. She then consults Misa for any of her additions followed by contributions to the rhythm section from Akane. I'm not sure if Miku writes the Lyrics at this time to fit the arrangement or if she has a number of lyrics read to go in advance and they match them up. Probably a mix of both. Anyway Saiki then contributes to the vocals with Miku. There was definately a conversion between Kanami and Akane regarding the cow bell in Chemical Reaction. Akane was not keen, but Kanami composed it in and insisted on it. She was right. It sounds Great.
One time Saiki and Miku were talking about Kanami and her solos. They said that normally she's kind of shy and reserved on stage until the solo comes. Then it's Look At Meeeeeee!!! lol. You can see it happen too :)
Going through the whole library would be cool, but might take a pretty long time. Might be a goal to accomplish eventually, but not at the expense of other projects.
Is this an old video reuploaded? Puzzled, as I thought you'd done this already. Either way, nice breakdown. In just love this specific performance, the perfect timing, the crowd interaction, the joyful drum solo. It's this live video that got me hooked on Band Maid a few years back, still put it on from time to time just to get pumped up!
Mandela effect going on here! To be fair I did film this ages ago, had a blocking issue so I gave up on it, revisited it much later and got it through, albeit totally demonetised. So I did this ages ago, but it never went live! Cheers, glad you liked it! A more simple tune, but sort of all the more powerful for it, you know?
@@JbfMusicGuitar yeah, it's one of their staple stadium numbers, always a fun audience participation slash stageshow number when they play it in concert. Yes, so Mandela! I guess since you were one of the first reactors I started watching and since everyone reviews this song, I thought I had watched you do this, already. Still, great to see the musical breakdown. Something to doodle along with one of these nights!
Akane is the happiest drummer in the world but I think they were all having fun performing this song. I've always loved those three beats from Akane at 11:37 that make the segue from verse to chorus but I hadn't noticed the guitars doing what you called 'stabs'. Would that be a term that applies to what Akane does with the cymbals and bass drum at the same time? - Those short, sharp...well, 'stabs' sounds a good word! Obi-Wan-Kanami always writes in lots of mini-solos/extended riffs for everyone when she composes but rarely does more than a minute in a song. Though occasionally at concerts she will really go off on one by herself, while the other band members take a break. Here's the best one of Obi-Wan-Kanami In The Zone, channelling Hendrix, Page, Santana: ruclips.net/video/bGraWlg2MWg/видео.html
Yeah 'stab' works, we could say "the accented stacatto dotted quavers; starting on the last 8th note, so as to cause syncopation" but nah... Say stabs and we all know what that means! It's like in funk, when you get the horn section just doing wee one or two note bursts. Obi-Wan-Kanami... I might have to steal that for a badly edited future thumbnail 🤣
@@JbfMusicGuitar Yep, think I'll use 'stabs' too rather than....that other stuff. Glad to hear you like Obi-Wan-Kanami and I can save you from a criminal career by telling you there's no need to steal as I've just now emailed you an image I created using it which I think you'll like and which I'd only be too happy for you to use. I also posted a small video this week of Band-Maid Art I've done and it includes the image too - ruclips.net/video/QYDt-TJmfkU/видео.html
I wear everyone out, I'm sure, commenting on MISA's bass in this performance. It's my favorite next to "Blooming", where she's chugging 16th notes with Akane's kick drum......and her slides! Also when they play Hengao with Akane in "PLAY", from the same concert, Akane gets Saiki to crack up just a little while she's singing......Akane is a bonified NUT! If you go after her you better bring a lunch..... Good stuff as always Jack...Keep 'em coming
Cheers Keith I've been told about this, sound great but atm I'm struggling to find enough free time to really take advantage of getting access to all that stuff!
@@JbfMusicGuitar A possible short cut are other reaction channels. There are a couple of Maidiacs + that do behind the sense videos. One if them reference one of your videos as an example to what they are talking about.
Kanami does this stanse on the solo of Freedom at every concert, so it's a conscious decision from her, it's like a stage feature of this song. She have a few solos she does the same thing, with a little bit of difference between the stanses, probably according to the difficulty of the solo, pretty cool though.
Hey Jack I have VIP tickets for Phoenix in October and I cant wait, I have seen Zeppelin in the mid seventies and most of the greats since but I am just as excited to see these Great musicians since Zepp ! I mean cmon Man the radio waves are dying of the same old crap and commercials! Why cant they play bands like Band maid? Well anyhow I am going and I havent listend to rockradio in years it sux!
Awesome man, I'm sure it'll be an explosive gig!!! Totally agree Darrell, I more of less gave up on radio a while ago, to be fair Spottify (which I suppose is essentailly just a more streamlined digital radio?) is half decent at pointing me towards new stuff
Thanks for another excellent Band-Maid tutorial, Jack. I found a past tip jar of yours that still functions, so I tipped one of your prior videos just now. A couple of comments: 1:40 the opening reminds you of the '80's. Interesting. Personally, I love "Freedom" as it reminds me of the '70's, for instance Deep Purple's "Burn" and Foghat's "Drivin' Wheel", and at 20:00 into your video I'm hearing Queen's "Now I'm Here", especially in the "Live Killers" version- ruclips.net/video/t1Y8UJ_bv7M/видео.html Alright, looking forward to your next one
Thanks so much dude, really appreciate it! Burn is a pretty interesting shout, think I can hear what you mean with that! Will need to check out those other tunes, my Queen and Foghat trivia is shamefully low!
@@JbfMusicGuitar During that live performance of "Now I'm Here", in that long interlude in which Freddie Mercury works the audience, we hear those cool guitar/bass/drums transitions leading up to and following his vocal solos. I think that might've inspired the transition during the solos section of the live "Freedom". Similarly, I got a feeling that the live "Freedom" drew inspiration from Lynyrd Skynyrd's "I Know A Little". Yeah, that comparison sounds crazy, but when I listen to the entire Skynyrd studio track, I get a live "Freedom" vibe.
@@Rabbi_Rabbs You know what, since you mentioned Queen & Freddie there is a even bit of an Arena Rock vibe about their live shows in terms of working the crowd!
I believe the camera crew is part of the overall crew around Band-Maid, probably record complay staff doing the camera work. They always manage to spot the important moments of all members throughout their conserts. Either they have a lot of cameras always recording everyone, or they know the song well enough to focus in on the different moments in every song.
Fantastic breakdown as always. As others said this song is one of the simplier and was written for them on their early days. Since you already listened to their most crazy ones like Giovanni and Black Hole I suggest a fan favourite next: Corallium (no video only audio available on their channel ruclips.net/video/aK9KruOd_Bw/видео.html). One the most interesting things among all the craziness happening here are the vocal melodies/harmonies so good luck on breaking this down 😉
Japanese Culture tends to be more group oriented, while American Culture is more about the individual, at least when compared to each other. I don't have the largest sample sized, but it feel like more musicians in Japan tend to play for the group/music than for themselves. Obviously this is a broad generalization of cultures and not saying everyone is like this. these are 2 very large countries(500 million+ pop) and the 1st and 2nd largest recorded music markets in the world. But music is heavily influenced by the culture of those who make it.
There's probably a lot of truth in that, cool observation! So many social and cultural factors going on, it's almost gonna be impossible to pin anything down
I hate it Jack. I hate that it took so long for you to get to this one. I also hate that you haven't gone through their entire catalog yet. :) I guess I'll just keep keep waiting for the rest.
Well, on the bright side... I actually watched this ages ago; maybe the 3rd or 4th one of theirs I saw; got blocked and I sort of gave up on it. Totally demonetised, but at least it can finally see the light of day!
@@JbfMusicGuitar Yeah that could work but i noticed a fatal flaw in my idea. What if people hear B-M songs are being played in hospital then pretend to be ill just to get in there. 🤔I really should've thought it thru.🤦♂️
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^ Most of these videos (like this one) get totally demonetised, if you like what I'm doing here and want to support these, want to join team musical lasagne or just fancy chucking something in the hat!
Chapters
0:00- Intro
1:01- Freedom
13:45- Licks, Ideas & Concepts: Dynamic Build Up
14:10- Bass Chords
15:29- Chord Progression
19:31- Guitar Part
22:43- Recap
Great to see the return of your longer analysis with more pauses:)
Cheers mate! This was actually one of the first ones of theirs I saw, but got stuck in a blocked purgatory so I gave up on reuploaded for a long while, totally demonetised, but t's live now, so swings and roundabouts!
My current plan is to spilt stuff in to 2 videos (a bit like I did with Puzzle) and see how that works out
@@JbfMusicGuitar I was wondering if it was an older because you didn't mention any of their names. I like the 2 video idea!
@@falconsooner Yeah, pretty keen to try it for a bit, hopefully it will work out!
On a side note during Akani's solo we see Miku and Kanami cheering, clapping, and pumping a their fists in the air for her. How many other bands have you seen that actually cheer for their band mates to do a great job??? I haven't.
We usually do excessive head nodding, but that's about it, lmao!
Thanks for shining the spotlight on MISA. She definitely doesn't just thump the root notes for the whole concert. Using the chords in the bridge leading back into the last chorus is one of those little details that add so much to their performances. Sometimes you're told "never use chords on a bass, it makes everything muddy" which is generally true, but MISA will throw in a third but as an inversion so it's spread from the root by a sixth (and therefore does not sound muddy).
I also like how you showed the palm muting and how Kanami eases off and strums the last couple of bars open-throated to lead back into the final chorus. It adds so much tension and makes the release so cathartic.
Cheers dude! You can get away with a well placed bass chord, even power chords on the lower string can work... just not all the time, haha! Great point about the 6ths to keep that distance between the notes, very true!
Great review. “Freedom” is one of their earlier songs that they’ve played well live for years, but this performance is really good. I loved Akane’s drum solo. I agree that many drum solos are too long, pretentious and kind of douchey. I rather liked how they musically bridged the drum solo to Kanami’s guitar solo. While not as flashy as in other songs, Misa’s bass work in “Freedom” is driving, solid and really carries the song, but in a subtle manner, so I’m glad you broke some of it down at the end.
Totally, I can appreactie a good poly-rhythm based drum solo, but at some point it can start to get a bit self indulgent, to be fair any solo can!
Cheers dude, yeah I really liked how the parts slotted together in this one
My daughter the music teacher when she watched the song told me that MISA was playing the lead compared to what Kanami and Miku were playing. MISA wasn't playing a regular bass line, she was all over the neck throughout the entire song, playing the more than just the melody.
@@greylocke100 Yeah, very fair point! Not dissimilar to all the lead/hook playing in Joy Division, I suppose? Great observation!
@@JbfMusicGuitar Thank my daughter who teaches in middle and high school and is the middle school band director. She's hoping to go back and get her Masters next year. She is primarily a Flautist, but can play Flute, Piano, Violin, Clarinet and Alto Sax very well, and she can get by with French Horn, Trumpet, Trombone and Oboe.
Composition credits : Lyrics - Miku Kobato ; Music : Ichiro Iguchi ; Arrangement : SCRAMBLES. Ichiro Iguchi is a member of SCRAMBLES who have done a lot of production work for groups such as BiS and BiSH. The live version has a instrumental section that wasn't part of the original album version.
Buy the score book for unseen world. Interviews with all the band, gig organiser, instrument tech, recording engineer and final mix engineer, all of whom have been working for them since very early when they became fully independent. Lots of wonderful details and full score of all the tracks on unseen world. 6,000 yen Inc carriage from Pony Canyon shop. Fascinating source, beautiful pictures of the band.
Would definitely rate a reaction(s) of its self.
Is any of it in English?
Nice idea Steve! I could see how wrong I've gotten all of the parts as well, lmao!
@@alxvdark yes in both languages very nicely written. No Google translate.
@@JbfMusicGuitar
Kanami calls herself "second guitar" how mincho is that?
Labour of love totally. Have to be careful not to tear the pages following HGK etc, so frigging fast.
I'm waiting for the string quartet versions.
Probably best to scan it in and follow onscreen.
Thanks again for another interesting and thoughtful reaction. As for going through the whole Band Maid catalog, we all will be waiting - but if you add the acoustic versions from the Christmas show then you still have another 100+ songs to go!
So. Many. Songs. 😵
🤣
I'd love to see you go chronologically thru. So much improvement by all of them over time. Their sound has evolved so much!
Also correct, they seem to consciously keep solos short, leaving you wanting more rather than "overstaying their welcome" like you said.
That's a great idea! I'm sure I'll try something like that at some point in the future, maybe some sort of epic tier list?!?!
Thanks for doing Freedom - it's just such a fun song. They have said it is their favorite song to perform at concerts and you can tell they love playing it. As others have noted, they are a VERY collaborative and I think the shorter solos are the product of that. If anyone took a really long solo it would be showing off at the expense of the rest of the band playing and that would be contrary to how they work. I am going to be seeing them in Sand Diego in October and I hope I will get to hear this song live.
I look forward to hearing your take on the maturation of their playing and song design from the start of their discography to now.
Awesome, cheers dude!
Oh, fun fact. The part where Miku is singing alone, Kanami is sitting nearby watching closely. This is Kanami joking with Miku because Miku has messed up the lyrics on the song in the previous show.
Lmao, nice one!
@@JbfMusicGuitar Yeah, Miku sang the wrong verse in an earlier performance. There is a fan-cam from Sepember 2019 in NYC where MISA and Saiki come over and stand uncomfortably close to keep close watch on her during her verse, as if saying "You better not screw this up!" In this performance Kanami comes over to encourage her before the verse, then crouches down and watches during her verse. Thing is, she crouches down right in front of her prompter so she can't refer to it for the lyrics. But it's all a joke. They have performed this song maybe more than any other in their catalog. Miku knows it very well. She just brain-farted once and they'll never let her forget it.
Miku wrote those lyrics.
She can change them on-the-fly if she wants to. : )
@@surfingasongwave I read that a while back, and now every time I watch Kanami crouch down there I have to laugh!
Another great breakdown of a classic Band Maid song. Your reactions never disappoint and I always learn something.
Cheer Joe, so great to hear that man, rock on!
Thanks Jack!
You are more than welcome my dude!
Kanami is more than happy for people to learn what she does.there are videos around on RUclips which she breaks down songs.
Is that between all the clapping & giggling cos Mincho's awesome at doing that too :)
@@GaryHolloway-810 Yes but that's after eating all the chocolate and the coffee drinks.
Great review. Again. When i first started listening to them last year it was their arrangements that really got me hooked. You can hear every instrument and Saiki doesn't sit below or above the instruments either (that may sound weird but some bands are there to back a singer or the singer gets drowned out). Usually you hear the vocal, lead guitar and drummer and the bass and/or rhythm guitar are just a wall of noise. Not this band. Like you say you can focus on each/any instrument every time you listen. And they are so much fun on stage.
Totally, vocals front and centre and pounding drums, with everything else filling out the sound is fairly standard; I mean it generally does sound 'good'; but like you say it's really great to be able to hear everything!
From the interviews I've read, Kanami is the main songwriter. She does the songs "skeleton or idea" - (guitar, drums, simple bass, and some vocal melodies) then requests input from the others.... then it evolves from there as a band effort. She does push Miku with her guitar parts, and to a certain extent, Akane with tempo's. MISA has free reign when it comes to Bass...... As in "Here's what I was thinking, knock your socks off."
Actually, with the song Blooming, Kanami gave the others homework.... come up with some riffs/melodies/phrases. They did. She arranged them. And we saw the result.... A mega song.
It's interesting, I'm not sure a band like them could exist Pre-digital recording? Being able to send files and ideas and hear how things work in a studio environment (rather than just a practice room) can really shift how you put a song together!
This song, which was written for them, is one of their simpler ones. It's also one of the ones they've played the most. Since Kanami can play this in her sleep, it's pretty easy for her to put on a show during her solo. Sometime, crowd engagement trumps technical prowess.
Always good to have some auto-pilot tune sin the set!
Love the bass analysis :-)
Glad to hear it!
Another great and fun analysis/breakdown Jack. Thank you. You're almost as awesome as BAND-MAID. I like DAYDREAMING, that would be cool. Peace.
Cheers dude but you're far too kind, glad you got something from it though! Yeah, that one is in the pipeline for sure!
Thank you for another great reaction and analysis. I would love to hear your take on Band-Maid's acoustic version of Catharsis. It's yet another totally different aspect of Band-Maid you haven't heard yet. However, you will need to hurry since the Catharsis Acoustic Live is up on RUclips for a very limited time and I think it will be taken down by March 25. It was put up on RUclips to promote the sales of tickets to the archived stream for their 14 song acoustic set they did on Christmas Day and set to expire on March 25.
Cheers Mark! I've grabbed a copy of the video, but have yet to watch it!
My understanding of how the songs are composed is this :- Kanami composes the music (usually on piano and acoustic) and also programs the drums. She sends that to Akane. Akane has said that usually Kanami's drum program requires 4 hands and 4 feet to play so she works on that (with consultation with Kanami). That is then sent to Misa who comes up with the bass part. Miku then creates the lyrics and involves Saiki to some extent. Blooming was done slightly different in that Kanami came up with the broad idea and then asked the others to compose a section each which she then incorporated into the track. If I have this wrong, I'm sure others will correct me.
One interesting tidbit. In the UW scorebook interviews....Akane said in Kanami's earlier BM songs that the drums were pretty basic so Akane would make a lot of changes. However, in the more recent songs Akane said she changes very little because Kanami does such a good job writing the drum parts. This confirms what I suspected about Kanami being a sponge.
Thanks for your analysis of Band-Maid, Freedom. Band-Maid are very good at firing up the crowd. This is what they do at the start of the song very effectively, easy to tell from the crowd response.
Happiest band in the world!. Great review as always Jack. Thanks!
Thanks a ton Juan, they're just having a ball all the way through these gigs, so great to see!
Love your analysis as always but i have a little thing to say that caught my eye... In the timestamps you named the song "Blooming" and not "Freedom", just a totally minor thing, but because of my work i catch details like this. Just to let you know, you do not have to change it of course, just a friendly hint. Otherwise it was a treat again to learn so much about Band-Maid and their song structure from you, i really appreciate your knowledge about music! Greetings from Germany
Cheers Michale, nice catch- I've sorted that now! It's also possible I copied the wrong timestamps in, I might need to double check that
Nice and very instructive on bass and guitar :-) Very helpful for those who want to learn the song. Great content, I believe you are the only one that do these kind of instructional videos, highly appreciated.
Glad it was helpful! Thanks so much bud!
I love the transition from the drum solo to the guitar solo. That and Akane's smile, happiest drummer in music.
It's a pretty slick section change for sure David!
My feelings exactly on that transition! So much energy
This is the most technical solo you've see from Kanami? Maybe 'Blooming was so far back you've forgotten it. Kanami writes all the music on Cubase which she sends to MISA, who switched from Garage Band to be compatible. Then Akane gets a crack at replacing the drums. She sometimes complains to Kanami, 'This cannot be played by a human.", but she always finds a way to make it work. Then Miku writes the words, which if they need any tweaking Saiki chimes in.
Haha, well noticed!!! You're not wrong, this was maybe the 2nd or 3rd song of theirs I listened to, got stuck in blocked purgatory for a while though!
Like :✅
Comment: ✅
Crisp high five: ✅
Listening to their whole back catalogue: No check... yet
Lmao, give me enough time and I'll trundle me way through it!
BAND MAID's Freedom = Happy Pills in Musical Form! 🤘😋🤘
Great wee tune!
I've had syncopation explained to me in numerous reaction videos, but I've never connected it to the sound before; this one made it finally click. Thanks!
Excellent!
Another great listen. I think this is the first Band-Maid song you've looked at that wasn't written by Kanami? (EDIT: correction, you've also done Thrill.) They tend to be a lot simpler than her compositions, so it'll be interesting to see how obvious the difference is to you as you look at more songs.
Interesting, I should maybe do a wee bit of post listen research on that stuff, cheers!
The roller coaster metaphor, just before the drop, is perfect. I feel like that a lot in Band Maid songs. Good observation.
Cheers John! I got the same feeling for Black hole, expect that was like one continual, vertical drop! 😱
@@JbfMusicGuitar Took me 3 listens to kind of get a handle on Black Hole. Freedom is a fun song and fun performance. Black Hole is an adventure. Here's to embracing anticipation.
From what I gather- Mostly from the interviews from the Unseen World score book. Kanami comes up with the original score. She then consults Misa for any of her additions followed by contributions to the rhythm section from Akane. I'm not sure if Miku writes the Lyrics at this time to fit the arrangement or if she has a number of lyrics read to go in advance and they match them up. Probably a mix of both. Anyway Saiki then contributes to the vocals with Miku. There was definately a conversion between Kanami and Akane regarding the cow bell in Chemical Reaction. Akane was not keen, but Kanami composed it in and insisted on it. She was right. It sounds Great.
Nice solid system, but the sounds of it!
Seriously yes on going through their whole back catalog 🤘🤘🤘
Haha, hopefully in time!
One time Saiki and Miku were talking about Kanami and her solos. They said that normally she's kind of shy and reserved on stage until the solo comes. Then it's Look At Meeeeeee!!! lol. You can see it happen too :)
It's her time to shine!
Going through the whole library would be cool, but might take a pretty long time. Might be a goal to accomplish eventually, but not at the expense of other projects.
Oh totally that would take me forever to do!!!
@@JbfMusicGuitar Nahh, just do one a week. IT'll only take a little over 2 years then.
Is this an old video reuploaded? Puzzled, as I thought you'd done this already.
Either way, nice breakdown. In just love this specific performance, the perfect timing, the crowd interaction, the joyful drum solo. It's this live video that got me hooked on Band Maid a few years back, still put it on from time to time just to get pumped up!
Mandela effect going on here! To be fair I did film this ages ago, had a blocking issue so I gave up on it, revisited it much later and got it through, albeit totally demonetised. So I did this ages ago, but it never went live!
Cheers, glad you liked it! A more simple tune, but sort of all the more powerful for it, you know?
@@JbfMusicGuitar yeah, it's one of their staple stadium numbers, always a fun audience participation slash stageshow number when they play it in concert.
Yes, so Mandela! I guess since you were one of the first reactors I started watching and since everyone reviews this song, I thought I had watched you do this, already. Still, great to see the musical breakdown. Something to doodle along with one of these nights!
Akane is the happiest drummer in the world but I think they were all having fun performing this song. I've always loved those three beats from Akane at 11:37 that make the segue from verse to chorus but I hadn't noticed the guitars doing what you called 'stabs'. Would that be a term that applies to what Akane does with the cymbals and bass drum at the same time? - Those short, sharp...well, 'stabs' sounds a good word! Obi-Wan-Kanami always writes in lots of mini-solos/extended riffs for everyone when she composes but rarely does more than a minute in a song. Though occasionally at concerts she will really go off on one by herself, while the other band members take a break. Here's the best one of Obi-Wan-Kanami In The Zone, channelling Hendrix, Page, Santana: ruclips.net/video/bGraWlg2MWg/видео.html
Yeah 'stab' works, we could say "the accented stacatto dotted quavers; starting on the last 8th note, so as to cause syncopation" but nah... Say stabs and we all know what that means! It's like in funk, when you get the horn section just doing wee one or two note bursts.
Obi-Wan-Kanami... I might have to steal that for a badly edited future thumbnail 🤣
@@JbfMusicGuitar Yep, think I'll use 'stabs' too rather than....that other stuff. Glad to hear you like Obi-Wan-Kanami and I can save you from a criminal career by telling you there's no need to steal as I've just now emailed you an image I created using it which I think you'll like and which I'd only be too happy for you to use. I also posted a small video this week of Band-Maid Art I've done and it includes the image too - ruclips.net/video/QYDt-TJmfkU/видео.html
Awesome! Will shuffle that away in a folder and hopefully remember to bust it out in due course!
@@JbfMusicGuitar Use it as you want! Bust away!
The face game is something typical Japanese, and very typical Band-Maid. They are very clearly having great fun playing live, smiling all the time.
So my favorite part, is after the AMAZING drum solo, Akane is flashing that face eating smile as Kanami launches into her solo
Great spot! Expression like that really make all the difference
I wear everyone out, I'm sure, commenting on MISA's bass in this performance. It's my favorite next to "Blooming", where she's chugging 16th notes with Akane's kick drum......and her slides! Also when they play Hengao with Akane in "PLAY", from the same concert, Akane gets Saiki to crack up just a little while she's singing......Akane is a bonified NUT! If you go after her you better bring a lunch..... Good stuff as always Jack...Keep 'em coming
Cheers Jim, will do mate!
On songwriting, it's mostly the brilliance of Kanami. She even writes the individual parts a lot.
But not this song.
Thanks for the chord list Jack! One of those rare doable BM songs this one
No problem Olli! Totally, nowhere near the craziness of Black Hole or something like that!
Check out Band Maid Prime . They have interviews and song demos with the Maids.
Cheers Keith I've been told about this, sound great but atm I'm struggling to find enough free time to really take advantage of getting access to all that stuff!
@@JbfMusicGuitar A possible short cut are other reaction channels. There are a couple of Maidiacs + that do behind the sense videos. One if them reference one of your videos as an example to what they are talking about.
MISA MISA MISA!
Doing the whole catalogue of 100+ songs would maybe be a little excessive, but at least do the Top 50 ;) hehe
Given enough time I might actually get there, lmao!
Kanami does this stanse on the solo of Freedom at every concert, so it's a conscious decision from her, it's like a stage feature of this song. She have a few solos she does the same thing, with a little bit of difference between the stanses, probably according to the difficulty of the solo, pretty cool though.
Nice one! Gotta have a power stance every so often!
Hey Jack I have VIP tickets for Phoenix in October and I cant wait, I have seen Zeppelin in the mid seventies and most of the greats since but I am just as excited to see these Great musicians since Zepp ! I mean cmon Man the radio waves are dying of the same old crap and commercials! Why cant they play bands like Band maid? Well anyhow I am going and I havent listend to rockradio in years it sux!
Awesome man, I'm sure it'll be an explosive gig!!! Totally agree Darrell, I more of less gave up on radio a while ago, to be fair Spottify (which I suppose is essentailly just a more streamlined digital radio?) is half decent at pointing me towards new stuff
Thanks for another excellent Band-Maid tutorial, Jack. I found a past tip jar of yours that still functions, so I tipped one of your prior videos just now. A couple of comments:
1:40 the opening reminds you of the '80's. Interesting. Personally, I love "Freedom" as it reminds me of the '70's, for instance Deep Purple's "Burn" and Foghat's "Drivin' Wheel", and at 20:00 into your video I'm hearing Queen's "Now I'm Here", especially in the "Live Killers" version- ruclips.net/video/t1Y8UJ_bv7M/видео.html
Alright, looking forward to your next one
Thanks so much dude, really appreciate it!
Burn is a pretty interesting shout, think I can hear what you mean with that! Will need to check out those other tunes, my Queen and Foghat trivia is shamefully low!
@@JbfMusicGuitar During that live performance of "Now I'm Here", in that long interlude in which Freddie Mercury works the audience, we hear those cool guitar/bass/drums transitions leading up to and following his vocal solos. I think that might've inspired the transition during the solos section of the live "Freedom".
Similarly, I got a feeling that the live "Freedom" drew inspiration from Lynyrd Skynyrd's "I Know A Little". Yeah, that comparison sounds crazy, but when I listen to the entire Skynyrd studio track, I get a live "Freedom" vibe.
@@Rabbi_Rabbs You know what, since you mentioned Queen & Freddie there is a even bit of an Arena Rock vibe about their live shows in terms of working the crowd!
@@JbfMusicGuitar Absolutely!
Akane is a human metronome, always on tempo, she is the click track of Band-Maid :-)
Excellent. 👍🏻
Many many thanks!
For an amazing instrumental performance try the Japanese 3 piece band Asterism playing Dawn. I was blown away by their artistry.
Sounds great, cheers for the suggestion Clive!
@@JbfMusicGuitar The female guitarist Hal Ca is astonishing.
I believe the camera crew is part of the overall crew around Band-Maid, probably record complay staff doing the camera work. They always manage to spot the important moments of all members throughout their conserts. Either they have a lot of cameras always recording everyone, or they know the song well enough to focus in on the different moments in every song.
Fantastic breakdown as always. As others said this song is one of the simplier and was written for them on their early days. Since you already listened to their most crazy ones like Giovanni and Black Hole I suggest a fan favourite next: Corallium (no video only audio available on their channel ruclips.net/video/aK9KruOd_Bw/видео.html).
One the most interesting things among all the craziness happening here are the vocal melodies/harmonies so good luck on breaking this down 😉
Cheers dude! I checked out Corallium a few weeks back (ruclips.net/video/ovUzEfVI9mY/видео.html), loved the whole genre bending thing going on! 🤘🎶
MISA!!! MISA!!! MISA!!! 🥃🥃🥃
Japanese Culture tends to be more group oriented, while American Culture is more about the individual, at least when compared to each other. I don't have the largest sample sized, but it feel like more musicians in Japan tend to play for the group/music than for themselves.
Obviously this is a broad generalization of cultures and not saying everyone is like this. these are 2 very large countries(500 million+ pop) and the 1st and 2nd largest recorded music markets in the world. But music is heavily influenced by the culture of those who make it.
There's probably a lot of truth in that, cool observation! So many social and cultural factors going on, it's almost gonna be impossible to pin anything down
❤✌🤘
Thanks bud!
I hate it Jack. I hate that it took so long for you to get to this one. I also hate that you haven't gone through their entire catalog yet. :) I guess I'll just keep keep waiting for the rest.
Well, on the bright side... I actually watched this ages ago; maybe the 3rd or 4th one of theirs I saw; got blocked and I sort of gave up on it. Totally demonetised, but at least it can finally see the light of day!
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I've had a few requests for them! Will bump them higher up the list
They should play BAND-MAID songs in hospitals as recovery therapy. It would free up an awful lot of beds :)
🤔 Not sure if that would work... I mean... why would you want to ever leave?
What if they only have like half thier discography, so you leave to hear the rest of it, you reckon that could work??
I heard that Boris J. also healed (?) from this song in the hospital two years ago!
@@JbfMusicGuitar This is genius!
@@JbfMusicGuitar Yeah that could work but i noticed a fatal flaw in my idea. What if people hear B-M songs are being played in hospital then pretend to be ill just to get in there. 🤔I really should've thought it thru.🤦♂️
Go for it 100+songs in order it's a journey 💪
2nd the motion.
👎👎👎😞😒😝