This week’s class8 featured a focus on melodic momentum, and how making phrases denser or sparser affected the momentum of a song. This was an interesting new area to ponder, as while I was familiar with using the melody, rhythm, tempo etc. of a song to generate momentum, I hadn’t considered shortening the phrases themselves. The use of Paul Simon’s 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover9 as an example was a perfect demonstration of this (side note: I also love Gadd’s mercurial drumming here – I was floored with how he manages to make the snare rhythm a hook in its own right, and as a drummer inspired me to seek out avenues to apply that in my own playing).
The lecture also introduced me to the concept of melisma, so I finally knew what to call the technique Beyoncé employs with ridiculous aplomb at the start of Countdown10.
It’s the perfect opening to a song that’s full of bizarre but effective non-seuqiturs such as tabla drum fills and interrupting horn sections – and shows how melisma can be used to contribute to a song’s overall prosody.
8 Habel, Robyn. “Minor Scales and Melodic Momentum”. Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, University of Adelaide, September 9, 2019.
9 Paul Simon. “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover”. Still Crazy After All These Years. By Paul Simon. Produced by Phil Ramone and Paul Simon. 25 October, 1975.
10 Beyoncé. “Countdown”. 4. By Michael Bivins, Ester Dean, Julie Frost, Beyoncé Knowles, Cainon Lamb, Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, Terius Nash, and Shea Taylor. Produced by Beyoncé Knowles and Shea Taylor. June 24, 2011.
Jachin's Songwriting and Performance Journal 