Jachin's Songwriting and Performance Journal

This week my head was swirling in musical inspiration after my attendance at WOMADelaide music festival the weekend prior. Two acts stood out to me in particular.

Firstly, Brazilian bossa-nova legend Jorge Ben Jor performed at the ripe age of 76, with a wide assortment of touring musicians (including a percussionist that could barely walk but, damn, he played the cabasa like a champion). The highlight of the set was, “Mas, Que Nada!”, arguably the most famous song written in Portuguese not named “The Girl from Ipanema”. God knows how many times he’s played that song given it came out in 1963, but Jorge sang with a carefree conviction that transcended age, language and nationality.

The second act that made an impression was Australian neo-soul innovators Hiatus Kaiyote. Their entire performance was full of moments that just broke my brain musically. They’d incorporate inexplicable time signatures and lawless chord progressions in ways that mesmerised the listener, while still remaining cohesive and in service of the overall song. It was also inspiring to see an Australian band be so musically adventurous and internationally recognised (Hiatus Kaiyote are twice Grammy nominated).

Song Of The Week for this week is “The Lung” by Hiatus Kaiyote. My favourite aspect of it is how nicely the instrumentation compliments the vocal stabs from Naomi Saalfield around the words “quick to lose your furrowed brow”² around the 4:00 mark:

²Hiatus Kaiyote. “The Lung”. Choose Your Weapon. Flying Buddha, 2015.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic affecting the university’s ability to deliver the usual course, my songwriting journey this semester consisted primarily of individual exploration, so my journals will be an honest reflection on how I grew as a musician and a writer based on the lessons I learnt from the songs I fell in love with in the first half of 2020.

On the Thursday of Week 1, I went to American art pop artist Weyes Blood’s concert at the Adelaide Festival Centre. Her rich textural approach, delicate yet poignant voice, and innovative chord usage were all very impressive, but what made the biggest impression on me was how impactful the drummer was in his playing without being needlessly theatrical or stealing the limelight. While most of the songs were mid-tempo or slower, his reserved manner still retained rhythmic interest – then when called upon to contribute to the bombast during the chaotic breakdown of “Movies”, he did so with aplomb. His styling has definitely influenced my attitude to drumming vis-a-vis effectively accompanying a band.

Each week, I will nominate the song that has the most impact on me, and I’m going to give it the highly original title of Song Of The Week. This week it’s “Everyday” by Weyes Blood – the themes of needing love to dissuade your own inner doubt spoke to me. My favourite part is this lyrical section:

“The other night, I was at a party
Someone sincerely looked at me
Said, ‘Is this the end of all monogamy?’
I said, “Not today. Then again, you might be right…
Then again, sleep the night…”¹

¹Weyes Blood. “Everyday”. Titanic Rising. Sub Pop, 2019.

4th of September – Members present: Aobo, Jachin, Jemma, Liz

The first rehearsal was a solid start to begin familiarising ourselves with each other’s songs and begin working out a framework to proceed. While Jacob was unable to attend and there was no drum kit in the room we were practicing in, I was able to at least form some ideas in my head for what rhythms to use. I was also able to use this time to present my song to the members present and see if there was anything that didn’t translate well to a band setting – as it happened, there was a rogue Ab major chord that was more trouble than it was worth, and instead the F9 chord from the bar before was doubled in length.

18th of September – Members present: Aobo, Jachin, Jacob, Jemma, Liz
This practice had everyone present and a room with a drum kit, so we were able to practice the first few songs as a full band, and I ironed out the kinks for a calypso style drum beat for Liz’s song – which is something I hadn’t really done before but was eager to experiment with a rhythm with regular tom use and rim-shots added off the beat. We also worked out how to properly adapt Jemma’s song for performance as a full band, with a previously rhythmically unruly bridge straightened out into something more natural for the band’s talents.

9th of October – Members present: Aobo, Jachin, Jacob, Jemma, Liz
This practice we were introduced to Jacob and Aobo songs, meaning we could run through our entire set in at least its current basic stage. Derek came past and gave us valuable feedback in terms of the arrangement of the songs we had practiced the most – the guitar was often underutilised in a textural sense, and Aobo took that feedback on board, adding fluid arpeggios in the stead of the previously cluttering chords.

22nd of October – Members present: Aobo, Jachin, Jacob, Jemma, Liz
Now having run through everyone’s song to a point where we were comfortable playing them in full as a band, we began to make the minor tweaks to maximise each song’s potential. After a few discussion in practice, we realised that Jacob’s song would be better suited with no drums at all, given it’s tender nature. Therefore, I switched to adding minor embellishes and swirls on piano for the track, which was slightly unfamiliar to me – I’m accustomed to playing piano with a prominent rhythm and almost percussively (too much time behind the kit, haha) so this was an important step for me in terms of my growth as a musician.

23rd of October – Members present: Aobo, Jachin, Jacob, Jemma, Liz
Given that we had the forum performance today, it was crucial that we rehearsed in the morning beforehand to tighten up the screws. Aobo cut a section of the song to make it punchier and less static, and Jacob made a humorous lyrical change – apparently he’d gotten the subject of his love song’s hair colour wrong. Finally, to add extra emphasis to Liz’s song, I provided some backing vocals in the choruses and outro, and we were happy with how it sounded so ended up using it. As it happened, the added harmony was positively mentioned as part of the feedback we received, which was satisfying to hear!

The final entry for the semester is for the lecture¹⁸ that was centered on harmonic substitution. This inspired me to investigate incorporating more complex substitutions into my writing, and using more diminished chords in general, whether as part of a substitution or not. I’ve been toying with the following progression, and intend to present to the class for feedback from them and Robyn – so we’ll see how that goes!

G – G/D – G – G/D 

F#m7b5 – D9 – F#m7b5 – D9

Bm – Bm/D – F#m7 – Fmaj7 – Em7

D7 – Ebdim7 – C6(b5) – G

After learning more about tritone subs in the lecture, I added the Fmaj7 in-between the F#m7 and Em7 to create a tritone substitution and therefore additional harmonic interest in the song. I like the end result and shows how my songwriting has improved as a result of being exposed to the course’s content.

18 Habel, Robyn. “Harmonic Substitutions”. Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, University of Adelaide, November 4, 2019.

Melody was the primary focus in this week’s lecture¹⁶, but in a complementary way – so riffs, counter-melodies, and answering melodies. The concept of riff is fairly ingrained in the music I listen to, and I’d already put it into practice by adding a riff to an older song of mine that needed an extra hook in parts. 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w2q5qqkq7vg1vl5/%25%20Around%20You.m4a?dl=0

(riff at 1:26)

While it’s perhaps been more common in contemporary music to have female backing vocals answer a male lead, I found an example with the roles flipped that was proof that the concept wasn’t necessarily one way: Femme Fatale¹⁷ by the Velvet Underground (answering melody at 0:50). 

Songs like these remind me that it’s important for me to remember when implementing concepts that they don’t have to abide by the convention that I’m familiar with.

16 Habel, Robyn. “Secondary Melodies”. Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, University of Adelaide, October 28, 2019.

17 The Velvet Underground and Nico. “Femme Fatale”. The Velvet Underground and Nico. By Lou Reed. Produced by Andy Warhol. March 12, 1967.

This week’s lecture¹⁴ was on non-diatonic progressions, which are always fascinating to see how apparently unrelated chords work together in practice. To further my understanding of the concept, I put Radiohead’s Just¹⁵ under the microscope.

Nevermind the octatonic riff that opens the track, the intro and verse chords always broke my brain. They are:

C – Eb – D – F 
Am – Ab – Eb – F 

Looking through an academic lens, I can start to see where the non diatonic chords have come from. Analysing it in the key of C, Eb and Ab have been borrowed from the parallel minor, while the D is a secondary dominant (V/V) that doesn’t resolve. It’s nice to have seemingly nonsensical chords demystified, so I can better apply the concept to my own tracks.

14 Habel, Robyn. “Non-Diatonic Chord Progressions”. Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, University of Adelaide, October 21, 2019.      

15 Radiohead. “Just”. The Bends. By Radiohead (Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, Philip Selway, and Thom Yorke). Produced by John Leckie. 13 March, 1995.

As we only have 11 lectures for 12 journal entries, I thought I’d spend this entry expanding on analysing song titles as a literary device in some of my favourite songs. Talking Heads used the idiomatic expression Once In A Lifetime¹³ for the fourth track of their 1980 album Remain In Light, and it perfectly matches the lyrical themes of time passing (“letting the days go by”) and the mundanity of a ‘standard’ life (“you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife”).. 

In addition, the song also utilises a literary device not covered in the lecture but also very effective – posing unanswered questions. This crafting of an existentially questioning man through the lyrics is perfectly matched by David Byrne’s jolty vocal delivery, and Brian Eno’s psychedelic, swirling production – and stands as a brilliant example of building from your titular concept with other elements that all contribute to the track’s prosody.

13 Talking Heads. “Once In A Lifetime”. Remain In Light. By Talking Heads (David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth) and Brian Eno. Produced by Brian Eno. October 8, 1980.

Robyn’s class¹² this week covered literary devices, and especially how they can play a part as part of the title and/or key concept of the song. I find this extremely helpful when I have writer’s block, or am otherwise looking for a creative branching off point for my songwriting. (It’s always amused me how putting limitations on your creative process as an artist can actually inspire you further – I wouldn’t always force myself to use a literary device as my song’s concept, but when I do, I find the result is often better than if I hadn’t.) 

For instance, my song Leo, was borne from a true story I’d heard where people were discriminated against based on their star-sign. This inspired me to utilise the technique of characterisation in creating a character called Leo. Leo is worried about meeting the expectation of being a strong, lion-like personality, when in actual fact that isn’t necessarily the case, and through the song I try to draw parallels with how we can all relate to the pressure of living up to expectations, whether astrological or otherwise. 

12 Habel, Robyn. “Literary Devices”. Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, University of Adelaide, October 14, 2019.

Arrangement has always stressed me out as a musician as the sheer number of possibilities involved can be overwhelming at times. However, I found that the solutions available become more concrete when actually running through the song with whichever band I’m playing with, as was the case after running through my band song this semester. I wasn’t able to attend the lecture due to illness – so I wasn’t able to run through my song on the Monday, however in a lot of cases I find the way I find I learn best is to analyse songs that utilise the tool in question effectively – in this case arrangement. The song that sprung to mind immediately as having impactful and well-chosen arrangement is Modern Girl by Sleater-Kinney¹¹. 

I especially appreciate this song as a learning experience because as a drummer, it’s very tempting to play the whole song and make a feature of the rhythm section. However, this tune proves how withholding the drums until later in the song can provide a particularly satisfying moment – their entry at 2:04 is, in my opinion, the perfect cathartic climax to the song. Then after 5 bars the drums are gone again! A masterful exercise in restraint.

11 Sleater-Kinney. “Modern Girl”. The Woods. By Sleater-Kinney (Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker, and Janet Weiss). Produced by Dave Fridmann. May 24, 2005.

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.