Light and dark

Songs work when they are balanced; when they contain similar amounts of light and dark or opposites or when they cover different areas of the sonic spectrum. Whether you're writing a Phil Spector wall-of-sound piece jammed up with every sound you can think of or a spartan slowcore track with 4 simple elements, I think the principle is a good one. A good question to consider when writing or arranging is whether or not an additional instrument or sound is covering a new part of territory or occupying that already occupied by another.

I was listening to Breaker by Low (which definitely belongs in the latter category). Low seem to be one of these bands which do this kind of thing well. This particular song begins with a quietish beat and eventually a doubled hand clap. Later, vocals and a couple of other instruments kick in. These elements reflect the light-and-dark idea.

The beat is low-end, electronic, complex, the hand-clap by contrast is higher and brittle, human and simple. The organ chords sit on a layer above the beat and differs from it by being polyphonic rather than monophonic. They also move from major to minor. The vocals themselves are composed of opposites or distinct differences: man/woman, high/low, melody/harmony. One of the final sounds added, a warbly backwards guitar feedback kinda thing acts as a disruptor or mediator to the neat discrete sections by being none of these; it's organic and electronic, it's high and low, it falls in and out of patterns, sometimes you hear one note, sometimes a few.

This is an example of light and dark happening vertically, or in the song's layers of sound. But it's also good for songs to have light and dark horizontally, meaning as the song progresses through time. Different sections should do opposite or different things: the verse is quieter than the chorus; few instruments begin, many finish, the chorus is simple, the verse complex and so on.

The breakdown

I don't totally know where I'm going with this but I've been thinking a bit about the function of 'the breakdown' in songs. when the other instruments cut out and the bass and drums, or drums and sparse guitar play simply but confidently with vocals over the top.

It can feels like the moment where the truth is told, where decoration and tact is discarded; where you lay it on the line. It's the musical equivalent of saying: 'we've been talking for a while and it's been good, but just listen for a moment, I really just want you to understand this one thing'. Even if you don't have different lyrics for this bit, the sparseness will somehow add extra weight to the words. Perhaps, for the first time, this is where the listener is really concentrating on the lyrics. These words will somehow come to represent the whole.

Maybe this is going too far. Perhaps it's not often really intended for this but rather the added emphasis is a by-product. Maybe people use the breakdown more to give a bit of shade to the light -- to create negative space in the song, adding more drama to the final, louder chorus.

The breakdown also works as a song opener. It focuses attention on the vocals and makes a simple proposition to build on. I want to use this more but how do you do this without sounding like a hardcore band? Or Joy Division? This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Singing too high for your range

Tim Rogers from You am I does this. He even acknowledges it (while demonstrating it) in one of his Temperance Union songs Dumb as being among his many faults. More recently, little-brother-country-indie-rocker Ben Kweller also strains to get higher than he strictly should in Sawdust Man.

But it sounds good when singers strain. We don't care when someone like Mariah Carey sings flawlessly high ; it's no big deal; we know they've got the skills, there isn't an obvious risk. When more workmanlike singers strain at the top of their voices it's like a special gift; it shows us their humanity and vulnerability. Their effort and passion is thrown into higher relief.

Tune your guitar down

I used a voucher I had for Music without frontiers recently to buy Alligator by the National and April by Sun Kil Moon. Both are great records, April especially. Sun Kil Moon is the latest project for Mark Kozelek from slowcore band the Red House Painters. It's dark quiet music that, while not sounding too much like Nick Drake, reminds you of him in a few places.

On one/a few of the tracks on April it seemed that Mark had his guitar tuned way low. The resulting sound is bassy and buzzy-metallic. It sounds like this I guess because the loose strings have more chance to rattle round on the frets and neck of the guitar. I used to do this a bit when I was younger but only because I was bored; I never really took it seriously as a different way to play your guitar. But it sounds really interesting, it gives a dark and murky tone; almost making your guitar sound like a different instrument. It also doesn't require you to navigate a different tuning; you just play it the same old way.

Often I don't take these kind of adjustments seriously. I think this is because I'm too fixed in my idea of what it is to play guitar; you pick it up, you make sure it's tuned and away you go. Also different tunings seem like too much work on an instrument which I find challenging enough. But it's a really good technique to remember I reckon.