How to Deconstruct a Song Mentally

Deconstructing a song mentally is a music production exercise to study how songs are composed. It becomes force of habit naturally, sometimes. Anyways, here's how its done:

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. (Break the song into sections.) First, you need to identify the different parts of a song: Intro, Verses, Chorus, Bridge and Outro. The Intro and Outro are the beginning and end of a song, respectively. The Chorus (or Hook) is the part of the song that is repeated more than once. The Verses are the parts of the in between the Intro, Choruses and Outro. The Bridge is where the 3rd Verse would be.

2. (Isolate each instrument track.) Next, you will need to mentally isolate each individual instrument track. Most songs are comprised of Rhythm (Drums), a Melody, a "Pad", and a Bassline. There may be multiple rhythms, melodies and pads. You will have to isolate each instrument by ear. Counting the number of instruments helps as well.

3. (Hum melody / replay rhythm.) Once you can isolate the instrument tracks, you should try humming or harmonizing the melodies, and replaying the drums. This practice will give you a better understanding of the song's production.

4. (Listen for variations.) Many songs contain variations within the Verses, Bridge and Chorus. These are usually signified by shifts in the song's melody / rhythm. Picking up on these changes will help you decompose a song while listening to it.

5. (Listen to the song and "mute" certain tracks.) After considerable practice, you should be able to mute out certain instrument tracks, and focus on others. This will allow you to isolate melodies that involve multiple instruments.

[sonni57]

on 8/5/2009 You make deconstructing a song sound easy thanks for the good article.