B+ (Be Positive): Teardown of a Music Band Performance

The sound of music played by a live band mesmerizes us, and leaves us wondering what makes it so pleasant to hear. We engineers like to take everything apart, and look under the hood. In this post, I will present a layer-by-layer introduction to the different parts that typically go into making of a song.

So, put on your earphones, and let us embark on a musical journey together.

1. Basic Beats Let us start with the basic beats, created with drums and percussion instruments. You must have seen a drum kit that contains bass drum, snare, tom-toms, hi-hat, cymbals, and so on. Add to it percussion instruments such as tambourine, cowbell, shakers, triangle, and other hand percussion, to provide extra color to the rhythm. Listen to the track below to hear the sound of the resulting beats. (Use earphones for listening pleasure).
2. Bass Let us add Bass sound to the basic beat. Bass presents the low notes that play some sort of rhythmic, moving series of notes. It may be an electric, acoustic (upright), or synth bass sound, depending on the style of music. Listen to the track below to see how it sounds after Bass is added.
3. Chordal Part A band may have one or more players playing the chords on different instruments. When we add chordal part to our song, it gives an interesting color to the sound of the beat. Listen to the track below to know what I mean:
4. Sustained Chords For additional interest, instruments like strings or synth pad are used to add sustained chords. This brings more variety to the sound. Listen to the track below in which strings have been added:
5. Lead Guitar Now, lead guitar is added to play the preludes and interludes of the song. At this point, the song starts to come alive. Listen to the track below to get a feel of it:
6. Melody Finally, it is time to add the main melody part. In this example, we used a piano to do this part, but it can be vocals as well. Our performance is ready now. Listen to the completed song below, can you distinguish different sounds that went into making it?

So, these are the different parts of a typical song. All these parts need to be played in perfect tune and rhythm for it to sound good, that’s why a band has to put in a lot of practice and preparation into any performance. It should be interesting to know that electronics plays a major role in creation of music these days. Many bands that are small use electronic keyboards today to create several of these sounds.

Read next post in the series - Novice in Wonderland - from Audio to Music