Form and how we use it.

Form is how we organize music.

What do we do with music? We listen to it. We create it. We communicate our feelings with it. We tell stories with it. Music is a language we use to share these feelings and stories. When we listen to music we can use a series of tools to understand what the composer is hoping to share with us listeners. This unit's tool is: FORM.

Form is how we organize music.

Q: Do we have to organize the music we write?

A: Nope. But I can't promise anyone will get what you're trying to say. And if you have to explain it then aren't you organizing it anyway?

Q: Do we have to organize the music we listen to in class?

A: Absolutely. We are music scientists in this class. We listen and observe music and write down what we hear. This turns into data that we analyze to figure out what this means to us. When we figure out the form, we can get one step closer to understanding the order of the story/feelings/message the composer wants us to know.

Q: Wait, will we really be able to tell what the composer's story is from listening to the music? What if we're wrong.

A: Listen. We're not going to know unless we directly ask the person who wrote the music. BUT here's the deal. If the music made you feel any feeling, gave you any ideas, or inspired you to create anything, then it doesn't matter. Your ideas, feelings, and creations came from this and you're ultimately trying to figure out what the composer did to make that happen. The composer may work really hard to control how you feel listening to their music, but if you feel differently...that's up to you bud. Let's discover why.

Form for music: THE BIG PICTURE

When we are trying to figure out the form of music we are listening to determine sections.

We determine sections by listening for distinct changes in

- Tone

- Rhythm

- Instruments

- Mood

- genre

We can label different sections by giving the names to make sure we know which section is which.

If the song has lyrics we can use section names like:

VERSE

CHORUS

BRIDGE

TAGLINE

If the song doesn't have lyrics, we can just give each section it's own letter name like A,B,C, D, etc...

If you hear a section play more than once, you give that same name that you gave the section the first time you heard it.

Once you've listened to the whole song and named all the sections you can see the order of the song more clearly. Ask yourself, what the order tells you. Is there anything special about the order? If sections are repeated, why do you think they are? We will practice asking different questions about form in class

EXAMPLES WE LISTENED TO IN CLASS:

Can you figure out their form?

1. Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin

2. Hungarian Dance no. 5 by Johannes Brahms

3. Daemon irrepit callidus by György Orbán

4. Piano Man by Billy Joel

5. Africa by Toto

6. We don't Talk about Bruno by Lin Manuel-Miranda

7. Jumpstarted - Jukebox the Ghost

Bonus songs we didn't listen to:

1. Keep Breathing by Ingrid Michelson

2. Nobody's side by ABBA and Tim Rice

3. Der Hölle Rache by Mozart

4. The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Paul Dukas

5. Husavik - My Marrianne

6. Fantasie Negre No. 3 - Florence Price