What is the best way to analyze a song?

mike_l

Chords first?

scales used first?

Depends on what song/band?

Handsome_Chris

May I just say that the forum home page misleadingly retitles this thread.

http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac233/elastitude/ScreenShot2013-09-06at160604_zpsce459df9.png

frankus

with a glass of wine.

octatonic

With a pen and paper.

frankus

not a pencil? you might need to correct something.. it could get messy.

octatonic

frankus said:

not a pencil? you might need to correct something.. it could get messy.

Not if you do it right the first time.

Definitely a pencil if you're transcribing.

geepers0677

Handsome_Chris said:

May I just say that the forum home page misleadingly retitles this thread.

http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac233/elastitude/ScreenShot2013-09-06at160604_zpsce459df9.png

I just took a screenshot but was beaten to it! haha!

randomhandclaps

I would always start with the chords.  The chordal structure give you the answers - or at least enormous clues as to every other element.  The scales used are only relevant when you understand what is going on in the chordal bed and narrow your search down dramatically.

mike_l

@randomhandclaps ; Thanks that's what I was looking for, although I've learned songs, I've never really analysed them in any depth at all.

Clarky

start with the song's "form" [structure]

then you essentially have a map through all of the sections

listen for the orchestration / instrumentation so you can get an idea of how many individual parts there are

note the types of sounds / timbres being used

then take a look at the chord progressions in each section

from this in conjunction with the melody lines you can determine the tonality [key / scales / modes etc being used]

once you have these fundamentals, start trying to find points of interest in the details..

mike_l

@Clarky ; thanks. I shall use this info.

HAL9000

How about a pie chart showing the things that Meatloaf would or wouldn't do for love?

randomhandclaps

HAL9000 said:

How about a pie chart showing the things that Meatloaf would or wouldn't do for love?

Already on it -

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a579/imadray/That_zps3d12f210.jpg

EricTheWeary

Quite pleased with myself that I was going to say start with the structure and Clarky had already said it.
Depends a bit on the music but structure first means you are listening to how the song works as a whole, easy starting point as you probably won't need to work anything hard out as such ( intro, verse , verse, chorus, solo over verse, verse, chorus,etc, etc)and you find out how much there is to learn ( intro phrase, verse riff, chorus riff, solo,etc ).for idiots like me working out the lyrics isn't a bad thing to do early on either ( assuming it has words). This goes hand in hand with working out the structure and what the song is trying to achieve and being familiar with the lyrics gives you signposts when focussing on sub sections later on and if you want to learn the entire song (know the lyrics or count the bars). These are like doing the edge pieces on a jigsaw first. In a live context they also mean you know when to come back in after a screw up. Oh, that just me then... X_X