Roads Untraveled: Linkin Park Chord Progression

 

Am           C       F        

Weep not for roads untraveled 

Am           C           G 

Weep not for paths left alone 

                                                                            

        F          Am        E             Am

Cause beyond every bend is a long blinding end 

         Am            E         Am 

It's the worst kind of pain I've known 

Am           C          F        

Give up your heart left broken. 

    Am         C          G 

And let that mistake pass on 

                     

          F             Am          E             Am

Cause the love that you lost wasn't worth what it cost 

       Am             E         Am 

And in time you'll be glad it's gone. 

Am - C - F - Am - C - G - F - Am - E - Am - E - Am  (x2) (same rhythm as above)

Woahoowoah...

Am           C       F        

Weep not for roads untraveled 

Am           C        G

Weep not for sights unseen 

                     

         F          Am         E          Am

May your love never end and if you need a friend, 

          Am          E        Am   

There's a seat here along side me. 

Wooooohooowooo.. Am - C - F - Am - C - G - F - Am - E - Am - E - Am  (x2)

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/l/linkin_park/roads_untraveled_ver3_crd.htm

The song that I chose to analyze for this blog post about chord progressions is Roads Untraveled by Linkin Park. As I'm quite familiar with the song, I already knew that it had a minor tonality, and I figured out that the tonic must be A minor because almost all of the phrases begin and/or end with the Am chord. I determined the roman numeral namesfrom there. 

Am: i (tonic)
C: III (pre-dominant)
F: VI (pre-dominant)
G: VII (pre-dominant)
E: V (dominant)

Each verse follows this chord progression:
i, III, VI, i, III, VII, VI, i, V, i, i, V, i
Tonic, pre-dominant, pre-dominant (period 1), tonic, pre-dominant, pre-dominant (period 2), pre-dominant, tonic, dominant, tonic (period 3), tonic, dominant, tonic (period 4).

Each chorus follows this chord progression:
i, III, VI, i, III, VII, VI, i, V, i, V, i. 
Tonic, pre-dominant, pre-dominant, tonic, pre-dominant, pre-dominant, pre-dominant, tonic, dominant, tonic, dominant, tonic.

The entire song is in Am, and each chord progression follows the expected pattern of minor chords. Even the V chord is major, meaning that the seventh note in the scale, G, was raised (to create E major).

Nutcracker Mvt. 10: Box 4

This is the recording of box 4 taken in class:
(For some reason this isn't uploading to Blogger...)

This recording does not sound super good, as we all need to practice this part. A video of me practicing the part is provided below:

It's not perfect yet, I still mess up some of the trills (because of the awkward positions) and the sixteenth notes at the end. I established a good fingering for the entire passage though, so hopefully it will sound better when I play it in class :)

Nutcracker Mvt. 8: 87-90

Like I was "technically" supposed to do for my last blog, I have practiced the section 87-90 of the eighth Nutcracker movement. A video of me playing it should be available below: 

To play this well, I focused on bow division, specifically giving each of the slurred quarter notes an equal portion of the bow (to maintain a constant volume - fortissimo!). I also focused on the rhythms of the harder sections, such as the group of sixteenth note triplets + quintuplet before box 88, and the hemiola right before box 90.

Technically Supposed to be Nutcracker Mvt. 8 Boxes 87-90 (Orchestra)

This portion of the Nutcracker is not incredibly difficult for the violas, in fact I only played through it twice during my practice time this weekend, and that sufficed. However, there were several other things that I focused on while I was practicing:

• In the 10th movement of the Nutcracker Suite, there is a false harmonic solo for the viola. It is technically for two soloists, the first and second chair violists, and since I am one of those it is important for me to master this solo for the concert. Today I went over how to play each note as a false harmonic, and also played each note normally to get used to shifting around on first finger.
• All State Orchestra auditions are this upcoming weekend, so I played through all of the required scales, EM, FM, F#M, GM, and G chrom., and both of the excerpts, the viola solo from the Roman Carnival Overture by Berlioz, and a part of the third movement of Brahms' Symphony No. 2. I focused on keeping both excerpts at the given tempi and playing them to be as musical as possible.
• I also looked at my current concerto, Handel's Viola Concerto in B Minor. I have been working on this piece for several months, so my main goal today was to play through the entire thing without stopping (even if it required a slower tempo).
• Finally, I read through the second part of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 by Bach as I am going to play this as a duet for solo and ensemble. I took the first movement at a very slow tempo as it was my first time ever looking at it, and I worked out a few fingerings as well. I'll continue to work on this for solo and ensemble.

Identifying Intervals (DP1 Music)

The interval between the third (D) and fourth (G) notes of the trumpet's main melody (duhn duhn duhn - duuuuh) is a perfect fourth.

First Concert Reflection (Orchestra)

Last week we had our very first orchestra concert of the year at Lahser High School. This was an interesting experience not only because it was our first performance as an ensemble, but also because of the performance venue. Lahser is no longer an active high school, so the building was slightly dingy and smelly because of it! Despite the fact that it was not the fanciest venue, our orchestra performed as if it was.

At this concert, we performed Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and a lovely piece called In the Company of Angels by William Hofeldt. This was not my first time playing the first movement of Schubert because I played it at Avanti Summer Music Fest this past summer. However, I had not played the second movement, so I still had a new piece to work on (along with Angels of course). Although I individually did not have much to improve upon, the orchestra as a whole did. From the very first rehearsal of the piece to the final performance, our orchestra showed incredible growth and skill. We mastered techniques specific to the pieces, such as playing quietly but maintaining rich tone in the second movement, and playing extremely fast runs in unison across sections in both movements of the Schubert! We learned to listen to each other and cue each other in not only within sections, but throughout the orchestra. Cuing through breathing was vital to our success this concert. In addition to this, our greatest achievement of the night was the musicality of our performance, which is a regular achievement of our orchestra.

Although our growth this concert was obvious, we did have several faults. The most notable flaw was our tendency to rush the slow, quiet second movement. I do not wish to discredit the band, but I must admit that they tended to rush more frequently than the strings did; their doing so is reasonable because they were so far away from Mr. Wolf on stage! This error was easily fixed, however, as the strings pulled the tempo back at times when the band parts were less prominent. Another flaw was our slight inaccuracies in pitch. This is a common error for our orchestra and all orchestras at our level, but it is almost always managed and fixed when it occurs! We need to continue to work on achieving perfect intonation for our future concerts. We should also focus on looking up at Mr. Wolf to prevent any rushing that may occur, and cue even more dramatically so that everyone in the orchestra knows exactly who is coming in and at what times.

Unfinished Symphony Mvt. 2 Measures 103-110 and 244-252 (Orchestra)

This weekend I worked on the two major runs in the second movement of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, and, unlike the first movement, I had never practiced them super intensively before.

Included below is a video of the very first time I played the run in measures 103-110:

Ultimately this run is harder for me to play than the one in measures 244-252, so I worked with this one much more (even though I did the same basic exercises with each run). First, I got out my metronome and set it to the lethargic tempo of 65 (approximately the tempo that this video is played at) and worked at that tempo until I could play the notes with minimal, if any, mistakes. Then, I slowly increased the tempo and mastered the run at each tempo until I reached 86 bpm, concert tempo.

Included below is a video of 103-110 at 86 bpm:

As you can see, this is still pretty bad but I am working on it! (It sounds SO much better at 76 bpm)

However, the run in measures 244-252 is much better than this one!

Included below is a video of 244-252 at 86 bpm:

This still isn't 100% perfect in this video (I blame it on starting exactly on the run without any time to acclimate myself to the tempo in the measures before the run) although I have played it perfectly before! To achieve this level of *perfection* I followed the same process as the first run. :)

I will continue to work on both runs up until the day of the concert because they are the only challenging part of the second movement!

PS: I updated this after I published it because I realized that there was some sort of error that caused the last two videos to not play :(

Ex's and Oh's Analysis (DP1 Music)

The song I chose for this blog post is Ex's and Oh's by Elle King because I recently discovered it (thanks to Alt Nation) and am currently obsessed with it.

Structure

• 0:00 - 0:35 = Verse One (A)
• 0:35 - 1:09 = Chorus (B)
• 1:09 - 1:37 = Verse Two (A)
• 1:37 - 2:18 = Chorus (B)
• 2:18 - 2:32 = Bridge (C)
• 2:32 - 3:22 = Chorus (B) 

Like most songs in pop culture today this song has several verses and a repeating chorus, as well as a short bridge. Each verse has a melody that repeats twice within each verse, to repeat four times overall. The chorus also has a double period melody. The bridge consists of a guitar solo that follows the same sort of melody but has slight variation because it goes higher when the traditional melody goes lower. 

There is not a particular form when it comes to binary or ternary because of the A-B-A-B-C-B format. There are two many sections for it to be binary, and the presence of the C portion stops it from being ternary. The song in general can be considered modified strophic form because parts of it do repeat. 

Somewhere I Belong Analysis (DP1 Music)

I chose to analyze a different type of song for this blog post, certainly very different from Claire De Lune! The song, Somewhere I Belong by Linkin Park is from their album titled Meteora, and it's a bit on the angsty punk side of their style. The music video of the song is included below:

Meter:

• This song can be felt at either a fast 4/4 or a moderate 2/4, although I think 4/4 fits the song better because each beat is emphasized (particularly in the chorus) instead of every other beat. 

Tempo:

• The tempo is extremely fast if felt in 4/4, my guess is somewhere around 160, or presto.

Melody:

• The verses contain a melody that is almost entirely monotone with very little movement, so these sections of the song can be considered conjunct. The chorus, however, is less monotone, but still moves in a step-wise manner that classifies it as conjunct. To the effect of being monotone, the range of the melodies is not very large, although the melody hops up slightly during the bridge. 

Texture

• The song starts fairly homophonic, with a single-note percussion line, then gradually more parts are added until it is polyphonic. After a few seconds of polyphony, the guitars enter and create a more prominent homophony with the bass guitar harmonizing with the guitar. Shortly after this, more intense parts drop out so that only two contrasting parts are left along with the bass line, making a less intense polyphony than before. When the vocals begin, the texture is homophonic because the guitar is accompanying the melody (vocals). There is another vocal part during the verses, but it is not considered a counter melody because it is not played at the same time as the main melody (it is more like call and answer). This type of texture continues throughout the chorus and the following verses until the abrupt end of the song.

Instrumentation

• There are two different singers in the piece, one covers the verses and the other covers the chorus. The latter tends to sing in a higher register, while the first sings in a lower register. There are several chordophones used in the song, mainly the electric guitar and the bass guitar. A drum set is present to keep the beat, so there are membranophones (the actual drums) and idiophones (the cymbals) used within that set.  Many layers of this song are electronically produced, so anything that isn't a guitar. drum set, or vocals is an electronophone. 

Unfinished Symphony 1st Mvt. Measures 176-184 (Orchestra)

As I played the first movement of this piece this past summer at Avanti Summer Music Fest, there wasn't much to practice for this blog. However, the one run that the violins and violas play together (measures 176-184) has always given me trouble, so I decided to work on it again.

 This time around, I slowed the tempo down during practice to work on the intonation of each note. At Avanti, it was difficult to get every note perfect first, because we took the song at concert tempo at the first rehearsal and never slowed down, and second, because we only had five days to master each piece. The time restraint and the inability to play each song slowly made things besides intonation top priority. It did not help that I was first chair as well, and had to focus on cuing and at least looking like I was playing every note correctly (ha!).  Slowing down the tempo was extremely helpful because I was able to identify when I needed to shift, which shifts I needed to practice, and how to get each shift perfectly in tune.
As well as slowing it down, I also broke the run up in rhythms, putting emphasis on different notes each time. This helped me to shift perfectly each time because it made some shifts faster than others and so on and so forth. Breaking a hard section up in rhythms is something I always find incredibly helpful, and I plan on doing so with the runs in the second movement of this piece.
If you watch the video you will notice that I have a little hiccup around measure 181, and I didn't edit this out or redo the video because this is one spot in particular that I have always struggled with, and I felt it appropriate to label it in the video as something that I will continue to work on.

Clair De Lune Analysis (DP1 Music)

The piece that I chose to listen to and describe is Clair De Lune from Suite Bergamasque by Claude Debussy.
Although I'm one hundred percent certain you've heard it, I've attached a video with the song for reference:

• Right off the bat, I know that Clair De Lune means "moonlight" in French, and because of this I can assume that the piece will have a peaceful, calm, and regal sound. 
• Throughout the piece, there is only one instrument - the piano - and the texture is thin due to this. At times, the texture grows slightly heavier because of the addition of large chords or a moving bass line, but overall the feeling is light.
• For the majority of the piece, the bass line, or left hand, creates harmony for the melody, or the right hand. 
• I believe that the piece is in 9/8, or compound triple meter.
• The piece is lyrical, dramatic, and expressive, and follows a slightly slower tempo: andante. This factors in to the style of the piece, assuming that the way the piece flows was a choice made by the performer. In this particular recording, the musician uses plenty of rubato to emphasize the shape of each phrase. 
• Clair De Lune has an overall major tonality, starting in a major key and ending in one, despite the minor tendencies during the middle sections. 
• The dynamics change throughout the piece; more intense sections had a higher volume, while the peaceful sections had a lower volume. Generally, the bass line and melody questioned and answered each other, and were emphasized by a greater dynamic when "speaking."
• The structure of this piece is not as clear as it is in other pieces that follow a simple ABA type format; it is slightly more complex. At the beginning, there is a small introduction that leads to the main theme (first 30 seconds of the video). The main theme continues until the 1:00 mark, where a build up of sorts begins, and continues until approximately 1:38 where a transition occurs. One would expect for their to be a huge climax after a build up of that magnitude, however the suspense and the tension fizzle away as the transition begins. This section cannot be called more than just a transition because it ends at 1:49, making it only 11 seconds long! Despite its length, this transition is very important because it leads to a next, secondary theme. As opposed to the first theme, this one has a more prominent, moving bass line, and is a bit louder and chaotic despite the overarching lyrical melody. It also introduces a more minor tonality, and is notably longer than the first theme. The theme ends at 3:03, where the first theme reappears with little transition. The only difference between the first time this theme was played and the second time is that there are more accidentals (and minor chords) during the second portion, particularly the chord at 3:37. At 4:10, a variation of the second theme reoccurs, most likely the coda, and closes the piece with the addition of several concluding chords.  

Jane Beckwell

Final Concert Reflection (Orchestra)

Our last concert was yesterday night at Bloomfield Hills High School. This concert was one of our most incredible and successful concerts at the IA. We performed 10 pieces, each of which was a concerto featuring instruments from cellos and violas to flutes and pianos. There are many things that I am proud of, many things that our ensemble improved upon, and many things that I personally improved upon.

Things that I'm Proud Of:

I'm most proud of how our ensemble worked to make each soloist the star of the show. We fine-tuned everything that was needed to accomplish this including changing our dynamics to match the soloists', keeping track of where the soloist was and adjusting if they jumped ahead or fell behind, and essentially memorizing each solo to make this possible. Listening and adjusting to the soloist is essential in accompanying them because it makes it as easy as possible for them, and assures them that they can trust us to save them at any costs!
On top of this I am also proud (as always) of how our ensemble worked together. We communicated effectively, cuing and signaling whenever applicable. We breathed a LOT more during this concert which made coming in together and staying together much easier. It also made it a lot easier to play correctly because oxygen in the brain is always helpful.

Things the Ensemble Improved Upon:

In this concert we definitely improved upon our communication as a group. Accompanying soloists is a very different task than what we are used to, so this concert took more practice and rehearsals than the average. We essentially had to learn an entirely new skill! We improved our balance as an ensemble to fit the soloists, and this will help us when we are playing our everyday average concert pieces. The amount of time we accomplished these things in is extremely impressive!

Things I Personally Improved Upon:

For this concert the seniors were not there for the majority of the time, and because of this I moved up to second chair. Being second chair is much different than being in any other position because as a principal player you have many responsibilities, including cuing (more dramatically), determining bowings, collaborating with other section leaders, and watching Mr. Wolf more forcefully. This wasn''t my first experience as a principal player but I still learned a lot during this concert that I will apply in the next two years.