Tuesday 16 April 2013

Week 6 Using Front and Back Heavy Phrasing





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What fun this course has been! What a pleasure it has been to get to know all you talented people through your music and blogging.  I’ll be following you!

In the last week of the course, we were asked to take our song from week 5 and revise it using front heavy (F) and back heavy (B) bar phrasing.  Front heavy means there is a syllable on the downbeat.  It’s used for statements of fact or when stability is desired.  Back heavy means coming in anytime after the downbeat, and is usually used for statements of uncertainty or instability.  Both can be used to set up an important line, like the title or a refrain.  For example, there might be several front heavy lines, creating the expectation of front heavy, and then the title line comes in back heavy, adding a spotlight to it.

Weak bar phrasing was also explained.  A group of 4, four bar phrases, can be sorted as strong, weak, strong, weak, just like the four beats in a measure of 4/4 time.  Using front heavy phrasing in the strong bars is the most stable.  Front heavy phrasing on a weak bar lessens that stability.  Similarly, back heavy phrasing on a strong bar is the most unstable.

We learned how to do this by listening to several iterations of the song “Pieces” co-written by Pat Pattison. It was really instructive to feel the song change as the phrasing changed. I spent much of my spare time this week looking at songs from my “dead file” to see how a good idea might be reworked.

My phrasing of the assignment 5 song changed quite a bit.  The front and back heavy approaches opened up the song for me and made it much easier to sing.  I’m not finished with this song yet.  I think the last verse needs to turn into a bridge to provide more variety in musical direction, and there may still be some tweaking with words.  I love the line “riders and rustlers and limping bronc busters” but I think it has to go for this song – at least the “limping” part.  It adds too much comedy to what I’m hoping will be a serious, dramatic feel.  However, I’m holding the line “riders and rustlers and limping bronc busters who sing a high falsetto” for a novelty song.

Here’s my assignment. I have divided the lyric into 4 bar phrases and marked each phrase with F or B. 
The Passion Rodeo

Verse 1.

She bounces in     (F)      like a Texas tumbleweed  (F)
Bright eyes        (B)      champagne woman          (F)

She doesn’t really (B)      trust the city           (F)
The air is grey    (B)      and the trees are weak   (B)


Chorus

She’s come to win her    (F)  one of the best of the   (F)
Passion rodeo            (F) 

Lookin’ to lose a little (B)  loneliness in this       (F)
Passion                  (F)  The Passion Rodeo        (B)


Verse 2

Riders and rustlers    (F)  and limping bronc busters    (F)
Downing shooters       (F)  with serious impatience      (B)

Reptilian eyes         (F)  paint her on the dance floor (F)
She’s that sugar plum  (B)  they’re all lookin’ for      (B)


Chorus

Verse 3

She’s not proud of the          (B)  life she’s led        (F)
She doesn’t want to die         (B)  in a cheap hotel      (F)
She takes too many chances      (F)  she knows it well but (F)
Like these cowboys she’s got a  (B)  a taste for hazard    (B)

Chorus

© 2013

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