how to analyze lyrics for a misic course

How do you analyze a song?

There are many ways to analyze songs. You can do a harmonic analysis and pull a song apart to understand its chord structure, the vocal harmonies, and that sort of thing. Or you could analyze the lyrics to find deeper meaning. Or perhaps you might think about the melodies and consider how they’re constructed.

Why analyze song lyricals with adolescents?

Analyzing song lyrics with adolescents can provide a sense of normalcy, facilitate an understanding of death, loss, and grief, and help them identify and express emotions in a more natural and comfortable way.

Do songwriters need to analyze music to get better?

The songwriters who get better quickly are the ones who know how to analyze music. Look at it this way: If you don’t have the ability to analyze songs, you have only your instincts to help you improve.

What is the analysis stage of songwriting?

THE ANALYSIS STAGE: Determine why those elements of the song work or fail, and figure out what might be done to improve the weaker elements. It goes without saying that this kind of analysis can (and should) be done on your own, and other musicians’, songs.

How do you write an analysis of a song?

How do I Write a Song Analysis Essay?Listen and Brainstorm. Listen to the song a few times. ... Read Closely and Analyze. Get a printout of the song lyrics so you can scrutinize them more closely. ... Consider the Music. ... Research the Historical Context. ... Examine the Album. ... Organize Your Notes. ... Write Your First Draft.

What are the 5 most important aspects of songwriting?

5 Important Aspects of Songwriting to ConsiderArticle Content. ... Vision. ... Arrangement. ... Production. ... Self-Awareness. ... Open Mindedness.

What is the first an effective way to start analyzing a piece of music?

The most effective way to start with a melody analysis is to draw what is called a 'melody contour'. This is perfect if you don't know much music theory, as all you are drawing is a line over time, representing changes in pitch.

How do you analyze and listen to music?

0:2112:19How to Analyze Music and WHY - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipAnd take extra steps to analyze the score further and how do we even go about doing that for meMoreAnd take extra steps to analyze the score further and how do we even go about doing that for me analyzing a piece of music has a lot to do with gaining clarity. And insight into the music. Beyond

What are the elements of songwriting?

The elements of music for songwritingMelody. While all the elements of music will determine the quality of your song, the melody is usually the one that makes it or breaks it. ... Harmony. ... Rhythm. ... Tempo. ... Timbre. ... Dynamics. ... Texture. ... Form.More items...

What is the most important thing in song writing?

Repetition is a good thing in songwriting. In music, once we hear something, we want to hear some aspect of it repeating: the melody itself, the chords, the rhythms, perhaps the lyric. Repetition is one of the most important components of song form, and it's usually vital.

How do you analyze a melody?

Assuming the music is tonal or in a key, I suggest analyzing the notes of a melody in four ways:rhythm - metric placement.harmony - note relative to the chord (if a the melody is accompanied)tonality - relative to the key (or tonal center if perhaps the music isn't clear cut major/minor key)More items...•

What does analyze music mean?

Musical analysis is the study of musical structure in either compositions or performances. According to music theorist Ian Bent, music analysis "is the means of answering directly the question 'How does it work?' ".

What are the 12 elements of music?

Basic Music ElementsSound (overtone, timbre, pitch, amplitude, duration)Melody.Harmony.Rhythm.Texture.Structure/form.Expression (dynamics, tempo, articulation)

What is M USIC in music?

M usic is a powerful language to express our feelings and in many cases is used as a therapy to deal with tough moments in our lives. The different sounds, rhythms, and effects used in music are capable to modify our emotions for a moment, but there’s a component that sometimes goes unnoticed when we are listening to music; The Lyrics of the songs.

Why is the lyric column not important?

As you may notice, the lyric column has a lot of words and symbols that are not important to study because they are used to explain the structure of the song , so I cleaned this information using the function clean_data () and also creating a new column to group songs by decade.

What were the first two words used in Metallica lyrics?

As you may notice during the 1980s the first 2 most common words used in lyrics of Metallica are Life and Death with a frequency of 12 for both words. But during the 1990s just life was used only in 6 lyrics and Death in just 1 for the rest of the decades. 3.

How many words did Metallica use in the 1990s?

The lyrics of the songs released in the 1990s have a little more of positive feelings rather the other decades. In the 2010s Metallica used 323 unique words to create the lyrics of 6 songs. The number of words per lyrics are in a range between 50 and 70.

What is another cool analysis that can help us to understand this data?

Another cool analysis that can help us to understand this data is taking a look at the tendency among the most frequent words used in a decade compared to the frequency of the same words in other decades.

How many times did Metallica use the word "young"?

For instance, the word young was used in 1 song in the 1980s, 2 songs in the 1990s, and 0 times in the 2000s, and 2010s.

Get professional help and free up your time for more important courses

Analysis of Song Lyrics. (2016, Nov 19). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/analysis-of-song-lyrics/

Cite this page

Analysis of Song Lyrics. (2016, Nov 19). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/analysis-of-song-lyrics/

How To Analyze Songs by 12tone

One of the my favorite parts of being a music theorist is being able to take apart all my favorite music to see how it ticks, so I thought it’d be fun to show y’all how I go about doing that! That way you can try it out on your own favorite songs instead of waiting for me to get around to them.

How To Analyze Songs by April Keez

How to analyze a song! In this video, I’m giving you twelve different ways to analyze music. Try using these steps to analyze a song you love and then see if you can replicate your favorite aspects! If you found this video helpful, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and ring that cute little bell icon to be notified every time I post!

How to Analyze Music and WHY by

In this video I try to answer a question about the point of analyzing music that I receive often. Using a Chopin Mazurka as an example, I show different approaches I might take in analyzing a piece of music and my personal reasons as to why I value these practices.

What does it mean when you don't like music?

That usually means that when you listen to songs, you make a quick (usually subconscious) judgment about whether or not you like the song. If you like it, great. If you don’t, you don’t typically analyze why you don’t like it; you simply move on.

Can you learn a lot from analyzing one song?

You may feel that you don’t really learn a lot by analyzing one song. The benefit of analysis comes from comparing several songs once you’ve done a dozen or more analyses. The more songs you analyze, the more you can compare things like intro length, melodic shape, lyrical elements, and so on.

Why is it impossible to analyze a song?

It's impossible to properly analyze a song by simply reading the lyrics. This is because sometimes the lyrics go against the music. So for example, the music can be upbeat and the lyrics could be sad or angry. Here are some songs that might be worth analyzing.

What is the basic unit of music?

The basic unit of music in our society is the song . Songs can range from long instrumental ballads and symphonies to short upbeat modern pieces with lyrics. Believe it or not, songs are considered media messages, and so the same media literacy rules apply to songs as to other forms of media.

What song was popular in 1991?

1991's "Black or White" by Michael Jackson - This was a popular song of its era, and the single sold millions of copies. The music video adds another layer to analyze since we are no able to compare the music, the lyrics, and the visuals.

What song was written during the Vietnam War?

Here are some songs that might be worth analyzing. 1965's "Eve Of Destruction" by Barry McGuire - This song was written during the Vietnam war and is a great way to get an idea of what kids were listening to back then and the types of messages they were exposed to.

Is music a part of our lives?

Music is a common part of our lives and of our society. We hear music everywhere, from full albums on our CD players and the latest hit singles on the radio to music in commercials, restaurants, elevators, etc.

How many times should I listen to a song before analyzing?

I would recommend listening at least once for every minute of length. So for a standard song of 4-5 minutes, listen 4 or 5 times before analyzing. With each listening, you hear things you didn’t hear before.

What happens if you don't analyze songs?

Look at it this way: If you don’t have the ability to analyze songs, you have only your instincts to help you improve. With analytical skills, you are able to determine why successful songs work, and can transfer that knowledge to your own musical creations.

How to begin the analysis stage?

To begin the “Analysis Stage”, take another look at the formal map you created in Step 2 above. You should be seeing that a song intro is relatively short, that verses and choruses generally have the same or similar length, that the chorus happens before the 1-minute mark, etc. Analyze the melodies.

Is music analysis important?

Music analysis can include your own likes or dislikes, but it’s really not an important part of analysis . You can use your own aversions to a song as a starting point for analysis, but be objective enough to accept that songs you don’t care for could still be good. So how does one analyze a song?

Required Libraries

Obtaining, Cleaning, and Transforming The Data

Having Fun Analyzing The Data

Sentiment Analysis of Songs Lyrics

• VADER (Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner) of the NLKT Python Library is a lexicon and rule-based sentiment analysis tool. VADER uses a combination of A sentiment lexiconis a list of lexical features (e.g., words) which are generally labeled according to their semantic orientation as either positive or negative. VADER model uses 4 diff...

See more on towardsdatascience.com

Interpretation of Results and Conclusion