Analyzing arrangements and covers by mashing them up …
June 9th, 2006 by etobias
I’ve always enjoyed having my students compare various arrangements of the same piece, discussing style and various musical elements that are similar and different. Over at the riddimmethod, wayneandwax gives an interesting example of tracking the development of different versions of a piece of music. Focusing on the various versions of “Solomon linda’s “mbubeâ€? (known to many more as the weaver’s “wimowehâ€? and the tokens’ “the lion sleeps tonightâ€?)” he uses the program live to create a mashup of several versions of the song.
While the mashup of mbube is a lesson in and of itself which could definitely be expanded to discuss examples of appropriation of music by discussing the history of the song, the actual method being used could be used successfully by music teachers to draw attention to various details they would like their students to focus on when analyzing various versions of a piece of music.
Imagine taking several different orchestral recordings of a piece, various versions of a jazz standard or various “covers” of their latest favorite song on the radio and mashing them up to show differences in interpretation. I wish this software was around several years ago when I had my students do a comparison of Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and the Kronos Quartet performing “Purple Haze”.
Students could use this process by taking several versions of a piece of music and mashing them to highlight elements they want to point out to their peers.
