RoR: Forum

Post 0

Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 10:21am

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I thought I would post a tune I wrote some time ago. I have my own very idiosyncratic theories of melody and music (see my site) and want to see how others react.

The song has lyrics, which read in part:

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Strength in Numbers

“There’s STRENGTH IN NUMBERS”--that’s what they teach.
You join a crowd so no one can harm you.
“Find STRENGTH IN NUMBERS, all you can reach--
Standing proud, you’ll walk arm in arm through hell.”

But ... [etc.]

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If anyone is interested I'll post the rest, but my main goal is to gauge the effect of the melody. I think the melody and harmonies are innovative, though I don't regard such innovation as a great value in music. (Melodic invention, yes.)

My sound equipment is rather primitive (one laptop), so please focus on the tune. To this end, it is probably best to listen twice.

Here's the link:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/rr.rawlings/misc.sound/strength.in.numbers.mp3

Thanks!

Rodney Rawlings

Post 1

Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 1:36pm

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Rodney: I enjoyed your song and I'd like to see the full lyrics, but what goes through my mind is that the melody is quite up beat and I think that the lyrics, judging from the first few lines, are going to be ironic or sardonic. I'm not sure that the tone of the music will match the tone of the lyrics.

Post 2

Wednesday, February 4, 2004 - 2:23pm

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Thank you very much for the comment. Here is the full lyric to this tune:

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Strength in Numbers

“There’s STRENGTH IN NUMBERS”--that’s what they teach.
You join a crowd so no one can harm you.
“Find STRENGTH IN NUMBERS, all you can reach--
Standing proud, you’ll walk arm in arm through hell.”

But their dark, secret shame
Hides a shell, and a shell is a game played.
Fear takes the lead, reason slumbers.
There’s no aim, just a game played with numbers.

1. If you wish to be strong, you don’t need a throng, old chum;
And what’s more, you’ll always be number one with me,
If you must measure STRENGTH IN NUMBERS.

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If the tune is repeated, the song has a second verse as follows:

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2. Should you join, right or wrong, and find that the throng encumbers at all,
Remember, two can make one like Gibraltar--
If you still think of your STRENGTH IN NUMBERS at all.

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If the second verse is used, the final phrase of the melody has two notes added to it.

As you see, it's basically a “love song.”

Rodney Rawlings

Post 3

Thursday, February 5, 2004 - 1:42pm

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Some little comments.

Firstly, the first three bars are off-putting. Instead of changing the chord in the second bar, have 2 bars with that chord, then the two lower. The way it is now leaves it feeling unfinished.

The fourth bar of the melody is far to plain, just being that one note the whole bar. Do something to stop that note droning on for so long.

Some of the chords don't sound right, they seem to clash with the melody note. The 8th bar of the melody sounds strange, it seems you have a seventh chord throughout the bar, it sounds a bit clashy to me. There is some later bars that also sound clashy.

My knowledge is sketchy, so I apologise if I have said things not applicable.

Post 4

Thursday, February 5, 2004 - 3:06pm

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Thank you for your input, vertigo!

The song is built on an unusual chord progression, to be sure. Part of my intent is to accustom the ear to it--the progression is used in some form throughout. Hopefully, for some listeners this happens not too slowly.

The oboe-like instrument is standing for the human voice that would sing the song (as do the choir-like sound and the accordion sound later on), and in my defense I'll say a few things that sound off here do come off much better with an actual voice and guitar. I don't swear by the arrangement I have devised by any means.

But, vertigo, two things I was always especially doubtful about were that "plain" spot you mention and that clash in "the 8th bar." So I think I may add a note to the spot, and eliminate the use of a ninth against the major chord changing to minor in the tune.

But no matter what I do, this will always be a very strange song, because I deliberately set out to use unusual chord progressions and to reach far afield in the key changes.

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating"--if the tune can't be appreciated musically, then it fails. But if some can learn to like it (and not take too long to do so!) that will be enough for me.

Post 5

Thursday, February 5, 2004 - 3:44pm

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Another small thing I notice is the third bar of the melody, by the words 'that's what they teach'. At the moment it goes '6 - 6 maj3 5' min3', where maybe '6 - maj3 6 5' would be more appropriate. This way you get that 'one two one' type sound, with the emphasis on the 7th note, not the 8th. I do realise, though, that perhaps it is your intention to have this unbalanced by having the emphasis on the 8th note. I hope I am explaining properly, it is hard to find the words.

Post 6

Thursday, February 5, 2004 - 3:45pm

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Of course, '6 - 6 maj3 5' min3' was supposed to be '6 - 6 maj3 5'. It's late...

Post 7

Thursday, February 12, 2004 - 4:44pm

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Most of my tunes aren't so experimental. Here's another I wrote about my wife (no lyrics yet):

http://mp3.about.com/library/midifiles/GERRI3.mid

Vertigo, I don't know that chord notation; but the first four chords are AMa7, Am7, BbMa7, Bbm7.

Post 8

Friday, February 13, 2004 - 9:25am

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Rodney, if you give me your email I will send you a midi-file I made of the verse part with some alternate chords, maybe it will be of value to you.

My other PC isn't available, but I'll tell you the first four chords soon, as well as I can name them.

Post 9

Friday, February 13, 2004 - 12:35pm

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I'm happy with the chords of STRENGTH IN NUMBERS as they are--they are what the song is built on--but I am curious, so my email is rr.rawlings@sympatico.ca.

(A few years ago I sent out the tune, unharmonized, to various strangers on the Net inviting them to guess what the first chords were, so this sort of thing intrigues me. But I did not do so out of dissatisfaction with any aspect of the song. It's a favorite of mine.)

Post 10

Friday, February 13, 2004 - 1:51pm

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I have sent it. By the way, soon after that first reply I changed my mind about that droning note, it is fine as is. This is the end of my experiment being a musician.

Post 11

Saturday, February 14, 2004 - 12:25pm

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Rodney, you said that the 2nd bar of the verse has a C bass note, but that should be a Bb. I think the first 8 bars' bass notes should be 'C, Bb, Dd, C, C, Bb, A, G'. Just try that, I think it makes that second chord sound better.

Post 12

Saturday, February 14, 2004 - 2:44pm

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The chords you suggested by email were exactly the ones I use in the recording. (I repeat this, not to brag, but merely to provide context for other readers here.) So I may be correct in thinking that the, to you, off-putting progression becomes less so in the listening.

A lot depends on the instrumentation--the oboe sound I used in place of the human voice proves unsuitable at some points (in the beginning phrases only). But I have heard the song in several different arrangements, such as guitar and voice, and all strings, and am happy with it.

Your version, with different bass notes than the ones I use later in the tune, does sound quite smooth, but I had unusual goals in this song. If you're interested enough, let me email you a sound file with another take on STRENGTH IN NUMBERS, one that you may perceive differently.

By the way, I erred in saying the tune is in A; it is in C.

Post 13

Sunday, February 15, 2004 - 10:58am

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Sure, I am interested. I don't think putting a C bass note on that second chord is a good idea, though.

Post 14

Sunday, June 29 - 9:53am

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This is an old thread about a pro-individualism song I wrote. But since I've significantly reworked this arrangement, I wanted to break the old link and provide a new one:

http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?PID=1125511&t=6968

As usual with these tunes I create on my laptop, one has to imagine how the lyrics fit to the tune. Also, the instrumental sounds and their control are limited by the inexpensive software I use.

I've also created a video that brings the lyric's theme into focus, and makes it very clear how the words attach to the music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8BuZXDjQoM

It's a happy coincidence that the initials of the title "Strength in Numbers" spell out the word "sin," which is an apt summation of collectivism!

Post 15

Sunday, June 29 - 5:09pm

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Hi, Rodney.

This is a beautiful composition.
And while I like your lyrics, I'm afraid I lack all musical creativity myself, so I'm having a hard time (in my head) applying the lyrics to the actual music...the song seems to work so beautifully as an instrumental.

Curious: Rodney, are there any singers you know who could record the lyrics and have them applied properly, so we (the musically-challenged) could hear how it truly sounds inside your head?

:-)

Post 16

Sunday, June 29 - 6:04pm

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Thank you so much. Nice to see such words beside that pretty face too. :-)

I take it you watched the video? If so, note that the lyrics appear on the screen approximately at the same time as the melodic phrase associated with them. But maybe this is more difficult for others than I assume.

I've often thought about hiring or convincing singers to perform or try out my material, but of course there is a lot of uncertainty and expense involved in shopping songs, and there is the matter of keeping faith in the value of one's creations despite neutral or negative reactions. (Much of the time, I am the very type of the sensitive artist.) Comments such as yours, however, are very encouraging--so again, thank you!

Post 17

Sunday, September 28 - 6:37pm

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I've framed it as an anti-Obama song now, by retitling it "ANTI-OBAMA SONG: Strength in Numbers."

The latest link here is to a slightly-higher-quality version of the video than I was able to put on YouTube.

How is it an anti-Obama song? Well, its theme is the horror of the group mentality, and that is what currently seems to be taking over in the runup to the US election. I'm hoping that will change in time for disaster to be avoided, but we are running out of time.

Post 18

Wednesday, November 5 - 6:58pm

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My ANTI-OBAMA SONG: “Strength in Numbers” seems especially apropos just now. I had been planning to delete the tag “ANTI-OBAMA SONG,” thinking Obama likely to lose. “But”—to use a Shakespeare line in a new sense—“music for the time doth change his nature.”

One needs a thick skin on this here Internet. My YouTube video got some ugly comments (not political ones either), which I deleted only because they contained no reasoning I wished to honor. (I do not delete all criticisms.) So I console myself with the fact that at least two people thought “Strength in Numbers” beautiful, and others said, “A wonderful, and thought provoking video”; “The more I watch this cryptic video, the more I like it. 6 stars!”

The Shakespeare passage continues thus—and it is a fitting way to close a post concerning the man who did not steal the election because he bought it fair and square:

The man that hath no music in himself,

Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds,

Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;

The motions of his spirit are dull as night

And his affections dark as Erebus:

Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

Listen to my song STRENGTH IN NUMBERS