Alicia Keys ft. John Mayer - Lesson Learned

Chart
Verse
- 8 bars: Piano / Lead Vocal /+Drums(last bar)
- 8 bars: +Guitars / +Bass
Pre Chorus
- 8 bars: +BG Vocal (John Mayer)
Chorus
- 14 bars: Lead Guitar(Melody)
Verse
- 8 bars
Pre Chorus
- 8 bars: +Guitar(16th)
Chorus
- 12 bars
Bridge
- 14 bar: Piano (16th Arpeggio)                                    
Chorus
- 14 bars
- 16 bars: +Synth / +Guitars
Outro
- 16 bars (Fade out)

Chord Progessions
Verse/Pre Chorus: A/C#m/F#m/D
Chorus: D/A/E/A+D
Bridge: D/D/F#m/E

One of the reasons I love this song so much
is that the collaboration of Alicia Keys & John Mayer
They both are a very talented and impressive artists
and I love both of their works so much
This song is a perfect which has both of their amazing characters
The drums and bass line is very "John Mayer" style
and with Alicia Keys voice, this song is filled with life and soul
Her performance gave the gloominess to this song
The accents in chorus is the cherry on the top
which goes closely with the melody
and the whole beat of the song is very lay back and loose
that enhanced the whole emotion of the song perfectly
I think that's a really good sample of collaboration
to bring both characters together and lift the song!!

Maroon 5 - Wake Up Call

Wake Up Call by Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is one of my favorite bands
This song is from their last album It won't be soon before long

Chart
Intro
- 1 pick up bar: Synth/Heart Beat
- 1 bars: Synth/Drums enter
Verse
- 6 bars: Synth drops/+Lead Vocal/+3 Guitars(LRC)/+Bass
Pre Chorus
- 4 bars: Vocal Double/Synth/Keys/2 guitars(LR) drop
Chorus
- 8 bars: +Guitar Power Chords(w/ Bass)/Guitars Strumming (Panned LR)
Verse
- 6 bars: Vocal Double Drop / Keys & Bass-Play accent on 1 & 3 / Guitars(LRC) / Synth(vibrato)
Pre Chorus
- 4 bars: +synth/+Vocal double & harmonies(panned) / Guitars(LR) drop
Chorus
- 8 bars: +Guitar Power Chords/+Guitars Strumming (Panned LR)/harmonies
Pre Bridge
- 2 bars: Keys Drop/All instruments play on down beats
Bridge
- 5 bars: All Stop on last bar & Effects only
Chorus
- 8 bars: +Guitar Power Chords/+Guitars Strumming (Panned LR)/+harmonies
- 8 bars
Outro
- 8 bars: +Guitar Power Chords/+Guitars Strumming (Panned LR)/harmonies/Lead Vocal Adlib
Fade out

Chord Progression
Verse: Em/Em/Am/Em/Em/Am
Pre Chorus: Em/Em/B/B
Chorus: Em/Em/B/B
(Em/F#dim7/G/A)
Bridge: B/B/B/B

I really like the bass line of this song
The accent is easy, but still cool~!!
the 2 guitars panning L & R and responding to each other at verse
and one guitar muted strumming! awesome one!!
especially the harmonies and automation
panning the background vocals around spices this song
and of cause the LV is great!! He really has a very unique, bright and recognizable voice

I kept listening to this song for more than 40 times today!!
and got stuck it this arrangement!! I better think of something myself to work on my arrangement!~~
= ="

Sara Bareilles - Bottle It Up

I really would like to keep writing a post everyday or at least 5 a week
but I have some struggle about what song to write
I mean, analysis does take some time to do right?
and picking a song to write about is not easy as well

anyways, I decided to write Bottle It Up by Sara Bareilles
who just released her newest album
I don't remember when did she release this song
but I know it's released in her album Little Voice with Love Song
I guess it's around 1-2 years ago
Bottle It Up is a really good song and I fell in love at the first time I listened
Nice groove and arrangement
Let's start from the instrumentation
It starts with just vocal, Bass and drums
with a nice up beat groove
and guitar comes in at the 5th bar
Then 2nd guitar and piano comes it at the end of 1st verse
and All instruments follow with the same groove
(awesome!! I just love that~!!!^^)
BG Vocals come in at chorus
Piano, Bass line and guitars change
then it goes back to verse and all instruments go back to the groove
and repeat chorus
In Bridge, all instruments drop except piano, bass and drums
the groove matches so cool in piano and bass
and guitar enters at the 2nd half of Bridge
Synth and piano only when it enters back to chorus
and outro with all instruments

There's a brief instrumentation
and about the vocals
Lead comes in at the very begining
clear with reverb
in pre-chorus I guess it adds a little more reverb
and the 1st and 2nd BG vocals enter with just harmonies
(though I think it's kinda buried in the guitars)
(PS the 2nd chorus added some adlibs)
however, in bridge the harmonies have taken a very important role
Texture Harmonies, Lyrics Harmonies and descents are all in the bridge
especially the descents is very well written
that just uplifts the whole song at bridge
the Lead voice verb was brought down a bit
and at the end the descents has given the section great ending

in terms of the chords
this song is in C major/A minor
Chord progression is basically
Verse Am/Em/F/C/G
Pre Verse Am/Am(/Ab)/Am(G)/F 
Chorus C/Em/Am/F
Bridge Am/(Ab)/(G)/(Gb)/Dm/(Db)/(C)/(B)

Actually the chords combination make a very interesting contrast
and that makes this song special too

in conclusion, I really do like the song
with all the great arrangement and production
especially the awesome groove
PS-I am thinking maybe this song will be my class project this month
since I figure everything out right?

HK TVB Singing Contest: Mag Lam - A.I.N.Y

I didn't know what happened in the newest Singing Contest "The Voice" hosted by TVB before
then I read the news that interviewed one of the contestant Mag Lam
and knew that she got a 92 average score in the latest contest
which was a very impressive score (over a 100)
Therefore I really have to write something about it before I forgot
(and that means the make up post I said I'll do has to postpone again~!!>.<)

the opponent of Mag is a girl from Malaysia
She chose to sing If I Ain't Got you and it was very well delivered
and Mag has chosen A.I.N.Y by GEM
I think both of them were singing pretty good
However, Mag has got a little advantage as A.I.N.Y is not as popular as If I Ain't Got you
Moreover, Alicia Keys' version is just way too good
even the opponent has sung it with great technique
it's still not quite good enough
and she didn't sing with the emotion in it
Relatively, though Mag is not flawless
she delivered the song with her true feelings in it
and she made it a really touching performance
with all her emotion out
that's why she won and got a really good score
However, I still think that she needs to improve her pronunciation
Her lack of vowels makes it hard to hear the lyrics
I can barely understand what she's singing
and Yes, she got a wonderful low, deep voice,
but she keeps her tone in the head voice
well that can certainly make her low tone nice
but it also restricts her voice in her head
When she sings out and projects, her voice sounds much better to me
I like her though, she still has a lot to improve........
I bet she'll get the champion or the 1st runner up
we'll see~!!!
PS- I just read the news, last Sunday she just got the champion of that contest!

Sounds in 'Step Up 3D'

Last post was totally unacceptable...........
I mean, I know I can do 10 times better than that in analyzing the song
I was gonna re-write that again
but I just watched Step up 3D tonight and I really need to talk about the sounds of this movie
so, there you go..........
It is a good movie if you're looking for great visual+hearing excitment
the choreography is amazing as usual and the sounds/music match with it perfectly
I really like how they used different SFX to the movements
It created a wonderful impact to the whole dancing

SFX
it has a lot of battle scene (well, classic dance movie scene right?)
and they used some really good SFX such as gun shots/electricity/low impact/explosion
which makes the movement very powerful and impacting
and I like the first battle that they used the animal sounds to match the movement
it's cool~!!!

Music
of cause, around 90% of the music is Hip Pop, Dance and R&B
That's the trend right
Other than that, there is one scene I really love
when Moose and Camile were dancing their old choreography back in high school on the street
and the music from the ice cream truck is a oldies from I guess around the 60's
it was very impressive
Btw, I was thinking that The Empire State of Mind is gonna be a big classic hit song in every movie about NY right?
it is a really good song
and Alicia Keys really brings out the "Urbanized" feeling in that song
I bet there will be a lot of movies using it when shooting NY!!!

Dialogue
compare to a lot of movies
it is a pretty good one
as least there ain't much scene that I can pick on the lips matching

BG/Foley
the foley has been done pretty decent
though some of the footsteps and movements sound kinda weird to me
(I guess no audience would pay attention to these little details anyways)
BG is great as there is a lot of crowd and indoor
which sounds very natural to me

This is a quite good movie if you enjoy all the cool dance and music
and the story of "pursuing your dream" storyline
I guess I might see that again when it's online or redbox

拍一半拖

This is gonna be my first post of song
And actually I have done another analysis in Clocks by Coldplay
I don't wanna post it as it was part of my homework and I really don't wanna deal with it for now

Indeed, this is a really good song who produced by Peter Kam
I really do appreciate Jason Chen's singing.........
He has a really good voice and he really can sing!!
This song was introduced by Penny when I was in HK last Christmas
The melody is great and lyric is matching the whole song
and the tricky part is.......... I couldn't figure out the keys without the keyboard
I finally sat down and listened through the whole song with keyboard yesterday
and found that it has 3 keys in a song
All Verses are in Ab major
Chorus and bridge are in A major
and last chorus it changes to Bb major
That is very interesting because all the transactions are very smooth and seamless
most of the audience don't realize it I guess
and to me, it sounds kinda funny and I know it changes keys
but I just couldn't figure out what keys it changes to
that is kinda cool
and that keys changing could be tricky to singer as well
if he couldn't grab the pitch firmly, he might have pitch problem when entering chorus
which fortunately he didn't

Instrumentation-wise
It is just a classy ballad instrumentation
which has a very nice and catchy piano hook
That makes the song very recognizable!
I think it has all the elements to be a hit
and it is................

MPA Project

Finally, I have decided what song I'm gonna use for my individual project
Wake Up Call by Maroon 5
That's a good song
Moreover, I have some idea to re-arrange it
Stay tune and see how I re-do that ~!!!^^

The Very First Time

Well....Actually this is not really my first blog

I have had 2 blogs before this one

however, those 2 blogs were my personal blogs

which did not seriously mean anything to others

And this blog, I really do want it to be a little bit more professional and meaningful

To me, this is a task to record my passion about music

my memory and analysis to songs I listened

and a challenge to my ear training

The inspiration that I started to write a blog

is actually from others bloggers

There are lots of bloggers who writes about their passion

i.e. Fashion &  Beauty, Food & Beverage, Travel, Cooking, etc

which is very fasinating

then I thought to myself

if I am gonna write a blog

what am I gonna write?

I love fashion, but I could never have this kinda money to buy all the fancy clothes and accessories every month/season

I love to eat, still I can't eat out all the time in my budget

I can cook, but not really a good one

And my life is kinda boring now as I am still studying here..........

At last, I finally thought of something that I love and I could write about

Yes, Music

I know I am not the best musician in the world

and I might not have the best ear right now

but I know that, after all the training throughout these years

and the FS education

I can write a great decent analysis about a song

the instrumentation, vocal, mixing, recording...etc

This is what I am good at and I believe

there might not be a lot of people interested in this kinda matter

it's still worth to write as a record of my music journey