» meta-songs http://www.losdoggies.com Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:13:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 Meta-songs http://www.losdoggies.com/archives/34 http://www.losdoggies.com/archives/34#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:24:36 +0000 Los Doggies http://losdoggies.com/?p=34 A meta-song is self-referential. A fine example of a meta-song is found in "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen.

Click on the sinusoid to hear. The lyrics in the melody refer to the chords as they are played.


The ‘Fourth’ and the ‘Fifth’ refer to chord degrees. There are seven chords in a classic major & minor scale.


“Hallelujah” begins on the C ( I ), then goes to the F ( IV ),
the G ( V ). The A Minor VI, and the F major IV.

The singer of the song attempts to serenade his lover, who doesn’t “really care for music”, with a description of the chords he’s playing. According to Cohen, girls adore the finger-picking, but they like chord degrees even more.

Now let’s take a look at “Hallelujah” on the oscilloscope.

hallelujah
                 1          2          3           4           *      5

Wow, look at that! This little waveform reveals much. You can see five major spikes as marked above. These are volume, or amplitude spikes. The five spikes denote the five verses & choruses of this song. The inbetweens are when Buckley is just playing guitar. Right before the first verse is the quietest moment (*) of the song.
Listen to Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah

              
              Buckley Breath with Guitar Slap

I heard there was a secret chord, that David played, and it pleased the Lord. Hail Jah!

Other Meta-songs
I’ll have to say I love you in a song by Jim Croce
This song is just six words long by Weird Al

Los Doggies is hard at work on a new album of a meta-songs!

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