Analysis through Melodic consideration

Contents:

1. Harmonic/Expressive implications of Melody line

2. Melodic Contour

  A) Law of Attraction

  B) Discrete and/or Continuous

3. Stability and Melodic Equilibrium

4. Melodic Organization

  A) Structure and Patterns 

  B) Melodic Logic and Lyrical Content*

5. Text Painting in Young Thug

Big Picture:

The feeling each discrete note carries

Nature of how notes are strung together

Properties of notes with respect to each other

Larger scale organization

How groups of notes relate to Lyrics and feelings

Connecting musical gestures to Lyrical meaning

If a section is too confusing, just skip it and go on to the next. Sections 4 and 5 are the most important.

Part One: Harmonic/Expressive implications of Melody line

Young Thug stays within the key of the song, almost never landing on non-harmonic tones (accidentals). And within this diatonic context, one can map out how each note (scale degree) functions, consistent across all Young Thug songs.

We begin by acknowledging that in most songs: the tonic (usually minor) chord is the strongest and most frequently sounded harmony. Since each pitch in Thug's melody is measured against the same tonic note, patterns begin to emerge in terms of what feeling notes convey, individually and as a group.

And if we assume that Thug hadn't written out the lyrics before he recorded the song, we can also assume that the pitch choice is in some way connected to the feelings behind phrases and entire sections of songs.

For now, we shall think of pitches as scale degrees, to find some generality between songs. Each note in all of Young Thug's melodic content corresponds to one of these notes!

Scale degree numbers map to notes of the scale. For example, in G minor:

G = 1

A = 2

Bb = 3

C = 4

D = 5

Eb = 6

F = 7

G = 8

Note: Thug never uses #7, Leading Tone of the harmonic minor scale and 3rd of the Major V chord. This creates a smooth, natural minor scale, with a fifth between 3-7. This stems from the fact that Young Thug avoids the minor 2nd (halfstep/semitone).

The following audio clip plays each scale degree in order (ascending), as well as the tonic pitch for comparison. It is worth giving this a couple listens, to get the scale in your ear before continuing.

Now, we map these scale degrees to qualitative terms that I believe convey the feeling as best as I can.

1 - Comfortable, at home

2 - Not quite home, soft dissonance

3 - Hug tone

4 - Question, Unresolved, Suspended

5 - Ambiguous: open 5th sound; usually comfortable, but can be recontextualized

6 - Extended, but stable if approached stepwise

7 - Smooth

8 - Top of range, tension

The following videos are transcriptions of two Thug songs, with notes colour coded to demonstrate the proposed "Qualities of Scale degrees". I apologize for ads that may appear on these videos, apparently the copyright owner is encouraged to advertise on videos in which their content is used.

                         Melodic Transcription and Analysis of "Draw Down"

Qualities of Scale degrees

Key: G minor

G - Comfortable, at home

A - Not quite home, soft dissonance

Bb - Hug tone

C - Question, Unresolved, Suspended

D - Comfortable

Eb - Extended, but stable if approached stepwise

F - Smooth

G - Top of range, tension

Melodic Transcription and Analysis of "Power"

Qualities of Scale degrees

Key: F# minor

F# - Comfortable, at home

G# - Not quite home, soft dissonance

A - Hug tone

B - Question, Unresolved, Suspended

C# - Comfortable

D - Extended, but stable if approached stepwise

E - Smooth

F# - Top of range, tension

Melodic Transcription and Analysis of "Don't Know"

Qualities of Scale degrees

Key: Bb minor

Bb - Comfortable, at home

C - Not quite home, soft dissonance

Db - Hug tone

Eb - Question, Unresolved, Suspended

F - Comfortable

Gb - Extended, but stable if approached stepwise

Ab - Smooth

Bb - Top of range, tension (NA, too high)

Note: The colours have changed. This transcription uses a software called MAM, and I can't choose the colours.

The first step to understanding this is by recognizing implied harmonies of pitches:

1 - tonic (i)

2 - dominant (V), sus2, or passing tone

3 - sits in the middle of the tonic triad (i), as well as Major triad built on 3 (3-5-7). 

4 - minor iv (4-6-8), P4 unstable interval above tonic

5 - top note of tonic triad (i)/root of dominant (V)

6 - Relative major, VI

7 - top of triad built on 3 (3-5-7), minor 7th (soft dissonance) above tonic. Also implies minor 7th tonic harmony 1-3-5-7.

8 - Comfortable pitch, but higher register

This list is not specific to Young Thug. In fact, this is fairly universal to tonal functional music. For instance, the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo violin all use this idea of melody line implying harmonic function.

So keep this in mind - that each note has intrinsic meaning of its own. I will develop this in the following sections.

Part Two: A) Melodic Contour and the Law of Attraction

Young Thug's melodic contour (when not autotuned) often follows the "Law of Gravity" defined in Arabic Music.

In the words of Arabic music scholar Johnny Farraj: 

"...the same note is not always played with the same exact pitch. The pitch may vary slightly, depending on the melodic flow and what other notes are played before and after that note.

The idea behind this effect is to round sharp corners in the melody by drawing the furthest notes nearer. This effect is sometimes called the law of attraction, or gravity."

I have isolated Thug's vocal line in the song 'No Way' from 'Slime Season', and run it through the software Melodyne by Celemony. This produced the following visualization [scroll down until you can no longer see this text]:

Baby, water like a water fountain;              My money coloured like a clown;       Show me them places like a noun; She can't, can't ride this dick                                                                                                                                                                                                                  without a sound ah

During the word 'fountain', Thug moves from D-B-A. The destination note is A, and to "round sharp corners", Young Thug lowers the B to something between B and A#.

Same idea as the previous line, I apologize for the 'broken note', which is a flattened B between D and A, on the phrase 'a clown'.

Similarly, on the phrase 'a noun', Thug moves from D-C-A. Again, the destination note is A, and lowers the C slightly to match the contour of the line.

Here, Thug adds a Neighbor note, E from D, on the words "can't" (2nd time) and "dick". These notes are pulled closer to the main note, D.

Part Two: B) Melodic Contour - Discrete and/or Continuous?

Young Thug's melodies are constructed using discrete pitches, but are often vocalized with fluidity and continuity.

To illustrate this, I have analyzed the hook of one of his first major songs,

"Stoner"

Discrete Representation

Continuous Representation

The Continuous representation of this is supported by the the Melodyne diagram. This is a little tough to see, since the audio being analyzed is not just the vocal line. But, it is clear that he glides from note to note, evident from the "Pitch drift" lines connecting each note.

This Continuous representation is based on a model developed by music theorist Joseph Schillinger, who has been somewhat "Lost in Academia". Each block corresponds to one 8th note.

To me, this model better captures details which cannot be represented in standard music notation, but are integral to the music.

Perhaps something like this could represent fluidity?

This section will be difficult to understand without knowledge of music theory, sorry about that! If it doesn't make sense, please skip to the next section, which is much more important to the analysis.

While it's quite impractical to actually write music using this sort of diagram, it nevertheless provides some interesting insight into melody/phrase construction. Mostly any song in hip-hop/rap/electronic (that doesn't have a leading tone, #7) can be analyzed in this way, so it may be useful in the future. 

Direction of Contour

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"Power" - Standard Notation