KSKS45 Music in the mid-1960s

David Ashworth by David Ashworth is a freelance education consultant, specialising in music technology. He is project leader for INTRODUCTION www.teachingmusic. org.uk and he has This resource provides background and analysis of some of the remarkable musical developments that took been involved at a national level in most place in the pop music of the mid-1960s. This is potentially a huge topic, so I have chosen to limit the field of the major music of investigation to the music being created, recorded and performed by the most significant British pop and initiatives in recent rock bands from this era. I make regular reference to a relatively small collection of songs that exemplify all the years. features under discussion. This is designed to help teachers and students overcome the challenges of having to source a large amount of reference material.

This resource addresses four questions: „„ Why was there such an explosion of musical creativity and development at this time? „„ What were the key influences shaping the development of this music? „„ What are the key musical features of this music? „„ How might we use these musical ideas in classroom activities at KS3/4?

Overall aim

The overall aim of the resource is twofold. It aims to provide a series of activities that will give students composition frameworks, while at the same time learning about the style and the musical conventions of music from this era. Each section provides some brief background with relevant examples for active listening exercises. These are followed with suggestions for related classroom activities.

Lesson objectives

The activities included in this resource cover a good range of the aims and objectives set out in the new KS3 Curriculum for Music. By the end of this project, students will be able to: „„ improvise and compose; and extend and develop musical ideas by drawing on a range of musical structures and traditions associated with the rock and pop music of the mid-1960s. „„ identify and use the inter-related dimensions of music expressively, including use of tonalities, different types of scales and other musical devices. „„ listen with increasing discrimination to a wide range of music from the most important composers and musicians from this era. „„ develop a deepening understanding of this music and its history through composition and associated listening tasks.

GCSE Music – the new specifications

In addition, there is much here that would provide excellent support for students working on the composing and the listening/appraising/understanding strands of the forthcoming GCSE specifications for all examination boards: „„ Areas of study: all examination boards include pop music in their areas of study. Some list specific pop music set works, but all give the freedom for teachers to work with any appropriate material. This resource provides many helpful suggestions. „„ Performance: cover versions of some of these songs (or original works written in similar styles) provide a good range and flexibility for all candidates to play to their performing strengths. Some of the songs are quite straightforward, while others are more challenging. But all are great fun to play! „„ Composition: again, there is much in this resource that can be used to support this strand. Students

1 Music Teacher August 2015 are allowed to compose a piece for their own instrument (which may well be a ‘pop’ instrument). Some composition tasks are linked to the areas of study, which include a good number of pop music possibilities. Each section of our resource provides useful starting points for GCSE composing tasks. „„ Listening/appraising/understanding: much of this centres around the areas of study which, we have already noted, contain a lot of pop music references – specific and more general. The listening examples and activities covered in this resource provide great opportunities for devising GCSE listening-style questions, which are based on listening out for musical elements, musical contexts and musical language.

Relevance to specific exam board criteria

AQA One area of study (AoS) is pop music, with three songs by the Beatles as a set work. Many composing activities suggested here will be useful and relevant, since the AQA composing requirements are not linked to any particular areas of study.

Edexcel One of the composing requirements has to be linked to one of the areas of study. Some of the activities suggested below in working with music from different cultures would he useful for students wishing to work with the Fusion Music option

OCR One AoS is ‘conventions of pop music’, with no set works. This resource covers most of the important ‘conventions’, and the repertoire covered here can be used by the class teacher requiring some guidance on appropriate music for study. Students learning pop instruments can draw on this resource as the free-choice composition will be for the candidate’s instrument.

WJEC As with OCR, an AoS is pop music, with no set works. This resource is therefore highly appropriate for covering work in this area. The Board are keen to see development of musical ideas, and there will be a choice of four briefs, one linked to the pop music AoS.

What makes this music particularly suitable for classroom exploration?

This resource introduces musical concepts and ways of working that are highly appropriate for the young people we are teaching. By focusing on this particular strand of pop music from the mid-1960s, we are considering music being made by musically inexperienced and largely untrained aspiring young musicians. These young musicians had the freedom to try out ideas and follow their instincts in deciding what worked musically. Their musical skills and the available instrumentation were a limiting factor, but it is amazing how much good work was produced given these constraints. The young musicians were often assisted by recording producers, managers and engineers, who in some cases would provide a de facto teacher support element. So there is much that our students can learn by working with these musical ideas and approaches. The activities outlined below are designed to allow and encourage students to explore music making using similar methods and pathways.

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

The pop musicians of the early 1960s nearly always performed material written by others – either the rock ’n’ roll or rhythm and blues of their American musical heroes (Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters, for example), or songs churned out by teams of professional writers, contracted by the major recording companies.

Following the early songwriting successes of bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, there was gradually more pressure on bands to write own material. Recording companies found this an effective way

Music Teacher August 2015 2 to cut publishing costs and, as the market moved from singles to long-playing records, there was a pressing need for bands to create new material – and quickly. Initially, many wrote in the rock ’n’ roll or R&B styles, but there soon came a time when some of our more adventurous bands wanted to explore new musical avenues.

The point to remember is that these musicians were very young and usually had little formal musical training. This, in turn, sometimes proved to be a strength. Instead of ploughing the well-worn musical furrows of the more professional writers, they were able to approach songwriting with fresh eyes and ears. This musical naivety could sometimes result in banal, trite songs, but the more gifted emerging songwriters of this generation often came up with songs of startling originality and quality.

The emerging writers tended to be eclectic and non-judgmental. They drew their musical influences from a range of musical cultures and were guided by their ears rather than more formal rules of songwriting. Record companies were prepared to allow these young musicians considerable freedom as commercially and financially they were able to reap bigger rewards. This was music that was cheap to produce, and made strong cultural connections with the growing (and increasingly affluent) teenage audience and consumers.

Here are some of the main musical characteristics and influences of pop music in the mid-1960s: „„ Rock ’n’ roll and rhythm and blues continued to be a big influence. „„ The ‘music hall’ style (see below) gave the music more of a British identity in terms of the music itself, the lyrical subject matter and also the style of singing. „„ Lyrics moved on from boy-meets-girl clichés to reflect a greater range of contemporary issues, often very poetically. Bob Dylan was the major driving force in this respect. „„ Performances were louder, with greater use of electric instruments. „„ More exotic and orchestral instruments were added to the standard pop instrument ensemble. „„ Developments in keyboard technology increased the range of sounds available. „„ The newer sounds from America, especially soul/Tamla Motown, were a major influence. „„ There was greater interest in working with more layers of vocal sound, inspired to a large extent by the work of the Beach Boys. „„ Developments in recording technology allowed for more sophisticated recordings. „„ The increased emphasis on recording LPs allowed for the composition of much longer songs. „„ Because many of the young musician’s instrumental skills developed rapidly over this period, instrumental use often went far beyond mere song accompaniment.

There are two points worth making before going any further. First, it is very difficult to divide this musically productive decade into neat and tidy segments. As one era was fading, a new landscape was slowly emerging – with some considerable overlap. For example Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and Pink Floyd began dabbling with musical ideas in the mid-1960s that others would only take up much later on in the decade. Secondly, I have consciously avoided making much mention of the Beatles in this resource. Their work was especially significant during these years and has been covered, to a certain extent, in my earlier resourceThe Beatles: a legacy for music education (May 2015). It is suggested that you use that resource as a companion piece.

PART 1: EXPANDING USE OF INSTRUMENTS

In the pop music of the late 1950s and early 1960s, instruments were used in tightly circumscribed ways. The ‘rhythm section’ (drums and bass, plus guitar or keyboard) played along quietly in the background while more prominent vocal parts dominated. Instrumental solos tended to be short and were often played on lead guitar or saxophone. These conventions were challenged by emerging pop musicians who were keen to experiment with using and combining instruments in different ways.

A question of balance

In this era, we find much more prominent use of drums and bass guitar. They were louder and often played much more complex parts. The Who were one of the bands responsible for making this happen. Bass player John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon were both highly competent players of their respective instruments. Extrovert Keith Moon enjoyed being under the spotlight and Entwistle played highly melodic bass parts and

3 Music Teacher August 2015 solos, allowing guitarist Pete Townsend freedom for more abstract sonic exploration, including working with electronic feedback.

LISTENING „„ The Who: ‘My Generation’ – drums adding colour, bass holding the beat plus solo instrumental. „„ Pink Floyd: ‘Arnold Layne’ and ‘Astronomy Domine’ – prominent bass parts. „„ The Beach Boys: ‘Good Vibrations’ – prominent bass part.

‘New’ instruments

In earlier pop music, the instrumentation was almost exclusively drums, bass, guitars and keyboard, with the occasional saxophone. In the recording studio, string sections were sometimes added to more sentimental ballads. Pop musicians of the mid-1960s were hungry for new sounds, and there was a sense of competition and rivalry between groups to see who could come up with new, innovative ways of playing and combining instruments. Here are some notable examples: „„ Pink Floyd: ‘Arnold Layne’ – working with new technologies, especially the Farfisa organ. Keyboard player Rick Wright uses this to produce highly effective, ethereal sounds. „„ The Byrds: ‘Eight Miles High’ – distinctive use of the electric 12-string guitar also evoking jazz and Indian influences (see below for more on this). „„ The Beach Boys: ‘Good Vibrations’ – theremin, harpsichord, bass harmonica, Jew’s harp, woodwind and extra percussion. „„ The Rolling Stones: ‘Paint it Black’ – an early example of the use of a sitar in pop music.

Extended techniques

This is defined as unconventional, unorthodox or non-traditional methods of singing or of playing musical instruments employed to obtain unusual sounds or timbres. A fuller exploration of extended techniques would come later in the decade, especially in the work of Jimi Hendrix and Jethro Tull, but there is a good example from this era: „„ The Rolling Stones: ‘19th Nervous Breakdown’ – listen to Bill Wyman’s dive-bombing bassline towards the end of this song and watch this Youtube clip to see how it’s done.

ACTIVITY

Compose a song that has some of the following features:

„„ Dominant percussion or bass – this does not necessarily have to be a conventional drum kit. Consider also imaginative use of hand percussion or percussion generated on electronic devices. Bass parts can played on a keyboard if you don’t have a competent bass player.

„„ The keyboard. Even a very basic classroom keyboard will have a good range of synth sounds that you can explore in a Pink Floyd style.

„„ Use technology to trigger other instrumental sounds. Samplers, synthesisers (hardware, software or mobile tech versions) can be used to emulate conventional instruments. Listen to some of these classic examples of the use of orchestral instruments to give you some ideas:

zz Smokey Robinson: ‘Tears of a Clown’ (bassoon)

zz Donovan: ‘Jennifer Juniper’ (oboe)

zz The Who: ‘Pictures of Lily’ (French horn)

„„ Extended techniques – use any instrument to produce unusual sounds. Experiment or check out YouTube clips (for example this one) for advice on how to play instruments in unusual ways.

Music Teacher August 2015 4 PART 2: MUSICIANS AS MAGPIES

Steve Marriott (The Small Faces): ‘We were a mix of R&B and music hall. The R&B came from Detroit, the music hall from Stepney.’

By the mid-1960s, many UK musicians and bands who had drawn upon recordings of American R&B and rock ’n’ roll as primary sources of inspiration started to broaden their horizons, when they were given opportunities to write original material. They recognised that they were not going to be able to beat the likes of Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters at their own game and that, in any case, the pop world was ready for some new sounds and ideas.

They started to develop new music based on ideas from the newly emerging soul and Tamla styles, older forms of jazz and folk music, Latin rhythms, and more avant-garde and experimental music. And in a move to bring a more British sound to their music, many bands would draw from the sounds of the music hall. Here are a few examples worth listening to:

Soul/Tamla Heard in the Rolling Stones’ ‘Out of Time’ and some of the early work of the Who and Jimi Hendrix. Blues/jazz The Who’s ‘My Generation’ is influenced by the blues-style music of Mose Allison, and Keith Moon’s drumming owes a lot to the playing of jazz drummer Gene Krupa. Folk All of Bob Dylan’s early work drew heavily on traditional folk music styles, musically and lyrically. This later helped to nurture the development of folk rock styles by Dylan and groups such as the Byrds. Jazz Musicians such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis were becoming well known and respected beyond narrow jazz circles. The guitar work in the Byrds’ ‘Eight Miles High’ is heavily influenced by the music of John Coltrane. Indian music Following the Beatles’ lead, many bands dabbled to a greater or lesser extent with elements of Indian music. The Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint it Black’ features some sitar playing, albeit in a Western- style song. Songs such as the Kinks’ ‘See My Friends’ show a stronger Indian influence. Latin The Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’ uses distinctive Latin American rhythm patterns, Music hall London bands in particular showed a penchant for writing music hall-style songs, where the lyrics were firmly focused on aspects of English rather than American culture and society. The Kinks’ ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’ and the Small Faces ‘Lazy Sunday’ are particularly good examples. Avant-garde Frank Zappa’s debut album Freak Out! was released in 1966. Although largely ignored by the wider listening public at the time, it became an influential album among musicians in the know. For example, some of Pink Floyd’s early work on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn owes a debt to this music.

5 Music Teacher August 2015 ACTIVITY

Listen to a few original tracks in any ONE of the styles listed above.

For example, if you choose soul music, you could listen to:

„„ Percy Sledge: ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’

„„ Martha and the Vandellas: ‘Dancing in the Street’

„„ Wilson Pickett: ‘In the Midnight Hour’

Now makes some decisions as to the elements from these songs you can develop into ideas a new song. For example:

Harmony: could you use a chord progression similar to the one used in ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’? Could you come up with a similar descending bass line? ‘Dancing in the Street’ is distinctive because the verse begins on the dominant, and stays there for some considerable time before moving to the tonic. Is this useful idea?

Backing vocals: listen carefully to the backing vocals in ‘Dancing in the Street’, where the words of the title are used as a response. Can you use this idea?

Arrangements: the verse to ‘In the Midnight Hour’ features a prominent melodic bass riff with a strong snare drum/guitar, emphasising the backbeat. Can you work with something similar? Listen to how the brass section reinforces the breaks and choruses with simple parts using the chord notes. Can this idea be used on any instruments you might have available?

PART 3: WORDS AND VOICES

Up to this period, the lyrics for songs had usually been written by professional writers – well-crafted verses on well- worn boy-meets-girl themes. There followed major upheavals in how songs were to be written: first in the use of more abstract, ‘poetic’ imagery, spearheaded by the hugely influential Bob Dylan; and secondly, more songs with contemporary social commentary, ranging from protest songs on political issues to more ‘kitchen sink’ scenarios.

There was a shift in the UK away from the language and context of the United States to more homegrown subjects. This was also reflected in the use of English accents (from posh to cockney) for singing, rather than default mid-Atlantic drawl. Here are some notable examples:

Abstract and poetic lyrics: „„ Bob Dylan: ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, ‘It’s Alright, Ma’, ‘Positively 4th Street’ „„ Procol Harum: ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’ „„ The Doors: ‘Light My Fire’

UK based social commentary: „„ The Rolling Stones: ‘19th Nervous Breakdown’, ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ „„ The Kinks: ‘Dead End Street’, ‘Waterloo Sunset’ „„ Small Faces: ‘Lazy Sunday’

Musically, there was a lot of interest in harmony, with the Kinks and the Who showing how much they were influenced by the work of the Beach Boys: „„ Beach Boys: ‘Good Vibrations’ „„ The Who: ‘Pictures of Lily’, ‘Substitute’ „„ The Kinks: ‘Waterloo Sunset’, ‘Sunny Afternoon’

Some bands were also beginning to experiment with vocal effects and using voices in unconventional ways, for example: „„ Jimi Hendrix: ‘Purple Haze’ „„ Pink Floyd: ‘Pow R. Toc H.’ from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn „„ The Who: ‘My Generation’ (‘stuttering’)

Music Teacher August 2015 6 ACTIVITY

Use ANY of these approaches to compose a song:

„„ Use abstract poetic imagery. Perhaps work with the English department on this activity?

„„ Write a song about a contemporary social issue (the environment, something political, or a local theme, for example). Writing lyrics in this way is usually more straightforward. As a rule of thumb, verses generally carry the story while the choruses hammer home the key message.

„„ Make use of vocal harmony. Harmony does not have to continue throughout a song. Use it sparingly on choruses or important lines to provide some light and shade. Harmonising a main melody line in 3rds or 6ths usually works well, although you may have to tweak the odd note to fit with the underlying harmony. Consider using long, sustained notes for backing vocals. These will often be sung to oohs or aahs, using notes from the chords.

„„ Use the voice as a source for unusual or unconventional sounds. Percussive sounds (for example beatboxing) can sound good. Experiment with using ideas similar to those cited in the songs above.

PART 4: HARMONY AND TONALITY

Strict formal harmony, based on the use of diatonic chords from standard major and minor keys, was abandoned to some extent in the mid-1960s, as musicians explored with their fingers to find note combinations that sounded interesting or unusual. This was particularly the case for guitarists, who would slide chord shapes up and down the guitar neck, or add open strings or new notes to conventional chords, in an on-going search for new harmonies.

Unusual chord progressions

The use of modes rather than conventional major and minor keys gave rise to interesting chord sequences. For example, Pink Floyd’s ‘Arnold Layne’ uses this chord sequence:

A G F E | A G D E | D C A

These first four chords are easily played by sliding a bar chord shape down the guitar neck. Interestingly, the Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’ also begins on this sequence of four chords (A G F E), sometimes referred to as an Andalusian cadence.

The song ‘Positively 4th Street’ by Bob Dylan repeats a diatonic sequence that never resolves to the key chord:

C Dm F C | C G F Em | G

In other songs, the harmonic rhythm is much slower or even drone-like in nature, demonstrating a quasi-Indian influence. Listen to the Kinks’ ‘See My Friends’ or the Byrds’ ‘Eight Miles High’.

Unusual chords

In ‘Purple Haze’, Jimi Hendrix uses his signature chord E7#9, which introduces a little spicy dissonance to a standard chord shape by adding an extra finger. ThisYouTube clip shows how to play this chord.

An interesting but lesser-known example of chord alteration can be heard on the opening of Pink Floyd’s ‘Astronomy Domine’. Guitarist Syd Barrett takes an ordinary open E major chord and moves the fretted notes down one semitone. This gives the notes (from bottom to top) E-B flat-E flat-G-B-E.

7 Music Teacher August 2015 Modulation

Moving up to a higher key towards the end of a song was nothing new, although instead of the usual ‘Eurovision’ modulation of a tone or semitone, some songs would go much higher. For example, the Who’s ‘My Generation’ moves from G to C major.

Staying with tradition

Many songs from this era, however, did stick with more conventional harmonies, or even stole harmonies from well-known classical works. The best-known example of this is Procol Harum’s ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’, which borrows most of its ideas from JS Bach – and a few from Percy Sledge’s ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’.

ACTIVITY

1. Take some chords. In the key of C major you might use some of these diatonic chords –

„„ C

„„ Dm

„„ Em

„„ F

„„ G

„„ Am

„„ Bdim

– as well as some non-key chords, for example –

„„ D

„„ E

„„ E flat

„„ B flat

„„ Gm

2. Try out a few ideas to see which chords sound good together. On a practical level, try out chord shapes that are easy for the fingers to change to – whether you re working on a guitar or a keyboard.

3. Modify some chords. Play a chord using standard fingering on either guitar or keyboard. Now make a small alteration by adding a note, lifting a finger off a string or moving a note a step higher or lower. When you have found a pleasing combination of notes, try to find some other chords that go together well with your newly invented chord.

PART 5: STRUCTURE AND FORM

In the early 1960s, most pop songs worked with the tried and tested formula of a collection of verses and choruses of eight, 12 or 16 bars’ duration, a bridge or instrumental about two thirds of the way through the song, and a short intro and ending. The whole thing would last just under three minutes. This formula continues up to the present day and often works well. ‘My Generation’ by the Who, for example, has a fairly standard call-and-response structure.

But in the mid-1960s, musicians started developing form and structure in various ways. Here are some notable examples.

Music Teacher August 2015 8 Longer songs

Some musicians found they had more they wanted to say or play, so they would simply write longer songs. The gradual move of emphasis from the single to the LP made these extended lengths possible. When Bob Dylan stretched his single ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ to over six minutes in length, other musicians soon followed.

Different structures

Many songwriters consider the chorus to be the most important part of the song. In ‘Positively 4th Street’, however, Dylan dispenses with choruses altogether: the song is simply a succession of verses. In ‘Eight Miles High’, the Byrds begin with a long instrumental introduction – which was often extended further in live performance. In terms of structure, one of the mid-1960s’ most interesting songs is the Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’. It’s worth looking at in more detail.

‘Good Vibrations’ comprises eight distinct sections, and since the song is only 3:35 minutes long, that’s quite astonishing. It can be broken down as follows:

1 Verse On chords Dm-C-B flat-A7 x 2 (Andalusian cadence) 2 Chorus Breaks into three parts on ascending held chords of F, G and A 3 Verse See above 4 Chorus See above 5 Episode 1 New material on held A D A chords 6 Episode 2 Slower tempo on repeated E F#m B7 chords 7 Chorus Reverse of first chorus – now descends on A, G and F 8 Ending New material, but uses chords from the chorus

These changes of key and tempo, as well as considerable use of non-functional harmony and the use of many unusual instruments show that the song’s writer, Brian Wilson, was clearly trying to move pop music in new directions. The influence of this track was huge, and many songs from the late 1960s onwards owe a considerable debt to Wilson’s groundbreaking work.

Unusual phrase lengths

Ray Davies is said to have written ‘See My Friends’ after a stopover in Bombay during the Kinks’ 1965 Asian tour, where he encountered fishermen chanting on their way to their morning work. This influence gives the song a raga-like quality in terms of its sound and phrase lengths, which do not follow the conventional two-, four- or eight-bar patterns. The first section is a six-bar sequence that can be divided into 2+1+3. The next section comprises a pair of five-bar phrases. This helps to give the track a gently floating, meandering quality complementing the lyrical allusions to the river. The whole thing sounds very natural rather than contrived.

Making the music fit the words

It is nearly always the case that the words for a song are made to fit into pre-defined phrase lengths of four or eight bars. However, in songs where the words are considered to be the priority, the reverse is sometimes the case. So in Bob Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, the phrase lengths are made to fit with the words. This makes a good counting exercise for students. Have them listen to the song a few times over and see if they can work out the number of bars in each section. Then try counting the lengths of verses in Dylan’s ‘Mr Tambourine Man’. They get progressively longer as the verbal imagery becomes more intense. A similar thing happens with the choruses in ‘Like a Rolling Stone’.

9 Music Teacher August 2015 ACTIVITIES

1. Write some lyrics, without thinking too much about the musical backing at this stage. When you are finished, try singing the words along to a steady beat at an appropriate tempo. Don’t worry too much about the final tune at this stage – just chant along. Take a bar’s rest for breathing wherever you feel the need. Do this again, this time tapping and counting the beats as you do so. The chances are that you will find that some lines have more bars than others. This is not a problem, and it can be a good thing. It may make the song more interesting and less predictable.

2. Take a song that is near completion and look at its chorus. The chances are that it will have four lines. Try expanding it to a six-line chorus and then an eight-line chorus that you can use towards the end of a song to build up the excitement.

3. Listen again to the Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’. It is possibly the case that this started out as fragments of three different songs, which were eventually fused together into one single piece of music. Could you do something similar? Look through your sketches, or collaborate with a colleague, to see if you can join different fragments together into a single entity.

PART 6: TEXTURE AND TIMBRE

Music gets louder

In the rock ’n’ roll and skiffle years, backing groups were essentially acoustic. Small drumkits, double bass, piano, acoustic or semi-acoustic guitars and a single microphone for the singer were deemed adequate for recording and performance. This had to change as the audiences and contexts for listening to music changed.

The audiences for Elvis through to the Beatles would often shout and scream through the entire show, so musicians had no alternative but to add extra amplification so they could be heard above the din. Venues from dance halls through to café bars would now play recordings of music for customers to dance to. These recordings again needed to be loud so that the sound could be heard above the noisy ambience of these social venues. The jukebox and the radio were the places to hear and share new music with your friends. Radios, especially car radios, needed to be loud to be heard above the engine noise.

Music gets denser

One of the key characteristics of the original rock ’n’ roll sound as played by pioneers such as Buddy Holly or Chuck Berry was the lightness of the texture, with just a few instruments gently backing a lead vocal. During the mid-1960s, more instruments were added. Piano and organ played together became common. Bob Dylan’s early electric recordings featured these instruments being played together over a few guitar lines, with his distinctive harmonica sound riding on the top. Bands such as Procol Harum also went for a dense sound, featuring these two keyboards extensively. The Beach Boys probably worked with more instrumental layers than anybody, but they were also one of the few to think about textural variety – light and shade. Most bands played full-on most of the time. This approach was perhaps less interesting, but favoured by radio producers who wanted to make sure that their broadcasts blasted out at a continuous dynamic level.

Timbre

Amplifying instruments doesn’t just make them louder – it also alters their tone.

Replacing double basses with bass guitars does not simply make for a louder bass line. The timbral qualities of the instruments are very different: the plucked double bass sounds quite dry and percussive when compared to the fatter, warmer sound of an electric bass.

A lightly amplified semi-acoustic sounds very different to a heavily amplified guitar. Guitar players from this time became fascinated by the possibilities for using distortion and feedback. The Kinks set the ball rolling

Music Teacher August 2015 10 when they slit their amplifier speaker cones to give a more rasping sound. The Who took this a stage further by exploring how to work with feedback, coupled with drastically unorthodox performance techniques, which often included smashing guitars and amplifiers during shows. And, of course, Jimi Hendrix took these ideas much, much further.

The mid-1960s were not just about guitars, however. As we noted above, many bands would use organs plus amplified piano which would give song backings a very rich warm sound. In addition, technological developments in keyboard construction helped pave the way for new sounds in pop music. For example, early Pink Floyd recordings owe their distinctive sound to the swirling, ethereal sounds of Rick Wright’s Farfisa organ.

There are many recordings from this era that use standard rock-band instrumentation plus one other sound. For example, the Kinks’ ‘music hall’ song ‘Dead End Street’ owes much of its appeal to the distinctive trombone part added for the recording. The story goes that the members of the Kinks would often socialise in the same pub as many top London session players, and a chance conversation led to the impromptu addition to the recording.

Some bands would add one or two extra sounds to fill out a recording. Brian Wilson would add many, many more with his arrangements for the Beach Boys. ‘Good Vibrations’ is just one song that uses a wide range of orchestral and less conventional instruments.

Technology was not only changing the way instruments such as guitars and keyboard sounded. More advanced recording studios could go way beyond merely faithfully capturing the sounds as played. Recording producers including Phil Spector and Joe Meek worked creatively with reverb and other effects to dramatically manipulate the sounds they recorded. Listen, for example, to the famous Phil Spector ‘wall of sound’ on recordings by Ike & Tina Turner and the Righteous Brothers from this period.

A word about vocal timbre during this era: up to this point, many singers chose to sing with a smooth, well- rounded, controlled tone. This was often done in an American accent, regardless of which side of the Atlantic you happened to be from. The two major changes during the mid-1960s were that singers, especially those working with London-based bands, would sing in an English accent, usually cockney or ‘posh’. Listen to recordings by Mick Jagger, Ray Davies and Steve Marriot for examples of this. Singers were also happy to singer in the harsher, more rasping tone associated with American blues and soul vocalists, with singers like Bob Dylan leading the way.

ACTIVITIES

1. Listening activities: collect some recordings of classic rock ’n’roll tracks by artists recording in the late 1950s. Good choices would include Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Eddie Cochran. Next, for purposes of contrast, source early recordings of the Who, the Kinks, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones playing cover versions of rock ’n’ roll songs, originally recorded by the 1950s artists listed above. Devise come comparative listening tests – including questions on instrumentation, texture, dynamics and timbre.

2. Adding extra sounds: Ask your students to add one or two extra sounds to their compositions/ performances to add extra interest and perhaps make them sound more distinctive. Here are some suggestions:

„„ A singer/songwriter has a song for solo voice and guitar. Can they find an instrumentalist (eg a flautist) to add a short instrumental section?

„„ A rock combo (guitars, bass and drums) could add a synth part to the choruses of a song.

„„ Backing vocals and harmonies can add tremendous depth to a song. Listen to how musicians have worked with backing vocals in many of the songs referred to in this resource and devise similar arrangements.

11 Music Teacher August 2015 CONCLUSION

In this resource we have taken a selection of key recordings from a given era with a view to exploring and exploiting the opportunities they provide for music teachers in secondary schools. I have chosen recordings that are very familiar to me, ones that I consider musically significant and ones I still enjoy listening to. Other teachers are, of course, free to use whatever examples they might wish to choose. By working with some of your favourite songs, you are likely to enjoy teaching music of this era even more – and the enthusiasm that resonates will be infectious. Simply take a balanced collection of representative songs and ask yourself – what musical teaching and learning points can I draw out of these songs?

For students who are just starting to find their way with composition, these approaches can lead to some really interesting work, as opposed to some of the safer, more predictable results that often emerge from more conventional approaches to composing for students. There are genuine opportunities for differentiation here, because composition and performance in this era range from reasonably simple to much more complex and sophisticated.

Use of notation is optional – it can certainly help with writing out solos for some lead instruments and is very useful when working out harmonies. But chord sheets and guitar tablature can often be used to outline many of the parts. Also, it is important not to overlook possibilities for using music technology, especially as a means of bringing interesting and unusual sounds into a musical framework.

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