KSKS45 Making music with David Bowie

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 Following his recent death, it’s a good time to take stock of David Bowie’s significance in music and shed been involved at a some light on his music making. The worldwide reaction following his death confirms his importance as one national level in most of the major music of the most popular and innovative musicians of recent times. His appeal was to music lovers across a wide initiatives in recent musical spectrum. Fans of music from Abba to Zappa all share a love of the music of David Bowie. Much has years. been written about his lifestyle, stagecraft and visual presentation. The lyrics to his songs have been analysed exhaustively, but strangely little has been written about how he actually went about writing and recording the music for his songs. This resource plays a small part in addressing this omission, by providing students with some insight into his composing methods – which they can adapt and use in their own music making.

This resource explores many of the writing processes that went into one of Bowie’s most important works – the album Low, released in 1977. Prior to the release of Low, Bowie had already explored ways of working innovatively within the rock music framework, but this album was to take his music in a much more radical, experimental direction. Working with co-writer and to some extent mentor Brian Eno, he was able to bring procedures from the musical avant-garde and ways of working with electronic sounds into his music.

A consideration of the processes that went into making this recording can provide a rich resource of valuable ideas for music teachers who want to help their students expand their musical horizons and work with some different approaches to composition. This resource provides a collection of starting points and some useful background information.

A note on resourcing

Low is an example of an album in which the processes of manipulating recorded sound was a key element in the creation of most of the compositions. In this resource, students will often be recording sounds into tracks, which will then require further audio editing and processing to produce the intended final results. So some recording equipment and computer-based audio editing software will be necessary. The class will also require access to the album Low.

MIXING ROCK, ELECTRONIC AND VOCAL SOUNDS

Many students will be happy working in a basic rock/pop idiom – devising and arranging music for guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. In this section, we show how students might take this one stage further, by incorporating extra tonal colours and layers to add further interest to a song.

Sound and Vision is a straightforward rock track with two important additions. The first is the sustained falling synth line playing what sound like synthesised strings in a high register. The second is in Bowie’s use of vocal sounds. Listen to the ‘ah, ah’ sighs and the ‘do, do, do’ sections before the main vocal comes in. Notice also the stylistic changes to the vocal delivery ranging from an impassioned soul sound to a more restrained baritone.

What in the World is another good exercise in combining art-rock elements with straightforward pop. A burbling synth part bubbles along underneath a standard rock ensemble, giving it a sonic interest where the synth part is sometimes buried, emerging when the rock instruments pause for breath. Just this one simple addition transforms an otherwise ordinary-sounding track into something more interesting.

1 Music Teacher April 2016 Activity

Students can take any song they have been working on in a traditional rock/pop style. They can embellish it in two ways: „„ Vocal: follow Bowie’s lead and try singing fragments of the song in different vocal styles – gentle, angry, passionate, etc. Add some other ‘non-verbal’ vocal parts as backings or interludes. „„ Electronic: find a synth pad sound on a keyboard or mobile device that complements the sounds you are already using. Devise a slow-moving textural part in a higher register. A higher register is recommended, to guard against the mid- and bass-frequency ranges becoming too cluttered. It is likely that these ranges will be filled already by the more traditional vocal and instrumental sounds being used.

CHORD PROGRESSIONS

Bowie is well known for his mastery of unusual and distinctive but effective chord progressions: Life on Mars is an obvious and well-known example. On this album, his chord progressions are fairly conventional, though there is one feature he uses extensively. He displays a penchant for the use of two chords a tone apart.

In Speed of Life the progression moves down a tone from the key chord of E flat to the (non-diatonic) chord of D flat. This is followed by a step-down progression of the diatonic chords of B flat and A flat:

E flat – D flat – B flat – A flat

A major chord built on the flattened 7th (in this case D flat) implies a mixolydian mode and gives the piece a bluesy feel. This makes it a popular choice for rock/pop musicians – especially guitarists who can easily slide from one chord shape down a couple of frets.

Even more interesting, and unusual, is the way in which Bowie uses the chord D flat later in the progression to move down a semitone to the chord C major – giving this section a vaguely ‘Spanish’ feel.

Other songs on the album that use this type of progression are Sound and Vision and Be My Wife.

Activity

These activities, based on the ideas above, provide students with ways of breaking out of the diatonic straightjacket without going too far astray.

Ask students to write a progression using any major chords from a chosen key. For example, if they are working in D major, they would be using the major chords of D, G and A. Ask them also to include the major chord built on the flattened 7th – in this case C major.

In a further section ask them to incorporate a major chord that is a semitone above any of the chords indicated above. Below is an example, incorporating both of these suggestions:

Verse: D D C G D C A A

Chorus: G F sharp G F sharp A G C A

Music Teacher April 2016 2 THE IMPORTANCE OF MELODY

The track Some Are was an outtake, not included on the original vinyl album, although it is available on the CD reissue. This track was considered important enough for Philip Glass to include it as the basis for the second movement of his Low Symphony, an orchestral work he based on Bowie’s album (discussed in more detail later). Some Are is a fine example of the effectiveness of slow tempos. Students whose musical frames of reference are almost exclusively limited to medium- and up-tempo music should be introduced to the music of Arvo Pärt, Morton Feldman and Brian Eno, who was this song’s co-writer.

The piece begins with gentle, sustained piano chords on a slow steady beat. The repeated notes of A and D initially suggest a harmonic ambiguity. It is this unchanging harmonic base that allows Bowie the space and time to fashion a melodic line that is improvised, intuitive and unhurried. Notice how the phrases end on sustained notes, with a few bars’ rest between phrases. These different phrase lengths add further interest. The melody is harmonically ambiguous – although D minor is suggested, note the B natural in the second phrase. It is only when the C moves to a C sharp at the end of the melody that we are assured that D is the key note.

These two elements on their own could make for a facile piece of music. There are two further elements, however, that add to the musical richness and sophistication: „„ Cries of wolves in the background add an ethereal element. David Bowie has been quoted as describing Some Are as ‘a quiet little piece Brian Eno and I wrote in the Seventies. The cries of wolves in the background are sounds that you might not pick up on immediately. Unless you’re a wolf.’ „„ Harmony on a contrasting synth sound. You get the sense that this harmony part has been constructed intuitively by ear and with some trial and error, without too much regard to any formal theory of harmony considerations:

3 Music Teacher April 2016 The second synth phrase begins by harmonising a 2nd above the vocal part. If the two lines were played on the same instrument, the harmony might well sound dissonant. However, the choice of synth timbres negates this possibility. This, and the final phrase harmonised in 4ths, sound strange but effective. The timbres and slow tempos are key factors in making this unconventional harmony work.

Emphasising the song’s impressionistic elusiveness, Bowie suggested it might conjure up ‘images of the failed Napoleonic force stumbling back through Smolensk. Finding the unburied corpses of their comrades left from their original advance on Moscow. Or possibly a snowman with a carrot for a nose, a crumpled Crystal Palace Football Club admission ticket at his feet…’ Now there’s a fine invitation for some class discussion!

Activity

Provide students with this composition brief: „„ Devise and record a slow, repeated two-note drone on a piano. It should sound like the tolling of bells. „„ Improvise and record a slow melodic vocal line over this. It should move slowly and feel natural and relaxed. Aim for three or four phrases. „„ Try to double this melodic line on a piano. Record the piano part. „„ Now mute the vocal part and find a synth sound that goes well with the piano melody. „„ Improvise a synth line over the melody. It can move completely independently of the piano part, or sometimes it might echo more closely the original melodic contour.

This could begin as a short student exercise that might be developed into a more extended composition.

BRIAN ENO INFLUENCES, PART ONE

Important influences cited by Bowie at the time of creatingLow were the controlled techno workings of Kraftwerk and his developing friendship with Brian Eno. Eno, with his neo-classical allegiances to Cage and Glass, and his antipathy to the established conventions of rock music, provided stimulating ideas that the two men would explore together in making this album. Eno has been quoted as saying that Bowie was ‘the painter’ who would keep adding layers, whereas Eno was ‘the sculptor’ who would try to cut things back.

Eno was reluctant to use synths to imitate acoustic instruments – he saw synths as being there to provide texture (which we discuss more fully in other areas of this resource). Eno did not want to emulate the robotic, controlled sound of Kraftwerk: he was far more interested in exploring elements of chance, chaos and a human element in music spontaneously created in the studio.

For example, one of his techniques was to record a keyboard part over a drum backing. He would then mute his keyboard part and invite Bowie to add his own keyboard part, completely independent of the part already created by Eno. The only information that Bowie had was the drum part and the key for the piece. Once recorded, Eno would use the faders to create a single ‘hybrid’ keyboard part using elements of the original two recordings in various combinations and sequences. Sections of the piece Warsawa make use of this technique. Eno’s solo albums such as Another Green World use procedures similar to this.

Activity

Students should work in pairs to emulate the idea above. A drum track can be triggered from a keyboard preset rhythm pattern or a drum loop in a sequencer. The entire activity can take place within a sequencer environment, or the parts can be recorded into any multitrack audio hardware or software package. In addition, there are suitable apps for use on mobile devices for this activity.

Music Teacher April 2016 4 ARRANGEMENTS

We could write an entire resource on Bowie’s musical arrangements, but for the moment we will consider just two simple but unusual ideas. The first comes from the trackBreaking Glass.

Listen to the unusual drum part – just the hi-hats on the downbeat, with much stronger drums on playing on the backbeat. This ‘quasi-reggae’ pattern allows more space for the bass to be heard – and for something more interesting to happen. This track also features heavily panned synth stabs, reminiscent of Eno’s work from his Roxy Music days.

What in the World has a very heavily modulated synth part that bubbles along throughout the track. When modulated to this extent, the pitch of the notes being played becomes less significant. It is there to add textural rather than harmonic content.

Activity

Students can work in groups on this. One student creates a reggae-style drum part (similar to the one on Breaking Glass), using either conventional or electronic percussion sounds. The bass player in the group then has to use the space created by the drummer to devise a musically interesting bassline.

Heavy and rapid panning of a synth line might be difficult to achieve live, but can be added once the parts have been recorded. More sophisticated keyboards allow students to modulate and shape the sounds. If these are not available, consider using a virtual instrument setting on a computer sequencer, or trigger a looped sound effect.

If the above approach is not a practical option, students can work the entire exercise within a computer-based sequencer environment.

HOW TO USE GUITARS AND SYNTHS

Many of the tracks on Low use electric guitar in fairly conventional ways – a bit of distortion applied to sustained chords and lead melody lines. However, Bowie was also starting to use guitars with heavily processed effects, such as flangers, phasers and chorus – often on extreme settings. The players are then invited to find some unusual but interesting sounds that can be used to extend the sonic palette further, complementing the bubbling synths we have referred to earlier. Guitars used in this way contribute to the textural tapestry in tracks such as Always Crashing in the Same Car.

It is worth mentioning that track’s excellent guitar solo. Perhaps to guard against the possibility of guitarist Ricky Gardiner churning out the typical rock guitar solo, Bowie sang him the first few notes of the solo he required and asked Gardiner to pick it up from there. This resulted in Gardiner creating a solo that was completely out of his normal territory – coming up with something distinctive and memorable.

Activity

Challenge students with the task of each finding an unusual but interesting electronic sound. This can be done by: „„ Exploring or tweaking keyboard presets „„ Using virtual instruments and adding effects „„ Using a sound processor to transform acoustic sounds „„ Sampling „„ Guitar with effects pedal or pedals „„ Mobile devices with access to any of the above options

5 Music Teacher April 2016 Finding a freaky sound is not too difficult. The real challenge is to do something interesting with it. Follow some of the examples on Low by using these sounds to add interesting colour to a draft version of a more conventional track. Think carefully about how and where these sounds are added. The aim should be to contribute something musically to the track, rather than to clutter up the sonic space. Eno’s ‘musician as sculptor’ approach is the one to take here.

Students could also be encouraged to explore Bowie’s strategy of singing a few notes for an instrumentalist to use in developing a solo. This can be an excellent strategy when a student has the musical equivalent of writer’s block.

CASE STUDY NO. 1: A NEW CAREER IN A NEW TOWN

So far, we have dipped into various tracks to lift specific ideas of interest. With the case studies, we present an opportunity to explore a track in more depth.

Here is a breakdown of A New Career in a New Town. Use this a basis for a listening activity.

The track begins with three gently meandering synth lines, highly melodic and timbrally distinct. Their rather aimless quality is tempered by an impatient solo drum marking time with a quick pulse.

After 35 seconds of this, we have a highly contrasting section with a more straight-ahead rock feel. There are synths aplenty here, but they are given very much a background role. Much of the melodic interest in this section is carried by a bassline and a harmonica (Bowie was not averse to using various traditional acoustic sounds when he felt he needed them).

At 1:20, there’s another big contrast with a gentler interlude section. Back comes the drum pulse from the first section, accompanied by what sound like reversed recordings of the synths. Then at 1:35 the rock section comes in again, taking us to the end with a very slow fade.

Activity

Ask students to devise a graphic representation of the structure.

They should come up with something similar to the above. Now ask them to use this as a template for writing an original piece of music. They should then record this and use the sequencer’s audio editing facilities to reverse the synth lines in the third section, and to generate a long fade at the end.

CASE STUDY NO. 2: WARSZAWA

The arrangement of the track Warszawa is meant to evoke the desolation of Warsaw at the time of Bowie’s visit in 1973.

Brian Eno worked closely on this track with Bowie in the studio, and some of his experimental techniques were incorporated. On this song, a click track was recorded with a predefined number of clicks. Chance procedures

Music Teacher April 2016 6 were used to assign some of the clicks as cue points. On playback, the two musicians would record specific chords at the designated cue points. This provided the basic structure for the piece. Eno and Bowie went on to fill in the spaces with instrumental and vocal content respectively. The rather strange lyrics and the distinctive vocal melody in the middle part of the song are based upon a recording of a Polish folk song. The vocal part was recorded slowly three semitones lower. When restored to the correct tempo and multi-layered, it sounds like a Balkan youth choir singing with a harsh trebly tone.

Activity

Please note: we are using Audacity for the screen images below, but this activity can be worked using any sequencer package.

Warszawa’s compositional strategy could be reworked in the classroom as follows:

1. Set up a click track in Audacity with 360 clicks (exactly three minutes at 60 bpm). This screen shot shows how you might set this up in Audacity.

2. Generate some random numbers, using (for example) this website. Set the range up to 360. The random numbers we obtained, in ascending order, are these: „„ 23 „„ 51 „„ 58 „„ 205 „„ 295 „„ 319

Divide the larger numbers by 60 to convert them into minutes and seconds.

7 Music Teacher April 2016 3. From the Tracks menu in Audacity, select ‘add label’ for each number in turn. Then type in the name of the chord or notes you wish to play. Record some long, sustained or repeated chords at each point, perhaps using sustained synth sounds.

When the chords have been played in at the cues, you can mute or delete the click track.

4. We have now created some materials and a structure for the piece. Where do we go from here? Here are some suggestions: zz Listen to the timbres and instrumentation on the original Bowie track and find something similar you can use. zz Incorporate some features from the original such as the low pulsing ostinato drone and the swirling synth sounds. zz Simple repetitive phrases. zz Slow development. zz Work out some of the notes and see if a scale emerges. zz Both Bowie and Eno were visual artists – so perhaps lay the piece out it as a graphic on a canvas. zz Collaborative composition. zz Perhaps use some pictures of Warsaw (or other scenes of desolation) to establish a mood and stimulus? zz Add some vocal manipulation? Use some of the effects in Audacity (or a sound processor) to achieve this.

Listening/discussion activities

As suggested above, close listening to the original track can provide some useful pointers for composition.

It is also worth comparing this original recording with an orchestral version. In 1992, Philip Glass premiered his Low Symphony. This used three songs from Bowie’s Low album as a basis for the Symphony’s three movements:

„„ Subterraneans „„ Some Are „„ Warszawa

Glass says of the Symphony: ‘My approach was to treat the themes very much as if they were my own, and allow their transformations to follow my own compositional bent when possible. In practice, however, Bowie and Eno’s music certainly influenced how I worked, leading me to sometimes surprising musical conclusions. In the end I think I arrived at something of a real collaboration between my music and theirs.’

Compare the original Bowie/Eno compositions with Glass’s reworkings. What changes has he made?

Music Teacher April 2016 8 BRIAN ENO INFLUENCES, PART TWO

Brian Eno brought various experimental strategies along to the Low sessions, including a set of cards he had developed with Peter Schmidt in 1975 – Oblique Strategies. Each card contains a single aphorism, designed to help musicians overcome creative blocks by encouraging lateral thinking. Cards included statements such as: „„ State the problem in words as clearly as possible. „„ Only one element of each kind. „„ What would your closest friend do? „„ What to increase? What to reduce? „„ Are there sections? Consider transitions. „„ Honour thy error as a hidden intention.

These had a profound impact on Bowie’s compositional methods, allowing him to surrender control on some compositional procedures and explore unseen paths.

Activity

The Oblique Strategies cards were produced in limited edition sets, and it can be hard to track them down. The cost might also a stumbling block. However, online versions can be found at various sites (including this one) which provide free access to a virtual deck of Oblique Strategies cards.

Ask students to refer to them if they become stuck during a composing activity. You may also need to talk through the implications of the given advice with your students. Also, be prepared for some resistance. Do persevere, however. Some of Bowie’s musicians were initially sceptical with this approach, but 40 years later, their memories of these creative sessions are overwhelmingly positive.

COMPOSING AND TEXTURE

Art Decade

Art Decade is a piece where the musical interest and emphasis are on timbre and texture. These are important musical elements for Brian Eno in particular. He is able to put the spotlight on these elements and bring them to the listener’s attention by deliberately playing down the elements of melody, harmony and rhythm.

In Art Decade, the harmony is essentially static, and the melody is merely a stepwise sequence moving in steady beats. Apart from the dotted rhythm ostinato carried by the bass guitar, there are no other rhythmically interesting features.

This is yet another track where the structure is determined by recording a series of metronome clicks and then assigning section labels to arbitrary click numbers. The intention with this strategy was to free Bowie and Eno from strictures of popular music: no time signatures, no chord progressions and no bar structures.

This strong but simple melody is hardly an attention-grabber. The central part comprises a plodding stepwise descent of four notes, which rises a semitone, then falls again. There is no rhythmic interest here. This featureless melody allows the writers to put texture to the forefront.

In the section that follows, the final falling interval (F sharp – E) is picked up in a call-and-response fashion with big gaps between the call and its response. The interest in this section is again textural, where we hear the slow fade in and out of long synth lines.

9 Music Teacher April 2016 Activity

We begin by setting our students a novel task – write an uninteresting melody! Actually, a more accurate brief would be to ask them to write something with a steady, plodding rhythm and a melodic contour that moves largely in steps, possibly with repetitions. Record this melody, leaving large gaps between the phrases.

To accompany this melody, find some interesting synth pad sounds and create a textural collage where sounds are always on the move. Sounds should fade in and out at different times, creating interesting and changing harmonies. Timbral manipulation of these sounds, using filters and effects, will add further interest to a piece where timbre and texture should be the most prominent features.

BOWIE AND MINIMALISM

David Bowie was always keen to explore other musical styles outside of the somewhat narrow frames of reference of rock music, to see what new ideas and sounds he could bring into his music making. He read widely and he listened closely to music of all kinds. At this time, he was particularly impressed with a newly emerging style – minimalism. He attended the European premiere of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians at the Metamusik Festival in Berlin, in early October 1976. Months later he wrote Weeping Wall, which sounds as though it might have been inspired by Reich’s Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (1973).

First of all, Bowie recorded 160 metronome clicks onto a tape, then marked the tape at arbitrary points to indicate where new sections would begin. This duplicates the technique suggested by Eno for use in structuring Warsawa.

A pulsing synth figure was recorded, using notes that repeat in patterns of six. Above this, xylophone and vibraphone patterns were added, which would go in and out of phase with each other. These phrases are often heavily panned, which helps give the piece a less cluttered feel.

But what makes this track really interesting is the way in which Bowie adds layers using sustained notes over the top of the typical minimalist mix of short percussive sounds. This is a development that anticipates Reich’s soundscape pieces by several years. Here, there are sections where Bowie fuses a vocal part to double a synth part in an attempt to create new hybrid timbre – a technique also being explored by Reich. For this, he uses fragments from the tune of ‘Scarborough Fair’ which, in this context, has an eerie, disturbing quality. There are also sections where we hear a distorted electric guitar play phrases with long, sustained notes.

Activity

This composition activity is intended for students working on their own, using a computer sequencer. Once the work is completed and recorded, groups of students can attempt live renditions of the pieces.

Instructions for writing a piece in the style of Weeping Wall are as follows: „„ Record a click track of 160 beats. „„ Use a random number generator to create a short series of numbers between 1 and 160. For example: 15, 47, 85, 94, 122, 135. „„ Label these points on the timeline. „„ Decide on a musical scale to work with. Make sure that all the notes you use in the parts described below use only notes from your chosen scale. „„ Now create a steady pulse part in quavers, where the pitch of the note changes at the section points marked on your timeline. It is this part that will give the piece its drive and momentum, but choose a sound that is not too obtrusive. „„ Next create two phrases of slightly different lengths for any tuned percussion instruments. Before going any further, check that they sound good when played together. There should be a sense that they complement rather than compete with each other. Loop these and add these tracks to your recording. Draw in some volume and pan envelopes for these sounds, to guard against the piece sounding too static. This activity will need thought and care, so that there is a sense of musical development rather than having volume/pan changes seemingly at random. The marked labels on the timeline could act as a prompt for these changes.

Music Teacher April 2016 10 „„ Finally, the sustained lines. Choose a line from a folk song and learn to play it in different ways. Extending the duration of note lengths and pausing between phrases will give the line the more spacious feel we are looking for. Experiment with synth sounds until you find something appropriate. Record these sections and double with sung vocal lines to create a new timbre. „„ Listen back to the results and make appropriate adjustments to volume levels and pan settings. Finally, you might attempt a live performance of the piece using a small group of musicians playing acoustic and/or electronic instruments.

Here is a chart summarising the content/activity in the various layers of the piece:

Layer content notes Ostinato pulse Steady repeating quavers at 80 Choose synth with short duration bpm (this is the crotchet speed). and a gentle timbre. Change to a new note at points Pan this centrally. marked on the tape. Gradual volume changes. Percussion 1 (wood) A short phrase (6-9 notes approx) Tuned percussion instrument. with a catchy rhythm. Loop the phrase. Have sections where the phrase is muted. Have other sections where just fragments of the phrase are played. Change the pan settings during the piece. Percussion 2 (metal) A short phrase (6-9 notes approx) Tuned percussion instrument. with a catchy rhythm. It should Loop the phrase. be slightly longer or shorter than Have sections where the phrase is the first phrase and should knit muted. together well with it. Have other sections where just fragments of the phrase are played. Change the pan settings during the piece. Long synth melody line Choose a melody from a Choose a synth sound that sounds traditional folk song. good with the other parts. This Learn to play at different pitches. should be in the foreground, but use sparingly. Vocal line Double the synth part above by Add effects (such as reverb) if singing a live vocal part. necessary to help it blend with the synth part above.

SINGING FROM THE HEART

Subterraneans creates a beautiful sonic collage of synth lines and guitar parts that have been reversed. Gently pulsating parts blending with soaring string-like sounds give this piece a timeless, freeform quality. Apart from a fragmented bass part and a short saxophone solo, evoking a pre-war jazz mood, there is nothing to suggest a pulse or rhythm.

Reversing gives a distinctive timbral quality where the melodic features are ‘non-intuitive’ in terms of pitch sequences and rhythm patterns. It is this freedom from constraints of harmonic progression and rhythm that allows Bowie to devise a completely spontaneous vocal part in which words and music are totally improvised.

This was a technique that Bowie would use many times. He would walk up to the microphone and let the sounds pour out. Similarly, he would sometimes guide his musicians as to what to play by singing his ideas directly to them.

11 Music Teacher April 2016 Activity

This activity is designed to get students singing the sounds they want to hear before they play them on instruments or write them down on paper.

Constructing a soundtrack similar to the one assembled for Subterraneans will help them to do this. The freedom from rhythmic or harmonic constraints in the backing will allow them to sing what comes naturally and intuitively. Of course, some students will rise to this challenge more readily than others!

Students should assemble a collage of long, sustained synth sounds in a given key. Reverse some sounds and overlap with long fade ins and fade outs to create a drone-like effect that is constantly shifting. Students should improvise singing some ideas over the top of this. When they have found some they are happy with, add them to the recording. Some of the vocal parts may later be transferred to conventional instruments.

Music Teacher April 2016 12