Range Segmentation

In the previous article you learned kernels, the characteristics of tones. That was a very micro level of analyzing music. This time we’re gonna go back to a macro perspective again.

1. Allocation of Vocal Range

In songwriting, people tend to expand melodies larger and larger. you somehow feel like climbing up a scale on and on, the range of a melody can easily swell up.

But in reality, optimal pitch ranges of instruments are limited. Especially in vocal music, you have to take into consideration the estimated vocal range of the singer.

Segmentation

Firstly, divide the infinite “spiral staircase” of tones into segments in order to make it more easy to handle as areas. The most basic segmentation we have so far is, obviously, an octave from do to do.

Here we regard “do to do” as a block, not “do to ti“. This means that do belongs to both blocks above and below it. Imagine it like do is the “knot” or the “joint”, connecting two areas.

So as a Border

In addition, an octave is further separated to two areas by another steady land mark, so. Here I call this minimum unit of an area a Segment.

So is defined, again, as belonging to both segments, above and below. As a result the lower segment comprise five notes while the upper has just four, which may feel uncomfortable, but will work better in practice.

Minor Keys?

In this article I take mainly major key songs as examples, but on analyzing minor key songs, la–mi and mi–la should be set as the segments.

LMT utilizes these “segments” as the basic unit for melodic analysis (especially regarding the use of vocal ranges), which I call Range Segmentation.

The segmentation is so defined that it will suit best to melodic analysis of popular music in a pure practical sense. So this is a range segmentation “method”, rather than “theory”.

Now watch how segmentations are consumed in actual songs.

2. 1-Segment Melodies

The possible patterns of melodies within 1 segment are so limited as you feel it cramped to make ones. Listen to some examples and see how you can make a good melody within 1 segment.

do–so segment

“Safe And Sound” by Capital Cities is an extraordinary examples where the entire vocal melodies are made up with just a single do–so segment.

What can you do with just 5 tones? —Now that you’ve learned a lot about melodic progressions and tonal gravitation, you can well analyze that. Notice that there are two contrasted elements that gives the song a good hook: The strong pentatonic-ish phrase so–mi–re–do and the gentle half-step motion mi–fa–mi.

So even with 5 tones you can make a decent variation in melodic designs! One big merit of keeping a vocal range narrow is simply it can make a melody catchy and easy to sing. So you can occasionally find songs with their chorus parts staying within 1 segment.

It is surprising that “What Makes You Beautiful” and “Closer” is made up only with 3 notes, do–re–mi, and so is “bbycakes”, only with mi–fa–so!

so–do segment

The so–do segment is even more limited as it has only 4 tones.

“Misery” by Maroon 5 has a chorus part whose first half is within a range of a single so–do segment. Here again the contrast is formed between pentatonic-ish do–la–so and half-step resolution ti–do.

3. 2-Segment Melodies

2-segment melodies have far more patterns possible. In that case there are two types of the range, namely do–do or so–so.

Though the two are identical in terms of the pitch ranges, their formation of organisms are totally different. In do–do, cadences are formed by spreading to both ends, whereas so–so has only one center tone where all the other surrounding tones gravitate.

The outcome melodies will be very much distinct depending on which formation you choose. In this article I’m gonna call them “Outward 2seg / Inward 2seg“¹.

Outward 2seg

“Outward 2seg” has two center tones at the edge, enclosing two stable tones, mi and so. So the basic strategy is setting mi and so as temporal landing points and cadence to lower do for a calming effect or climb up to higher do to form the peaks.

So is in the neutral position so think it like whether going up or down from it determines the basic level of excitement.

“Perfect” by Ed Sheeran has its chorus part stay just in do–do 2 segments. You can see that the upper do plays a big role as a “hook” of this part while the lower do works as the final landing point in the bottom.

In Minor Key

In minor key songs, the range la–la is the outward 2 segments.

“Wellerman”, a sea ballad from New Zealand, is a good example. Except for the very first note in so, all the rest of the melody is perfetly within la–la 2seg. The organism of melody is totally the same here—Lower la used as a calm landing point, while higher la as the peak.

Inward 2seg

“Inward 2seg”, on the other hand, a single center tone is surrounded by the other tones that approach from above and below.

The big difference from “outward 2seg” is that strides are available here, and fa–mi resolutions have strong effect as the pitch of fa is positioned quite high in a relative sense.

“My Heart Will Go On” by Céline Dion is a good example whose chorus part is just fit in so–so 2 segments. You can find a strong octave stride so–so (“wherever you are”) and stepwise cadence both from above and below, re–do and ti–do.

Thus in inward 2seg you can easily construct a wavering “drama” around do.

Outward or Inward?

As you can see above, strategies you can take are very different between “outward” and “inward”. The outward 2seg has a drawback that, by lack of stride leaps, the patterns of cadences are relatively fixed like “ascend to the upper center, descend to the lower center.”

On the other hand, the inward 2seg has various approaches to the single tonal center including strides, yet it means that you have to always return to nowhere but the central do to cadence. Pros and cons of the two are almost equal.

You can, however, iron out these shortcomings by expanding the range to three segments. Let’s check it.

4. Larger Segments

Extending 2-segment structures either upwards or downwards, as a matter of course, makes 3-segmented vocal ranges.

Or if you expand both ends, you’ll get 4-segmented ones. Extending inward 2seg is of great use in that you can form various cadence/stride patterns around the center.
Though Outward 2seg does not attain a new center tone unless it’s fully expanded to do, but it’s nice to have new expressions such as higher la–so or lower fa–mi.

“Rather Be” by Clean Bandit has a chorus part where inward 2seg is expanded both upwards and downwards.

As the first phrase “If you gave me”, do–so–re–do, already covers the full range of inward 2seg, listeners will expect the melody to develop more.
So in the third quarter, a ti–re stride leap appears at the phrase “know with all of your heart” to make a peak. And in the last quarter, at “when I am with you“, the melody reaches lower la so it can approach the center from below.

Thus just having a couple of notes stick out from basic do–do segments can greatly increase the variety of melodies around the center.