Dynamics & Expressive Techniques

Dynamics refers to the volume of sound. Important aspects include the relative softness and loudness of sound, change of loudness (contrast), and the emphasis on individual sounds (accent). Expressive Techniques refers to the musical detail that articulates a style or the interpretation of a style.

Device	Song	Artist	Time of Event	Listen Now	Album	Publisher/Label	Explicit Lyrics
Various Dynamic Changes	Prelude In C Minor	Chopin	Heavy chords – very loud at start, soft middle section, very soft repeat of middle section to finish.	YouTube			N
Crescendo	Just Like You Imagined	Nine Inch Nails	Introduction	YouTube	The Fragile	Nothing Records	N
	Fix You	Coldplay	Essentially the whole first half of the song, but particularly when elec guitar enters	YouTube	X & Y	Parlophone	N
	A Day In The Life	The Beatles	Just before contrasting section begins	YouTube	Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band	EMI / Parlophone / Capitol	N
	Money for Nothing	Dire Straits	Whole Intro	YouTube	Brothers In Arms	Vertigo / Warner Bros	Y (2nd verse)
	Shout	The Isley Brothers	‘A little bit louder now’	YouTube	Shout!	RCA	N
Diminuendo	Shout	The Isley Brothers	‘A little bit softer now’	YouTube	Shout!	RCA	N
Crescendo/Diminuendo	Bydlo	Musorgsky	The piece slowly builds from pp to a ff crescendo, then slowly diminuendos back to pp.	YouTube	From ‘Pictures At An Exhibition’	Unknown	N
Terraced Dynamics	The Four Seasons (Spring)	Vivaldi	Clearly heard in the opening theme	YouTube			N
Delay	Rope	Foo Fighters	First guitar heard in intro	YouTube	Wasting Light	RCA	N
	Sweet Disposition	Temper Trap	Throughout, but most obvious in intro	YouTube	Condition	Liberation	N
Falsetto	Grace Kelly	Mika	Throughout	YouTube	Life In Cartoon Motion	Glam Rock	N
	Beautiful	Snoop Dogg/Pharrell Williams	During Chorus – When Pharrell sings	YouTube	Paid Tha Cost To Be Da Bo$$	Priority/Capitol/EMI Records	Y
	You Make Me Feel Like Dancing	Leo Sayer	Throughout	YouTube	Endless Flight	Chrysalis Records (UK)	N
	Bohemian Rhapsody	Queen	First ‘Galileo’ voice	YouTube	A Night At The Opera	EMI/Elektra/Parlophone	N
	September Submitted	Earth, Wind and Fire	Verses are sung in ‘chest voice’ while each chorus is falsetto. “Ba de ya!”	YouTube	The Best of Earth, Wind and Fire, Vol. 1	Columbia	N
Glissando	Great Balls Of Fire	Jerry Lee Lewis	Once after first verse, but then several times during piano solo	YouTube	Released as Single	Recorded at Sun Studios, Memphis, Tennessee	N
	Easy	Faith No More	At the End of the second phrase in the guitar solo	YouTube	Angel Dust	Slash	N
	Listen To Your Heart	Roxette	First phrase of the guitar solo	YouTube	Look Sharp	EMI	N
Harmonics – Artificial(Strings)	Comfortably Numb	Pink Floyd	First note of second guitar solo	YouTube	The Wall	EMI	N
Harmonics – Natural (Strings)	Blurry	Puddle Of Mudd	Throughout Intro	YouTube	Come Clean	Flawless / Geffen	N
Harmonics – Pinch (Strings)	La Grange	ZZ Top	Throughout the second guitar solo	YouTube	Tres Hombres	London	N
	A Fire In Babylon	Shadows Fall	Throughout Intro	YouTube	The Art Of Balance	Century Media	N
Rim Knock / Latin Rim	Under The Bridge	Red Hot Chilli Peppers	When the drums first enter they are played with a latin rim shot on the beat, on the snare.	YouTube	Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik	Warner Bros	N
	The Letter	The Box Tops	The first 8 beats of the song are rimshots – after this, the drummer plays the snare as normal.	YouTube	The Letter / Neon Rainbow	Mala	N
Scat Singing	Hotter Than That	Louis Armstrong	After clarinet solo	YouTube	Hotter Than That	Documents	N
	Chick Magnet	MXPX	After 2nd chorus	YouTube	Life In General	Tooth and Nail	N
Staccato	Hide and Seek	Imogen Heap	‘Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth’	YouTube	Speak For Yourself	Megaphonic	N
	Another One Bites The Dust	Queen	First three notes of bass riff	YouTube	The Game	EMI	N
	I Write Sins, Not Tragedies	Panic At The Disco	Opening string riff	YouTube	A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out	Fueled By Ramen, Decaydance	N
Tacet	Suicide Blonde	INXS	After the hook has been repeated several times there is a tacet by most instruments for a little over one bar.	YouTube	X	Mercury / XPRO	N
Tremolo	Bang Bang	Nancy Sinatra	Throughout, but most obvious on guitar intro	YouTube	How Does That Grab You?	Reprise	N
	Born On The Bayou	Creedence Clearwater Revival	Throughout on rhythm guitar	YouTube	Bayou Country	Fantasy	N
	Midnight Special	Traditional (Creedence Clearwater Revival)	Throughout, but most obvious on guitar intro	YouTube	Willy and the Poor Boys	Fantasy	N
Vocal Fry	Oops… I Did It Again	Britney Spears	Throughout, but most obvious at the start of the words ‘Ooh Yea-ea-ea-ea-ah’	YouTube	Oops… I Did It Again	Jive	N
Wah Wah (Guitar Effect)	All Along The Watchtower	Jimi Hendrix	Half way through the guitar solo, Jimi steps on the Wah pedal!	YouTube	John Wesley Harding	Columbia	N
	Bad Funk Stripe	Grinspoon	Entire awesome guitar solo	YouTube	Guide To Better Living	Universal	N
Word Painting	As Vesta Was Descending	Thomas Weelkes	‘Ascending’ is sung to upward phrases and ‘descending’ is sung to downward phrases.	YouTube	Unknown	Unknown	N
	Friends In Low Places	Garth Brooks	The word ‘low’ is sung… um… low.	YouTube	No Fences	Capitol	N
	She’s So High	Tal Bachman	The word ‘hiiiiigh’ is sung… um… high.	YouTube	Tal Bachman	Sony	N
	Wake Me Up, Before You Go-Go	Wham	‘I want to hit that… high!’	YouTube	Make It Big	CBS / Epic	N
	Smash The Mirror	The Who	Each repetition of the word ‘rise’ is a a semitone higher than the last	YouTube	Tommy	Polydor / Track / Decca / MCA	N
	What Goes Around	Justin Timberlake	‘What goes around’ chorus descends an octave and then ‘comes back around’	YouTube	FutureSex/LoveSounds	Jive	N
	Up Where We Belong	Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes	The melody rises during the words ‘Love lifts us up where we belong’	YouTube	From ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’ Soundtrack	Island	N
	Free Fallin’	John Mayer (Tom Petty)	The words ‘Free Fallin’ in the chorus are sung to a descending pattern	YouTube	Where The Light Is (DVD)	Columbia	N
	Ring Of Fire	Johnny Cash	An example of ‘Inverse’ word painting – ‘Down, down, down’ is sung with an upward melody	YouTube	Ring Of Fire – The Best Of Johnny Cash	Columbia	N