While studying music composition we learned how to objectively critique music by considering eight attributes of music: Dynamics, Rhythm (duration), Pitch (range), Timbre, Direction and Space, Attack (articulation), Texture, and Density.
Writing a good music critique can be hard without a core blue print. If you can talk about each individual attribute it will all add up to a decent music critique. What follows is a break down of each attribute and how you can talk about it.
The Atributes
Dynamics – This is the loudness of the music. Quiet to loud. How is the music expressed dynamically? Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit is a great example of using loud and quiet dynamics that build up to the chorus. The verse is much quieter than the chorus. You can also look at the song The Unforgiven by Metallica.
The Unforgiven has dynamics that are opposite to Smells Like Teen Spirit. The verse is loud and heavy with massive guitar distortion with the chorus being more quiet with clean and acoustic guitar tone.
Rhythm (duration) – Rhythm is how we divide time in music. Rhythm equals time in a plain way of speaking. What sort of rhythms can you hear in the music. What can you say about the time signature or tempo of the music. If you were listening to funk, what could Bootsy Collins say about tempo. Check out Bootsy’s basic funk formula to get an idea of what rhythm is like.
Pitch (range) – Pitch determines what note is being voiced. In equal tempered music we have 12 different pitches. What pitches are being used? Remember equal temperament is the act of dividing sound into 12 note classes. This is not consistent with all music. There are more pitch classes in other cultures where more notes exist in between the regular 12 pitches.
Timbre – Timbre determines the quality of the sounds you hear. Instruments can all play the same notes, but they will each have a different quality when they are performed.
With guitar you could have two different players perform the same guitar line, and both can sound somewhat different. The difference in timbre could come from the performers technique and choice of instrument and gear.
When you consider that there is only a finite about note combinations, timbre becomes important to distinguish similar notes from each other. Additionally you could hear what Amon Tobin has to say about making sounds.
Direction and Space – Does the music rely on direction and space? Modern recording allows a sense of space to be achieved through panning and effects like reverb. What can you say about the direction and space of the song, does it move places?
Attack (articulation) – Articulation addresses the technical performance of how you sound the note. Special technique can be employed to perform the same note in a variety of different ways creating new sounds.
Texture – Texture in music is the description of complex a musical pharase is. Complex texture is an account for many things like tempo, and the melody. A musical phrase on it’s own is considered a monophonic texture. A musical phrase with a chord structure supporting one melody is considered a homophonic texture.
Density – We can speak of density with ideas found in texture. We can ask are there other melodic lines happening at the same time? How many people are playing right now? This will give us an idea how dense the music is.
The Take Away
If one were to to speak only about these eight musical attributes you could get pretty far. Just look at this article. We explained briefly what each attribute is and look how far we got.
If you need more material you can extend the dialog by talking about the context of the music and the musicians who made it. Including those extra points of information will make for a great critique.