Changing the Rhythm
KT Tunstall shows how she shifts the rhythm and dampening between the wound-up verses and the more open chorus to give the song light and shade.
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24 lessons (1h 31m) · 1 free
Lesson transcript
Syncopation and Dynamics in Song Structure
The syncopation of the verses and the intro is really fun. But when you get to the chorus, you really want to bed in and open it up a little bit. Make it feel like a chorus, you know? Give it sort of like a bit of relief with this song, because it's so wound up tight with this rhythm, and then it really kind of pops on the chorus and opens up.
Changing the Rhythm
So, I changed the rhythm and I stop. That's the other thing, what do you call it in strings? It's called double stopping when you go D D D D. But I don't actually know what the name is for the guitar; I think it's just dampening again.
When you're going, you're using that technique. I do it on "Backlash and Vinegar," but it's using this side of your hand here to stop the strings from ringing. It's a really familiar style of playing, and especially if you're playing on your own, it really provides that nice percussive rhythm to your playing.
You're not just getting ringing chords; you're essentially wielding a drum kit in your hands and slapping the strings like that. So that's what I'm using for the verse and intro.
Building Anticipation Before the Chorus
But then I want to open it up for the chorus, which will go:
"When it flutters by my window,
When I need my sleep the most."
Instead of a pre-chorus on this song, I'm just giving it a little breath, just a little bit of anticipation, before going into the chorus which gives it that cliff edge, like you know something's going to happen.
It goes:
"Buzz by my window,
When I need my sleep the most."
Exploring the Chorus
Then the chorus hits:
"So choose my weapon, choose my way.
It's easy saying nothing when there's nothing to say.
Thinking about it every..."
I'm starting to notice you're fading away:
"Fade like shadow,
Fade like shadow,
Fade like shadow,
Fade."
So it completely changes, really. You're going from half-time into double-time. The half-time is suggesting the double-time with that little pickup instead of just that little... it gives it a skip that suggests a kind of more up-tempo feel.
But then in the chorus, you're really going into double-time. Again, it's up and down; I'm just choosing when I'm hitting the strings. It's always just smooth running with that arm. It's a really nice feeling as well to just soar out with that chorus, and it's great when it...
And then you can suck it back in again when you come out of that verse:
"Feel like a shadow,
Feel like shadow."
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Photo credit: Tom Oxley
Since scoring a worldwide smash with her debut album 'Eye To The Telescope' in 2004, which went on to sell over 5 million copies, KT Tunstall has remained at the forefront of UK singer-songwriter talent.
KT followed up that early success with the albums 'Drastic Fantastic', 'Tiger Suit' and 'Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon' in 2007, 2010 and 2013 respectively, keeping the platinum sales rolling and cementing the Scottish singer-songwriter's reputation as a major recording talent, as well as a mesmerising live artist.
2012 and the years that followed saw a seismic shift in outlook - the loss of her father, a divorce, and a relocation to Venice Beach, California.
After a period of healing, soul-searching, and a change of scenery, 2016 hailed the arrival of the first of a trilogy of KT Tunstall's albums, the critically acclaimed UK top 10 album 'KIN'. The trilogy evokes, separately and in sequence, spirit, body and mind. With 'KIN' being her phoenix-from-the-ashes 'spirit' album, 2018 marked the second offering of that trilogy, the 'body' album 'WAX'.
KT Tunstall has toured the world many times over. She outsold every other female artist in the UK in 2005, won the 2006 Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist, won the Ivor Novello Best Song award for her huge, self-penned hit 'Suddenly I See', and a Q award for Track of the Year.
She also landed a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance with 'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree' and lent her tunes to a host of movies and TV shows ('Suddenly I See' being used in the iconic opening scene of the modern classic Meryl Streep film 'The Devil Wears Prada').
The first single from her latest release, 'The River', was named one of Rolling Stone's 'Songs You Need To Know'.
The last few years have seen something of a creative rebirth for KT Tunstall. Upon relocating to the west coast of the USA, she was accepted as one of six annual fellows for the Sundance Film Institute's Composers Lab (hosted by George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch in Northern California) and has since scored music for short and feature films.
She has also been awarded the Inspirational Artist gong at the Women In Music Awards and was chosen as the first ever female Grand Marshal (following the likes of Sir Sean Connery) to lead April 2018's annual New York Tartan Week parade. In May 2018 she and Mike McCready, of legendary multi-million selling Pearl Jam, released a cover of Tom Petty's huge hit single 'I Won't Back Down' with proceeds going to Pearl Jam's Vitalogy Foundation.
In 2018, KT performed sold-out intimate headline shows across the UK and US and toured worldwide supporting acclaimed artists including Simple Minds, The Pretenders, and Barenaked Ladies.
2019 saw KT perform a large headline tour across the UK and Europe with her all-female band, playing festivals all over the UK (including a headline set at Glastonbury Festival). She toured the US & Canada, Japan, China, the Netherlands, Mexico and Brazil, as well as supporting Hall & Oates on their UK arena tour.
Touring continued for KT in early 2020 with headline shows in the US, performing with Jools Holland across Europe, and playing New York's legendary Madison Square Garden, supporting Hall & Oates.
In her Song Studies course, KT pulls back the curtain on the guitar parts and songwriting craft behind her biggest hits - a rare chance to learn how a Brit Award-winning, Grammy-nominated songwriter actually builds a song.
