Dynamics refers to the changing of how loud or how soft musical notes are. In classical music, dynamics are used to create highly expressive effects. There’s a wide range, from very, very soft sounds to very, very loud sounds. You can learn a lot about a piece’s structure by listening carefully for that.
In much popular music, the overall dynamics are pretty steady throughout. Sometimes there will be sudden jumps in volume in a song, but usually the jumps that feel like dynamics are really a jump in texture (more on this later). Partly due to the commercial pressures of making songs stand out when played on the radio or streaming, there’s actually quite a narrow range of dynamics used in most popular music today.
The use of dynamics can change over the course of a piece. Sometimes this change is very gradual and sometimes it’s very sudden. Often sudden dynamic shifts can indicate a change in section of a piece, for example starting off with a soft section and then suddenly becoming loud. Other times changes in dynamics are used for effect within a section.
Micro-Dynamics
The large-scale dynamics that are written into a piece of music or performed are one thing to listen for. But there’s another level of dynamics which we can call micro-dynamics.
Small, quickly-changing dynamics are typically used in melodies to shape a phrase (a short series of notes that are grouped together in the music). They can even be used to shape one single note, for example starting soft and then getting louder and then soft again. This could all happen in less than a second! These kinds of micro-dynamics are used to great effect in all forms of music.
It’s something that singers do quite naturally, as these shifts are embedded in pronunciation and suggested by the meaning of the words they are singing. In spoken language, we wouldn’t speak the words of a sentence at a completely flat volume. We would naturally vary the emphasis of different syllables and parts of the sentence. Similarly, singers bring this same kind of enunciation to how they shape their sung phrases. Instrumentalists often learn a lot about how to effectively shape a phrase by listening to singers, for this very reason.
These small gradations of dynamics used to shape a phrase and shape a melody are something to listen carefully for in your Active Listening. Appreciating them will help you to learn these techniques for yourself and make your own music more expressive. We’ll explore this more in Chapter 17: Expression.
Articulation
One other more subtle shaping technique that can bring a melody to life is articulation. This refers to how notes begin and how they end.
You may be familiar with playing “staccato” (each note sharply detached from the ones before and after) and “legato” (each note connected in a flowing way to the notes before and after).
Different instruments each have their own techniques and possibilities for varying the articulation of a note. For example wind players have a range of mouth techniques which can be used to shape the start and end of a note, just as string players have different bowing techniques, and guitarists have different finger-picking or plectrum techniques.
When we listen to our musical heros, we will find there is actually an infinite range of expressive articulations, which we can enjoy, and then emulate in our own playing.
One way to tune your ear in to articulation is to focus on the dynamics of a single note. Does it start suddenly and loudly and taper off? Or does it have a soft, smooth start but a sudden ending? These effects are often produced by the articulation techniques of the instrument. You can usefully practice Active Listening with your own instrument, exploring these possibilities. We’ll be diving into this idea further both when we learn the Expansive Creativity framework in Chapter 15: Improvisation and the musical language of emotion in Chapter 17: Expression.
Questions in Mind
Here are some questions you can use to explore Dynamics and Articulation.
Keep in mind that almost all questions can be asked for the whole piece of music overall, as well as for a particular instrument, a particular section, etc.
- How are dynamics being used overall in this piece? Are there sudden or gradual changes? How does this contribute to the musical impact of the piece?
- What is the relative volume of each section? (simple labels like “really quiet”, “the loudest”, etc. are fine, or you may like to use precise terminology like “mezzo-forte”, “fortissimo”, etc. if you know it.)
- How do the volume levels of different instruments compare? Does that change from section to section or at particular moments (perhaps when musical roles change)?
- What can I hear in terms of microdynamics: how is each note or phrase shaped using changing volume?
- Can I hear any particular articulations being used, such as staccato or legato playing, or any instrument-specific articulation techniques?
- How important are dynamics in this piece of music? If every note or every section stayed at a steady volume how much would that detract from the piece’s expressiveness?