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Many PGers have been asking me via PM for an analysis I completed over the weekend of Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'". The analysis is something I do when asked to play keys, guitars or bass in the worship band that I am in, OR if I want to duplicate the sonic feel and arrangement of a song with one of my own songs. Rather than continue to respond to the PMs, I will give the link here. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Kcnhuc39lyJkLRVz_y8K2vj3fBk_4Z_MTlhTqGKMm9g/edit?usp=sharingNo real magic or revelations other than I think taking the time to do this makes me a better band member as well as a better arranger and producer of my own songs. What is always interesting is that I often find that songs which I thought were complex from a "part" standpoint usually are not as complex as I suspected. It does take time and patience and an ear to critically listen for details. I have found that headphone use with balance control helps to listen for differences in left and right signals (no kidding, right?). BIAB users that are not satisfied with the end result of their efforts from use of BIAB compared to their favorite songs might find this technique helpful to avoid over-arranging their songs, or leaving production static for individual tracks throughout a song.
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Thanks rockstar_not. I've been following the thread all along from the sidelines.
Charlie
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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That's awesome! I'm always looking for ways to make notes on just this kind of thing and I like your methods of doing just that! Thanks much for sharing it
Chad (Hope that makes it easier)
TEMPO TANTRUM: What a lead singer has when they can't stay in time.
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Woah  this is exhaustive! Such good listening practice to dissect songs like this, I can easily see how it would directly feed back into more confident songwriting 
Will - PG Music
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Woah this is exhaustive! Such good listening practice to dissect songs like this, I can easily see how it would directly feed back into more confident songwriting It's really not that exhaustive, in that it doesn't identify key, chord progression, etc. However, THAT stuff is easily found. What's exhaustive is that this takes as many listens through as identifying unique tracks, and usually a couple more than that. I take a break at about an hour, as I find that I get to the "Can't see the forest for all of the trees" kind of state of mind. This song took me two different sessions. But if you take a listen, you'll hear that there is probably not more than 10-12 tracks, if you consider the harmony vox as a few individual comp'ed tracks. 10-12 tracks for a major hit. Only two lead instruments besides Tom's voice. I would count the very simple electric guitar parts in two different sections as two different leads, because they have completely different sounds. So often, it is tempting - oh so tempting - to continue to pile on the lead instruments because individually they might sound cool. But unless they REALLY serve the song well, they are add-on junk that takes away from the meat of the song. They are incongruent, uncomplimentary, distracting, and one might say amateur. Even in this song, that one section with the double-tracked lead electric, it's just a copy of the bass riff that is going on throughout 90% of the song, not some meandering thing that sounds foreign to the song. I'm really glad JoeV picked this song. It's evidence of how simple a great and memorable song can be in a rock band setting. Now, a different question still related to this song: Who sings this song to themselves every time they see Ventura Boulevard signs? I do every time I visit LA. That's once every few years for me, and I can't help but hear this song in my head and even sing it out loud in the car. -Scott
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Hi Scott,
When I opened your sheet - I was....overwhelmed !!! (in a good way).
I would love for you to give your Template with ONLY the headings on the top and left side, so I can take a crack at filling in some of the details before I look at yours.
For those of us that have trouble hearing all that's going on in a mix, that would be a great 'hands on' lesson.
I would also like to ask your permission to share it with my Amp Up NYC group - as a possible formal lesson plan they can add to their LKR curriculum.
I had another idea of locating a MIDI - or even buying it - and comparing or reverse engineering the MIDI version - so that, unlike an MP3 - aspiring musicians (or students) could then isolate part by part to hear what they missed in the full mix - and see if by listening in isolation - they could then recognize and hear that part in the full mix.
I know there are MANY great sounding songs where I truly have no idea how many different parts are on it - and the full mix is just a melange of beauty I cannot parse with my ears.
PS - and a challenge - it would be really interesting if any of our PG forum producers could find a part you missed !!!
Last edited by Joe V; 11/11/16 02:18 AM.
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Last edited by 90 dB; 11/11/16 04:26 AM.
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Super interesting article, thanks Bob! He seems like a pretty down-to-earth guy in that interview, pretty much only interested in writing songs and playing them. Good traits for a rockstar I guess!
Will - PG Music
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Thanks rockstar_not Reverse Arrangement Star_yes for taking the time, it's much appreciated !
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Thanks for the link. Reading the article makes sense of the economy of tracks in the song.
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Also, as for sharing, the link is a public link for the blank and my crack at the reverse arranging - this should let you download your own copies to use however you want.
The link should not let you edit my originals on my google drive if I understand it correctly.
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Hi Scott,
I had another idea of locating a MIDI - or even buying it - and comparing or reverse engineering the MIDI version - so that, unlike an MP3 - aspiring musicians (or students) could then isolate part by part to hear what they missed in the full mix - and see if by listening in isolation - they could then recognize and hear that part in the full mix.
You might be disappointed in this approach, just saying. There's no guarantee that someone doing a midi arrangement has bothered to listen through the original as much as you have. Most of my notes are not arrangement notes as they are production notes, and this song has very simple production, but nonetheless the production on the dynamics in particular and on TP's voice, are what makes this song. MIDI won't help with that. That's my opinion.
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