The backing vocals have a variety of sounds. The delay gives a spatial quality without the diffusing effect that reverb has. Instead, there’s a single-tap digital delay passing through what sounds like an octave harmonizer. In keeping with contemporary practice, there’s no reverb on her voice at all. Janelle Monáe’s lead vocal is recorded beautifully, with very little compression or obvious pitch correction. Handclaps fill the role of a snare their multiple layering and slight reverb creates a feeling of being closely surrounded.
SONIC VISUALISER CHORD DIAGRAM FULL
There are also a couple of layers of congas that blend tonally with the drum kit, panned out across the stereo image to create the hyperreal sensation of a space full of percussionists. It’s double-trackled and looped, but with a loose feel within the samples. Tambourine fills the role that cymbals normally would. The kick drum is doubled by an 808 kick, which gives a hugely fat low end. There’s very little reverb on the kit, as is standard contemporary R&B practice. The drum kit is just kick, rim, and toms. They have a tribal sound due to the complete absence of snare and cymbals. The drums are the first thing to jump out at you. There are three groups of sounds in the track: percussion, vocals and miscellaneous harmony and melody elements. It’s simple stuff, but the arrangement is so lively and varied that it makes the song feel plenty eventful. The horn break is the second half of the verse left over from the bridge, followed by the chorus. The rap section, turntable break and outtro are choruses.
The intro and bridge are each half a verse. Anyway, all of the other sections use one of these forms or the other. That last chord makes sense setting up the G minor, but in the key of F minor it’s strange since it has that A natural in it. The chorus is eight bars long too, but is harmonically livelier: two bars of G minor, two bars of Bb minor, two bars of F minor, and then, rather oddly, two bars of D minor. Song structureĪt the most basic level, there are really only two sections, the verse and chorus. Professor Geluso commends Janelle Monáe’s team for keeping it local. The mix is by Phil Tan at Soapbox Studios and Christopher Carmouche at Farmhouse Studios, and the mastering is by Larry Anthony at COS Mastering, all also located in Atlanta.
It was recorded by Control Z and Roman GianArthur at Wondaland Recording Studios in Atlanta, with additional engineering by Damien Lewis. The track was produced by Nate “Rocket” Wonder, Chuck Lightning and Janelle Monáe. Wolfmaster Z plays drums, and DJ Cutmaster Swiff does turntable scratching. Horns are performed by Hornz Unlimited, with arrangement by Nate Wonder, Jason Freeman and Jerry Freeman. The strings are performed by The Wondaland ArchOrchestra (Alexander Page on violin and viola and Grace Shim on cello) and arranged by Nate Wonder. Kellindo Parker plays guitar and ukelele. Nate Wonder also plays bass and Moog synth. Backing vocals are by Janelle Monáe, Nate Wonder and Chuck Lightning. Big Boi raps and does other interjections. Backing vocal arrangements are by Roman GianArthur. The music and lyrics are by Nathaniel Irvin III, Charles Joseph II, Antwan “Big Boi” Patton and Janelle Monáe.
The tempo is 83.81 beats per minute, surprisingly laid back given how lively the groove is. Its length is 4:23, which is long for a pop song. “Tightrope” was released on Februon Wondaland Arts Society/Bad Boy Records. It makes me wonder what might be buried in other songs that I like but haven’t scrutinized this deeply. There’s no better definition of a classic song than that. It just kept offering up more and more layers, more and more nuances, with each repeated listen. It’s a testament to the song’s musical and sonic quality that I wasn’t remotely tired of it after all that scrutiny.
I listened to “Tightrope” about nine thousand times while performing this analysis. Here’s the slideshow version of my analysis. I chose “ Tightrope” by Janelle Monáe featuring Big Boi. We used methods from William Moylan’s book The Art of Recording: Understanding and Crafting the Mix.
SONIC VISUALISER CHORD DIAGRAM HOW TO
A major component of the class is learning how to listen analytically, and to that end, we were assigned to pick a song and do an exhaustive study of its sonic qualities. The most fun Music Technology class I’m taking this semester is Advanced Audio Production with Paul Geluso.
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