Superstar

The attention of the media was an accident, and it was nothing to the band. Throughout the road tour across the United States, the band members have seen many scenes of all kinds, large and small, and the song by Hugo. "Hollyoo is not America (Hollyood'. America even more delicately expresses the psychological changes of the band members. The excitement of newspapers and magazines does not have much power for the band members.

Relatively speaking, the collaboration with Hiran Raikkonen in the studio is the biggest challenge for the band members. Due to the characteristics of the recording studio, the performance of each note will be endlessly magnified, as if using a microscope to examine every millisecond of the performance. These are two completely different forms of presentation from live performances, and are completely new to the band. World, and it is full of difficulties.

For Hugo is no exception.

The whole process of music creation can be divided into three parts: composition, lyrics and arrangement. Most ordinary people who have not received music education and composition training, just have a sense of tunes. They can hum and sing some simple tunes, but they cannot complete the production of these tunes. Simply put, ordinary people can write lyrics or even People with excellent talents can still complete composition, but those without professional training can hardly complete the work of composing.

Arrangement is actually the evolution of a tune into a complete musical form. A simple example illustrates that a piece of music can be divided into multiple links in the creation process. One person is responsible for creating tunes and harmony, and one person is responsible for creating strings. For the band part, one person creates the electro-acoustic band part, one person is responsible for the creation of the percussion part, etc., then composition is the first link, and the arrangement is the person who integrates these four links. Therefore, you can often see a composer besides the lyricist and the composer.

The importance of the arranger is not inferior to that of the lyricist and the composer, and even from a certain perspective, the arranger still occupies a more important position. Because the arrangement is to give the correct guidance to an ordinary tune and give the music soul, this is the so-called music production process.

In many cases, the arranger and composer will be the same person, because the composer has the most direct understanding of his own music and can often give the arranger the most accurate understanding. However, in the field of music, there are also special arrangers. Maybe they are not so strong in composing. They can have a keen sense of music, precise pop sense and accurate judgment, and the most important thing is the knowledge of the instrument, the rhythm, and the melody. Excellent recognition ability, but it can give them outstanding arranging ability, and even have the ability to turn corruption into magic.

Hugo's previous adaptation of "Next Time You See Me (...Me actually completed an arrangement of music, which is a process of modifying the original music score, rhythm, and style. The Beatles’ classic song "Yesterday" has been sung or covered by more than 1,000 singers according to the Guinness Book of Records. The number of performances has reached 7 million, which is the longest in history, and the same song has been performed by different singers. The totally different styles displayed in it are actually the credit of the arranger. A truly excellent arranger is the ability to present the melody in the best, most comfortable and most exciting way.

Hugo is a lyricist and a composer, but his understanding of the arrangement is missing to a large extent. Although he has learned a lot of professional knowledge of arrangement during his ten-year rock career People have communicated, but because there has been no systematic learning, Hugo's knowledge in this area is very scattered.

The eleven songs of the first album of Glory To Death were all written by Hugo, which was also approved by Sheeran. In fact, Hugo has completed the arrangement of these eleven songs in accordance with the style of the band, but this arrangement is still relatively rough, just like a piece of handmade wooden furniture, finished and polished, but there are still some burrs, which is not fine enough. . During the usual live performances, even if there are some rough parts, the band members will make adjustments by themselves, but after entering the recording studio, these glitches are amplified, and the members are not able to cooperate with each other as in the live performance. The recording studios are all recording individually, so the roughness of the arrangement is immediately apparent.

Fortunately, his ten-year experience has left a lot of things for Hugo. He also has his own system of understanding of arrangement. The most basic skill of arrangement is the ability to accurately understand musical instruments. What style of instrument suits and what instrument should be used when it is very basic and important. Especially after entering the 21st century, many types of music will use orchestras for accompaniment. Country, pop, rock, hip-hop and other musical styles that seem to have nothing to do with classical instruments have all used classical music orchestras. Arrangement, so the arranger's understanding of the instrument is even more important.

Hugo's original keen recognition of keyboards, basses, drums and other musical instruments actually came from the additional skills precipitated by years of research on arrangement.

"So you are saying that the main instrument of this song must use the piano." Sheeran and Hugo sat face to face, he supported his head with the fingers of his right hand, lost in thought.

Hugo nodded vigorously, unswervingly expressing his thoughts. Sheeran didn't speak, and the two fell silent.

Alfonso, who stayed in the recording room, stood behind the keyboard with a helpless expression, while Neil was standing beside him quietly holding the guitar, looking like he was on standby at any time. Outside the recording room, Fugin and Pedro sat on the sofa, watching Hugo and Sheeran tense and afraid to speak.

"Why? The guitar as the main melody is also very good, isn't it?" Sheeran still did not back down, pressed the red call button, and said into the microphone, "Neil, can you try again?"

Before Sheeran’s words fell, Hugo directly shook his head in denial to Neil, and then said, "They have tried many times before and after, don’t you hear the difference?" Neil and Alfonso looked at each other. They were the tug-of-war ropes of Hugo and Hiran. The two forces pulled each other, which was really miserable.

At this time, Hugo and Sheeran are arranging the song "Hollyood’. America", and the two have a disagreement on the use of the main instrument.

"The arrangement of this song is not complicated, it's just a simple mix of popular elements. The smoothness of the melody and the artistic conception of the lyrics are the biggest highlights. So, what is the artistic conception of the lyrics?" Hugo stopped Neil. , Said to Hiran Lianzhu, “Hollywood represents the dream of becoming a star, but losing the opportunity to become a star does not mean losing everything. Life is not just Hollywood. Use the guitar to play this. The song becomes a cheerful and fresh country tune, the whole mood is more like a drive towards Hollywood, and finally walks around and goes home. This feeling completely destroys the emotion that the lyrics want to express; on the contrary, the piano The clarity and sadness of the melody can inject a touch of sadness into the melody. Behind the sadness, through the interpretation of the lyrics during the singing process, the hope is burst out and a contrast is formed. This is the best way to express it."

"Show it to me." Sheeran didn't say much, but said plainly. Hugo paused, and Sheeran explained, "The hope in the lyrics and the sadness of the piano, how to interpret and how to create conflict, show me."

Without hesitation, Hugo walked directly into the recording studio, and then Neil and Alfonso both walked out, leaving Hugo alone in the recording studio. Sheeran pressed the call button again, "I will play you the track Alfonso played just now."

Hugo brought up the earplugs and showed Hiran a ready gesture. It has been more than ten days since Glory to Death the entire band entered the studio. The professional work of the band, Sheeran, and recording has been in a state of running-in. Both sides are stumbling and making progress. In fact, the most stable performance is the drummer. Fujin, he has completely entered the recording state, and his performance is very good.

Relatively speaking, Hugo is the lead singer. Although he has been in the recording studio of the City of Sound before, the pressure on his shoulders is still unabated because he shoulders the heavy responsibility of presenting each song. These ten days Since then, Hugo has also been studying hard, working hard, and trying to find the state. Although only two songs have been recorded so far, Hugo is getting better, which is a good sign.

After Xiran watched Hugo get ready, she started playing music. The pitch of Hugo was still a little unstable the first time he sang. He took the initiative to pause the recording, walked to the side and cleared his throat, took a sip of water, and sang again.

"Hollywood is not America" ​​purely from the technical point of view of arrangement, UU Reading www.uukanshu.com does not have much brilliance, and the rock component has been popular and overshadowed a lot of the limelight, but this song is in In terms of emotional catharsis in the lyrics, there is an empathetic mood. So the key to this song lies in the emotions in the performance, which is why Hugo insists on choosing the piano as the main instrument.

Hugo’s favorite part of this song is not the chorus, but the two lyrics of the main song, full of emotional tension, "Helena Jenny at birth, with a tired soul, heading west to California, Become a magazine cover girl. But once you change your name, the fragments of your soul will disappear, and now she can hardly recognize herself."

In the understatement of singing, the loss in the tone cannot be concealed, and the slight tingling in the heart gently pulls in the melody. This kind of true emotion that is not exaggerated but only lightly leaks, seems to be between the musical notes and the musical notes. Water droplets generally permeate slowly. This emotion is complementary to the piano. After these preparations, the whole emotion reached its climax when the chorus sentence "Hollywood is not America" ​​broke out.

Even if Hugo did not have the perfect state of the day when he wrote the song, but every time he sang the lyrics "Once you change the name, the fragments of the soul will disappear", the tremor from the heart still can't contain it. .