Welcome to Instrumentality
What Instrumentality is all about and what you can expect to find here.
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Composing with a notation app on an iPad without access to an instrument
Most music is composed on an instrument but what can you achieve when there's no guitar or keyboard in site - just an iPad and a notation app?
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Analysed: Paul Simon’s American Tune
Paul Simon's American Tune is not only one of my favourite songs of all time, it's a chorale based on an old German tune that was also borrowed by Bach.
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Analysed: Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill
Kate Bush's classic Running up that Hill has made number one in the UK singles chart, 37 years after its release, aided by its inclusion in Netflix's Stranger Things. So why is this track still such a hit after all these years? We take a look ...
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Analysed: David Bowie’s Absolute Beginners
David Bowie's Absolute Beginners is many people's favourite song, but why should that be? What is it in the songwriting that creates such warm feelings? I check it out.
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Analysed: Baby Shark – why sometimes less is more
Baby Shark is the most viewed video ever on YouTube with more than 10 billion views. If you leave aside the key change, it's about as simple as a song can get. As musicians, can we learn anything from it?
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Analysed: George Michael’s Careless Whisper
Listeners to Smooth Radio voted George Michael's Careless Whisper as the best song ever. So what's so special about this particular piece? Let's take a look.
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Analysed: Wichita Lineman – is this the greatest song ever?
A number of people have told me how they regard Wichita Lineman to be the greatest song ever. That sparked my attention - what is so special about this song? Why does it have such a strong effect on people?
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Are two chords really enough?
If you search for songs with just two chords you'll be provided with lists of songs for beginners. But are two-chord songs necessarily simplistic? History proves otherwise.
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The big build: anthemic choruses that stir the soul
One way to achieve a big emotional reaction from an audience is to repeat the same refrain over and over, building up and up until every frequency is filled and there's nowhere left to go. Here's to the anthemic chorus.
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Analysed: Ed Sheeran’s Shivers
Ed Sheeran writes some of the most popular songs in the world. Shivers is the latest example - but why is it so good?
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