What is a song that’s similar? How specifically is it similar?

One thing that can be really useful when listening to music is asking yourself those two questions – What is a song that’s similar? How specifically is it similar?

Just getting used to thinking that way can get you to notice more details in a song that you might not have noticed before. Often we might think two songs are similar, but not know exactly what makes them sound similar. We want to go a step farther than that. Rather than leaving it at, “they just sound similar”, we want to know why.

Maybe it has a similar drum beat. Maybe the chord progression is the same. Maybe the instrumentation is the same and they use the same group of instruments. Maybe the melody uses similar scale degrees. Maybe the rhythm of the melody is similar. Whatever it is try to think about what specifically makes them similar.

This takes some concentration and practice because in order to be able to point out what specifically is similar about two songs you need to get used to listening for specific things, but with some time and practice it gets easier.

You may even be surprised after getting better at this how many similarities you here and where you hear them.

Almost every time I teach the pentatonic scale on guitar I tell my students, “If you play around with this scale and just mess around I guarantee you’ll play something you’ve heard before.” Often my students don’t believe me. The next lesson they almost always have an example of something they played using the pentatonic scale that they recognized.

ISJ