Burn the House Down (AJR)

Hey there folks,

I've gotten a request to work on AJR's Burn the House Down

There are a few things that stand out about this tune. First of all the melody's rhythm is consistent. A lot of times the vocalist will shift the rhythm of the melody to fit the lyrics. In this case it seems as though the melody's rhythm was crafted and then the lyrics were developed over it. As a result it's very consistent.

The harmony is consistent as well. There is this trick that modern music has been using in chord progressions for the last hundred years or more. If we take a chord and move up three notes in the key and use that chord we have what is called a weak progression. It doesn't feel like we've moved much at all because of what are called common tones.

This song is in A minor. In this progression we start on the 1 chord. A minor.

A B C D E F G A

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

5th: E F G A B C D E

3rd: C D E F G A B C

Root: A B C D E F G A

As we move to the second chord C major, 2/3rds of the chord remains the same and the other note moves in a step (a small distance). This is why the progression feels static or passive.

A minor C Major

G

E E

C C

A

After that we move to D minor (our 4 chord) and use the same trick again to move to F major.

One of the attributes I've noticed about massively successful songs is that they tend to balance the three elements of music (Rhythm, Harmony and Melody) in such a way so that one of them is really interesting while the other two are in the background. This keeps things from being overstimulating or intangible.

The element of music that is most sophisticated here is the rhythm. We're using 1/16th notes in the bass lines, melody and the saxophone hook. 1/16th notes are named such because there are 16 of them in a measure of 4/4 (common time). In common time there are 4 beats, which means that each beat gets 4 1/16th notes.

We count 1/16th notes with the syllables 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a

Remember that we have ties that glue notes together, so don't articulate those notes twice. The other component is that we have dotted 1/8th notes that occupy 3 1/6th notes.

1 e & a

Rhythmically there is some tricky business in here. Try writing in the counts underneath the part you want to learn and then clapping it while you count out loud. Then learn the notes. Then apply the counting to the pitches. Break it down into small steps.

You can download the sheet music here.

As always, take your time, enjoy the process, and keep playing.

Christopher