Coding Coldplay

I have mixed feelings about bringing pop music into my high school choral classroom. On one hand, it fails to offer students the aesthetic stretching—both historical and cultural—I consider educationally important; on the other, it offers instant connection and motivates many students to build their skills.

The same could be said for the Collegiate A Capella scene, in general. When the Brown Jabberwocks performed at my school recently, their program was mostly covers of present pop songs. But the arrangements were original, entertaining, and musically well-executed. My students loved it.

Several high school kids approached me afterward to say they were inspired to make their own vocal arrangements. I wanted to encourage them, but I also knew most of them didn’t yet have enough music theory knowledge. I suggested an intermediary challenge: transcribe several passages from the latest Coldplay album.

For the less experienced students who tried this on their own, the process was an interesting meeting of fantasy and reality. They were enthusiastic but struggling, so I decided to capitalize on the moment and bring the process into class.

Here’s my take on the educational possibilities in the album, “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.”

About 40 seconds into the first track, "Life in Technicolor," a hammer dulcimer begins playing a simple melodic ostinato—a 16-beat parallel period—that’s great for transposition. It’s mostly stepwise, all quarter and eighth notes, and with one tie over the barline; simple, but with a little challenge. In Life in Technicolor ii, the separately released single, the ostinato begins at the start.

The fourth track, “42” begins with an appegiated triad progression, easy for a beginning pianist to decipher by ear, and then breaks into a syncopated, octave-jumping bass line. It’s a great groove, and it repeats several times while guitars and an atmospheric drone layer on top.

After a brief introduction “Yes” begins a section that’s rhythmically driving, but without a clear meter, before switching to more straight-ahead phrase lengths. This section repeats several times in the song. I haven’t been able to figure it out, but maybe someone else will.

Probably every student has heard the ubiquitous, syncopated ostinato in Viva La Vida, which plays through almost the entire song. Another easy transcription. This song—2009’s Grammy-winning song of the year—was also the subject of a lawsuit last year.

There are several subtle touches in this album that are probably part of why so many people like it, even if they haven’t thought about why. The ostinato in “Death and All of His Friends” (about 90 seconds in), for example, repeats over twenty times and then, after a brief transition, shifts one eighth note earlier in the measure and continues. The next section of the song is in seven.

A methodical teaching process will help less advanced students succeed with transcription. Here’s my lesson for transcribing the ostinato in “Life in Technicolor.” It should be adjusted, of course, according to a class's skill level.

• Have students take rhythmic notation, only, for the full two-bar pattern, as they listen to it tapped out, without the tie. It can be played as many times as they need to hear it.
• Play it again, adding the tie, and ask them to adjust their notation accordingly.
• Write the rhythm on the board.
• Do a vocal warm-up to ground their ears in the song’s key. For example, sing short, step-wise motives and have students sing them back in solfege—and/or write them down on notation boards or paper (without rhythm). Cover whatever skips in pitch they’ll need to have in their ears, as well.
• Play the recording and ask them to write out the full pattern. I don’t tell them till this point what we've been working toward, and they're usually excited to apply their skills to something they know.