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A Snarky Analysis
Jacob Tallent
Dr. Kinchen
MUSC 203-002
November 8, 2014
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The most progressive and innovative jazz-fusion acts of today is Snarky Puppy.
As soon as Snarky Puppy is played there is instantly a groove and melody that will get
cemented in the mind. The band was originally based out of Texas but now
predominately resides in New York. Most of the students met while studying jazz at the
University of North Texas. The band travels all over the world and has made seven full-
length albums, but that is enough about the band. Lingus appears on We Like It Here,
the bands most recent album (released in 2014). The piece, instantly grabs the listeners
attention when it is either performed or played. This analysis will break down the form of
the piece, harmonic aspects, melodic ideas, and rhythmic motifs throughout the piece.
Form
This piece is a mixture of a pop song and a jam-band style format. There are
basically eight different sections to the piece (without including repeated sections).
Like a normal pop song format, Lingus starts off with an intro, then into a verse. After
the verse, there is a pre-chorus section, then a chorus. Basically, the form of the first half
of the piece until 4:15, is a standard pop song form. This is a basic map for first half:
As you can see it follows the typical pop song form: I V PC C V PC C B C. Once the
last chorus section ends, the piece goes directly into a different feel. The second half can
be broken down into the different sections. Here is the map for the second half:
The second half is pretty much just a big set of solo sections. It is two solo sections and
an outro section. Looking at the big picture of this piece, it is a binary form. The first
half a person can call A, and the second half B. So, even though there are many different
ideas throughout the piece, a person could say that there are mainly only two sections,
considering the first half presents more harmonic stability and the second half is solo
Harmonic Aspects
When the piece starts, the keyboard pulses on an E7sus chord and that prepares the
listener for the horn/bass entrance at measure 5. During the verse section, the band sits
down on an E minor groove, while the horns state an E Dorian melodic idea. It repeats
that progressions 4 times through, then moves on to the pre-chorus section. The pre-
chorus consists of three chords: Cmaj7, Esus, D6/9,and back to the Cmaj7. The Cmaj7
builds some intensity along with the sixteenths that the horns and guitars are playing. So,
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just like every pre-chorus, it builds to prepare the listener for the chorus. When the chorus
comes in at measure 27, the harmonic rhythm stays the same until about the second time
through the melody played by the guitar. The chorus melody is note for note in E minor.
The melody descends while dancing around the chords played solely by the keyboard.
The second time the melody is presented in the chorus, the chords change faster
underneath. The second time through the melody, the keys play a syncopated descending
E Dorian pattern (with the occasional G# in measure 31). Then, in the second half of
measure 34, the flat-2 (or flat-7 if you analyze the piece in G) is thrown in. So, the first
chorus section in the piece is kind-of a down chorus, because it doesnt have all the
Intro: 67sus
E7sus
Verse: 67sus
E7sus
After the chorus, it goes back into the verse section, then into the pre-chorus. The only
difference (chord-wise) in that pre-chorus is the Db7 chord on beat 5 in measure 37. After
the pre-chorus it goes to the chorus. This time through the chorus, it is full band during
the second half of the first progression (during: Esus E Dsus/C D.etc.). The horns
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outline the chords played by the keys during the build from measure 48 to measure 51
(2:37-2:47). After the build, the horns grab the melody and the chorus played again, but
this time it is full band and pretty much the same chords are played, just more
solos, the same chords from the chorus are used. After the solo, the band goes back in the
chorus section but this time, the chords are straightforward without as much syncopation
but with more groove. The last chorus outlines E minor the first half (because of the
When the keyboard solo section starts at measure 76 (4:16), the sub-bass line sits
underneath playing E, C, A, and F, (not chords, just notes) and goes all the way to the end
of the piece. So basically, from the keyboard solo to the end of the piece, everything
grooves around E minor with occasional chromaticism and the flat-2 (F).
Melodic Ideas
Some of the melodic ideas presented in Lingus are easy to comprehend and
then some of the things are quite intricate. The melody in the verse section is relatively
simple due to the fact that is either an arpeggiation or step-wise motion. The melody in
the verse is in E Dorian, because it outlines E minor and contains C# consistently. The
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bass line is melodic in the verse and creates a call-and-response with the horns as seen below.
After the verse, the pre-chorus is simply an ascending step-wise sequence of sixteenth
notes. As you can see the sequence follows the chords that the keyboard is playing
underneath.
Later on in the chorus, the melodic line played by the guitar is the most intricate repeated
melodic idea through out the piece. I say that because it consists of grace notes,
syncopation, and wide intervallic leaps. When the horns come in later on the second
chorus section at measure 52 (2:46), they play around the passage stated by the guitar and
During the solo trading between the trumpet and saxophone, the tradeoffs are not
completely metric. Each player steps into each other it seems like. The phrasing in the
solos sounds like an argument because where one is just about to end; there is another
The next solo section in the piece is the synth solo from 4:15 to 8:13. As you can
see, it is the longest section of the piece. There is so much that goes on during that solo.
Cory Henry (the synth player) goes over all kinds of modal ideas in the solo. The chordal
section at the beginning of the solo is mainly chromatic and tertian movement but the
way that he voiced the parts made it flow very smoothly up into the single note riffing at
4:57. The single note solo consists of a great deal of blue notes and chromatics. He adds
his left into the equation at 6:16 and he begins to accompany himself as the E, C, A, F
bass line still sits underneath. He continues to build and build until the solo has climaxed
at about 8:12 and the band goes directly into a horn soli section. The soli section consists
of fast scalar runs, syncopated licks, and blue notes (within G major: b5, b3, #6). As the
horns blaze riffs, the synth fills in the gaps in between each set of licks. There are about
six horn soli sections from 8:17 to 9:42 (measure 86 to measure 140). The piece ends
with the horns playing heavily syncopated hits that counter the rhythms that the rhythm
section is playing.
Rhythmic Motifs
The rhythmic aspects of this piece are astounding. No matter what happens in the
piece, there is always an underlying groove. One of the most interesting parts of the
groove of this piece is the fact that it is 5/4 for the entire first half. Considering that 5/4
asymmetric, it is hard to bob your head to, but because of the drums and percussion
emphasizing quarter notes in the beginning of the piece it makes it easier. During the
verse sections of the piece, the drums accent beats 2 and 4, which is typical of popular
music. Almost any song that plays on the radio, accents beats 2 and 4. What is interesting
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about the phrasing in the drum part is that the first four beats of the measure are a
standard groove, and the last beat of the measure is a tom fill. Before the drums come in,
the keyboard plays an ostinato pattern that basically solidifies the asymmetric signature
of the first half of the piece. The ostinato below is present up until the first chorus section
(measure 27) and comes up again throughout the verses and pre-choruses.
The first half of the piece is pretty much rhythmically summed up by asymmetry, grooves
that emphasize beats 2 and 4, and the ostinato pattern in the keyboard part.
The second half of the piece is where there are some very interesting rhythmic
motifs. So, the entire second half is rhythmically based off of a variation of a 3-2 son
The second measure in this example is a compressed version of a 3-2 son clave rhythm.
The clave rhythm is pretty much the backbone of Latin music. This is interesting because
this rhythm is usually played with a set of claves, where as in Lingus, it is a lot heavier
Later on in the piece, directly after the soli sections, the rhythm section plays the
exact same rhythm as stated above, while the horns accent the spaces in between the
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varied clave rhythm. Below is a transcription of the horn hits on top, bass line in the
The only difference from the rest of the hits is the bass line, which is stated in the
I hope this analysis has covered the most interesting aspects of the piece and
explained any questions about the piece that the listener would have. I purchased the