Tennis have been one of my favourite bands in terms of theme, production structure and feeling for about 2 years now. I love the sounds they use and the way they produce their music. This track teardown with be on my favourite Tennis song which I am using for a reference for my first project called Ladies Don’t Play Guitar.
Tennis is a indie pop band formed in 2008 realised their album ‘Your’s Conditionally’ which the husband and wife duo wrote while on a sailing trip. The pair describe the ocean to them as ‘How they derive their impressive power’. They do a lot of writing with synths and guitars and a drum machine while on musical holidays before returning to their home in Denver, Colorado. Ladies Don’t Play Guitar was the first single they realised after having a three years between the release of their 3rd album ‘Ritual in Repeat’. The album was released through Mutually Detrimenta record label and produced by Luca Venter, mastered by Joe LaPotra and mixed by Jim Eno. The bands line up has remained the same with the help of some session musicians.
The feeling of this track is heavily inspired by 70’s jazz wiht this use of retro synth sounds to create and dreamy pop feeling. The vocalist (Moore) stated that “I’ve been pushing myself to present a stronger point of view lyrically and to make more assertions about the way I feel constricted or shaped by gender” and there is not doubt that this song is a feminist anthem. Which is complemented by the use of this 70’s style vibe which the band captures to well. The fact they wrote this song while sailing the ocean is captured with the use of panning and side chaining it creates a ‘washy’ feeling.
Here is an image of the sections of the song as an audio file in Logic.
So to get into the nitty gritty parts of this track dissection here are some key things to know:
The instrumentation includes: Guitar, Drums, Keys, Synths, Vocals, Bass and some samples. The BPM is 100 which I used logics ‘match session to region tempo’ feature to find out. The time signature is 4/4, The Key is Eb,The chords are a repeated 4 chord progression which is Eb - F - Dm - Eb. This is also why this song is so helpful as a reference track as the song my self na day production group are producing is also a 4 chord song. This song can help us make the song seem more fleshed out and give is ideas in how we can change synth sound between the sections to make it not sound so repetitive. The dog form is Intro, Verse, pre chorus, Chorus, Verse, Pre Chorus, Chorus, Solo, Double Chorus, Outro.
Here is a run down of all the elements in the song and how they all work together to created this 70’s pop synth vibe that Tennis capture so well.
Keys
The Key sound used is a synth sound the is almost organ like. I as unable to find out exactly what they of keys board or synth that Tennis used on this song but the main chords through the verse and chorus stay the same tone and sound. They are sustained for a bar each on a four bar cycle through the whole song. The sound has a slightly shorter attack that a regular keys sound at about half a second attack. They chord then hits fulls velocity then there its a modulate effect and it fades out quickly after the release of the chord. This is a good thing to think about when designing the synth I will use fo the current project as this even though the sound is repudiative it is affective and the sound evolves over the course of a second which is something is should incorporated. Rather than have a quick attack and not sound evolution then a long decay. I should use this as a model and make the attack half a second then a time based effect (such as modulation) then a short decay. This will create diversity in the chords even though they are repeated.
The second set of keys plays a harmony only in the chords using only third chords and plays along with the first, and third harmonic chords in the scale. This is an effective way to change a chords progression sloughy so the song doesn’t sound too dull. This key sound has a lot of reverb and is compressed to be back in the mix not like the main keys. They have an almost string sound to them.
Bass
The song starts with a boppy bass guitar line that alternates between two notes consistently that is a C and an A# which work well under all three chords playing through out the song. The tone is dull I put a low pass filter on my DAW session I used to work out the BMP to hear this a little better the worked it out on my bass guitar. It sounds dull but steady and plays on each beat of the bar constantly. Through the pre chorus the bass line changes by playing the original note C and A# then goes down to a G (major 3rd in the chords of Eb) which creates a bit more depth to the bass line. The effects on the bass during this section include a distortion which almost matches that of the guitar as it has a lot of sub sounding frequencies but the distortion is only on the higher frequencies. After this section the bass reverts back to a clean sound and the C- A3 pattern then repeated through the verse until the next pre chorus where is becomes distorted again and plays the 3rd G note. The bass sits pretty low in the mix at the start till the distortion comes in when it becomes more prominent. It works constantly with the solid kick though out the song and even stops when the drums stop briefly in the post chorus.
Guitars
The guitar only comes in in the pre chorus with a guitar riff that goes for two bars. In this section it has a lot of distortion but not much reverb which makes it sound snappy but also dreamy and 70’s sounding as it has an almost synth tone to it. In this riff it sounds like there was a mic potentially put on the neck of the guitar as you can here the scratches of the strings. This is cool techniques to capture electric guitar and I hadn’t really thought of doing it until I heard this song as I usually on think to do it with acoustic guitar. It sounds really cool and makes the sound more like a guitar because the tone could even be mistaken for a synth. The riff thats played replicates the verse vocal melody. This is a good contrast as they have completely different tones. The guitar in the pre chorus is panned to the left and the vocals to the right and the chords to both.
Vocals
The vocal in this song is easily the most prominent feature along wiht the keys. The vocal is very clean and airy. It sounds as through there would be a high pass filter used when the vocalist uses there falsetto voice along with the reverb and a compression to make it sound louder in the mix.
The lead vocals are very clean and clear and are forward in the mix. There is little reverb and the phrases are short and cut off. In contrast the back vocal harmonies have a lot of reverb and are compressed to be in the back of the mix. This makes the track sound filled and the production of this vocal adds a different harmonic element. The backing vocals are panned left and right also which helps wiht the stereo over all image.
Drums
There drums come in at the very first bar of the song along with the bass. The processing of the drums in this song is what gives it depths and differentiation between the sections to take away form the repudiative chord progression. The kick that comes in of the first and third beat of every in the intro and verse is very faint which makes the snares and toms sound more prominent. This is interesting to me as a producer because I always make the kick the most prominent part of the drums in the mix but in this track it is there just to hold the beat and is almost in audible sometimes. The processing of the kick makes it sound muffled and low. There is even a little bit of reverb on it which I think help makes it sound muffled.
The snares are the most prominent drums in the mix, they play on the second and fourth beat of each bar and in every second bar there is a rim shot fill on the fourth beat that has a lot of airy compressed reverb on it. This airy sounding reverb makes the mix sound fuller even though there aren’t many instrument it sounds like there is. This is a good technique to make a song sound dreamy and the drums not so harsh.
There is a constant egg shaker sound there the intro and verse the chorus. It only stops when the whole percussion section stops in the pre chorus. This creates a ‘pulse’ vibe to the track and keeps it driving which compliments the snare and kick. There is a little bit of reverb on the shaker which makes it sound fuller.
The drums stay very simple through out the while song. There is only a few minor changes to the beat the whole way through. This is in the main guitar riff which is a two bar phrase. The snares play a three hit fill on the second and fourth beat of each bars. This sound is very compressed and is far back in the mix. This sounds effective as is comes just before the chorus where the drums have a lot of velocity and quick attacks so this helps with eh build up. There is also panning used in the section with the fills starting on the left the sweeping to the right.
In conclusion I can learn a lot from this song as a track reference regarding vocal tones, frequencies and EQ. As well as how Tennis made a four chord song into an anthem. The production techniques used are something I an replicate over time such as the sound of the key synths used, the way the vocals are processed and how the drums were although steady and simple used reverb to and compressor to give a dynamic range.
BIBLYORGAPHY
Tennis – “Ladies Don’t Play Guitar”. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.stereogum.com/1891898/tennis-ladies-dont-play-guitar/mp3s/
Kaye, B. (2018). Tennis return from sea voyage with new track “Ladies Don’t Play Guitar” — listen. Retrieved from https://consequenceofsound.net/2016/08/tennis-return-from-sea-voyage-with-new-track-ladies-dont-play-guitar-listen/
Better, I., Blinding, M., Blue, F., Guitar, L., Believe, B., & Me, P. et al. (2018). Tennis (6) - Yours Conditionally. Retrieved from https://www.discogs.com/Tennis-Yours-Conditionally/release/9941390
Find BPM/Tempo of Imported Tracks in Logic Pro X. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frhRmA0rx7s\
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