We’re back with another deconstruction, this time with our Head of Education and Curriculum and master of Track Deconstructions, Ski Oakenfull. In this video, Ski breaks down
Eric Prydz’s hit track, ‘Pjanoo’ at Brighton Music Conference. If you’re new here and not familiar with what a deconstruction entails, it’s where we take a well-known track, break it down to its core elements and recreate it before your very eyes.
Since its release in 2008 on Ministry of Sound’s Data label, ‘Pjanoo’ has received heavy airplay on BBC Radio 1 in advertisements for their Radio 1 Big Weekend and Weekend in Ibiza events. Additionally, the track peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and topped the country’s Dance chart for ten non-consecutive weeks. Currently, the track has over 105 million streams on Spotify.
Feeling inspired to learn the ins and outs of making music of your own? Kick start your music career from home by taking one or more of our flagship degree courses in London and online courses. If you’re looking to get your hands on the MIDI files for this deconstruction, Ski’s kindly shared them – and it will only cost the price of your email.
During the video, Ski gives an overview of some of the important stats surrounding the song. To kick off the breakdown of the track, he punches in the drums using an Ableton Push 2, varying the drum patterns for the different parts of the track. Moving on to possibly the most iconic part of the track, Ski fires up a Korg M1 piano emulator from the Korg Legacy plugin pack, drops some key info on the track’s music theory and records it in. Next up, the arp comes into play, with Ski creating the pattern using Sylenth1. To finish off, Ski mashes up his rendition of ‘Pjanoo’ with the acapella of Kings of Tomorrow and Julie McKnight’s track, ‘Finally’.
These deconstructions are a tool we use frequently to teach elements of composition and arrangement but to get the full picture we recommend you study with us. The most comprehensive study we offer is our flagship degree programme, the BA (Hons) in Music Production and Sound Engineering (also available online).
The post Track Deconstruction: Eric Prydz – ‘Pjanoo’ w/ Ski Oakenfull at BMC appeared first on Point Blank’s Online Magazine.