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This is a little less on the serious side but when I was thinking about closeness it reminded me of duets and how even though they have different sounding voices and pitches when they sing together you get that closeness between words and sounds. This is one of my favorite duets from the movie "Frozen" and I just love how close they were in singing and in this screen grab. Not to mention they do a whole portion in this song where they are saying the same words in synchronization which is what Ratliff had talked about so I thought it was a fun playful example as to what he was saying.
pic creds: https://www.google.com/search?q=love+is+an+open+door&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS763US763&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi32Myz46PaAhUKRa0KHX7fCL8Q_AUICygC&biw=1212&bih=727#imgrc=YvkIVWAM9gb9pM:

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For my picture, I chose this image of all three bothers standing close together and smiling. I loved how close they looked at the image visually and I thought it helped relate to the closeness they portray in there songs as well. Often times people only hear the lead singer Barry, but there are his two other brothers that sing with him most the time as well. It just goes to show you how well the closeness of a song is hidden sometimes.
pic creds:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-bee-gees-cured-my-writers-block

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I couldn't find a live performance of this song which I wish I could have to see them all singing the different parts but I thought the lyric version was just as good. You were able to follow along with the lyrics and hear the different parts that Ratliff gave as examples as well as listen for the closeness between each other voices. I watched this over and over again just to get a better understanding of what Ratliff was trying to say as well as decipher the different voices since they were so similar.

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"How Can you Mend a Broken Heart" -The Bee Gees 

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"How Can you Mend a Broken Heart" -The Bee Gees 

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I really wanted to find a video of them singing live so you could visually see the parts where they are all singing at once or where its just one singer. Its hard to tell in this song sometimes how many people are singing at once which is a problem with trying to listen for closeness so to have a visual, it helped me better understand the parts where they were together and then separate.

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Bee Gees (9/16) - How can you mend a broken heart

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"Sometimes the closeness of two musicians within a band is what makes the band capable of moving beyond normal limits." pg. 165

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"Sometimes the closeness of two musicians within a band is what makes the band capable of moving beyond normal limits." pg. 165

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I also loved this quote because it explained closeness on a different level than the other quote. Sometimes sounds can be so one dimensional but with closeness, you can get a lot of dimension and sound coming from just two voices or instruments. Like he stated above "It goes beyond normal limits" which to me means that it takes the song to the next level that the artists were looking for, without making it to over the top.

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"In singing or in playing, it gives the listener a secure, jacketed feeling. Closeness is developed over time, and its value to the ear is absolute." pg. 161

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"In singing or in playing, it gives the listener a secure, jacketed feeling. Closeness is developed over time, and its value to the ear is absolute." pg. 161

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This quote was on the first page and instantly stood out to me. IT came after his example of how listeners usually listen for contrast and closeness is often forgotten. I didn't know quite what he meant but when he explained it like this, the idea truly clicked in my head. It can't just be created instantaneously, it takes time and effort to truly make the closeness work.

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 Find at least one musical example outside of Ratliff’s playlist and justify its inclusion

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 Find at least one musical example outside of Ratliff’s playlist and justify its inclusion

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I am a huge Bee Gees fan so I knew I had to use them for this concept because they execute a lot of closeness in most of their songs. Sometimes you can't even tell if it's just one person singing or all three of them until you watch a music video of them singing which is just how Ratliff described it in his chapter. The song starts off with just one singer but when you reach the chorus they all join in and sing “How can you stop the sun from shining, what makes the world go round?” and they all have that same pitch so it sounds like one voice with a slight echo effect when really it's all three of them. They also do this towards the end when they are singing the same melody but replace the lyrics with “La la la”  almost like the Example Ratliff gave with The Beatles song where they sang these notes so synchronized. It adds such dimension to the song and wouldn't have near the same effect if it was just one voice so I love this example of closeness and think it showcases it well!

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Examine at least one musical example in Ratliff’s playlist in detail – how does it exemplify this musical concept? 

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Examine at least one musical example in Ratliff’s playlist in detail – how does it exemplify this musical concept? 

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The song I chose to analyze from Ratliff's examples  was “When I Get Home” by The Beatles. I had never heard this song by them before so I was excited to read and listen to why he thought this was a good example of closeness. It took me a couple listens to really hear the example Ratliff gave about Mccartney and Lennon singing the syllables “Who-oo-oh-eye” and made me listen to songs in new ways I didn't even think possible. I liked his explanation of this example because he pulled out the specific part of the song that was close and then gave other beatles songs that he felt were close as well. After listening to all of those Beatles songs I had a better understanding that closeness doesn't have to play through the whole song but can be just a quick note or sound that isn't there for long. It's very hard to get the right amount of synchronization in voices but the Beatles do it brilliantly and better helped me understand the concept a little deeper than I had before.

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Do you agree with Ratliff’s arguments regarding this musical element? 

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Do you agree with Ratliff’s arguments regarding this musical element? 

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I do agree with Ratliff's explanation of this chapter. I was kind of confused to start off with and thought it was more about the feeling of closeness the listener gets to the music or how they relate to it, but upon further reading I found out it was about the closeness of notes or sounds together. When he started talking about how most musicians talk about contrast I never really thought of the counterpart to that being closeness. It's actually a major component to a lot of songs that I hadn't realized till now. Which is the point of closeness, people don't often hear as much as they see it. When two instruments are playing the same notes they combined together so sometimes we don't realize there are even two therefore it's hard to notice. But what is cool is how much the sound is changed by adding the same notes played on top of each other or same voices because they add more texture to the music than ever before.

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Define and evaluate the concept of closeness

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Define and evaluate the concept of closeness

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The concept of closeness seems quite simple yet complex at the same time. Ratliff isn't talking about the contrast of musicians but instead the closeness they can get there voices together such as harmony and instruments playing at the same time. We often overlook this because it's something you usually don't hear when listening to music since two sounds or more are on top of each other. The closeness of the two singers or instruments add a certain depth to the song though where there is multiple layers but when combined they equal this one pure note or sound. This doesn't have to mean the closeness to the microphone or the listener, but the closeness together between two sounds and the overall sound they end up creating together. This reminds me of acapella but not as intense because the power of closeness is subtle at first whereas acappella is meant to just be voices combining together to create music. Closeness is more about not being noticed and and adding an extra affect to the song even if it might not be noticed.