“Lingus”

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 band’s most recent album (released in 2014). The piece, instantly grabs the listener’s

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:

Intro (0:00-0:09) Intro.

Verse (0:09-0:45) A
Pre-chorus (0:45-1:00) B
Chorus (1:00-1:18) C
Verse (1:18-1:56) A
Pre-chorus (1:56-2:28) B
Chorus (2:28-3:04) C
Bridge/Solo trading (3:04-3:58) D
Chorus (3:58-4:15) C
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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:

Solo – synth (4:18-8:13) E

Soli - synth & horn solo trading (8:17-9:42) F
Outro (9:42-9:56) G

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

sections. Below is a more distant view of the form:

A ([0:00-4:15] [mm. 1- mm. 75])

Intro, Verse, Pre-chorus…etc.
B ([4:15-9:56] [mm. 76- mm. 147])
Synth solo, horn soli/synth, outro

So, “Lingus” is a pop/jam, binary form piece.

Harmonic Aspects

Ultimately, “Lingus” is in E minor, with some occasional ornamental chords.

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 doesn’t have all the

instruments playing and it stays relatively down dynamically. Here is a Nashville/Jazz

presentation of the material covered so far:

Intro: 67sus
E7sus

Verse: 67sus
E7sus

Pre-Chorus: 4maj7 6sus 56/9

Cmaj7 Esus D6/9

Chorus: 6sus 5sus/4 5 2-7

Esus Dsus/C D Am7

6sus 6 5sus/4 5 2add4 27(add4) 1 b2

Esus E Dsus/C D Aadd4 A7(add4) G F

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

rhythmically. There is a trumpet/sax solo section at measure 60 (3:04-3:58). During the

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

Am9), and E Dorian (because of the A7) the second half.

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

bass line is melodic in the verse and creates a call-and-response with the horns as seen below.
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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.

Cmaj7 Cmaj7 Esus D6/9

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

simplify it a great deal.

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

one starting again.

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
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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

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.
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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

clave rhythm. This is the variation:

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

because it is played with bass drum, synth, bass, and guitar.

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

varied clave rhythm. Below is a transcription of the horn hits on top, bass line in the

middle and composite rhythm on the bottom.

The only difference from the rest of the hits is the bass line, which is stated in the

previous example, but the horn hits are the same.

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

score from lulu.com and Chris McQueen transcribed it.