The song "Don't Touch My Hair" by Solange Knowles uses various instruments including drums, brass, and strings. The drum plays the recurring riff that changes between sections. The vocal line is doubled by the brass, strings, and drums. Unlike some of Solange's other songs, this one has a more political message about black identity and empowerment rather than conforming to industry preferences.

1. MUSIC 1100 Music Appreciation
Answer:
Composition
The composers or the songwriters of this song are Solange Knowles and Raphael Saadiq and
producers include Sir Dylan alongside Solange and Saadiq. The song was first written by
Solange 8 years prior to the release of the album. The producer and singer Saadic Raphael in
2008, handed a CD to Solange with some instrumentals on the song. The instrumentations
included simply drums, brass and strings thereby making Solange to write the song 2
months thereafter as she listened to the instrumentals in Hotel located in Miami (Li et al
38). It was released on 5th October 2016 by Columbia Records along with Saint Records.
What Instrument(S) Is/Are Playing The Riff?
The song uses the drum and the brass as the instruments to play the rift in the song.
Which parts of this song have or do not have any chord changes
The song has certain changes in chord. For example, there is a visual delight right from the
introductory part of the song that cuts from a metaphorical scene to the next on the cue of
drum rift.
Are there “drone” in the song
There is no steady unchanging pitch identified in the song. As can be seen right from the
introduction, the pitches are steadily changing through to the conclusion of the song.
Are Parts Or All Of This Song Riff Based?
There is a short pattern that gets recurrent over and over in the song. Solange has
recurrently attempted to banish her sorrows via the momentary relief like drinking,
reading, and shopping among others since this song emerges from Solange’s fragile life
moments. The rift is used in the song thus making it effortlessly applicable song for many
contexts and it was a personal solace for Solange at one point.

2. Right from the introduction of the song, there is a visual delight that cuts from a
metaphorical scene to the next on the cue of drum rift. This gives the song a pastel and
muted color that perfectly reflects drowsy melancholy Solange is trying to pass to the
listeners. The drift is seen in the song by the short pattern ‘away, away, away, away, away,
away, away”. It has also been seen by the pattern ‘sometimes I don’t wanna feel those
mental clouds” which also goes repeated in the song.
How Does The Instrumentation Change With Each Section Of The Song?
The drum is used as an instrumentation to change with each section of the song. For
example, it has been clearly seen how the song contains the rift. A visual delight can be
acknowledged in the song as it cuts from a metaphorical scene to the next on the cue of
drum rift. This is repeated across the song and can be used to explain the manner in which
the instrumentation alter with each section of the song.
Are There Instruments That Double The Vocal Line?
The vocal line is doubled by such instruments as brass, string and drum used in the song.
Are there various instruments
The instruments such as drum, brass and string are used in the song to play the same thing
at the same time. For example, the vocal line has been doubled at the same time using these
three instruments in the song.
How Is This Song Like/Unlike Other Songs By This Same Band/Artist?
The song is unique in its own way. Unlike the other songs, it has a more political directional
creativity unlike other songs. She has infused politics into this song unlike other songs. The
song does not conform to the industries preferences for the bubblegum topics unlike other
songs. It is a song for Black women made by a Black woman. It is more of an ode than an
exclusion but as it still flaunts itself to the ignorant, showing them how beautiful as well as
salient black culture truly is.
The song shows that Solange is now in a position of power and can take the risk of infusing
politics into her work than merely conforming to the preferences of industry for the
bubblegum topics. For example, she uses this song to showcase references to the feelings of
her parents towards the systematic racism of America (Reichard 56).
The tiredness of the song is linkable to Solange’s frustrations towards how the society
reacts to her as a black woman, Solange’s feelings towards the ongoing war against
discrimination as well as the deaths from racial profiling solely juts getting media attention

3. (Bloomberg 54). The song is thus used as project on identity, empowerment, independence,
grief as well as healing.
Works Cited
Bloomberg, Ramon. "Dancing to a Tune: The Drone as Political and Historical Assemblage."
Culture Machine 16 (2015).
Li, Bin, et al. "Stress pattern of the Shanxi rift system, North China, inferred from the
inversion of new focal mechanisms." Geophysical Journal International 201.2 (2015): 505-
527.
Reichard, Gladys Amanda. Navaho religion: a study of symbolism. Princeton University
Press, 2014.