Secrets To Better Composing & Improvising

 

Secrets To Better Composing & Improvising By David Hicken

Copyright © 2017 by Enchanting Music ®  All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to [email protected] [email protected].. If you find this content to be valuable and want to share it, please direct people to purchase a copy from davidhicken.com. A lot of hard work, time, and expertise went into creating this resource. Your Your support is greatly appreciated!

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Introduction

About Me About This Book  Yes,  Yes, Y You ou Can Compose! A Few Words About Termino erminology logy Now Is A Great Time To Compose Music Composing Is Good For You

5 6 6 9 10 11

Setting Yourself Up As A Composer

Make A Commitment Create Your Workspace  Your  Your Instruments And T Tools ools The Three Essentials Time Patience Discipline Work With A Clear Mind Begin With The End In Mind Support

12 12 13 15 15 15 16 16 16 17

Four Core Areas Of Study

Develop Your Piano Skills Study Scales Learn Music Notation Master Your Software Summary

18 19 19 21 24

Additional Studies

Music Theory Scales Harmony

25 25 26

Counterpoint Orchestration Form Listen To Great Music Read And Follow Scores Read Composer Biographies Summary

27 27 28 29 30 31 31

The Ingredients Of Good Music

Elements Of A Composition Melody Accompaniment

32 32 34

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Bass Harmony Rhythm Form Pulse And Tempo Time Signature (Meter) Dynamics Timbre Summary

36 36 37 38 38 39 40 40 41

Getting Started

The History Of Improvisation What Is Improvisation? Taking The First Step Composing vs. Editing Inspiration Consonance And Dissonance Intervals Horizontal vs. Vertical Vertical Summary

42 42 43 44 45 46 47 49 49

Conforming Your Music

Tonality Choose A Key Harmony Summary

50 53 55 58

Packaging Your Music

Melody Meter Tempo

59 61 62

Rhythm Form

62 63

Contrasting Elements

Movement vs. Stationary Up vs. Down Melody vs. Accompaniment Loud vs. Soft High vs. Low Dark vs. Light Sound vs. Silence Smooth vs. Detached

65 65 66 66 67 68 68 69

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Fast vs. Slow Long vs. Short Full vs. Thin Major vs. Minor Summary

69 70 70 70 71

The Composing Process

Melody & Chords Movement What To Play With A Chord Placement Of Notes Within A Chord Changing Chords Developing Ideas Structuring Ideas An Introduction Repeating A Melody Thirds, Sixths, Octave Octavess & Tenths Modulation Damper Pedal Avoid Comparisons Titles Length Summary

71 72 73 74 75 76 78 79 79 80 80 81 82 83 83 83

General Tips

Enjoy The Journey Trust Your Ears Perform Perfor m Your Music For People Backup Your Work Dealing With Writers Block Protecting Protecti ng Your Work

84 84 85 85 86 87

Summary

88

Putting Things Into Practice

Mastering Triads And Their Inversions Mastering Triads Of The Scale Chord Symbols Triads Of The Minor Scale Mastering Quadrads The Cycle Of Fifths Cycle Of Fifths Using Quadrads Conclusion

89 95 96 96 110 115 125 129

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Introduction About Me

My music training began with piano lessons at the age of three with my mother who was a successful successful piano teacher teacher.. It wasn’t easy at first, but because I was expected to practice every day, I soon became advanced for my age. In England, it was common for music students st udents to prepare for examinations twice per year, year, which I did from from the age of seven onwards. onwards. These examinations consisted of scales and arpeggios, sight reading, ear training as well as three pieces of music of contrasting styles and periods. Additional theory examinations consisted of everything regarding music notation. I took exams in piano, clarinet and organ and soon became very serious about my studies, knowing that I wanted to become a musician. While still in my teens, I took teaching diplomas which involved intense study of harmony har mony,, counterpoint and orchestration, but despite all of this training, I had no desire to become a composer because my ambitions lay in becoming a classical organist. However, when I discovered synthesizers at the age of eighteen, I However, composed my first piece of music and I was absolutely hooked. hooked. Within  just a few months of my first composition, composition, I sent some tracks to record companies in London and signed my first record contract when I was nineteen. My journey as a composer has changed a lot since those first few compositions, and I’ve learned much along the way. way. I am very happy to share what I have learned lear ned with you throughout this book. 5

 

About This Book

Countless people throughout the world would love to be able to write a piece of music, but simply don’t know where to begin. I decided to write this book to help remove some of the mystery about the wonderful art of composing composing and improvising. People who have no prior knowledge of music will find it useful, as a s well as those who already have some musical ability. However, I must be brutally honest with you However, you upfront. Composition cannot be taught, it must be learned. Just as you can’t learn to paint a beautiful painting by reading a book, this book alone will not transform you into a great composer. composer. It will however however,, point you in the right direction.  You  You should consider this a g guidebook uidebook which will will help you to understand what you need to learn as a composer and where to find that information. Music is a vast subject, and there are certain elements that a composer must be very familiar with in order order to get his or her ideas down. You will learn all about them here. Books on harmony, harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, form and analysis can be very dull. I know because I’ve read so many of them. So through throughout out this book, I will direct you towards topics that you absolutely should  know  know and help you to avoid wasting time studying subjects which will be of no value to you. Yes, you will need to study as well as practice, but this book will help you to do it effectively effectively and in the shortest time possible. possible. Hopefully you will also have some fun along the way.  Y  Yes, es, You You Can Compose! Compose!

Almost anyone can learn a foreign language if they really put their mind to it. Admittedly Admittedly,, languages are easier for some some people than others, but just 6

 

about anyone can learn if they are taught properly, properly, and  if  if they practice regularly. This is also true of composing music, because almost anyone can do it if they are shown how, but, just as in mastering a language, consistent and regular practice is the key to success. The problem is that so many people just don’t believe that they could ever write music. They hold false assumptions such as “if I don’t don’t hear melodies in my head, how can I compose?” or “I need a music degree and lots of teachers in order order to compose.” Of course, these statements simply aren’t aren’t true. Great composers of the past such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven didn’t have degrees in music, music, nor did they have many teachers. However However,, they immersed themselves in the mysteries of music, studied far more than any college course would ever require, and ultimately became masters of their art. Although there are cases of composers who heard melodies in their heads and then wrote them down (Mozart), this is the exception to the rule. Great pieces of music are worked on diligently for long periods of time until the result is satisfying. Beethoven took years to complete complete some of his his symphonies. Composing music is a matter of combining pitches, rhythms and sounds, usually around a steady beat. beat. In order to do this successfully, successfully, there are a number of rules, which if applied, will generally yield satisfactory results.  You  You can learn to apply these rules yourself, an and d it’s it’s not as difficult as you you might think. Many dreams have been thwarted because people assumed that they could never compose music, however almost as damaging is the belief that they could never compose something great . Having high 7

 

expectations can be a good thing, but setting your sights on writing a number one hit and then assuming that you will probably fail, is not  a  a good thing. It is unfortunate that the words “fame” and “fortune” are inextricably linked to the music music world. If you were were learning to paint, you would probably be able to focus solely on the art of painting without worrying about whether your next work will help you to “make it,” but musicians often cannot remove the concept of stardom from their minds when writing music, which can certainly be counter-pr counter-productive. oductive. There is indeed an “x-factor” in the art of music composition; an unseen element, difficult if not impossible to define, which some people possess and yet others do not. However However,, we often don’t don’t realize that the composers who are currently experiencing tremendous success due to this “x-factor” also wrote a lot of music that did not  do  do well. Usually it took years for them to see the success that they are are now enjoying. The magic of this “xfactor” can often be developed by consistently working on and improving one’s skills. Although it is valuable to study and learn from great work, it is also important to not compare ourselves too much to others in the same profession. One thing is for sure, there there will always be people who who are better than you and there will alway alwayss be people who are worse. worse. Better to ignore them and just concentrate on your own work. Points to remember: • Anyone can compose music • Music composition is learned by doing • Knowing that you can compose is of paramount importance • Compose without any expectations and enjoy the process • Avoid comparing yourself and your work to anyone else • Compose music for yourself first and foremost 8

 

A Few Words About Terminology

The word “song” has in recent years, due to the proliferation of music websites such as iTunes, iTunes, come to mean any recorded recorded track. track. Of course, this isn’t always accurate because songs are sung, and usually include lyrics. A music composition which does not have lyrics is generally called a piece of music, musical work, composition or instrumental. A songwriter is a composer who writes music to be sung, which often includes a melody melody and accompaniment. accompaniment. Songwriters can also write lyrics. A lyricist is someone who writes lyrics (words) which can be used in a music composition (song). (song). Many people who only write lyrics often re refer fer to themselves as songwriters songwriters which isn’ isn’tt completely accurate. accurate. They also sometimes refer to lyrics as songs, but lyrics only become songs when they have been married to a melody. A composer writes any form of music whether it is a song or a piece of music, and can usually write for different different instruments. instruments. Some compo composers sers also write lyrics. The term “composer” used throughout this book also applies to the songwriter because they are are really the same thing. It does not however however,, refer to the lyricist because writing lyrics is beyond the scope of this book. Almost all of the information presented here is just as pertinent to those who write songs as it is for those who write symphonies. I sometimes use the words “serious composer” and “serious music” to to differentiate between contemporary genres such as rock, pop and jazz, and classical, film and avant-garde avant-garde genres. I am in no way implying implying that composers of contemporary music are not serious or that their work is not serious. 9

 

Composing is the art of creating a musical work that can be performed and or recorded. recorded. This usually, usually, but not always, involves writing writing the work down in some way which can be read and understood by other musicians. Improvising is the act of creating music spontaneously at an instrument

such as the piano, which is often often a one-time event. Usually, Usually, the performance is not written down, and is not intended to be repeated in the same way again. Now Is A Great Time To Compose Music

Despite the ever-changing music industry, industry, there will always be a demand for new music. Contemporary music comes and goes, and sev several eral years later tends to come back around again. Some genres stand the test of time a little better than others, but despite the fluctuations, there will always be a place for new compositions, and therefore new composers. More music genres exist now than ever before, and more people throughout the world are listening to music than at any point in history history.. Opportunities exist for composers that just weren’t around twenty years ago. For example, a number of composers composers are experiencing experiencing great succ success ess by scoring for video games, some of which have very large budgets for full orchestras. More television programs and movies are being produced than ever before, and newer companies such as Netflix and Amazon are creating high-quality content which requires music. Technology is making it easier and more fun to ccompose. ompose. Music notation software, sequencers, digital tablets, apps, faster computers and digital sound libraries all allow composers to do things in new and different ways.

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Streaming music sites such as Spotify, Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music and Google Play are creating streams of revenue for composers which they could never have imagined just a few years ago. I could give many more examples, but it’s it’s clear that this is a great time for aspiring composers. People will always be very quick quick to point o out ut to you that music is a tough business and that you may end up poor and destitute. But people who say these things usually have no first-hand knowledge of the industry and base their comments on what they have read or heard. I suggest that when you hear hear these comments (which you will), that you either ignore them, or use the examples above to show why composing music is a good choice for you. Composing Is Good For You

The act of creation has always been very rewarding for humans, but perhaps nothing is quite as rewarding as creating a piece of music that can be listened to and enjoyed by others. The process of composing music is like embarking on a journey, journey, and as you might imagine, it is the journey itself that is important rather than the destination. When you are in the middle of a composition, it can often be like a meditative state. Your brain and mind function d differently ifferently and you you forget any concerns or worries that you have at the moment. Time takes o on na different meaning, meaning, and in fact becomes irrelevant. irrelevant. You'll often look at the clock and wonder where the time has gone. Composing music can have a calming and soothing effect (depending of course upon the type of music that you are writing). Any time that you transport yourself to another place, away from your normal day to day activities, you have nourished your ssoul. oul. Spending time with music will always make you feel better, better, no matter your current state. 11

 

Setting Yourself Yourself Up As A Composer Make A Commitment

Make a decision that you can and will compose your own music and have a great time doing it. This may seem obvious obvious enough, but some people people want to try it out and dabble with it. Either commit to being a composer composer or don’t. A strong commitment will make a difference difference psychologically, psychologically, and will also make a difference difference in the type t ype of music you create. Create Your Workspace

 You  You are going to sp spend end many hours working on your music as well as studying your craft, so take some time t ime to create the most comfortable working environment that you can. Depending upon where you live, try to find a space which will be free of all distractions. When I close the door of of my studio, I know that I won’t be disturbed by anyone. anyone. I also get into the habit of silencin silencing g my phone as well as ignoring emails while I’m working. working. Ask your family members not to disturb you while you are working. working. This is most important, important, because a knock on the door when you are in the middle of an idea can cause it to be lost forever. I enjoy being surrounded by music-related items such as statues and pictures of the great composers, but anything that helps to t o inspire you will be perfect for your special space. I have a variety of lighting options in my studio because sometimes I prefer bright light, and at other times, particularly in the evening, I enjoy subdued, soft lighting. I often use a diffuser with with essential oils because because it has a soothing effect effect which helps me to work better better.. I sometimes burn candles too. 12

 

 Y  Your our Instruments And And Tools Tools

The tools that you will use for composing will vary depending upon who you are and what you are trying to achieve. The few composers who hear music in their heads might only need a pencil and manuscript paper, paper, whereas a singer/songwriter might only need a guitar and a recording devic device. e. I recommend a piano for everyone who wishes to write music, because it allows you to see exactly what you are doing due to the notes being laid out in front of you. Almost all of the great composers composers had a keyboar keyboard d of some description which they used constantly to try out ideas. The most important aspect of any piano that you use for composing is that you like it. It should feel good to you and sound good to you. For some people, it may also be necessary to t o look good as well which is totally fine.  You  You can compose g great reat music on a grand piano, piano, an upright piano, a digital piano, or even a keyboard keyboard connected to a computer computer or sound module. I do suggest that if using an electronic device that you have a full 88 note keyboard with weighted keys. keys. For a discussion about selecting a piano or electronic instrument, see my other book “Secrets To To Better Piano Playing.”  Your  Your studio should includ include e a computer with either sequencing software, music notation software, software, or both. The quickest and easiest way to create create a permanent record of your musical ideas is to play them into a computer and then save the file. Although it is possible to rrecord ecord to an iPhone or iPad, these devices are currently limited in how they can edit the data afterwards, so it is better to use a computer. computer.

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If you are using an electronic keyboard or digital piano, then it should be hooked up to your computer computer using a USB cable. If you are using an o older lder MIDI keyboard, you may also need a USB-MIDI interface.  You  You will also need a good pair of reference reference monitors (speakers) to play back your work. It is possible to spend thousands of dollars on a good good pair of monitors, but unless you are doing serious mixing and sound editing, you won’t won’t have to spend that much. However, However, purchase the best quality speakers that you can afford, and avoid inexpensive computer monitors. There are three basic ways of recording your ideas into a computer: • Create an audio file • Create a sequence file • Create a music notation file Recording an audio file can be very useful when you don’t want to forget an idea, however the file is limited in how it can be edited later on. Recording a sequence file is much better because the data can later be manipulated. You have the ability to change notes and speed as well as many other aspects of the performance. Recording a notation file is a little bit like creating a sequence file, but displays your performance as standard music notation that can be read by other musicians. Methods two and three are the best ways to work with your music, and I’ll be talking about these a lot more throughout the book. I use a Kawai VPC1 Piano Controller, Controller, which I feel is the very best keyboard controller on the market, but there are many other makes and models which work just as well. 14

 

I use Logic Pro as my sequencer, but Digital Performer, Cubase and Pro Tools are also excellent. I use Sibelius as my notation software, but Finale and Dorico work just as well. Notion is also quite good and I use it sometimes sometimes on my iPad for  jotting down ideas. The Three Essentials

To learn and master the art of composing, one needs three critical things; time, patience and discipline. Time

Just as with anything else in life, you need to regularly spend time on your composition composit ion in order to improve. It’s It’s not about how much knowledge you have right now, but rather how much knowledge you will gain during the time you spend while composing. composing. Also, it’s it’s not just how much time you spend composing, but rather how often you compose. Generally Genera lly,, a small amount of time spent each day will yield far greater results than spending one hour three days per week. Make a point of scheduling your composing time. time. Once it is marked on a calendar it become real, and you are more likely to follow through with it consistently.. Try to work at the same time each day so as to firmly consistently establish it as a habit. Patience

We live in a world where we expect instant results, and it is understandable that you will want to see your compositional skills soar in a short period of time. However, However, it is important to be patient and take one step at a time. Writing lots and lots of music, even if much of it is mediocre, will help to develop skills that will enable you to compose even better music in the 15

 

future. Everything that you compose has value, value, even if yyou ou don’t feel satisfied with the end result. By consistently writing music, you will discover newer and better ways of accomplishing the results that you were seeking. Be patient! Discipline

There will be times when you feel frustrated about composing, but compose anyway. anyway. There will be times when when you just don’t feel feel in the mood for it, but compose compose anyway anyway.. Although your best work will will usually occur when you are inspired, continue to work consistently consistently,, and realize that you are honing your your skills and developing your craft. Just as with great athletes, discipline is necessary to push through t hrough the tough times. Continue to march forward confidently, confidently, and strive to become the best composer that you can be. Work With A Clear Mind

Get into the habit of leaving your troubles at the door as you begin your composition work. You will be tapping into, and using a different different part of your brain than you normally nor mally use throughout the day, day, and your connection will be much easier if you leave your worries behind. Take a moment to focus on your breathing, and work to clear your mind as much as possible. This will help to make your session much more productive, but if you do find yourself angry or worried about something, either postpone composing for later, or maybe put it off until the following day. Begin With The End In Mind

As you begin composing, the sky is the limit because you are free to come up with whichever ideas you you like. But as you continue to improve, improve, you will want to use your musical ideas in a meaningful way way,, so take a moment to develop a plan as to what sort of music you want to write. For example, if you know that you will not be writing a song, then you can eliminate the 16

 

need for lyrics as well as the choice of appropriate voice type for your song. If you know that you want to write a piano solo, your ideas immediately become more focused specifically to that instrument. Likewise, if you want to write chamber music, perhaps you can start thinking about the instruments that are necessary for a string quartet. Many aspiring composers spend hours working on ideas without any clear plan as to what to do with them. Very often, their ideas amount to nothing and simply remain as musical fragments. It is also useful to have a rough idea as to when you expect to complete your piece of music. You don’t have to be be too rigid with this, but if you know in the back of your mind that you would like to have the piece completed in two weeks, the chances are that you will be at least slightly   more productive than you would have been without thinking about a deadline. When I give myself deadlines, I am able to be incred incredibly ibly productive, but when it doesn’t matter when the task ta sk is completed, I tend to procrastinate. On a final note, it’ it’ss not a bad idea to start considering the type of composer you would like to be. Do you want to score score for films, television or video games? Maybe you want to write music music for commercials commercials (known as jingles). Or perhaps you’d prefer to write write contemporary songs, songs, or even delve into the world of contemporary contemporary classical music. You don't need to make a decision early on, but at least kick around some ideas in the back of your mind, because it could influence the type of music that you create in the early stages. Support

Take some time to explain to family members and loved ones about what you are doing and why. why. It is most important to have their full support support when you disappear into your studio each day and ask not to be disturbed. Let them know how important it is to you that you have quiet 17

 

time to work on your music, and they will be much more understanding than if you said nothing at all. It is always important important for composers to feel that people support what they are doing.

Four Core Areas Of Study Develop Your Piano Skills

Piano is essential for any composer, composer, so you should strive to become the best pianist that you can. You won’t be expected expected to take examinations, participate in recitals or learn concertos, but nevertheless, the better your skills, the better your compositions will be. The piano has a large compass, which means that it has a lot of notes. Much can be done with its 88 notes compared to around 30 or so notes for many other instruments. You can use the different different ranges of the piano to write for different different groups of instruments. For example, I can play fr french ench horn and trombone parts in the tenor range of my piano to make sure that they are working correctly correctly.. A guitarist or clarinet player couldn’t couldn’t do that in quite the same way. The piano has its keys laid out in front of you where they are clearly visible. Although it is possible to compose music with other instruments, it is easier on the piano because you can see what you are doing. The piano has a large dynamic range from barely audible to very loud. The overall sound is pleasing to most people. It lends itself well to melody,, harmony and rhythm. If it sounds good on melody on the piano, it will almost certainly sound good when the music is scored for differ different ent combinations of instruments. The piano is unique unique in that it has a damper pedal. Only the harp ccomes omes close to the fantastic effect that this device helps to create. As you may 18

 

already know, know, when holding the t he damper pedal, notes continue to sustain after you have released them. them. However, However, the magic lies in the fact that while the pedal is depressed, any keys that are struck will also cause other strings to vibrate in sympathy. sympathy. This allows you to hear overtones or harmonics (additional frequencies) which will help you in your composition. “Secrets To To Better Piano Playing” details how to t o improve your piano skills. Study Scales

The most important skill that you need to develop at the piano is the ability to play scales scales and arpeggios. arpeggios. Many people assume that piano scales are simply technical exercises, however however,, scales are the t he building blocks of all music, and a thorough knowledge of them is essential for any composer. If you are writing a piece of music in G major, major, you need to be completely familiar with the notes that are used in that key as well as the notes that are not  used.  used. In this case, a thorough kknowledge nowledge of the scale of G major is all that is needed. Although there are many forms of scales, they basically break down into twelve major scales and twelve minor scales. If you learn those alon along g with the related arpeggios, you you will be in very good shape. If you don’ don’tt learn your scales, you will be like an artist who is not familiar with all of the colors that are available to him. “The Ultimate Piano Workout” lists all of the scales that you will ever need, including the twelve majors and minors. Learn Music Notation

Although it is possible to compose music without any knowledge of music notation, composers write better music when it is written down so that it can be seen as well as heard. 19

 

A composer who cannot read or write music is like someone who has learned a foreign foreign language, language, but cannot read read and write it. This person may be able to converse fluently in the foreign language, but imagine how much more they would be able to achieve if they could read and write it also. Contemporary musicians can get away with only playing by ear or by reading chord charts, because rock, pop and jazz genres need little in the way of traditional notation. notation. Although some jazz music can be quite complex, rock and pop songs are based upon simple structures that are easy to remember and therefore may not require the reading of music. During the composition process, you will have many ideas which need to be developed, and it is extremely difficult to develop these ideas in your head, but much easier when they can be seen in the form of notation. Later in the book you will learn about some compositional techniques such as augmentation, diminution and inversion which will only make sense to you when you can see written music examples. One of the most important reasons to master music notation is so that you can study the works of other other composers. Many of today’s today’s top film composers studied the works of great composers to learn about their use of melody, melody, harmony har mony,, counterpoint, orchestration, structure and form, and they couldn’t have learned as much simply by listening to the music. Even if you are only interested in writing contemporary music, there is a great deal to learn from the classical world because the great composers were true masters of the art of music and tthey hey knew how to successfully combine sounds. However, studying studyin g what they did by looking at the notation rather than just listening is much more effective. Learning and mastering music notation is not as difficult as you may think, and it requires less effort than mastering a foreign foreign language. It can be learned with just a small amount amount of daily work work over a p period eriod of time. The 20

 

reason why composers have used traditional music notation for more than three hundred hundred years is because because it works. It will work for you too. Music notation has actually been around since the eleventh century, but its current form was perfected about three hundred years ago. Master Your Software

Not many composers use a traditional pencil and paper anymore because it is time-consuming, and although it can work nicely for jotting down song ideas such as melody, melody, chord symbols and lyrics, writing for several different instruments, or even the piano, can take too long. The most common way in which composers work these days is by inputting their ideas directly into a computer using either a sequencer or music notation program. The quickest and easiest way to input music into a computer is by playing notes on a keyboard or digital piano which is connected to your computer computer.. It is possible to record directly into sequencers such as Logic Pro, Digital Performer, Cubase or Pro Tools where the notes are then represented in a digital format which can later be manipulated in many ways. These sequencers (also known as DAWs or Digital Audio Workstations) allow you to view notes either as a series of numbers or graphically in piano roll notation, and even as traditional music notation. Sequencers are wonderful and powerful tools, but I must point out that a sequence is really a recording of a performance perfor mance and the editing process consists more of the manipulation of sound  rather than music. Although sequencers do include the ability to view notes in traditional music notation, this part of the program is usually limited and requires a lot of tweaking to make the music appear appear correctly correctly.. Most people do not not use the 21

 

notation feature of a sequencer to manipulate notes because it is somewhat awkward to use. As previously mentioned, notes in a sequence can be changed in countless ways such as pitch, duration, placement in time as well as volume. All of these tasks are usually accomplished accomplished using a piano roll   feature which makes makes everything q quite uite simple. Whole sections of music can also be moved around, and notes can be quickly changed from one sound to another. Although a lot of great music is created only by using sequencers, this method of composing is somewhat limited because more time and effort can be spent working on the sounds coming from the computer rather than the creation of new musical ideas. As an example, let’s let’s say that you have improvised four measures of music which you really like, the first thing would be to hit record and play those four measures into the sequencer. Upon playing it back you may notice that the timing was a little off and perhaps there was a wrong note in the t he third measure and your first instinct may be to correct those errors. Next you may want to add some reverb to sweeten the sound, or perhaps change the piano sound to something something different. different. You may also consider adding another instrument on another track, or perhaps using a loop for some percussion. All of this is great, but you are now in the realm of music production rather than composition, and it can often be difficult to get back into composing mode. Of course, not all users of sequencers sequencers work this way way,, but most do.

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I suggest that you only use a sequencer once your composition is complete and that you view sequencing software as a perfect tool for creating a finished recorded  performance.  performance. Music notation software is the perfect vehicle to get your ideas into a computer. I use Sibelius, but Finale and Dorico computer. Dorico do the same thing. thing. These programs allow you to record directly from your keyboard into the computer, just as you would with a sequencer, but the software’s chief aim is to display your your notes as pr proper oper traditional notation. It is easy to change and move notes around, and sections of music can become more meaningful compared to regions within a sequencer. sequencer. When using notation software, indications about whether notes should be played detached or smoothly, smoothly, as well as their relative volumes can easily be made. When working on a new section of music which m may ay be based on the first section, these reminders of how the notes were initially played can be very helpful. Music notation helps to make your notes notes more “real” “real” compared to a sequencer where the duration of a note is often indicated simply by a thin line, and its volume represented by a color color.. Form and structure within a composition can be manipulated more easily within a notation program owing to being able to see individual lines of music. Sequencers allow easy manipulation of structure too, b but ut usually in blocks, and music shouldn’t necessarily be thought of as blocks of data. Music that has been entered into a notation program will play back using internal sounds just as with a sequencer sequencer,, however there is less flexibility in editing the raw data compared to a sequencer because the program is focused more on how the music looks  as  as opposed to how it sounds. So to recap, the best way to compose music is by entering your ideas into a computer using a notation program. program. Sequencers are designed to capture performances and you should only concern yourself with the performance once the composition is finished. Whichever notation 23

 

program you choose, choose, make sure to learn it thoroughly thoroughly.. As you become proficient at entering your ideas into it, it , you will have great flexibility as a composer. A page of printed music can carry more weight for you as a composer than a well constructed sequence sequenc e in a DAW. DAW. Your sequence may sound fantastic, but what can anyone really really do with it other than listen? Your page of printed music however, however, can be performed by musicians throughout the world using a variety of different instruments because it is written in a universal language. Your sequence will probably probably sound dated ten years from now, but your page of printed music almost certainly will not. While in France, speak French, when writing music, use music notation. Summary

So far, far, you have learned lear ned that anyone can compose music if they believe  they can, and that it takes time, patience and discipline.  You  You have learned that this is a wonderful time to write mus music ic because there are more opportunities opportunities for composers than ever ever before. You also know that composing music is a great thing to do, not only because it can it be extremely rewarding, but also it can bring a sense of peace and ttranquility ranquility..  You  You understand the importance o off making a commitment  to  to being a composer rather than just trying it out.  You  You have created the b best est possible environment environment in which to create m music, usic, and you have informed your family and loved ones about what you are doing and asked for their support.  You  You have scheduled time to work at your art on a daily basis witho without ut being disturbed by people, phone calls, texts or emails. 24

 

 You  You have learned the importance of leaving your troubles at the doo doorr, and having a clear mind when you you work. You also know about having having the end result in mind, and giving thought to what you want to accomplish.  Your  Your studio consists of a kkeyboard, eyboard, com computer puter with notation software and speakers. Although there will be much for you to study, study, you know that the four core  areas are developing your piano skills, studying scales, learning music notation and mastering music software. Before we delve into the topics for improving your composing skills, let us examine some additional areas of study.

Additional Studies Music Theory

Music theory is the study of the language of music, and a music theory course begins with a clear explanation of music notation which already ties in with the third core area of study listed above. above. However However,, music theory goes beyond explaining all of the dots, dashes, wavy lines and symbols, and describes how how music is ac actually tually constructed. Intervals, scales, ch chords, ords, cadences and key signatures are all important concepts which should be digested and understood before moving onto more advanced lessons in harmony and counterpoint. To Music Theory Parts I and II by ABRSM Read The ABRSM Guide To Publishing Scales

Although I have already mentioned the importance of scales, they t hey are so  important that it is worth expanding upon upon here. If you have ever 25

 

wondered why some music sounds so wonderful, and yet when you try to combine notes on the piano it does not sound good, the difference is because music that sounds good is based around a key center, center, and your piano musings probably do not. Almost five hundred years ago, composers realized that certain “sets” of notes sounded better better than others. They analyzed these these “sets” of notes and wrote them down down one after the other in order of p pitch. itch. The result was a scale, or a set of notes that sounded good when used in any combination.  You  You may have heard of a piece of music b being eing in the key of D major major, but you may not be aware that this means most of the notes in that piece of music are contained in the scale of D major. major. If you are completely completely familiar with the scale, then playing a piece, or composing a piece in D major will be much easier because you are totally familiar with the notes. Most people assume that scales are technical exercises which are used to develop technique, technique, speed and stamina. They actually do improve all of these things, but the main reason to know scales is to understand keys and tonality tonali ty.. A composer must  understand  understand keys and tonality in order to create pleasing sounding music. Scales are the keys to eve everything, rything, and are amongst the most important things for you to master. master. Read my book The Ultimate Piano Workout  which  which gives a full description as to why scales are so important. Harmony

This is the study of combining individual notes to make chords as well as the relationship and movement movement of those chord chordss from one to the other. other. It describes the positioning of chords to create good voice leading which can result in a smoother and more more pleasing sound. It also covers note doubling, which notes are more important than others, open voicing and 26

 

closed voicing as well well as much more. The exercises presented presented at the end of this book will help you a lot with your knowledge of harmony. harmony. Read Harmony by Walter Piston  Counterpoint

This is an older and more complex form of writing music whereby individual lines of music are combined rather tthan han chords and a melody. melody. Music written this way can be considered more horizontal than vertical because numerous melodies can all be happening at the same time. It is a form of writing that t hat was used in the t he Renaissance and Baroque periods and came to its zenith with J.S. Bach, the greatest composer who ever lived. Around the middle of the eighteenth century, century, polyphonic music (meaning many sounds) was was considered too complex and old fashioned. fashioned. A shift began to take place which favored homophonic music (meaning one sound), whereby one tune was prominent along with an accompaniment, a formula which has continued until this day. day. Jazz musicians have used counterpoint, but in a different way from the old masters. It’ It’ss not absolutely necessary that you learn about counterpoint, but it will be of great benefit benefit to you if you do. Many of our modern rules of harmony stemmed from the rules of counterpoint which were established centuries ago. Read Counterpoint by Walter Piston  Orchestration

The study of orchestration is essential for any composer composer,, and alt although hough the word orchestration may suggest that you will be dealing with a full orchestra, there is more to it than this. 27

 

 You  You need to know abo about ut all of the common instruments as well well as the families to which they belong. belong. You should be familiar with the ranges of of these instruments as well as any difficulties that the instruments may encounter when playing in certain certain keys and registers. Fortunately Fortunately,, software such as Sibelius tells you much of this automatically, automatically, but it is good to learn about it anyway. anyway. The more complex aspect of orchestration is learning about which combinations of instruments work, as well as which don’t and why. why. Imagine that you are writing a piece of music for flute, clarinet and harp.  You  You need to know that the clarinet is a transp transposing osing instrument and must be written in a key that is a whole step higher. higher. The flute is not a transposing instrument, however its lowest lowest playable note is middle C. The harpist relies on a series of seven pedals to change the key of her instrument. These are all things to consider when scoring for these instruments, and knowledge of orchestration will help you to avoid making embarrassing mistakes when writing for performing musicians. One of the greatest orchestrators was Rimsky Korsakov, Korsakov, so listen carefully to his music (particularly “Scheherazade”) as well as music of T Tchaikovsky chaikovsky and John Williams. Pay attention to the tone colors they use in their music. Read Orchestration by Walter Piston  Form

Form is extremely important in music, and without good structure, a piece of music can bore bore an audience. Think about movies that you h have ave seen, or books that you have read when there were too many characters and everything seemed confusing. Also consider the times when a plot plot was weak and predictable predictable and therefore therefore dull. Just as with movies, movies, music should also have good balance to keep the interest of the listener. listener. 28

 

One of the reasons that I stress the importance of seeing your music as traditional notation is to t o help prevent repetitive and monotonous sections from appearing over and over in your music. A lot of modern piano music suffers from bad form, mainly because the composer didn't write anything down down.. What began as an improvisation continued as such, such, and the ideas were never developed. Use improvisation to come up with ideas, but don’t confuse an improvisation with a finished composition. Rock and Pop musicians understand about form when it comes to songs. They understand during the course of a four minute song when it is time to change something, and they use verses, choruses and bridges to create interest and keep the listener engaged. Read The Form Of Music by William Cole by ABRSM Publishing  Listen To Great Music

Listen actively  to  to music. Don’t just put put it on in the background background and assume it is doing you some good good (although actually it is). You should pay attention and focus on certain elements of of what you are are hearing. Can you pick out the individual individual instruments? Can you hear where where the melod melodyy repeats? Why did it repeat there? How do do the different different sound colors blend with each other? I’ve talked a lot about reading reading music, but now it is time to really  use  use your ear, ear, and focus on every little detail. Pay attention to what you are listening to and you will learn a lot. Listen to orchestral music, even if you are only writing songs or solo piano music. There is so much more to learn from orchestral orchestral music. If you want to learn about effective use of dynamic changes, as well as shifts in mood and timbre, then orchestral music is your greatest teacher. teacher.

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Listen to any of the great com composers, posers, but particularly Bach. Brahms once said, “Study Bach. All you need to know is there.” Schumann said said,, “Music owes as much to Bach Bach as religion does does to its founder.” founder.” The famous cellist Pablo Cassals said, “Bach is the God of music.” You could study Bach’ss music for a lifetime and never even begin to scratch the surface Bach’ regarding the magnitude of what he left us. Of course, Bach, Mozart and Beethoven are essential listening, but I suggest you really delve into the works of late-romantic composers such as Mahler, Brückner, Elgar, Rachmaninov and Ravel to really understand what can be done with an orchestra. orchestra. Even if you never write for orchestra, orchestra, imagine what this knowledge can do for your compositions. Also listen to plenty of choral music if it’s it’s a style that you’re interested in writing. writi ng. Anything Anythi ng by Tenebrae and King’s King’s College Cambridge is phenomenal, but of of course there are many others. Modern choral compositions by John Rutter are wonderful, and anything conducted by John Eliot Gardiner is fantastic. A subscription to Apple Music Music or Spotify is worth every p penny enny.. Every composer without exception should spend the $10 per month to have all the music that they could ever wish for for,, immediately at their fingertips. Read And Follow Scores

All of the world’s world’s greatest music teachers are are dead. Not to say that there aren’t many fine teachers alive and well, but I would suggest to you that by studying the works of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms (just to name three), you will learn lear n more than you could from any single living teacher teacher.. The great composers spent a lifetime studying the music of composers who went before them. The music they left behind contains elements of everything they learned. Not only can their music be listened to and enjoyed, but it can be carefully dissected, studied and emulated. 30

 

If you love movie scores by John Williams such as Star Wars, look no further than Anton Brückner to see how he makes the brass instruments sound the way they do. If you enjoy the music music of James Horner, Horner, check out Sibelius Sibeli us and Mahler. If you like Hans Zimmer’s Zimmer’s “Gladi “Gladiator” ator” soundtra soundtrack, ck, check out “The Planets” by Gustav Gustav Holst. I could go on, but but you get the point. Some of the greatest living composers composers write for for film, and as mentioned earlier, earlier, they have diligently studied music by the t he great masters. Most of the great classical works belong to the public domain, which means that copies can be downloaded downloaded and printed for free. Go to IMSLP.ORG to download anything from Beethoven symphonies to Elgar concertos. Read Composer Biographies

Take time to read about about the lives of great comp composers. osers. Biographies can give great insight as to who these people were and why they did what they did. I feel that it helps helps us to conn connect ect with their music on a deeper level, and it can help you as a composer composer.. I am always fascinated by the trials and tribulations of these great artists and how they continued to write such wonderful music music even during the most difficult difficult times. Don’t assume that this is boring stuff! stuff! Reading how Berlioz board boarded ed a train armed with two pistols and a disguise, intent on murdering his girlfriend and her lover, lover, or Bach’s Bach’s imprisonment for applying for another job are quite fascinating. Summary

Although this list of areas to study may feel a little overwhelming, it’s it’s not so important that you completely master  each  each element, but rather you have an overview and understand where that topic t opic fits in the grand scheme of things for your your work as a composer composer.. As with learning anything, a small amount completed completed on a d daily aily basis yields great results. Set aside 30 minutes each day day to work on on these topics. Either focus on one topic 31

 

each day, day, or spend ten minutes each on on three topics. Music is a vast subject, so learn all you can about its many facets.

The Ingredients Of Good Music Elements Of A Composition

Creating a piece of music music is a little like baking a cake. There are many ingredients that you can use, although it’s it’s unlikely that you will use all of them at once. Some ingredients ingredients are used often, and others hardly at all. However, a knowledge and understanding of all  of  of the ingredients that can be used will certainly help you to create the best cake possible. No matter what kind of music you write, you should fully understand tthe he following ingredients and know how to use and combine them in your music. Although there is no magic formula that constitutes a great  composition,  composition, these time-tested elements are common to all good music. Melody

Good melodies sell music which is why music publishers and record companies have always looked for music with memorable tunes. Most of the world’s most famous music has a good melody, and although there are certainly examples of great music which doesn’t have much of a melody,, this is the exception to the rule. melody Composers and musicologists have debated what constitutes a good melody for centuries, but most would agree that it should be relatively simple and easy  to  to remember. remember. It should also be repeated repeated several times throughout a composition to help make it more memorable. 32

 

A memorable melody melody is usually eas easyy to sing or hum. A tune which is relatively short and features notes which are close together is easier to sing and remember than one that is long and has large intervals. A good and memorable melody can include a larger interval, but it is usually followed by much smaller ones, and there will be fewer large intervals throughout. The length of a melody is more difficult to gauge, because there are examples of short and  long  long melodies which all work perfectly, perfectly, but shorter is usually better. better. This can be compar compared ed to the length of sentences in that we often know when a sentence is i s too long or too short, although there are no exact rules to follow. Shorter melodies generally work better because they are easier to remember.. As a rule of thumb, if you can’t remember can’t sing a melody all in one breath, breath, then it’s it’s almost certainly too long. This is an important consideration not not only for vocalists, but for performers of wind instruments because they all need to breathe. However, a longer melody can be broken into shorter phrases that do  However, allow for short breaths without breaking the continuity of the melody as a whole. Longer melodies can be more difficult for an audience to remember remember,, but many great compositions compositions do have long melodies. melodies. Listen to the overtur overture e from Tannhäuser  by  by Wagner to hear an example of an outstanding melody that is long and yet memorable too! Melodies are usually played a little louder than the surrounding music. They are also often played smoothly smoothly,, but can certainly use detached notes, as well as a combination of both smooth and detached notes. The choice of instrument that is used for a melody is an important consideration due to timbre (sound quality). A flute solo would would be obliterated by French French horns. Likewise, the register register in which the melody is 33

 

played is important, particularly in relation to other instruments. instruments. For example, a melody played by Double Basses can sound very muddy and may not work well, although it is certainly certainly possible. Your study of orchestration will help with these issues. Good melodies often have a de definite finite shape. It is common for notes to work their way upwards at the beginning of a melody and then to work their way back down again halfway through the tune. tune. This is a gene general ral guideline, but it works works and you’ll see many exam examples ples of it. This technique lends itself well to dynamic shading also, where the melody may rise in volume towards the middle, and then decrease in volume towards the end.  Very  Very short melodic fragments suc such h as the opening four notes o off Beethoven’s 5th Symphony are not so much a melody, but rather a motif , or melodic  fragment . You may end up with a number number of fragments that you weave together to form proper melodies. Melodies should also be developed or tweaked. tweaked. When they are repeated, repeated, some slight variation can add interest, so changing the odd note or rhythm can be a good thing. Techniques such as augmentation, augmentation, diminution and inversion (discussed later) are all useful here. To summarize, your music really really should have a melody of some kind. It should not be too long or complicated, and it should appear several times throughoutt your composition throughou compositi on and be featured prominently. prominently. Your job as a composer is not only to come up with a great melody, melody, but to package it and carefully deliver it to your listeners by using appropriate instruments, dynamics and articulation. Accompaniment

A great melody can either be brought to life and made truly magnificent, or die a slow lingering death depending on its accompaniment. 34

 

Although it is easier to describe what an accompaniment is compared to a melody,, it is much more difficult to describe the many ways that an melody accompaniment can be constructed around a melody. Basically,, the accompaniment is any supporting material that is used Basically around or underneath a melody. melody. It could be as simple as a single single sustained note or a bass line, or as complicated as several other melodic lines woven in with the main melody such as in Bach’s Bach’s music. It could also be as common as a handful of repeated chords. The accompaniment should generally support and work congruently with the melody, melody, and should not overpower overpower or surpass the tune. A good accompaniment will use both consonance and dissonance (discussed later), rhythmic variation variati on and contrasting movement to the melody melody.. The style of an accompaniment a ccompaniment can help to define the genre of your music. You probably associate a certain ‘sound’ with country music, music, but is it just the melody? Not really really,, because you can take the same same melody from a country song and make it into a rock song. Likewise, we could take a melody from a symphony symphony and make it into a pop pop song. Although certain instruments and sounds are common to a particular genre, it is the accompaniment  style that dictates exactly what category the music may fall into. Left hand piano stride patterns patter ns and syncopated rhythms helped to define the sound of ragtime music in the early 1900s. Three beats to a measure oom-pah-pah accompaniments helped to define the Viennese waltz of the mid 1800s, and chord progressions, progressions, compound time signatures and repeated chords defined the sound of 1950s rock and roll ballads. The accompaniments that you create will define the overall sound of your music.

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Bass

A good accompaniment probably consists of a series of notes that are played together underneath a melody. melody. If we were to analyze analyze those notes, we would soon discover that the lowest  notes  notes in the accompaniment are the most important next to the melody. melody. These lower notes are the bass bass line. A bass line provides a solid foundation or firm footing for your melody melody.. The combination of melody and bass notes will often dictate the harmonies and chords to use. Bass doesn’t necessarily mean very low notes and certainly doesn’t have to be played on a bass guitar or d double ouble bass. Although the notes usually are  low,, more importantly they are the lowest  notes low  notes of any passage of music.  Your  Your choice of bass no notes tes can dramatically alter the music you are are writing. The choice of a chord’s chord’s inversion can often dictate which note should be used in the bass. bass. Inner notes are not quite as important, important, yet they still play a vital role. When adding an accompaniment to your melody melody,, consider the bass notes first and then figure your chords chords from there. If you do, you may may come up with something far better than t han if you only worked out the chords with the melody.. Although it can be argued that chords and bass melody bass are worked out simultaneously, I suggest you pay extra attention to the bass line for all of simultaneously, your compositions. Harmony

Harmony is all about how to combine music notes to create a desired effect, and these combinations combinations of notes form chords. chords. I will discuss how to choose chords and apply them successfully in the next section, although you still need to read and study your harmony book. 36

 

Ideally, harmony should contain tension and release Ideally, release to add interest. This is created through the use of consonant and dissonant chords which I’ll explain more about later. Too many plain old vanilla chords soon get rather dull, so it’s it’s important to explore the full range of colors that you have available in your sound palette. Chords can be thick or thin which will change the overall effect of your piece. Thick chords chords are created created by doubling doubling the notes with other instruments as well as in various octaves. Depending on on the effec effectt you want to create, you may prefer one technique over the other. Harmonic rhythm refers to how often a chord changes. changes. Sometimes chor chords ds can last several measures or they t hey may change on every note. Chords need to progress successfully successfully from one to the other without sounding disjointed. This can be referred referred to as harmonic progression, progression, and is the primary subject of most of the harmony books. You will also learn about voice leading which ensures that the notes of each chord flow smoothly from one to the other without awkward intervals.  Your  Your use of harmony can make or b break reak a composition, so study this topic diligently. Rhythm

Rhythm plays an important role in your music because it adds interest. Rhythm is the combination combination of short short and long notes into patterns. If all of your note values were the same, you would end up with a steady beat rather than a rhythm. Rhythms can be complex or simple, simple, but generally there should be be continuity in yyour our music. Rhythms are often repeated throughout a piece which which helps to create a type type of groove. If you string a bunch of different different rhythms together, together, the result will sound confusing. confusing. When listening to your compositions, always consider whether they have enough rhythmic contrast. 37

 

Form

 Your  Your music should have g good ood structure and fo form. rm. Many listeners can switch off before the end of a piece due to bad form, and meandering music is the worst kind to listen to. Try to think of form in music like a conversation. conversation. Sometimes it is appropriate and very necessary to repeat a sentence, however however,, repeating a sentence three or more times in a row would not be appropriate. Sentences should not be too long or too short. They should not be disjointed but should should be meaningful meaningful and make sense. sense. Most people understand these rules when it comes to language, and many of the same rules apply to form in music. As a general rule, look at your composition in groups of four or eight measures. Make sure to repeat sections, sections, but then move move on to either a different idea or or something that is similar. similar. After a while, an audience will expect a return to the original idea, so you should decide when to bring it back in. Follow your intuition. If you feel that a section is starting to sound monotonous, then it probably probably is. If you are questioning questioning whether you have repeated an idea too many times, then you probably have. Pulse And T Tempo empo

A steady beat or pulse is extremely important for the majority of music. Most music has one, and if you are writing contemporary music, your listeners have come to expect it. Tempo is the speed of your music, and the tempo t empo can speed up and a nd slow down during a piece of music. Rubato is a term that describes a slight increase and decrease in speed throughout t hroughout a piece of romantic period 38

 

music such as the piano works of Chopin. The word means robbed  and  and really means that the tempo is i s flexible. Many pieces of music will slow down at the end to let the audience know that the music is coming to a conclusion, but music can also slow down in the middle at certain cadences. It is possible to gradually increase increase the tempo, although this is less common common than slowing down. down. Some modern dance music deliberately increases the tempo when leading to high points in the song. Tempo is an important consideration when writing for performing musicians, and you should consider the speed at which certain instruments can handle the passages passages you write. Find just the right speed and m mark ark it down in your music. Take time to try different speeds and experiment. experiment. Also, don’t be afraid to vary the speed. Sudden as well as gradual changes can be very pleasing, but composers are often too scared to use speed changes for fear of how it will impact their music. Time Signature (Meter)

 You  You already know about the importance of a steady beat in music, but that steady beat is usually grouped grouped into two, three o orr four. four. The grouping o off the beats will dictate the time signature o off the composition composition.. As a general rule, music with two beats per measure can have a march-like feel, music with three beats per measure tends to have a waltz-like feel, and four beats per measure is reserved for everything else. Most modern music is written with four beats per measure because it works well. If you want to be a little different, different, consider writing in 2, 3, 5 or 7 which give a very different different feel. Time signatures of of six, nine and twelve are counted as two, three three and four respectively respectively.. If this last sentence completely confused you, it is time to brush up on your music theory. theory.

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Songwriters often determine the time signature of their song from where the stresses fall in the lyrics. All well-written prose prose have an inher inherent ent meter which dictates the time signature for for a song. For example, “Mary “Mary Had A Little Lamb” couldn’t possibly be sung in a time signature of three without sounding very odd. Dynamics

Music should have good contrast between loud and soft sections as well as volume differences differences between individual ins instruments. truments. Volume changes can be sudden or gradual and they help to create interest and variety in a composition. Most contemporary music lacks any dynamic change at all because it is heavily compressed. compressed. Although the musicians may have originally performed with some dynamic changes, they are mostly lost due to compression. Use a wide variety of dynamic dynamic changes in your music where appropriate to create interest, and always make sure that your accompaniments are softer than the melody. melody. Timbre

The three elements of all sound sound are pitch, volume and timbre. Pitch can be described by music notes, as well as scientifically in hertz which refers to frequency, frequency, or cycles per second. second. The note A above middle middle C on your piano vibrates at 440Hz, or 440 cycles per second.  Volume  Volume can be described in music terms, as well as scientifically by using decibels. However, timbre or tone cannot really be measured, and it is not possible However, to discuss the subject subject without the use use of many ad adjectives. jectives. Imagine explaining the difference between the sound of a clarinet compared to a violin. One person might might say that the clarinet is more me mellow llow and 40

 

sonorous and that the violin is harsh and squeaky, squeaky, but someone else might say that the violin is smooth and velvety and that the clarinet is sombre and dull. It really is a matter of personal preference preference of cou course, rse, but people describe timbre in many different ways. Synthesizers can help to give a better understanding of timbre through the use of sound waves. A square wave wave has a “clarinet-like” “clarinet-like” sound, and a sine wave has more of a “flute-like” sound, whereas a triangle wave is more reminiscent of an oboe. Although it is a subject that is difficult to put into words, it is not difficult to understand. Make a point of of using contrasting timbres (instruments) in your music. The four families of of instruments in an orchestra, strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion, correspond to how each instrument produces  its  its sound. The instruments of each each family sound vastly different, different, so even if you don’t write for orchestra, consider using combinations of instruments that are varied in the way they create their sound, just like the orchestral instruments. The piano’s timbre changes considerably from low growly sounding notes on the left to high high bell-like notes on the right. When writing for p piano, iano, consider using its contrasting timbres in your composition, rather than only using the same area. Summary

Music is a vast subject and it is no easy task to try to summarize all of its magical qualities. I have attempted to give you a list of elements that I feel are the most important for any piece of music to succeed, as well as describe them in as simple a way as possible. There are of course course many other elements that could be added to this list depending upon one’ one’ss perspective, but if you understand and apply these particular elements to your own music, I feel confident that you will really create something of worth. 41

 

Getting Started The History Of Improvisatio Improvisation n

Improvisation was an extremely important skill for composers and performers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Printed music was not easily accessible, so keyboardists were expected to be able to improvise around well-known melodies with proper form and structure. Bach and Mozart, as well as countless other composers were experts at it, and their improvisations sounded like complete and polished compositions. This skill continued into the nineteenth century with organists such as Louis  Vierne and Charles Marie Widor, Widor, and even into the twentieth century w with ith Marcel Dupré, owing to the improvisation fact that improvisation was such a of vital partart of an organist’s organist’ s job. However, improvisat ion became somewhat a lost for pianists during the nineteenth century owing to the high proliferation of printed music, as well as the fact that improvisation was no longer necessary in order to secure a job. The early twentieth century saw a revival of improvisation in the world of  jazz, and even today, today, most jazz pianists impro improvise, vise, but not in the same way as musicians of the past, namely regarding form and structure. Improvisation is important for a composer in order to discover and develop musical ideas. What is improvisation?

Improvisation can be be described as making up music on the spot. It seems almost impossible that someone can pull music from thin air air,, but there is a secret to it.

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Most people don’t realize that improvisations are often largely based upon patterns which are already familiar to t o the performer. performer. These patterns are then tweaked a little here and there to create something different each time. Improvisations can take on a life of their own and move in directions in which the performer has never ventured, but it’s it’s important to remember that improvisations usually begin bas based ed upon som some e form of template. A good improviser might have around a dozen unique templates upon which they can base a performance. This book is not concerned with having you improvise in front of an audience, but rather to improvise at home so as to develop ideas for compositions. Improvisation and composition are different and yet related to each other other.. Consider improvisation as stage one, or the equivalent of a painter mixing paints. Your improvisation may may yield only one small idea, idea, or a whole slew of ideas, but once you begin to write those ideas down, you have moved from improvisation to composition. Improvising gives you an opportunity to explore and search for ideas. Sometimes you will make your greatest discoveries, which makes this skill one of the most important in your work as a composer composer.. Taking The First Step

In the Tao Te Ching, the wise philosopher Lao Tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins begins with a single step.” Likewise, your journey journey into composition begins with the first  note. Every composition must start with at least one note, and the next step is to either follow  that  that note with another, or combine it with another and move on from there. It really does come come down to these very simple simple steps, but 43

 

the beginning composer is usually dissatisfied with the results of such simplicity and gives up too easily easily.. The seasoned composer composer understands the potential of such simplicity and continues to write. Once you have played your first note and chosen whether to follow it with a note, or combine it with a note, the next step is to evaluate and decide whether you like the outcome or not. With only a couple of notes, there is very little to go on, but you should realize that your use of notes will lead to a series of choices, and you must decide quickly whether you like the direction it’s it’s going or not. Either way, way, tweak and change your composition as necessary until you you find something that pleases you. The most important thing is to have the courage to keep searching and don’t give up. It is important to make decisions quickly  during  during the composition process, and not dwell on a particular area of of your piece for too long long.. The flow of ideas during the composition process can easily be lost when your mind switches over to analyze mode. During the composition process, process, it is important not to think  too  too much because the analytical mind interferes with the creative mind. If you are unsure unsure about a section of music, music, leave it and revisit it later, because it is more important to keep the flow of new ideas. But what if you don’t don’t have any ideas? Make decisions decisions anyway anyway.. If you reach a point where you’re not sure how to continue, then force yourself choose a note or notes, and keep the composition moving forward. Y You ou can always make changes later if you are not happy with the result. Composing vs. Editing

Composing is the process of discovering musical ideas and notating them. During this process, your brain is working creatively and you will want to keep it up for as long as you you feel comfortable. Much of what you write will 44

 

need to be altered in some some way, way, which is perfectly normal. Only a handful of composers such as Mozart wrote everything perfectly in the first draft. It is important to realize realize that composing music and editing music are two very different different tasks, and your brain functions differently differently for for each. During the composition process, you will sometimes feel as if you are tapped into a stream of ideas, and your job is to make a note of those ideas as quickly and as efficiently efficiently as possible. During the editing process, you you are analyzing what is working and what is not, and you are making decisions regarding what what you like and what you don’t don’t like. Editing also involves a lot of problem solving. While you are composing, do not stop to fix and edit what you have written. Keep writing and capture capture as many ideas as you can can while you are in a creative creative mode. Later, Later, go back back and edit as much much as you you like. This is one of the most important lessons for any beginning composer. composer. Inspiration

Some of your best music will be composed when when you are inspir inspired. ed. Being inspired can feel as if you are connected to something other than yourself, and while you are connected, connected, great ideas b begin egin to flow flow.. Inspiration can come from many of life’s life’s experiences, but often, we just don’t know when it will hit us. If you have created a comfortable working environment as discussed earlier,, then hopefully you will have provided a vehicle whereby inspiration earlier can find you, rather than the other way around. However, there will be many instances where you are not feeling inspired, However, but you should compose anyway. anyway. Composing on a regular basis, regardless of whether you are tapped in, is the key to developing your skills. You may find that one day you are working o on n a piece and everything flows beautifully, beautifully, but the next day it is different and more of a 45

 

struggle. At this point, many composers may walk away and wait for inspiration to strike again. Unfortunately Unfortunately,, this often results results in many unfinished compositions. compositions. If the force force is with you, then use it. If it is not with you, continue to write anyway. anyway. Consonance And Dissonance

Some combinations of notes clash and others do not. Consonance is the result of notes that sound good together and dissonance is the result of notes that don’t sound so good. Whenever a beginning improviser stops and immediately takes their hands off the keys, it is always because they played a dissonance, which they considered as sounding like a mistake. Remember that there there are no mistakess when improvising. mistake improvisin g. You are the creator, creator, and although you may play notes that clash, who is to say that you made a mistake? Dissonance is not bad, and in fact the careful use of dissonance in a piece of music can create something exquisite. Some of the most most romantic and heartfelt music that has ever been written contains plenty of dissonance. Dissonance sounds great when it resolves onto a consonance. It is the musical equivalent of having a rubber band with tension and then releasing it. Herein lies the secret of how to deal with dissonance. When playing two notes that clash, move one of the notes up or down a step and you will almost always have released the tension of the dissonance onto a consonance. The inexperienced improviser stop stopss or hesitates when unintentionally playing a dissonance, and it is the stopping or hesitation that actually sounds sounds more like a mistake. The experienced improviser who unintentionally plays a dissonance will simply alter one of the notes without stopping, which will never sound like a mistake.

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It’ It’ss interesting to note that if you randomly combine any two pitches, you will find that it’ it ’s harder to find two tthat hat are dissonant versus two that are consonant. In other words, most most of what you come up with will sound more pleasing that not. Intervals

Intervals are the distances between notes, and a thorough knowledge of them will help you to understand a lot about how music is constructed. Intervals reveal the relationships between different notes, which in turn also aids in the understanding of chords which are based upon intervals. An interval is the distance from one note to the next. C to     C to D is a second  E is a third  C to F is a fourth  C to G is a fifth  C to A is a sixth  C to B is a seventh  C to C is an octave Seconds and sevenths sevenths are dissonant. dissonant. Play the notes C & D together as well as C & B together and you will hear a clash. Thirds, sixths and octaves octaves are consonant. Play C & E together, together, C & A together as well as C & C together and you will hear a more pleasing combination. Fourths and fifths are not really consonant or dissonant, although some rules apply to them depending depending upon the context that they are are in. You will learn more about this in a harmony book, but all you really need to know is that they are neither consonant nor dissonant. dissonant. Play C & F together as well 47

 

as C & G together, together, and you will notice that they don’t have quite the same impact as the dissonant and consonant intervals. Based on this knowledge, if you compose music that only consists of thirds, sixths and octaves, octaves, it should sound pretty pretty good. This is somewhat limiting, but it does work. If you are feeling a little more adventuro adventurous, us, you could add some fourths and fifths which may  introduce  introduce dissonance. Although a fourth is not dissonant, if you combine it with a third, it can become so, depending upon your choice of notes. Does this mean that you should avoid the dissonant intervals of seconds and sevenths entirely? entirely? Not at all because they will add variety variety to your music. However, However, begin experimenting with with consonant intervals, then add fourths and fifths, and finally add the dissonant intervals. Intervals can be altered so that they have qualities referred to as perfect, major,, minor, major minor, augmented and diminished. Although these alterations do affect the sound of each interval, the guidelines that I have explained here about their overall sound sound still applies. Your study of music  theory  will  will explain how and why intervals are altered. Your study of music harmony   will usually assume that you already know about intervals. So far, far, you have played the notes of each interval at the same time. These are known as harmonic  intervals.  intervals. Playing the notes of e each ach interval one after the other can have a different effect, and these are known as melodic   intervals. The clash that you you heard when when playing the notes C & D at the same time is no longer noticeable when you play the notes one after the other.  You  You need to become familiar with the sound of each interval in b both oth harmonic and melodic forms, and although ear training courses can help with this, there is nothing better than playing them regularly on the keyboard and listening listening carefully to the sound sound of each one. You will immediately be able to recognize the seconds and sevenths because they 48

 

are distinctive, and with a little lit tle practice, you will soon recognize the others. The audible recognition of intervals helps greatly in playing by ear. ear. A piece of music can be analyzed in many ways, but in its simplest form, any music can be broken down into a series of intervals that are played either harmonically har monically or melodically. melodically. Contemporary musicians are almost always taught about chords without ever having any knowledge about about intervals. Intervals should always always be learned first so that there is a solid understanding as to why chords sound the way they do. Horizontal vs. Vertical

As you move through your composition, your mind will tendvertical to be drawn towards the horizontal movement of notes (melody) or the placement of notes (harmony). This ties in with the previous discussion discussion of melodic and harmonic intervals. Which direction should should be the primary focus? There is no single answer answer to this because great harmonies can help to reveal great melodies and vice versa. Melody and harmony harmony are both important, important, but melody is a little more so. If you must choose a direction, direction, then go with horizo horizontal, ntal, but really the best method is to work on both simultaneously simultaneously.. Although you may find this difficult in the early stages, it will become easier with practice. Summary

 You  You have learned that composition beg begins ins with improvisation, and that improvisation is usually based upon patterns with which you are already familiar.  You  You know that a piece of m music usic begins with one note and expands outwards horizontally and vertically, vertically, and you understand that your job 49

 

while composing is to make quick decisions regarding the addition of notes, and that you must leave any editing and correcting until later.  You  You have learned that inspiration comes and g goes, oes, but that you should continue to write music with or without it so that you can continue to improve your skills.  You  You now understand the dif difference ference between consonance and dissonance dissonance as well as which intervals i ntervals contribute to these effects. Y You ou know how to avoid clashes in your music as well as how to resolve a clash if it occurs.  You  You now have the ability to co combine mbine notes both harmonically and melodically.. Soon you will learn about packaging your combinations of melodically notes using melody, phrasing, tempo, rhythm, meter and tonality.

Conforming Your Music Tonality

Music in the western world consists of just twelve notes, because there are twelve notes within an octave. These twelve notes are repe repeated ated in the higher and lower registers of every instrument, and although a high G will sound a little different from a low G, it is still the same note. If all twelve notes are used in a composition, the result will usually not be pleasing. Twentieth century composers composers used a technique called serialism which did use all twelve notes, but it created a sound that was not appreciated by most people. Using all twelve notes in a composition is too much, and can be likened to using too many colors in a painting, or using too many ingredients in a bowl of soup.

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Hundreds of years ago, composers discovered that using fewer notes in certain combinations worked very nicely, and they based their compositions around around those combinations. combinations. This method of writing music has continued until the present day. day. Here is an example of one set of notes that was found to work well:

It was originally called Ionian mode, but is now better known as the scale of C major. major. Although you can see eight eight notes, the first and the last are both C, so there are are actually only seven different different pitches. These notes can be used in any combination and still sound pleasing pleasing.. For example, her here e is the same set of notes in a different order:

A piece of music that uses this set of notes primarily , is referred to as being in the key of C major major. This set of notes hinges ar around ound the starting and ending note C, which becomes its foundation, therefore the note C is the most important note in i n a piece of music in the key of C major. Spend a moment playing only these notes in random order and you will find that although it may not sound great, it is difficult to play something that sounds bad. This sequence of notes has helped helped us to eliminate eliminate all of the notes that would not  sound  sound good. I should point out that a piece of music in the key of C major can use notes that are not included in the C major scale, however most of the notes in the piece will  be  be from the scale.

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The distance from one note to the very next on a piano, regardless of whether it is black or white, is known known as a half step or semitone. A distance of two half steps or semitones, is known as a whole step or tone. From now on I will use the American terminology of half step and whole step. Half steps and whole steps are actually intervals, and in fact, they t hey are both intervals of a second. However However,, they are usually discussed discussed separately from regular intervals, and are useful for measuring distances between notes for the purpose of analysis. There is a little more to the scale of C major in the examples above than first meets the eye. If we look at the exact distance between each of of the notes, we discover a pattern.

This pattern of half steps and whole steps is very important because when using the same pattern patter n starting on a different note, it becomes necessary to incorporate sharps and flats in order to keep the pattern exactly the same. This pattern of half and whole steps can be used to start on any  of  of the twelve notes available, which means that there are twelve possible major scales. However, However, each scale requires a different different combination of white and black notes in order to retain the same pattern of half steps and whole steps. All twelve major scales scales sound the same, and do indeed follow exactly the same pattern, but each of the twelve scales look and feel quite different on a piano keyboard.

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When the pattern of half steps and whole steps is changed, a different type of scale emerges. emerges. The two most popular scales ar are e major and min minor or which are often somewhat inaccurately referred to as sounding happy or sad, however music written in a minor key will  sound  sound more serious than that of a major key.  You  You can already see how the sequence of notes notes used in a scale is important for the creation of melodies, and so all scales should be thought of as a templates  which  which always produce good results. It would be unwise to write all of your music in the key of C major because it will lack variety, so make sure that you are able to write music in any of the twelve major keys or twelve minor minor keys. Each key has a different different quality,, so don’t shy away from keys which contain more sharps and flats quality by assuming that they are more difficult. The previous discussion regarding why scales are so important should now be even more more evident to you. you. Once again, study study them diligently and strive to master them all. Choose A Key

Choosing a key means selecting the scale upon which to base your composition. It is easier to b begin egin a comp composition osition already knowing which key it will be in, because it allows you to determine which notes and chords to use. However, you may have already developed some ideas and haven’t settled However, on a key yet. The sooner you do so so,, the better, better, so spend a moment to work out which key your ideas are currently in and then stay within that key. If your ideas contain a recurring F#, it would indicated to me that you are probably writing in G major major.. If your music also contains contains a D#, I know that 53

 

you are probably in E minor. minor. My knowledge of scales allows me to determine keys quite easily by seeing which sharps and flats are involved. Once you have determined your key, key, you can begin to conform to the rules that apply to that key, key, thereby creating combinations of notes which work. If you hear some combinations which don’t don’t work, then it’s it’s very likely that you are using notes that are not  included  included in the key which you have chosen. Beginning composers who have no knowledge of scales and keys tend to unwittingly combine notes from different scales, which can sometimes sound a little bizarre. bizarre. Usually their ear helps them to make so some me corrections to offending notes, but a knowledge of keys would have made everything easier from the beginning. People who write music by ear, are always conforming to what they have heard as well as what they know know sounds good. So, without realizing it, the songwriter with no knowledge of the rules of music is  actually  actually writing music that conforms to a scale because their ear is naturally guided in the direction of what is commonly commonly used in music. The process of working by ear can involve a lot  of  of trial and error, error, and so a knowledge of scales not only simplifies the process, but allows the music to be written more quickly and easily. As you become more advanced as a composer, composer, your choice of key will sometimes be determined by the instruments instruments that you are writing for. for. For example, some keys don’t work so well for someone with a lower singing voice and vice vice versa. Certain orchestral instruments instruments work better in some keys than others, and passages of music can be easier or more difficult for the performers to play depending upon which key they are written in.

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Harmony

Hundreds of years ago, composers discovered that combining notes in intervals of a third always sounded pleasing. As music continued to develop in the western world, it was based upon what we call ternary   harmony (meaning based upon thirds). thirds). However, However, in the East, the interval of a fourth was preferred, which can be clearly heard in traditional Chinese music. Adding notes a third above every note of the scale of C produces a pleasing result:

This can be taken a step further by adding another third on top to produce three-note chords, also known as triads:

Now you can see that the major scale has dictated not only which notes  to  to use in a melody, but also which chords  can  can be used to harmonize those notes. These chords are referred to by roman numerals:

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Chord I sounds strong and bold, and yet chord ii sounds more serious. This is because chord chord I is major and chor chord d ii is minor. minor. Lower case roman numerals indicate the minor chords of ii, iii, vi and vii, and upper case roman numerals indicate the major chords of I, IV and V. Major chords are not better than minor chords, however the major sound is considered stronger than the minor sound, so the three major chords of I, IV and V have become become the most commonly used chords in all music. The three major chords can harmonize every note of the scale, and this is why so many contemporary songs use only  these  these three chords. Chord vii is a diminished chord which although still a minor chord, requires special care, so you should primarily focus your attention on the three major chords and three minor chords contained within the major scale. If you have melodytoaround the notes of the .C major scale, you will then usebased theseyour six chords harmonize that melody melody. Generally, your choice of which chord to use will be based upon whether Generally, the melody note is included in the chord or not. If the melody note is included in the chord, chord, everything sounds good. good. If the melody note is not included in the chord, the result will be a dissonance. In the early stages, you will want to choose chords which contain the melody note, however as you progress, you will learn to t o use chords that don’t contain the melody note and then use the resulting dissonance to your advantage. Deciding which melody notes require a chord and which don’t can be a little more complicated. It is common to have cho chords rds occur on strong strong beats such as beat one and beat three, but it is also possible to have chords occur for every melody note such as in a hymn. Music which has lots of chord changes is referred to as having a fast harmonic rhythm, and conversely conversely,, music with fewer chord changes is 56

 

referred to as having a slow slow harmonic rhythm. One technique is not better than the other, other, but the result is different. You will need to decide which you prefer for your music. The chords mentioned so far are the basic chords which form the foundation for all others. However, However, continuing with the idea of stacking stacking notes in thirds, we can apply additional notes on top of what has already been discussed. These are all known as seventh chords because the distance between the upper and lower notes is the interval of a seventh:

These are known as ninth chords owing to the interval of a ninth between upper and lower notes:

However, when we venture into the realm of seventh and ninth chords, However, some of the notes are usually omitted to prevent a thickening of the sound. The most common note to omit from any cho chord rd is the one that is a fifth above the root. root. The fifth of a chord is the least important and therefore often omitted in chords containing more notes. Eleventh and thirteenth chords also exist, although they are less common. Just as intervals can be altered, so can chords by raising or lowering

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certain notes to add color and variety variety.. It is easier to understand how and why alterations are used once the fundamentals have been established. Summary

 You  You have learned that by utilizing the notes of a p particular articular scale, your composition will conform to the rules of tonality that have been established for hundreds hundreds of years. You also know that the best way to understand how this tonality works is by learning all twelve major and minor scales.  You  You understand the importance o off selecting a key for your your piece of music early on, and making sure to remain within the confines of that particular scale throughout.  You  Y ou also havewhich learned that can a scale not only w which hich notes can be but chords be used in adictates composition. You know thatused, chords are built upon each degree of a scale which results in a combination of both major and minor chords.  You  You also know how to cchoose hoose an appropriate appropriate chord to harmonize a melody by making sure that the melody note is included in the chord, and that as you gain more experience, you will be able to choose chords which do not contain the melody note. The single biggest contributory factor for any composer giving up the art of composition is because they wrote something that they think t hink sounds bad. Although there are a number of elements that might might make a composition sound bad, nothing stands out more than not  conforming  conforming to the rules of tonality that have been used for hundreds of years.

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Packaging Your Music  Your  Your musical ideas need to b be e formatted and packaged so that they h have ave meaning. The following topics discuss discuss how to do this. Melody

Modern pop songs often have eight-measure verses and choruses, and in some cases twelve. twelve. I suggest that you you use eight measures as a framework for your compositions, and aim to create eight-measure melodies.  Your  Your melody should ne neither ither be too long nor too short, and id ideally eally it should have a definite beginning, beginning, middle and end. An eight-measure eight-measure melody often begins as a two-measure fragment which is then t hen developed into four measures. Those four measures measures can then be repeated with a small variation in either pitch or rhythm to create the complete eight-measure phrase. A melody whose middle notes are slightly higher in pitch than the beginning and the end is considered to have good structure because it moves in one direction direction and then returns back to where where it began. In other words, go up and then back down, or go down and then back up. Good melodies often use question and answer phrases, which can easily be related to speech. As the notes go up and away from the key note, a melody leaves us hanging, which is a little like raising one’ one’ss voice at the end of a question. As the second part of the melod melodyy moves back down down towards the key note, there is a sense of resolution or finality finality,, that would be expected from an answer. Melodies should stand out and be the most prominent part of a piece of music. Often, a melody is the highest part, but melodies ccan an also be at

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the bottom or in the middle of other notes. Surrounding notes notes should always be softer than the melody itself so that it has room to breathe. Although it is possible to create a melody first and then harmonize it later, strive to work on the melody and  the  the accompaniment at the same time if you can. This may seem difficult at first, but it will beco become me easier with practice. If you are writing songs and wonder whether to write the melody or the lyrics first, I would suggest lyrics first because they will then dictate the meter (time signature) of your piece, as well as certain elements of rhythm. Avoid using many large intervals in your melodies, because not only can it sound disjointed, but it will be more diffic difficult ult to sing or remember remember. Use plenty of stepwise motion, meaning intervals of a second, but then break it up by usingto one intervalasfollowed by smaller intervals. It is perfectly acceptable uselarger an interval large as an octave in your melody, melody , but it is almost always followed by stepwise motion in the opposite direction. Consider the shape of your melodies. melodies. You already know that the technique of going up and then down works well, but on the way up, it is possible to have a series of smaller ups and downs. downs. If the notes o off your melody look like the contour of a mountain range, it will probably work well. Melodies are often performed smoothly smoothly,, although detached notes are also acceptable. Consider using a combination of smooth and detach detached ed in your melodies. Consider the instrument that will be playing the melody, melody, and make sure to write in a range which which works well for that instrument. Notes just above middle C on the piano are a re playable on a flute, but generally don’t sound as good as notes in the flute’s higher  range.  range. Although a soprano can sing notes below middle C, not only is it more uncomfortable, but a soprano 60

 

voice doesn’t sound sound as good in that range. Your study of orchestration orchestration will help you with these considerations. Think about where a wind player might take t ake a breath in your eight measure melody. melody. In some cases, they may be be able to play the entire phrase on one breath, but if the music is slow, they will probably need to breath somewhere. somewhere. Depending upon where they take a breath, breath, the effect of your melody might be lost, so small tweaks such as adding a rest may be necessary. Don’t forget the importance of rests and make sure to use them in your melodies. Make sure that your melodies melodies contain rhythmic variety variety.. Although melodies whichvalues contain most of the same note values can work, a variety of different note is generally preferable. Get into the habit of singing or humming your melodies, even if they are written for instruments. If it is easy to sing or hum, hum, then you’re you’re doing well. If you find that it is stuck in your head and you are still hearing the tune while you’re in the shower, then you’re doing even better. Meter

Meter is the packaging of beats into groups that occur again and again. Most music has either two, three or four beats per measure, with four being the most common. Music in six, nine and twelve is subdivided into larger note values which result in them still being counted in two, three and four. four. Music in five is usually counted counted as three followed by two, and music in seven is usually counted as four followed by three, so for the most part, all music boils down to t o two, three or four. four. Because most music is written in four, four, strive to be different and experiment with other time signatures. signatures. Time signatures signatures can and do change in the 61

 

middle of compositions, so don’t be afraid to experiment with changes without making your music too complicated. It is possible to have different instruments play in different time signatures which can create interesting effects, but this is very complex and may not be accepted by some audiences. It is possible to combine two beats against three with the use of either duplets or triplets and this can create a nice effect which is not quite so abrupt as having two different time signatures. Tempo

Decide upon the speed of your composition and make a note of it at the beginning. Avoid extremes extremes when writing for and who consider what the instruments are capable of other as wellinstruments as the musicians will be playing them. A high school school band will be less capable than a professional symphony orchestra. Tempo can change in the middle of a composition, but care should be taken to make sure sure that it is meaningful. meaningful. If the mood of the piece changes, for example from major to minor, minor, or smooth sections moving into detached sections, then tempo changes can make a lot l ot of sense. However,, changing the tempo while the music remains the same can However sound abrupt and random. Rhythm

 Your  Your compositions shou should ld contain rhythmic variety, variety, which means a combination combinat ion of long and short notes that are grouped together together.. Too many of the same note values can soon sound boring, but likewise, too many variations or combinations of long and short notes can be so complicated that they can sound boring also. A rhythm which is one or two measures long and then repeats, repeats, will often work well. This is not to say that much 62

 

longer rhythms cannot be used, but care should be taken to make sure that there is shape and symmetry in the rhythm. Rhythms are woven around the steady beat of a piece of music, but decisions need to be made made as to where and how the rhythms occur occur.. For example, as a pianist you may discover a left hand rhythm that you like, but if you use exactly the same rhythm in the right hand as well, it may be less effective. Likewise, the rhythm that a bass guitar play playss should not necessarily be duplicated duplicated by other instruments at the same time. Often, they will have their own rhythms which tie in, or are related to the bass guitar rhythm. Different musical parts such as left hand and right hand on the piano, or clarinet and flute can sometimes play the same melody at the same time, but often,parts the parts are independent andsame haverhythm, their own story . Similarly, Similarly , different can sometimes share the butstory. more often they have their own rhythms that tie in with the composition as a whole. During the editing process, listen to individual parts and ask yourself if they have melodic and rhythmic rhythmic variety. variety. This is not necessary for all parts, because some lines such as altos in a choral piece should be more static and less melodic. melodic. Bass parts can often have a steady pulse of notes rather than a rhythm, but keeping your mind focused on variety and interest is important. Form

 Your  Your music must have goo good d form. Good form involves presenting presenting an idea, expanding upon the idea, moving to a different idea and then returning back to the first idea. In the classical world this is kno known wn as exposition, exposition, development and recapitulation. Each section should be balanced with the others, and very often, each will have the same amount amount of measur measures. es. For example, the first eight measures measures 63

 

can be repeated an octave higher. higher. This is powerful powerful because because it repeats repeats the melody,, and yet the difference in octave is enough of a change to make melody sure that the repeat doesn’t doesn’t sound boring. Now that we have heard eight measures performed twice, our brains actually expect to hear another eight measures to balance everything out, but this will usually be different material. Although the material can be completely different, it is a good idea to have something that ties in with the original original eight measures. The most common way to tie it together is by using the same rhythm or at least a similar  rhythm  rhythm while using different pitches. Although it would also be possible to keep the notes the same and change the rhythm, this is not as effective, because the listener needs to hear a variation in the pitches. The new idea could repeated again, and to possibly even move onto something else, but be at some point, a return the original idea will be necessary. Repetition in music is important, but too much repetition is dangerous dangerous.. A phrase can be played twice in a row without a problem, and possibly even three times, but four times may not be a good idea. However However,, this depends upon the type type of music that you are writing. writing. Dance music can be very repetitious, and it is common to hear a phrase repeated over and over,, yet interest and variety is often generated by changing the sounds   over dramatically. Sections of music can be labelled with letters to help with form. Section A followed by section B is known as binary form, and section A followed by section B followed by section A again is called ternary form. The most important thing regarding form is to listen carefully and always be alert to the times when an idea has exhausted itself. Composers often know instinctively where changes should take place in the form for m of their 64

 

music, because they have listened to so much music that they have subconsciously learned what to do.

Contrasting Elements  Your  Your goal as a compose composerr should be to include enou enough gh variety and contrast in your music that you are able to keep your audience engaged throughout its performance. The following topics discuss opposites , which will help you to easily add contrast to any composition. Movement vs. Stationary

A combination of sustained notes and moving notes always a lways works well. When writing for piano, if your left hand plays a series of repeated notes, right hand sustained notes help to even even out the sound sound.. If violins of an orchestra play rapid scale passages, woodwinds can perform slower moving notes to support them. Music needs movement, whether it is fast or slow, yet movement should be balanced with something that either does not move at all, such as long bowed singled notes on a cello, or notes that move at a slower pace than the primary movement. Certain parts of a composition may include instruments all moving together and playing the same thing in unison, but a return to sections where the movement is contrasted with the stationary is almost always necessary. Up vs. Down

Two musical parts moving in the same direction is called parallel  or  or similar   motion. Depending on the context, context, this type of writing can be considered as sounding weak. However, However, if the two parts move in the opposite opposite 65

 

direction, called contrary  motion,  motion, the result usually sounds sounds stronger. stronger. If one part moves up while the other remains static, it is called oblique motion and also sounds stronger than moving in the same direction. Always look for opportunities to have parts in your music move in different directions, and you will create passages that sound less predictable as well as stronger. Melody vs. Accompanimen Accompanimentt

Although this topic has already been mentioned, it ties in here with contrasting elements. Always make sure sure that the accomp accompaniment animent is softer than the melody by adding the necessary dynamic markings to your music. It maywon’t not be clear a french horn player they have themusic. melody, melody, and they know to to play it louder unless it isthat marked in their The ear is more naturally drawn to melodies, and the greater the contrast between the melody and the accompaniment, the more dynamic and interesting the overall sound becomes. Loud vs. Soft

Dynamics (loud and soft) are one of the biggest and most important ways in which expression expression is added to a performance. They also add great variety and interest depending upon how they are used. Sudden changes in volume are called terraced  dynamics  dynamics and can be dramatic and powerful. powerful. Gradual changes such such as cresc crescendos endos and diminuendos can be subtle or dramatic depending upon their use. It is important to remember that the timbre of an instrument changes as the volume changes, and generally, generally, an instrument will become brighter when it is played louder and vice versa. 66

 

A section of music which is played loud and then repeated much quieter can create enough contrast whereby the music did not have to t o be changed at all for for the repeat. This means that d dynamics ynamics can also help with form and structure. Instrumental music, choral music and film music often uses a generous amount of dynamic changes and your music should too. High vs. Low

Pitch plays a very important role in your compositions and the more contrast you can create, the better. better. Generally, Generally, you should strive to cover the frequency spectrum by having instrument and notes cover the low end (bass) the middle area (tenor and alto) as well as the high end (soprano). The fullness that results from covering all of these areas at the same time will always sound good, but after a while, a break is necessary where the music shifts into just one or two of those areas. But just as we discussed in the section about form, the listener will expect the music to go back to where it came from. Octave changes are simple and effective and you should make use of them. A cello can play a melody which is then repeated b byy the viola an octave higher. Your piano melodies can always be played an octave higher or lower to great effect. Just as dynamics can help with form, octave shifts also help you to use exactly the same music and yet have enough contrast with the octave change for it to work successfully. When writing for piano, try to cover more areas of the instrument, either at one time, or one section after another. another. When writing for orchestral orchestral instruments work on balancing your music between higher instruments such as oboes and violins with lower ones such as bassoons and cellos. 67

 

Dark vs. Light

Timbre or tone color plays a huge role in how interesting your music is. When writing for orchestral instruments, think about how the lower sounding instruments generally sound darker than the higher and brighter instruments. Use this to your advantage, not only in combining the different sounds when appropriate, but also switching from one sound quality to the other. other. Remember also that dynamics dynamics have an impact on the timbre of an instrument. A french horn sounds very mellow mellow when played played quietly,, and yet at very loud volumes it almost sounds like a different quietly instrument entirely. When writing for piano, piano, experiment with the little-used soft pedal. pedal. Not only does it make the piano quieter, quieter, but on a grand piano, it affects the tone and the overall sound bec omes more mellow. mellow.while The upper middlenotes or are sostenuto pedal allows a lowbecomes note to be sustained not, which also creates a contrast in timbre. Octave changes that were mentioned in high vs. low, low, will automatically create a slight change in timbre as well, for just about any instrument. Sound vs. Silence

Beginning composers often overlook the important of silence in their music. Notes or chords followed followed by rests ccan an sometimes be more more effective than following them with more notes and chords. Sounds which are preceded by silence give the impression of being louder l ouder than they actually are, and notes may appear to be accented simply because they follow silence. silence. This can be a useful effect effect depending upon the type of music that you are writing. Music needs space to breathe, breathe, and rests provide provide this space. Musical phrases which include carefully placed rests can sound more pleasing than 68

 

phrases where notes are are played relentlessly one after the other. other. Rests can give the listener’s listener’s ear a much needed break, even when they are very short. Smooth vs. Detached

A combination of smooth and detached notes can create wonderful contrast in your compositions. compositions. Notes can be detached detached in varying degrees from staccatissimo, staccato, detaché, marcato to portato as well as anything in between. Likewise, there are varying degrees as to how smoothly a passage can be played. Consider using a staccato accompaniment against against a legato melody or vice versa. Also try sudden shifts from from passages that are played played all to alluse legin legato. ato. Plucked strings (pizzicato) are appropriate. a wonderful ef effect fect thatstaccato you should your orchestral writing wherever Fast vs. Slow

Usually, the tempo of your music will remain the same throughout a piece, Usually, but changes in speed can be very effective when used carefully carefully.. Slowing down gradually (ritardando) can give the impression that the music is coming to a conclusion, or perhaps perhaps the end of of a section. Ritardandos allow the music to relax somewhat. Gradually increasing the speed (accelerando) is less common, but can give the impression of an increase in energy and or excitement. Sudden shifts in tempo from fast to slower or slow to faster can be appropriate when the music music changes in some way. way. Time signature changes, or changes in accompaniment style can often be aided by the use of a change in tempo.

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Long vs. Short

Contrast between short and long passages can be interesting. interesting. Often, passages are of the same or similar length to create balance, but there are times when breaking from this rule can be effective. Full vs. Thin

Large chords with doubled notes can produce a full and rich sound, and by following these larger chords with one or two individual melodic lines a dramatic effect can be be accomplished. Many of the great ccomposers omposers used this technique to great effect in their symphonies, whereby a melody with thick, lush orchestration was then repeated with a solo instrument such as a clarinet. Of course, it can also work well well the other way around. Your study of harmony will teach you about closed voicing vs. open voicing which refers to how closely the notes are are spaced vertically. vertically. Closed voicing can sound richer than open voicing, but sometimes the opposite is true depending upon the instruments that you aare re writing for. for. Major vs. Minor

Major and minor modes are related to each other and yet produce very different results. As previously mentioned, minor ton tonality ality tends to sound more serious than major, major, and if your aim is to write a sad piece of music, it almost certainly should be in a minor key. key. Key changes can be very important in composition so as to keep the interest of the listener. listener. Often, keys will change to other closely related keys, but sometimes abrupt shifts to non-related keys can be very effective. A shift from a major key to its relative minor, minor, can work really we well, ll, but some shifts to minor or major tonalities are indeed big changes, which 70

 

can work well in movie and television scores where the scene changes between serious and happy moods. Use major and minor tonality to your advantage to create specific moods in your music. Careful changes between them can be very ef effective. fective. Summary

 You  You must create variety in yyour our music, and one of the b best est ways is to think of the opposite of what you have just written. By selecting just a few of the opposites described here, it will not be difficult for you to create a number of changes in your material that will always work well.

The Composing Process Music which sounds good on the piano will usually sound good when played by other instruments, so many composers write piano sketches first before scoring scoring their work for the orchestra. The following guidelines can help with any form of composition, but are discussed with the intention of being worked out on the piano first. Melody & Chords

Composers often play a melody in the right hand and chords in the left. Higher notes on the piano have a penetrating quality which work well for melodies. Notes above middle middle C are also easier to sing or hum for mo most st people because they are more suited to their vocal range. Melodies often have more movement than the chords that accompany them, so most people prefer to play melodies with the right hand if that is their dominant hand. Chords are are often static and held, and for most people it’s it’s easy to do this t his with the left hand.

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Bear in mind that melodies do ind indeed eed sound good good with the left left hand and that chords work very nicely with the right hand too, so if you want to be a bit different, consider doing the latter a little lit tle more often. A right hand melody playing over left hand chords also covers a larger part of the harmonic spectrum, which translates well when adapting the music for other instruments. Movement

Decide whether the left hand chords use movement or whether the right hand does. You could have both hands moving, but avoid that for now. now. A common approach approach is to use broken broken chords in the left hand. hand. In its simplest form, means that G if your left hand plays C major chord, you would play thethis notes C E and individually and thena repeat the pattern. They could be repeated over and over such as C E G C E G, or they could go up and down such such as C E G E C E G E. There are other combinations, combinations, but as long as the left hand plays individual notes one at a time, there is movement. Right hand melodic melodic notes can be be held to contrast contrast this movement. If your piano skills are still in the early stages, you will often find that both hands want to do the same thing, and it will be a little challenging to hold one note in the right hand while the other hand plays individual notes, but you’ll soon get used to it. It’ It’ss a little like patting your head and rubb rubbing ing your stomach at the same time. The left hand can also play all of the notes of the chord at the same time, and then repeat the chord over and over in order to create movement. This technique is used often in rock and pop music and can be effective as long as there is interest in other parts of the composition.

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This pattern of left hand movement against right hand sustained notes is used effectively by many pianists and you should certainly experiment with it yourself. What To Play With A Chord

Composers sometimes discover chord progressions that they like, and then add melody lines later. later. There are some rules that can help you to understand how to choose melody notes which will work with the chords. If your left hand plays a C major chord, the notes C, E and G work well in the right hand because they are are already included in the chord. This is true of all chords, and whichever notes are used in the chord work perfectly as melody notes. However, your music will sound better if you use different However, different notes in each hand. Using the same note will not sound bad, but the use of dif different ferent notes results in a more polished sound. If your left hand plays C, C, E and G of the C major chord, and you like the sound of the note E in your right hand along with it, consider omitting the E from the left hand. The result will be C and G in the left hand and E in the right hand. A basic chord such as C major consists of notes that are referred to as the root (C), the third (E) and the fifth (G). When doubling notes, it is always better to double either the root o orr the fifth, but not not the third. This is explained in harmony books. Contemporary musicians are usually not aware of this rule, and often double the third. Again, it doesn’t sound sound bad, but the third of of a chord dictates whether the chord is major or minor, minor, and doubling its it s sound causes an imbalance. The fifth note of a chord is often omitted, particularly when adding additional notes such as the seventh or the ninth. The fifth does not play 73

 

an important role in any chord, chord, so this is why it is omitted. Jazz musicians will sometimes sharpen or flatten the fifth note instead of omitting it, which makes the chord sound very different. It is possible to use a melody note which is not contained in the chord, which will sometimes create dissonance, however when these melody notes move up or down in stepwise motion, the dissonance resolves and often creates a pleasing effect. effect. A note used in this way is called called an appoggiatura which means leaning. Melody notes notes can be used between chords as connectors and these are referred to as passing notes. Use melody notes that belong to the chords in the early stages, and as you become more comfortable, use notes that are not included in the chords. In cases where strong dissonance occurs, simply move the melody note up or down one step and it will resolve onto consonance. Placement Of Notes Within A Chord

Many beginning composers play and write most of their chords in root position where the root root is always at the bottom of the cchord. hord. It is easy to play chords this way, way, and it is also easier to identify each chord by looking at the bottom note. However, However, using all root position chords chords can make your your music sound dull, and quite frankly, it can make you sound like an amateur. By flipping notes around, these three-note chords can also be played in first inversion and second inversion and you should consider using these other two positions in addition to root root position. Changing the inv inversion ersion of a chord changes the lower note, which may or may not impact the bass line. Also, as chords m move ove from one to the other, other, the use of inversions help to make the chords move more smoothly from one tto o the other. Due to the inherent nature of sound waves, the lower the notes are, the more they should be be spaced out. If you play a C major chord chord in the middle of the piano it sounds fine, and it also sounds fine an octave lower, lower, 74

 

but play an octave lower than that and it all sounds rather muddy and indistinct. It will continue to sound worse the lower you go and it is because the notes are too close to each other and their frequencies are bumping into one another. When you play in the lower register of the piano, you should spread your notes out to give give them space. Instead of playing a root position position C major chord as C E G, consider consider playing C G E. This involves an interval of a 10th 10th between the lowest note C and the highest note E, which some people may not be able to stretch, but it is possible to play one note after the other with good results. Notes which are spaced this way sound pleasing and you should use this technique often. New Age pianists play left hand notes like this all the time. The root of the chord chord is played with the fifth fifth finger finger,, the fifth of the chord is played with the second and the third of the chord with the thumb. Changing Chords

The interval of a fifth is strong and very powerful, therefore any chord which is followed by another chord either a fifth below or a fifth above will create a strong bond. bond. A chord of C major followed by either a cho chord rd of G major chord (fifth above) or F major chord (fifth below) will always sound strong. You could continue this pattern pattern by moving again to a chord that is a fifth above or a fifth below the previous one, but this needs to be done carefully so that you don’t venture too far from the original key. key. Chords which move up or down by the interval of a third sound strong because two of the notes will remain remain common to both. For example, moving a chord of C major down to A minor always sounds strong. Moving down by an interval of a third sounds stronger than moving up by a third.

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The idea of keeping notes in common during a chord progression progression is very important, because changes from one chord to another while keeping at least one note in common, acts like glue in tying the t he chords together together.. Chord progressions progressions which use this technique sound smooth and less  jarring. Certainly chords can change change which have no no notes tes in common, but they are often followed by a change that does  have  have notes in common. The weakest progression is to move a chord up or down a step too often. An F major chord moving up a step to a G major chord sounds just fine, but it’s it’s not a good idea to follow it with another stepwise motion in the same direction. Stepwise motion is excellent for melodies melodies and should be used a lot, but with chord progressions it should be used carefully. carefully. Remember that Chord I (the chord which begins on the first note of the key that you are in) is considered as home base and it is a good idea to come back to it quite often, to strongly establish the identity of tthe he key. key. Chords I, IV and V are the most common chords in a key, and many pop songs use only  these  these chords. chords. Chord ii is also very powerful powerful and used a lot in modern music. It works as a good substitute for chord IV because it contains two notes that are the same. Chord iii is not used as o often, ften, but it can be used as a substitute for chord chord I. Likewise, chord VI can be used as a substitute of chord IV IV because it has two notes in ccommon. ommon. Chord vii is not used much because it is a diminished chord which which is dissonant and could be considered as weak sounding. However, when chord vii is inverted, it can function as a dominant seventh chord which will help to transition into other keys. The exercises at the end of the t he book will help you to learn many common chords as well as the relationships between them. Developing Ideas

Beginning composers make the mistake of connecting one idea after another in order to fill time. These ideas may be great, b but ut adding too 76

 

many to your composition composition can make it complicated. complicated. There ar are e ways to manipulate your core ideas and turn tur n them into something different. Augmentation is a technique whereby all of the notes in a melody are doubled in length. length. Quarter notes become half notes and eighth eighth notes become quarter notes etc. This can result in your melody being no long longer er recognizable, but will allow you to use the same harmony and expand your piece without having to use a new idea. Diminution is the opposite of augmentation where the notes are halved. This will result in a shorter segment which may still be recognizable as your original melody. melody. These shorter phrases can then be use used d by other instruments as counter-melodies, counter-melodies, so diminution gives you a llot ot of flexibility as to how to use the resulting material. Inversion is a technique where the intervals intervals of a melod melodyy are flipped. flipped. For example, if your melody begins with middle C and then moves up a fifth to G followed by down a second to F, F, then an inversion will result in C moving down a fifth to F followed followed by up a sec second ond to G. Just as with augmentation, this will lead to material which may not sound anything like the original, but it does give you new material which is very much related to the original and which can possibly connect  in  in a better way than a brand new idea. Retrograde  is a technique where everything is notated in rreverse. everse. The notes C D E would become become E D C. It is possible to reverse reverse the pitches of a phrase, or the rhythm of a phrase, or or both. Again, it will pr produce oduce something very different and yet the result is still linked to the original idea. Octave changes have already been discussed, but their importance should not be overlooked. Moving a passage of notes up or down an octav octave e can create something quite different. 77

 

Instrument changes  have  have also been mentioned previously, but remember their importance too when looking to create a different section of music.

Paying close attention to any of the great symphonies will reveal the use of these techniques. One of the best examples is Beethoven’s Beethoven’s fifth symphony.. Pay attention to the opening four notes symphony notes and how he uses that idea rhythmically and melodically throughout the entire work. Structuring Ideas

Once you have a section of music which you like, the most common thing to do would be be to repeat it. This simple and common technique is often either ignored or or abused. Beginning composers composers make the mistake of not repeating enough, resulting in overly complex phrases, or conversely, conversely, they repeat too often which can create monotony. Repeat an idea once note for note, and if you want to repeat it again after that, perhaps incorporate small changes to the melody or rhythm. Simply making a few notes go up instead of down, or changing two eighth notes into dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth can sometimes be enough to add variety. Repeating an idea a fourth time is generally not a good idea, but you will often encounter this in pop music. Repeating something four times can work if you are making variations to other elements in the music, and in the case of electronic and dance music, enough contrast can be made in drum patterns alone to warrant keeping the melodic and harmonic material the same for four passes or more. more. However, However, if you are writing for piano or a small chamber ensemble, it is less likely that you can get away with it. Small repetitions help to build larger segments in the overall structure of your piece. The larger segment segment should be repeated later in the composition just like like verses and choruses choruses in a son song. g. Remember that an 78

 

eight measure verse or chorus often includes plenty of repetition within itself. As mentioned previously previously,, an eight measure section might might only consist of two measures of unique material. Trust your ear. ear. If the music sounds like it is meandering then it most likely is. An Introduction

Beginning composers tend to work sequentially, sequentially, and so the first ideas for a piece often become become the introduction. introduction. A piece of music does not have to have an introduction, but they are very common in order to set the pace and general tone for what is about to come. Consider adding an introduction once you have completed your composition, because good introductions often incorporate aspects of the main melody or at least the harmonies that are used with it. Strive to get to your main ideas quickly and efficiently, efficiently, and avoid long introductions containing many repeated, arpeggiated chords which can soon bore the listener. Repeating A Melody

Experience will tell you when and where a melody should be repeated. There is a reason why the common verse/chorus structure of pop and rock music works so well. It is simple and easy for an audience audience to listen to. Composers of classical and jazz music can often learn much about this simplicity,, because the form and structure of symphonies and concertos simplicity are often too complex for the average listener listener.. Remember to compare the structure of musical ideas to that t hat of speech. We often know when we have stressed a point too t oo often as well as when we haven’t. We often know when we are being too random by changing 79

 

ideas abruptly during a conversation. We also tend know when we are rambling or meandering. meandering. The timing of changes in speech speech patterns can apply directly to your music as well. Think of your composition as a dialog, and consider whether someone is saying too much much or not enough. enough. Also consider how how the dialog transitions from one person to the other. other. Thirds, Sixths, Octaves & Tenths

Remember that all of these t hese intervals sound good and you should use them a lot. A melody melody that needs thickening can benefit from being duplicated a third or a sixth below. below. Sixths and thirds are related to each other other,, because if either interval is flipped, you end up with the other other.. For example, C to E is a third, but if we move the C above the E, or the E below the C, we end up with a sixth. Tenths are really the same as thirds, but the upper note is one octave higher than it would be as a third. third. Tenths sound great, esp especially ecially in the left hand because the interval between bass and tenor sounds rich. Courses in traditional harmony will teach you the importance of this interval between bass and tenor voices when writing choral music. Remember that if your hands cannot stretch a tenth, you can still use them by playing the notes one at a time. When this is done done quickly in the left hand, it is referred to as rolling the chord. Octaves don’t have the richness of the other intervals because the notes are the same, but they do help to fatten or pad the overall sound. Octaves sound particularly good in the lower range of the piano. Modulation

Changing key during the course of a composition can be very effective. Key changes can occur anywhere, but they work better after all of your 80

 

initial ideas have been established, and I would suggest about 75% of the way through your piece or later. It is common to transpose or modulate a piece up either a half step or a whole step towards towards the end. An upward transposition can give give the impression that the energy of the piece has increased. It is common to modulate to closely related keys such as the fifth of the current key. key. C major has no sharps or flats, and b byy modulating to G major (the fifth degree of C major) the only requirement is the addition of one sharp. Likewise, modulating from C major major to F major (down (down a fifth) requires adding adding only one one flat. The addition or subtraction of just o one ne accidental (sharp or flat) is not too jarring, and the keys resemble one another.. A dramatic shift from C major another major to A flat major can be effec effective tive when used correctly. Modulation is a complex subject and often takes up a large portion of harmony books. Make sure to learn all you can about this important technique. Damper Pedal

The damper pedal of an acoustic piano raises the dampers (small felt pads) away from the strings and allows them all to vibrate freely freely.. This tool is unique and allows a pianist to create sound colors in ways that no other instrument can. The combination of freely vibrating strings on a piano create complex frequencies that can sometimes help to guide your ear towards musical ideas that you may not have previously considered. I suggest that you use the pedal often when you are composing at the piano, but I should caution you that misuse of the damper pedal can create an audio mess. Listen carefully to what you are doing and avoid avoid blurring blurri ng many chords together. However, use the pedal as a compositi compositional onal 81

 

tool and listen to the result. You may find yourself b being eing drawn in different different directions which can add great variety and interest to your composition. Damper pedals on digital pianos usually just sustain the notes, but modern digitals incorporate something called “sympathetic resonance” which emulates what is happening happening acoustically on a real piano. piano. Nevertheless, if you have a real piano or a digital, use the pedal to help with ideas. Avoid Comparisons

In the early stages of a composition, you may have created something with which you are quite impressed, only to later feel dismayed after listening to works by another composer. Avoid comparing yourself to other composers and strive to create music that is different. Another problem for b beginning eginning composers is to compare the overall sound  of  of what they have created to that of recordings that they own. It is not fair to compare your early work with polished recordings that may have cost many thousands of dollars dollars to prod produce. uce. Don’t blur the lines between the composing process and the recording and mastering process, as they are all quite different and should be kept separate from one another. It is common for all composers to doubt what they are doing at some point and wonder if their music is good enough. However, However, what exactly does good enough enough mean? Music is music, and in a way there is no such thing as good or bad, but simply that which pleases and that which does not. Strive to create music music that pleases you first, rather than music to please others. If it does  please  please you, then there will almost certainly be others who will find it pleasing also. also. However, However, do not compare compare yourself to other composers, particularly in the early stages of composition. 82

 

Titles

 Your  Your finished compos composition ition is probably very very precious to you, you, so take time to find the best possible title. You are creating an important package to deliver to as many people as possible, and the title of that package is extremely important. important. Be creative and find the best title that fits with what what you have created. Length

 Your  Your composition can b be e any length you desire, desire, but I would suggest suggest to you that shorter is better. better. Traditional classical music forms such as sy symphonies mphonies and concertos are generally long (too long in my opinion), but any form of music that you would like to appeal to a modern audience should generally be short and to the point. Once again, the success of the pop and rock world can be pointed out here. here. Modern songs are are usually between three and and a half and four minutes or so. so. This is only a ballpark, but it does work. Summary

The concepts that you have read about here are based on a traditional approach to writing music, and I have attempted to simplify simplify,, explain as well as give a general overview of topics and their importance so that the reader can then investigate further. further. No single book or music course can train someone to be a composer, composer, because composition composition consists of so many different different elements. Even the greatest composers would admit to knowing only a fraction of the art of music as a whole. whole. Beethoven was a genius, but he he would be lost in the  jazz world. Mozart was phenomenal, but probably probably couldn’t couldn’t write a top 40 hit song.

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There are however, however, certain laws and principles that t hat apply to all aspects of music and I have covered covered most of them her here. e. There is a lot of material here to digest and I suggest you read it several times, but also bear in mind that it is the tip of the iceberg as far as what you could  learn.  learn.  You  You don’t need to learn everything to be a composer composer,, but it is important to know as much as you can can about a lot of things. As you have been reading reading this book, certain topics may have jumped out at you, and you know that you need to pursue that area more. more. Follow your instinct, instinct, and if you feel you need more harmony harmony then study it. Perhaps you need to stud studyy scores or improve your reading reading ability etc. There is much to learn, but don’t don’t feel overwhelmed. Take a step at a time and realize that a little work performed on a consistent basis can yield tremendous results.

General Tips Enjoy The Journey

The act of composing music is a journey which should be enjoyed, and the time you spend working out combinations of sounds and rhythms is a process of discovery that can give countless hours of enjoyment. enjoyment. Over time, you will learn what works and what does not work, and your skills will always improve. If you enjoy work working ing on a composition then yyou ou have already succeeded. Trust Your Ears

The ears are a composer’s composer’s best friends, so make sure to trust what you hear. You have listened to enough music throughout your life that you know what sounds good and what doesn’t. If you find that there’s there’s something about your composition that is not working, then pay attention to that section and either change it or replace 84

 

it accordingly. accordingly. Your ears receive the same information informa tion as those of your audience, so make sure that both your  ears  ears and those of your audience  enjoy the result. Perform Your Music For People

Make sure to perform your finished compositions for people rather rat her than simply playing them a recording. recording. If playing for friends and relatives, ask them what they like about the piece, but do be prepared for criticism and don’t take it too seriously if you receive negative feedback, because nobody wants to deliberately hurt your feelings It’ It’ss wonderful for people to hear a composer performing their t heir own works, because most of the time, audiences only hear a composer’s composer’s works performed by someone other than the composer. composer. Get used to playing your compositions regularly and become comfortable performing. You may need to practice your your compositions (I ce certainly rtainly do), but it is very rewarding to practice your own work rather than the work of other people. Backup Your Work

I make sure to back up my Sibelius and Logic Pro files to several different sources, and you should too. Both programs have features w which hich automatically backup data, but once I have completed a piece, I do not trust keeping it only on one device. Today’s cloud computing has made this process much easier, and I use Apple’ss iCloud as well as DropBox to save my files in addition to saving Apple’ them to external hard drives and USB drives. The raw files are are usually very small in size and can be backed up in a second or two.

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There is nothing more frustrating than spending countless hours on a piece of music, only to lose it due to some technical g glitch. litch. Recently Recently,, I updated the system software on one of my computers, and a “stray” file that had not been backed up properly was erased erased.. Fortunately, Fortunately, I had printed out the music, so it was simply a matter of having to re-input the notes. However, However, this shouldn’t have happened happened and it took time away from other projects. Dealing With Writers Block

There will be times when you are not satisfied with anything that you have written, but you should should realize that it is all a matter of perspective. I have had people rave about pieces that I thought were weak, and yet sometimes I’ve had people not like pieces that I thought were my best. It is important to continue writing and certainly try not to judge your work while you are creating creating it. Later, Later, you can step back and look at what you have produced and you will clearly feel more strongly about some things than others. Sometimes your opinion opinion will change, and it is possible possible to revisit a piece a few years later and realize that it holds great promise which you hadn’t noticed before. Keep all of your work and don’t be too quick to discard things that you don’t like. You never know if it will be useful useful down the road road.. Everything that you write has value, and all of your work is helping to make you a better composer. Avoid judging yourself too harshl harshlyy, and perhaps simply put the pieces that you don’t like so much into a separate folder which you can visit at a later date. If you are really having difficulty coming up with ideas, consider writing for the trash can. In other words, words, deliberately write sections of music that you know  you  you will throw away. away. This can be very liberating, and sometimes will remove obstacles that you had no idea existed. 86

 

Occasionally try working in a different different way. way. If you use a notation program, program, try pencil and paper for a day or two. If you use a sequencer sequencer,, use the notation feature to input notes manually rather than playing into the software. Also consider that software, as w wonderful onderful as it is, can sometimes hinder rather than help creativity. creativity. Be careful of using looped sounds, because as wonderful and as convenient as they are, they will constrain and inhibit your creativity if you are not careful. Your choice of a particular loop alr already eady locks you in to a certain tempo and time signature. Although tempo can can be changed with loops, audio files sound better when they are close to the original tempo. Sometimes, a loop will lock you in with particular harmonies that you might otherwise not have chosen. I suggest that you you compose first and add loops later. If you find yourself with a number of unfinished works, you need to spend some time going through them and deciding which should be kept to work on, and which should should be archived ffor or down the road. It is also a good idea to force yo yourself urself to complete an unfinished piece. piece. Sometimes after an hour or so, the previous blocks that you were experiencing simply disappear.. Often, the difficulty can disappear can be getting started in the first place. Protecting Your Work

When you write a piece of music, you are automatically the owner of the copyright. If your music is used without your consent b byy someone claiming that they  wrote  wrote it, then it becomes necessary for you to prove when you wrote it. By registering your work with the copyright office, you receive an official receipt stating when it was received. received. This receipt can serve serve as proof should a dispute arise. Many beginning composers composers confuse this process process of registering a copyright with copyrighting. There really is no such thing as 87

 

copyrighting your music because it is already copyrighted, but registering  it is what you need to do in order to protect it. The fee to register a work is the same for one piece of music as for a collection, so you will save money if you send in a set of pieces. www.copyright.gov www .copyright.gov explains how everything works in the United States, but other countries have similar organizations. Summary

The most highly trained musicians can sometimes benefit from a little help in looking at things differently. differently. As I’ve pointed out in this book, there’s there’s a lot that you should  know,  know, however, the way in which you use this knowledge is more important than anything. Some people have advanced degrees in composition, and know more rules about harmony and counterpoint than you can shake a stick at, but sometimes, these people simply can’t compose anything of any worth. Contrast this with the t he singer/songwriter who doesn’t know anything about the rules of music, but creates creates a top ten hit. It’s It’s all about how you use what you do know.

Putting Things Into Practice Reading about topics regarding composition is one thing, but putting the ideas into practice is far more valuable. This section presents presents you with with a series of exercises to help you to understand scales, keys, chords, inversions and harmonic progressions progressions more easily easily.. Study them diligently and master each of the exercises exercises completely, completely, because there is no better better way to improve your improvisation and composition skills.

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Mastering Triads And Their Inversions

A triad is a three-note chord. chord. Triads are the building blocks blocks of all  chords,  chords, and there are five differen differentt types: Major Augmented Minor Diminished Suspended Fourth (Sus 4)

Here they are beginning on C

Memorize the following rules: • Major chords consist of the first, third and fifth notes of a major scale • Augmented chords are major chords with a raised fifth • Minor chords consist of the first, third and fifth notes of a minor scale, or   become minor by lowering third the third note of a major chord • Diminished chords are minor chords with a lowered fifth • Suspended fourth chords replace the third of the scale with the fourth Use these rules to practice forming any of the triads using any starting note on the piano. You will soon discover that a knowledge knowledge of scales is crucial to being able to easily find these chords. It can be helpful to count the half steps between notes of a ch chord. ord. For example, a major chord consists of four half steps between the root and 89

 

the third, and three half steps steps between the third and the fifth. Conversely Conversely,, a diminished triad features three half steps between the root and third and another three half steps between thir third d and fifth. This method is slow and is cheating a little bit, but can be helpful in certain situations where you are unsure and need to check your notes. Suspended fourth chords are common in contemporary music, but they do not occur naturally within a scale, so we will be primarily concerned with major, minor, augmented and diminished triads from now on. Triads can be flipped  by  by moving the bottom note an octave higher higher,, so it is very important that you are familiar with all  of  of the positions, root, first inversion and second inversion. The following pages list major major,, augmented, minor and diminished triads in all possible positions. positions. Master them with your your right hand first, followed by the left hand one octave lower, and then finally, finally, play them with both hands at the same time. Remember that all  chords  chords are based upon these triads, so study them well.

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Mastering Triads Of The Scale

It is much easier to understand chords in the context of the scales from which they are derived. In so doing, we can see which chords are related and why, which in turn allows us to understand the ingredients which can be used in a composition. Here is the scale of C major with a triad built upon each scale degree. degree. Play this with your right hand using only fingers 1, 3, 5 going up and  down.  down. When you are comfortable with the right hand, try it with the left hand an octave lower using fingers 5, 3, 1.

 Y  You ou need to be able to play this same sequence of chor chords ds for each of the twelve major scales, using both left hand and right han hand. d. Fingering for chords can vary depending upon the context, but for this exercise, you can always use fingers 1, 3, 5 for the right hand and 5, 3, 1 for the left when the triads are in root position.  Y  You ou know that triads can also be in first inversion or second inversion, so you must also practice the scales using these inversions. Here is what C major looks like in both first inversion and second inversion:

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Fingerings for first inversion are 1, 2, 5 for the right hand and 5, 3, 1 for left hand. Fingers for second inversion are 1, 3, 5 for the right hand and 5, 2, 1 for left hand. Chord Symbols

Chords can be labelled with chord symbols or roman numerals. Roman numerals are often used for music analysis, and are useful in that they can be universally applied to any key. key. Upper case indicates a major chord chord while lower case indicates minor. minor. A small circle that loo looks ks like a degree sign indicates diminished, while a plus sign indicates augmented. Chord symbols are letters, which can also use the circle and plus signs when referring to diminished and augmented chords. A small letter m  following a chord symbol, indicates ind icates minor minor,, whereas a capital letter alone indicates major. major. In the exercises which follow, follow, roman numerals have been used for the first example, as well as chord symbols throughout for reference purposes. Triads Of The Minor Scale

There are three forms of the minor scale, and depending upon which version is used, the qualities of the triads will change slightly slightly.. This means that when writing writ ing in a minor key key,, there are more chord choices than exist in a major key. key. Here is the scale scale of C minor in natural, harmonic and melodic forms. You can see from the roman roman numerals and chords symbols which chords change depending upon the version used.

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  The following pages contain every triad in all possible positions, which are built upon the four scale types of major, major, natural minor minor,, harmonic minor and melodic minor. Learn one scale type at a time with the right hand alone going up and down one octave. Speed is not important, but fluency is. Once you have mastered the right hand, do the same thing with the left hand an octave lower, and later put both hands together. Some of these exercises will be challenging, but I can assure you that every moment spent with wi th them will help you tremendously as a composer.

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         

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        

 

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Mastering Quadrads

A quadrad is a four-note four-note chord. Quadrads are simply an extension of a triad. There are five different types: Major seventh Minor seventh Dominant seventh Diminished seventh Minor major seventh

Here they are beginning on C

Master the major and minor seventh chords in all of their inversions with each hand separately, separately, followed by both hands at the same time. The addition of a fourth note in a chord results in and additional third inversion. Dominant seventh chords are important, but b ut only one note different from minor seventh chords, so major and minor minor will suffice. Diminished seventh and minor major seventh chords are not as common. Practice the major and minor seventh chords for every scale, just as you did for the triads, and also use every possible inversion.

110

   

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           

   

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            

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  

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The Cycle Of Fifths

Connecting chords which are a fifth away from each other creates a strong sound which is often used in compositions. Starting with a C chord and moving down a fifth to an F chord begins a cycle which allows all twelve major or minor chords to be played before ending up back at C again. Chords should move from one to the other as smoothly and as easily as possible, so inversions inversions should be used. The following example shows the best way to t o connect the chords of C major major,, F major and Bb major major,, which are all a fifth away from each other.

The pattern can continue on from the Bb chord and be followed with:

 Y  You ou will now learn to play all twelve major triads in sequence, always moving a fifth away from from the previous chord. The exercise will work its way up the keyboard and then play the chords in reverse and work its way back down to where you started. The first exercise will feature the left hand playing the root of the chord, but as you move onto the next variation, the left hand will start on the note

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D which therefore displaces  the  the left hand. This will create chords of a different quality each time you play through the cycle. There are seven variations of the cycle which correspond to the left hand beginning on one of seven notes. As always, the inversions of each triad must be considered, so you will also learn the cycle with the right hand beginning in first inversion, followed by second inversion. All of the exercises have been written out for major triads, but only the foundation chords have been written out out in minor form. In minor form, form, you will discover that starting on a D in the left hand creates an unpleasant and not very useful combination. In the minor form, you can start on the left hand notes of Eb, G, Ab and Bb if you wish, but the foundation form (starting on C in the left hand) are the most important. Be patient and work diligently through these exercises. They will improve improve your skills as a composer in ways that you cannot yet possibly imagine.

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                  

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   

 

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     

 

            

                                                                                           

    

 

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     

 

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                                                 

                                               

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   

 

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                                         

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                 

   

                           

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   

 

                                                        

                                                    

 

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                                                      

                                           

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     

 

            

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                                                                                          

   

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            

            

 

Cycle Of Fifths Using Quadrads

Everything that you have learned regarding playing triads throughout the cycle, and using a different left hand note each time applies to quadrads as well. Playing quadrads around the cycle will look, feel and sound considerably different, but the idea is exactly the same. Moving from a C chord down a fifth to an F chord, but using the closest possible chord voicing will result in something a little more complex that the plain old triads, but the result is pleasing. Practice working your way through the cycle using major seventh chords as well as minor seventh chords in all possible inversions, as well as using all seven possible starting notes in the left hand.

125

                                  

 

 

        

                                 

     

   

              

                               

                                

                         





 

                                 

 

 

                                                                                                      

                                                  

           



 



 

                               

 

                                                                       

                            

 





 

 

Conclusion

Music is a vast subject, and attempting to sum it all up and describe how to combine sounds, pitches and rhythms in a pleasing way is no easy task. My goal with this book has been to give you an overview of the bigger picture as well as give you a better idea as to what is involved in composing music. It is my hope that while reading it, you had a few “aha” moments where things fell into place for you and made sense. If your compositions can benefit from a few of the ideas presented here, then I have succeeded. If I have have helped to demystify the art o off composition, and persuaded you that yes, indeed you can compose, then I have really succeeded. Composing music is a marvelous journey which has changed my life for the better. better. I hope that it will for you as well, and I wish you much success on your wonderful w onderful road of discovery d iscovery.. David Hicken