The Write Song

Gongchime's Ringtones up at Myxer

2011-03-11T20:35:00.000-08:00

I'm putting a lot of Ringtones up over at http://www.myxer.com/GONGCHIME. I've got World music, classical, and jazz. I hope you'll have a listen.

Thanks,

Amazing Malaysian Video

2009-10-11T06:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WATyE6ViMhQ&feature=player_embedded

Excellent Book on the end result of the Avant Garde

2009-09-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

http://books.google.com/books?id=BJYcB8ZttSIC&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=The+End+of+American+avant+garde&source=bl&ots=wZK5uYcL26&sig=OPZoRU_AUCE3keJNFr7Z89yzeI0&hl=en&ei=MDeySqiwHI6G6APE5NXnCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Experimental Indonesian music and experiemental musical instrument.

2009-09-11T05:39:00.000-07:00

Excellent music any way you slice it.

Oblique Strategies

2009-09-03T05:22:00.000-07:00

Here is the fourth edition of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies for creativity. Applies as well to art as it does to music composition.

http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/Ed4.html

New videos

2009-09-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

I made some more videos to post but my laptop won't access the internet now. I think it's broken. I'll have to transfer the files with a flash drive to a desktop computer at the internet cafe'. It'll get here eventually.

The Rule of Three and Subfigurations

2009-08-16T03:25:00.000-07:00

One way to fill up the space in a section is to apply the "rule of three." Its' used from Mozart to Blues artists, Phil Collins to Metallica. In the "rule of three" you repeat an idea exactly or almost exactly two times then vary it or add new material for the third phrase. Here are as many of the ways I could think of to do that. The only one I left out was elision.

I also have video of each example but the volume turned out to be annoyingly quiet. The videos are not in order but are clearly labeled.

Subfigurations can be used to make an infinite variety of new material based on the existing material.

I play the circled one in the video.

Irregular meter in Video Games

2009-08-11T04:30:00.000-07:00

If you wanted to write music for video games. You couldn't do much better than to start here.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#2lixH1/cruiseelroy.net/2008/05/irregular-meter//topic:Music%20Composition

It has scores in traditional notation of your favorite video games. What is interesting to me is that many of the accompaniments are similar to what the Japanese instrument "koto" would play which isn't surprising because of the connection between Japanese electronics and video games.

Player Piano does phased rhythms etc...

2009-08-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of Conlan Nancarow

http://composer.brendanadamson.com/music/2007/04/01/april-24th-player-piano-recital-in-morse-hall/2/

Another approach to process music.

2009-08-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.d.umn.edu/~jrubin1/JHR%20Process%201.htm

Great example of Process Music

2009-08-09T04:19:00.001-07:00

http://wheelof.com/whitney/

Compositional Techniques-

2009-08-01T05:08:00.000-07:00

Addition
Below shows an example of a melody and then the same melody with more pitches added in. The first version is sparse and would be a good intro. Sometimes composers use the introductory music again in the bridge section. If you do only that, it can be boring if you play it exactly the same as the first time you played it. If you add in more pitches and rhythmic events, it can liven that phrase up again for the second hearing of it.

More on Addition

A further discussion on filling in is presented here where it is now used to fill in an existing phrase or section. Filling in is "THE" technique used in just about every style of World Music as well s being a common fixture of jazz improvisation. Sorry the image is not finished being edited.

In classical music, you never want to double a line exactly. With the help of the techniques of both addition and subtraction you can create multiple parts based on the same line while simultaneously helping each one to stand out.

Melodic Break

A break or bridge can also be created by taking notes out. Below is an example.

Here is a video discussing the subtraction technique.

A video about the process of creating simultaneous heterophonic lines.

A special case of heterophony found in Balinese, Indonesian music.

Next is how to create an ever changing ostinato which is also known as a repeating groove.

Below is a discussion of what pick up notes are as well as how and when to include them.

Rhythmic Cells

Isorhythm

Isomelody

Here is one application of the technique of permutation.

Interlocking

notice in the first line of the image (labeled 1) that there is no "e" in the subdivisions of beats one or two. In the next line (labeled A) it only contains the "e of 1" and the "e of 2" If you play both line 1 and line A together, that would create an instance of interlocking rhythms. Basically, you just fill in the missing subdivisions in another line or two.

Transitions

2009-07-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

Often what distinguishes merely competent melodicists from experts is their ability to create interesting transitions. We are going to talk about a few of the techniques that can change you from merely good to excellent. Sometimes a transition is its own little section which can range anywhere from a single beat on up to 8 measures or anywhere in between. Lengthier transitions with hard boundaries would more properly be defined as interludes or diversions.
Some transitions contain their own melodic material, use material already presented, utilize upcoming material, or both. And this begins to blur the boundary where one section starts and the other begins.

If you want to delay the presentation of the melody in the next section, one technique the composer can use is to copy and repeat a fragment of the last phrase to lengthen it, so that the phrase doesn’t end where the listener expects. The composer can also perhaps transpose the fragment on each repeat. This is more properly an extension than a self contained transition but the effect on the listener is the same. It contains some melodic or rhythmic tension creating the expectation that more music is to come and helps freshen the listener’s palette. Perhaps it could be inserted between a verse and chorus that have already been repeated one time so that the chorus doesn’t start where the listener expected it, adding a bit more entertainment value to their experience, mitigating the boredom of repeating things exactly as before and keeping your listener focused on your music. Here is an example.

Another simple transition is to present some of the material prior to the arrival of the rest of the material such as playing a new accompaniment for maybe 1,2 or 4 measures before the melody returns, either presenting the old melody again in this new setting or creating an entirely new melody.

A transitional technique that does not create its own defined section of the music is the use of elision. Elision is when one melody starts just as the previous one ends. Below is an example.

The method of overlapping the previous melody with the next to some degree is another technique. Below is one way it could be played out.

We could have started with the triangle phrase instead which would have let the square phrase have the final say. That may have been better since it ends on a strong rhythmic position but only if you hear the tonic pitch as F. Ending on D as I've done above forces the ear to accept D as the tonic pitch.

An interesting way of creating a transition is to switch between parts of the previous phrase and parts of the upcoming phrase like this:

I chose to alternate on every beat starting with the triangle phrase because this produces the least number of leaps only jumping a fifth between a beat from the square phrase to a beat from the triangle phrase between the second and third beat of the third measure. If I had started with the square phrase, it would have come to a screeching halt on the triangle phrase's quarter note containing pitch D but it doesn't occur repeatedly and it occurs near the end (on the first beat of the fourth measure) and is a natural resting place to interrupt the technique to end the phrase because we don't want to be mindlessly or heartlessly adhering to a technique. The technique is there to serve the ends of the composer. The reason the composer is there should not be to serve the ends of the technique.

The natural evolution of this method is to reduce the length of the previous phrase until it is phased out completely. Here I continually add more of the end of the triangle phrase until all of the square phrase is completely replaced.

I could have started with the square phrase first but that creates even greater leaps in the melody although the intervals it produces are less offensive than the leap of a seventh that occurs between measures six and seven that was presented above. Of more concern to me was the constant stall in the rhythm that is created by stopping on the single quarter note coinciding with pitch D in the triangle rhythm followed by a quarter note rest before the phrase can finish.

Another transition is to interrupt in the middle of a repeating phrase.

Structurally Important Pitches

2009-07-27T06:10:00.001-07:00

Identifying structurally important pitches is a useful skill. There are several indicators that may suggest a pitch is important structurally such as; if a pitch is repeated, if a pitch is accented, if it’s the last pitch, or the first pitch, or if it’s a part of the tonic chord. In less tonal music, indicators may also be if the pitch is the root of an interval, the root of a group of pitches, or if the pitch is the root of a chord not necessarily the tonic.

If people download your music for free you still get paid.

2009-07-25T20:12:00.001-07:00

A guy on myspace who does NEW Zepplin music said he uses a site where, if someone downloads your music for free, you still get paid. It's at gimmesound.com. They pay musicians using their ad revenue. Maybe it's the future.

For Aspiring Video Game Composers

2009-07-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

If you aspire to be a composer for video games, check out this link.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#2lixH1/cruiseelroy.net/2008/05/irregular-meter//topic:Music%20Composition

Enjoy,

30 year World Music Veteran

2009-07-24T04:43:00.000-07:00

I have a friend in Thailand whose name is Niyom Bumroongsena and he has been the dance and theater instructor at the Sriyapai school, city of Chumphon, in Southern Thailand for 33 years.

He originally got his bachelors degree in social studies. He has been teaching the Nora dance for 28 of those years and also has been a player of the thai Oboe called Pi'nai for more than 20 years. He will be retiring 2 years later.

PiYum as he is affectionately called also leads rehearsals of the traditional Thai ensemble that accompanies the Nora dancers which includes pot gongs, harmonium, hand cymbals and ethnic Thai percussion instruments.

Here is an image of him with one of the daughters of the king of Thailand receiving his certifidcate of completion.

Here are some of the instruments they use for the menora dance.

And here are some of his beloved Pi'Nai.

All of the instruments are housed in the Wisdom Building on the Sriyapai campus of which the shadow puppet screen and shadow puppets for the Hindu epic, the Ramayana, are signficant features displayed prominently around the first floor.

And a few of the dance troupes he has lead in the past.

This last image is especially significant because he is standing with the previous prime minister of Thailand Mr. Thaksin.

Teacher Bumroongsena has also been the puppet master for the shadow puppet theater plays put on for the Sriyapai school.

As you can see Mr. Bumroongsena is eminently worthy of my small little tribute and because he has been a gracious host to me at the wisdom building, sharing with me his fantastic cultural assets and music.

Strength of Beat Positions in Melodic Rhythms Cont...

2009-07-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

In a 2 measure phrase in 4/4 the strongest ending position is beat three of the second measure. In a 4 measure phrase in 4/4 the strongest ending position is beat one of the fourth measure. These are good places to end choruses.

Other strong ending positions in a 2 measure phrase but not as strong as beat three are beat one, two and four. For even weaker ending positions that would be the offbeats, 16th and/or triplet subdivisions. Those are good places to end verses.

You can end the chorus on positions other than beat three of the second measure but its best to make sure that the verse doesn't end stronger than the chorus. Other strong ending positions in a FOUR measure phrase are beats 2,3 and 4 of the fourth measure.

Starting positions have a similar hierarchy. A choruses strongest starting position is the first beat of the first measure of either a 2 or 4 measure phrase. Next in line is beat 3. Weaker still is beat 2 and even more weak is beat 4. Weakest of all would be starting on the off beats, 16th and triplet subdivisions.

Of course it's possible to start a phrase before the first beat of the bar as in pick-up notes/pick-up measure (also known as anacrussis). Normally you'd have to make sure you actually place a note on the first beat of the measure and not skip over it in that case, if it's a chorus we're talking about.

Voice Leading and Melodic Motion Continued

2009-07-19T01:32:00.001-07:00

When a chord changes but the scale remains the same, its like being in a different mode. Now the important notes of the scale have shifted to the pitches of the currently sounding chord and it is they that now have the gravitational influence instead and not the notes in the tonic chord that was playing previously.

The pitch F doesn't much want to go anywhere if an F Major chord is playing and won't have the inclination of moving to E as before when the C Major chord was playing. However, B as leading tone in the key often still requires motion to the previous tonic, C, at some point before finally moving to one of the chord tones in the F Major chord.

Strength of Beat Positions in Melodic Rhythms

2009-07-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

There is a greater likelihood that a chord tone and an important beat will coincide. Also, in a C Major scale for example, there's a greater likelihood of C being that note. Next up, E and G are statistically equivalent in strength. After that D and A receive equal weight. Finally, F and B come in last.

The different rhythmic positions will have varying degrees of gravitational pull on the chord tones. In a measure of 4/4, the first beat of the measure has the biggest chance of occurring simultaneously with a chord tone. The third beat has only a slightly lower magnetic influence on chord tones. The 2nd beat of the measure is next in line. The fourth beat has lower attraction still.

Upbeats as in the "and of 1,2,3 and 4" have even less pull. 16th note subdivisions begin to function only as ornaments to the beat they neighbor and have no attraction on chord tones of their own.

Of course, if you put chord tones on every beat in every song, it will be boring. Sometimes playing chord tones in a melody on beat 1 is enough. Oftentimes, it isn't. If you have a case where that isn't working then you can put a chord tone on beat 3 as well to give that measure a little more unity. If there are no chord tones on beats 2 and 4 then it can create a nice tension and release through a few measures or a whole section.

In syncopated music it often sounds good to put chord tones off the beat so then you could have chord tones on the "and of 1" and the "and of 3". Or on most if not all of the off beats. This makes a nice contrast to sections where chord tones fall on the beat.

If you were working with a melodic series of pitches but with a new melodic rhythm, and if you wanted the chord tones to fall on the beat, (syncopated or not) you could repeat a note which was a chord tone that was falling on the "and of 2" for example so that beat 3 would also get that chord tone.

The other option would be to repeat the previous note instead which would push the onset of the chord to start on beat 3, not before.

Also, you can end on a weak rhythmic position in a chorus but then you probably don't want to end on a stronger rhythmic position in the verse. The strongest ending positions are...

Voice Leading and Melodic Motion

2009-07-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

Melodic Motion

If we take, for example, the key of C Major and start on C, C's tendency is to stay where it is. But if you're not just playing a drone on the tamboura, that C has energy and an inherent potential to move. There is an equal gravitational pull from the third above and the fifth below. You could just leap to the fifth below but the most common motion is stepwise, so lets talk about that for a while.

When C gets enough energy to reach escape velocity C might step down to B but the gravitational pull from C is still stronger than the G below. The A just below B is also pulling on B but not as strong as G or C. So, most likely the B will step back to C. Not only because C's pull is so strong but also because so is so close to C at only a half step away. So, proximity is a factor too.

If we had gone up to D instead, the pull from the E above D is not as strong as the C below it so most frequently D will step back to C. The pull from C on D is not as strong as the pull from C on B because D is farther at a whole step away. If we think of the motion as a space traveller and if he or she has just the right amount of energy, he will orbit around C going CDCBCDCBC until it loses energy and returns permanently to C.

If there's a little more energy then perhaps it might pass through B to A back through B and C to D making it to E. E has more power of gravitation on its neighbors than A because E is an important degree of the scale. Its a member of the first chord in the key of C. Therefore E may be able to capture our space traveler for a time. He may travel to the opposite side of the planet E if he has over shot it and visit F for a moment but F is not a member of the intergalactic coalition of first chords.

There are gravitational forces pulling on F from both of its neighbors but F is closer to E than to G so most likely E is going to win if our traveler doesn't have enough momentum in the direction of G even though G is strong than E. We can think of it like someone who gets bored easily and is also indecisive. If going in one direction for long, Spaceman Spiff will break up the monotony by changing direction a moment then change back to the original direction.

The notes in the chord are more comfortable and desirable planets to visit so when he gets there, he wants to stay longer. Our space traveler's space ship is a sentient entity like on Farscape. It's a boredom eater which, luckily, is an infinitely reneweable resource in the psyche of it's captain who is the same as our space traveler. And, incidentally, lives on excitement which is his space ship's waste product.

Once our traveller gets bored enough, his space ship starts storing the energy which is a nice relationship because when our traveler is ready to go, so is his space ship. If he's not bored enough then he could be pulled back to places he's already been. But with enough thrust he'll make it to G either directly from E and F or back the other way through B and A.

At G he's about half way from C below or the C above. The C above is a bit closer so its probably exerting more pull but our traveler has a will of his own and although he could live on the C above for a long time, he'd prefer to return to where he started. He could use his hyper space controls to transport directly to C but he'd miss out on seeing A. He's come all this way and it might be his last chance to visit there in his life so after getting excited enough about going there, he takes his ship on the trip to A.

B has almost no pull on A. B and F are weak like that. D and A have a stronger pull on their neighbors then either B or F do on theirs. The G below A has a lot more pull on it, even more than the C above so most likely he'll return to planet G. But if he over shot A to B, there won't be any way for our traveler to avoic going to the C above even if he comes back down first for a while because the governement on planet B has a law that you must eventually get a stamp on your visa which shows you've gone to the C above. Probably to encourage tourism there.

And they have a time restriction that says you must visit C in a reasonable amount of time. After which, you can go anywhere you want. If you don't visit the C above, interstellar leading tone police will chase you across the universe.

Unfortunately, if you just follow the melodic rhythm advice and the voice leading advice I've given you, you still may end up with a bunch of mediocre or just plain crappy melodies because there's one more concern that needs to be addressed: the gravitational pull of rhythmic positions on chord tones in the measure which I'll talk about in my next post.

Till then, happy composing. Below is a video of me playing classical guitar going through the most common melodic solutions. I'm wearing a "monks cowl" because I thought the music played like that sounded medieval. No, I hadn't just finished taking a shower.

Melodic Rhythm

2009-07-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

If you ever studied music formally, maybe you had a teacher tell you that the rhythm is the most important aspect. Even if you don't believe that, it's still a big part of the equation and for me it's always the first order of business.

When writing melodic rhythms we're trying to balance the two forces of repetition and variety. Most popular melodies are rhythmically simple yet this simplicity often hides sophistication that goes unnoticed by the uneducated listener.

In fact it's much more difficult and takes a lot more time to write something which is both simple and effective. So, for beginners its often helpful to start with something a bit more complex and work down towards simplicity.

With that in mind lets talk about melodic rhythm. One of the most basic melodic rhythms is a series of eighth notes. But normally, if you just perform a series of eighth notes, it will be boring at least rhythmically. How can we make a plan to insert some variety?

One way, which was recommended to me by my music composition professor, is to base the variety that you put in on an organized plan and not just randomly.

There are many plans but one common and effective plan is to base your insertion of variety and surprise on the golden mean which can also be thought of as the Fibonacci series but you do it in a special way.

If you're rolling your eyes because you've already heard about that, I'm not only going to talk about that so please stay with us. Don't worry, if you haven't heard about it before, I'm not going to get mathematical on you.

It's not difficult at all if you think about it as the 75% rule. Of course, in music there are no rules per se, only recommendations and guidelines. In the 75% rule, you compose an even rhythm such as straight eight notes starting from the beginning of the measure for arguments sake.

If you then determine where 75% of the distance from the beginning to the end of the measure is, you'll see it land on the "+of 3". So, instead of just going 1+2+3+4+, we want to change the "+ of 3" somehow. There are several different ways.

One is to perform it early, another is to perform it late, yet another is to not perform it or some combination of these. If we add further subdivisions of the beat, we could use 3e+a, 3e.., 3..a, 3e.a, 3... or a triplet. In this first measure that we're talking about my preference is to perform it late.

Now we have /1.+.2.+.3..a4.+.//
Continuing in this way for the second measure we would determine where 75% is, not from the beginning of the second measure but from the beginning of the first measure through the second measure.

If you do that, you'll see that the75% point of the span of 2 measures comes on beat 3 of the second measure and all of beat 3's off beats. So, how can we create variety on beat 3 of the 2nd measure?

One way is to tie the previous eighth note over to beat 3 as in /1.+.2.+..+.4.+.// I'll talk more about this in a moment. Another is to drop the "+ of 3" as in 1.+.2.+.3...4.+.//, or both. We can also place rhythmic events on the "e's" and "a's" whether or not the 3 or its "+" are present.

We could also play a triplet or tie over to the triplet instead of subdividing beat 3 into 16ths. I prefer 1.+.2.+.e+a4.+.//. Next, we continue applying the 75% rule but over the span of the first three measures which includes the first two we've already finished. This is what I meant when I said we'd apply the 75% rule in a special way.

As you can see, we didn't just find the 75% position of 4 measures. We are doing it at simultaneous levels of 1ms, 2mss, 3mss 4mss, etc... Over the span of the first 3 measures, the 75% region falls on beat 2 of the third measure and all of its off beats.

The variation we use here should probably be a repeat of one of the variations we've already used to help create unity. Which one to use is up to you. I choose to repeat the first one we created previously (a dotted eighth with a sixteenth) because we haven't heard it in a while.

Over the course of 4 ms, the 75% position is beat 1 and all of its off beats in the fourth measure. It's probably best to introduce a rhythm we haven't used yet to give it something fresh again.

One of the reasons why the 75% rule works is because the variety has been inserted at a different rhythmic position in each measure which is another way of approaching the need to insert variety and interest.

There are not many pop phrases proceeding from the down beat of the first measure to the last off beat of the last measure. Its filling up too much space and doesn't breathe. Pop phrases tend to be shorter with pauses between the phrases. The kind of process we've been talking about is much better for folk and classical styles.

Classical melody in particularly is often about the long phrase of 8 and 16 measures. Before we talk about making shorter phrases, there are other consideration that you may or may not want to implement. One concern is that sometimes it can sound too abrupt just jumping into the flow of the melody cold turkey.

You can work into the flow by starting with a few longer notes which also may get progressively shorter until arriving at the appropriate level of subdivisions. It also helps you not blow all your cookies at once right from the start.

In this case you can either add a few pick up notes in a pick up measure (also called an anacrussis) +.....4.../1.+.2.+.3..a4.+.//or rhythmically displace all the rhythms we've written to the right so we can insert a few longer note values at the beginning of the section //..+.....3...4.+./1.+.2..a3.+.4.+./1.+.2.+..e+a etc..

I want to talk about that tie from the "+ of 2". We might want to think about rhythmically displacing the phrase to set that tie over the bar line since having a rhythmic event falling on the downbeat of every measure sounds square and flat footed.

The kind of accompaniment rhythms you plan to use will influence your decision to include the warm up notes at all, or to place them before, on, or after the downbeat of the first measure. In jazz the bass and drums are often playing on the down beat already, so the pianist will often play on the up beat after the down beat so people can hear what the piano is playing.

If you want people to hear the entrance of the melody, you probably should avoid starting on the downbeat in that case or the up beat which is the "+ of 1". Unless it's an intimate setting such as only accompanied by solo guitar. Also, if any of the parts are busy such as if there are a lot of loud electric guitar strumming in that section of music, it will be hard for people to hear the entrance of the melody no matter where it starts in the section.

This consideration gives the composer more of a reason to start before the first beat with a few pick up notes. Also, for balance, if there is going to be a guitar or other improvisational instrument in the bridge that steps on the toes of the singer or melodic instrument, meaning its coming in before the actual start of the bridge, then the technique of starting ahead of the beginning of the section as in pick up notes, has already been used and will no longer be as much of a surprise and therefore less interesting if it has already been done.

This will give more impetus to start the melody after the downbeat in those earlier sections for varieties sake. Another thing to think aboutis that if you want to have short phrase lengths, starting after the beat is more conducive to that. An excellent example of short phrase lengths that breath is U2s tune "Where the Streets Have No Name" It starts; I want to run..................I want to hide.................

We've been honing things down making our melodic ability seemingly more simple but secretly more sophisticated. Lastly, I wanted to talk about 4 kinds of phrases or at least motifs; ones which start on the beat and end on the beat. Start off and end off. Start on and end off. Start off and end on.

Phrases or motifs that start on the beat are more conducive for beginning a chorus. Phrases that end on the beat are better for ending choruses. Phrases that start off the beat are better for starting verses. Phrases that end off the beat are better for ending verses.

Exemplary Choruses;

1+2+3+../1+2+3+4.//
On......OffOn.........On

1+2+3+../.+2+3+4.//
On......OffOff........On

1+2+3+4./1+2+3+4.//
On.......On.On........On

1+2+3+4./.+2+3+4.//
On.......OnOff.........On

Exemplary Verses

.+2+3+4./.+2+3+..//
Off.......OnOff......Off

.+2+3+4./1+2+3+..//
Off.......OnOn.......Off

.+2+3+../.+2+3+..//
Off......OffOff......Off

.+2+3+../1+2+3+..//
Off......OffOn......Off

Another example of short phrases or motifs depending on how you analyze them is Sting's song Fields of Gold; You'll remember me.........When the west wind moves...... Just straight eighth notes except for the last rhythmic event. Perhaps he decided that putting rhythnmic variety in on that first repeat would have been premature especially since the pitch changes on the last rhythmic event giving enough variety for those beginning moments of the song.

Achieving this kind of simplicity is something to strive for but is often quite elusive so if we climb back up the complexity ladder just a bit by breaking out of the flow of straight eighth notes a bit more than the 75% rule, at least the way we've been applying it, can give, then, it will be easier for beginners and amateur composers to come up with something viable.

A basic musical concept is repetition. If you've got some rhythmic cell at the level of the beat such as 1e+./1e.a/or 1.+a/ etc...we can call it "a". If you want to put another rhythmic cell on the next beat, there are only two options; repeat it as in "aa", or put a new one as in "ab." If we still need to fill up another beat we can get "aaa, abb, aba, or aab."

A return to previous material is another basic musical idea which "aba" provides. If we wanted to include a return to previous material in the other examples we'd minimally need "aaa b aaa", "aab a", or "abb a". Another concept to be aware of is the rhythmic rhyme scheme such as aaaa/aabb/abab/aaba/ or abcb. These last ideas of rhythmic rhyme scheme and return are good places for beginners to start because they're fairly simple but not so restrictive as the very short phrases like Sting and U2 are capable.

Gopichand

2009-07-12T00:22:00.000-07:00

The Gopichand is a single stringed instrument that allows you to bend it's pitch by squeezing the sides of the neck supports. It's most often played by the cowherd maidens in India to alleviate boredom and entertain the cows. It is also known as Gobijen in Bali, Indonesia.

Damaru Drum

2009-07-12T00:19:00.000-07:00

The damaru drum is a Hindu, Buddhist drum most often associated with Tibet because of their habit of making them from the skulls of children and human skin.

Galeng Galeng

2009-07-12T00:16:00.000-07:00

The Galeng Galeng is a Balinese musical instrument. It's not a serious or "professional" instrument. It's mostly just a toy. You shake it and it makes a knocking sound. Galeng is the onomatopaeic world for knock. So the name means the sound it makes which is knock knock knock etc...

Music Composition/Songwriting How To 8

2009-07-11T22:05:00.001-07:00

Let's talk about the 75% "rule." In western art, architecture and music the golden mean is considered to be one of the most beautiful proportions. It's calculated using the Fibonacci series. It's found in nature within the windings of the chambered nautilus among other places and in Greek temples.

The climax of melodies often effectively falls at a point corresponding to the golden mean which is just about 75% of the way through a phrase, section or entire composition.

Bach, Mozart and Beethoven all have used it successfully. If it's good enough for them, maybe it's good enough for us too.

Notice we're just penciling in the melodic silhouette and haven't started talking about the exact notes to use in the melodies and in what order. That's because they are of secondary importance to rhythmic considerations.

This is something that beginners miss. They focus on notes instead of on rhythms.

Actually, the form, overall length, section lengths, phrase lengths etc... are just larger rhythms. They are periodicities that occur fairly infrequently compared with individual notes and rhythms.

Next up, composing rhythms.

Music Composition/Songwriting How To 7

2009-07-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

Another point is section length. Tunes will tend to run on the short side if you have verses and choruses back to back with only 8 measures each. So one or both of them should be 16 measures.

F.Y.I. A vast majority of western music is built in blocks of 2,4,8 or 16 measures. Also, you can contrast phrase lengths not only between sections but within sections as well.

If the first phrase is 8 measures long then the second phrase could be 4 measures long or you could have two 4 measure phrases for balance at another even 8.

Other possibilities include a four measure phrase followed by two 2 measure phrases etc...

So, go get your notebook. Make some schemes for the song form, decide how long each section will be and which key, then how long each phrase will be and write in the starting and ending pitches of each verse and chorus.

Don't agonize over these decisions. Just plop them in. If you catch yourself spending too much time on this process go get some dice and let them decide.

Then decide the starting and ending notes for the phrases within each section for the positions that are still left undecided. That would be the ending of the first phrase and the beginning of the second phrase.

Isn't planning for variety fun? This is the method that I have used a lot and recommend to beginners. Not everyone needs to do it. They have heard and played so much music that the right moves come out unconsciously.

Much of the time it falls nearly exactly like I'm talking about here.

Another consideration is that the chorus should most often reach a higher note than the verse.

Your tunes are starting to take shape and have ceased being an amorphous impossible anything and everything.

We can also talk about melodic shape. If one phrase rises and falls and the next one rises and falls, even if it uses different notes and uses a higher pitch, they still have the same overall shape and that can be boring. Not really if it happens in only one song but if it happens in every song then it WILL be boring without a doubt.

Although many good melodies have both an upper and a lower curve it's possible to write effective melodies that primarily rise or primarily fall or are primarily a flat line, even a single note.

In your notebook plug in some melodic shapes for each phrase in your big plans. Again don't agonize too much. Just dump them in.

You can always change stuff later that's not working or that could work better and you'll have a baseline with which to evaluate them.

I make charts for all this stuff to help me keep track of what strategies I've already used.

Music Composition/Songwriting How To 6

2009-07-11T21:58:00.000-07:00

I'm certain Mariah Carey's songwriters know this stuff. You should too.

You can break these rules but you'll want to know that you ARE breaking them and better yet why you're breaking them and that it will probably reduce the sellability of your material if you do.

A related point is that if the chorus starts on the first note of the scale and the first beat of the first measure then the verse shouldn't do either. For variety's sake you should start the verse on a different note and a different rhythmic starting point.

This is the main thing amateur composers miss. I've heard it on all of the songwriter/composition forums I've belonged to. 95% of the stuff people are posting for review aren't taking advantage if this basic strategy.

Every section sounds like its supposed to be a chorus if they all start on the downbeat and on the first note of the scale. The effect is usually boredom.

To recap, the Chorus starts on the downbeat and on the first note of the scale.

The verse doesn't start on the downbeat (perhaps on the "and" of 1 or on beat 2 or before the downbeat) and on some other note of the scale such as the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 2nd, 6th or 4th in that order.

If your chorus started on the 5th which is a slightly weaker note then you probably don't want to start the verse on the 1st note of the scale because it's a stronger note and you'll be relegated to choosing from the 7th, 2nd, 6th or 4th.

The fourth is actually a dissonant interval which is why it's placed last and most tunes don't start with it so if you feel like you need to narrow your choices feel free to drop it from your available options especially if you're a beginner and aren't sure how to treat it.

Now, what are you going to put in those sections? A better question is how are you going to put it in?

Did you know that most sections of popular music have at least two melodic phrases? And you have to write the first one to sound like it's not finished so that people will be expecting the second one?

There are two ways to accomplish that. The first way is where it ends and the second way is what not it ends on.

In a 4 measure phrase if you end on beat one of the 4th measure it will be a strong ending position. The phrase will sound finished.

If you also end on the first note of the scale or the root of the chord that's playing then it may even sound like the end of the whole tune.

Obviously you don't want to end in that position or on that note if there's more music coming. So don't. End somewhere else and end on any other note, preferably not the one you started on either.

Again I've never seen this advice anywhere except in the Berklee book. Not even in books on classical composition. It's very specific and advice that's easy to accomplish.

Music Composition/Songwriting How To 5

2009-07-11T21:53:00.000-07:00

You probably want between 13 and 16 tunes on there. It's best to shoot for the higher number of songs so that if you have to throw out one or two that aren't up to snuff then you still have enough to satisfy their appetite for new and good music.

For my next album I've created a scheme with a variety of forms for the first 10. In pop music the A section is the verse the B section is the chorus the C section is the bridge. I also use T for transition and R for Rise which is also known as a prechorus.

The schemes are; ABACDCABA, ABABCAB, ABCDABCDABCD, ABCABCABC, ABTABTCAB, ABABTCAB, ABTABCAB, ARBTARBTCARB, ARBARBTCARB, ARBTARBCARB.

There's variety and it's in the complexity ball park. Also, each one of these songs should either start on a different note, be in a different key or use a different kind of scale.

For now you can just randomly assign keys either just going up the scale as in; the first tune starts on C the second tune is in D the third tune is in E etc... Or you can use dice to decide which tune starts on what note.

The only comment I can make here is not to put the climax of your album in the key of D if you're a solo guitarist unless you can play it with the E string tuned down to D or otherwise you won't have the guitar's beautiful low register to give the tune some oomph.

We're starting to close in on the details. What are you going to do with those sections of music?

Usually the chorus starts on the downbeat and on an important note of the key/scale. That's usually the 1st note/tonic but may also be the 3rd or 5th in that order.

I haven't seen any books cover this point except the Berklee book on Popular Melody Writing. Period. Finished. It's the only one and I've read A LOT.

Music Composition/Songwriting How To 4

2009-07-11T21:49:00.000-07:00

So, what is the popular song form and why is the popular song form popular? It goes; Intro Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Bridge Chorus Out .This Doesn't tax people too much. They don't have to work too hard to "get it".

This also has to do with song length. If, as we're told most normal people have attention spans of 15 minutes then a song 15 minutes long won't bring in people with shorter attention spans. Teachers will probably scream and point "Junior High School Students".

If you want to include them then you better cut that figure in half. A tune seven minutes long can go on the album but it will never make it to radio unless you're Pink Floyd etc... Radio format is about 3.5 minutes. Not much longer or shorter.

Initially, shoot for around 100 measures of music at a moderate tempo and you'll be in the ball park for the airwaves.

I'm all for looking at the big picture so let's say you're composing music for an entire album of music and not just one tune. This is a good idea so you can plan to incorporate enough variety between pieces of music on the cd.

People want to feel like they're getting they're money's worth and so the complexity rule doesn't apply so much to the number of songs on a cd.

Jaap Kunst

2009-07-11T04:28:00.000-07:00

Jaap Kunst was born in Groningen on August 12th in 1891. He was a Dutch musicologist and was famous for analyzing the gamelan music of Indonesia. He is the scholar who created the word ethnomusicology because it was more accurate than the existing word "comparative musicology."

He defined it as "the study of music and instruments of all non-European peoples including the so called primitive peoples and the civilized Eastern nations. Kunst is considered to be one of the fathers of contemporary ethnomusicology. He was taught the violin when he was very young. Later he also was very enamored with the folk music and dance of the Netherlands.

He made a recording called Living Folksongs and Dance Tunes from the Netherlands in 1956, which is still for sale. When performing on violin for a trio he was involved with, they toured in the East Indies as Indonesia was known then as part of the sprawling, politically and economically powerful Dutch empire. He made the decision to stay on Java.

While in Java, he found 7,500 gamelan orchestra sets in the region of central Java alone. Since each had a place for about 15 musicians he reasoned there must have been about 150,000 musicians in Java at the time. This meant that 1 in every 100 Indonesians must be a musician.

He took photos, made lists of instruments, made field recordings initially on wax cylinders and wrote books; on the music of Bali in 1925, of Java in 1934, New Guinea in 1967, Nias in 1939 and Flores in 1942.

He also wrote articles; Indigenous Music and the Christian Mission in 1947, Musicologica in 1950, Ancient Western Songs from Eastern Countries in 1934, Music and Dance in the Outer Provinces in 1946, Music of the Kai Islands in 1945 and Two Thousand Years of South Sumatra Retold in its Music in 1952, all for the museum in Jakarta.

He went back to the Netherlands in 1936 and took a post as head of the Royal Tropical Institute. Under his supervision it became the most important center of Ethnomusicology in the West at the time. Much later he also gave presentations at the University of Amsterdam on Indonesian music and began to teach there in 1958.

Jaap Kunst had originally wanted to give his entire collection to the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam but, because of extenuating events, it was given to the University of Amsterdam instead in 1963.

The collection reveals his passion for his field, which contains 2,500 books and professional journals. 3,000 photos, slides and negatives, 7 films, 800 records, tapes and wax cylinders and 8400 letters describing 1250 people written between 1919 and 1960. He died on December 7th in 1960 in Amsterdam.

Other Free Educational Matierials For Musicians Part 2

2009-07-10T01:32:00.000-07:00

Presentation of basic musical intervals such as major and minor seconds and thirds etc... Also, presents solfeggio as in Do Di Re Ri Mi Fa Fi Sol Si La Li Ti Do and the descending version.

How to build chords by skipping every other note of the scale. Covers only the basic triads Major and minor etc...

Covers how to build diminished and augmented triad chords on the guitar, on piano and in traditional western music notation.

A description of how to make minor and major pentatonic scales.

Discussion of the basic major/minor modal scales.

Discussion explaining how to build major, minor, dominant, diminished and augmented seventh chords.

Explanation of chords which are consonant in a key.

Architecture, Techno, Sacred Sites and Religion ii

2009-07-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

The eastern buildings are based on perfect symmetry and forms such as Ankor Wat and the pyramid at Giza which are intended to be magical talismans to ward off evil and to spread good fortune emanating from above. To the eastern mind, spiritual power is constantly coming down and in here. To the western mind spirit is up and out there. Hell is down here.

Eastern music is often of a ritual nature and for the gods. The Indonesian gamelan might play all night for the benefit of the village with no one attending the concert. African music is often a ritual for the gods and there's no thought of making a pretty sound for people to listen to.

Architecture, Techno, Sacred Sites and Religion iii

2009-07-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

Eastern sacred music is often based on perfect cycles which repeat indefinitely though usually additive (5+3) and not usually divided in half as in (4+4).One article I read said that if one were allowed to make sweeping generalizations, the eastern position comes from a fear of foreign people and ideas or at least negative spiritual influences and a willfull denial of the death of the individual personality wishing it to continue after the death of the body in some imagined magical relationship with geometric perfection. About 1/4 of westerners explored the world in the age of exploration and seem to embrace the alien other/foreign neighbor and ideas or at least are willing to entertain them and therefore must deal with both the positive and negative aspects of admitting the enemy.

However, not all eastern music or easterns fit this generalization and neither do westerners. As if a fine line could ever be drawn. Another point was that symmetry in art and music usually comes only after the establishment of city states. The Mongolian shaman riding on horseback playing his spike fiddle took his aesthetic from the natural environment unconsciously.

Trees, mountains and rocks are not perfectly symmetrical and neither was his musical form. I imagine the Nomadic aesthetic of musicians in the deserts of Africa and Arabia are assymetrical as well.This is also related to Japanese music which was purposefully/consciously assymetrical. This was desirable to Zen Buddhists (those that didn't denounce music entirely) because the surprising changes caused by extreme assymetry represented egolessness to them.

Architecture, Techno, Sacred Sites and Religion

2009-07-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

I wanted to point out the similarity between the architectural technique of gradually changing detail elaborations as one walks through a postmodern building and the gradually changing groove in techno and of placing the background into the foreground or elsewhere such as putting paintings on ceilings or where the floor flows into the wall which becomes the ceiling in one big swoosh.

This may be related to polyphonic inversion where the melody is played in the bass or where the accompaniment is used for a transition or an entire section.A related point is the congregational aspect of western religious buildings and the aspect of pilgrimmage of far eastern sacred sites where one circumambulates the structure which might not even have a room one could enter.