Excellent music any way you slice it.
แสดงบทความที่มีป้ายกำกับ world music แสดงบทความทั้งหมด
แสดงบทความที่มีป้ายกำกับ world music แสดงบทความทั้งหมด
วันศุกร์ที่ 11 กันยายน พ.ศ. 2552
วันศุกร์ที่ 24 กรกฎาคม พ.ศ. 2552
30 year World Music Veteran
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.
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.
วันอาทิตย์ที่ 12 กรกฎาคม พ.ศ. 2552
Damaru Drum
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
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...
วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 9 กรกฎาคม พ.ศ. 2552
Precompositional Considerations
What is the secret that makes people keep reading 300 pages of a book. We've all seen letters, words and sentences before. We've all read stories. We should be bored with it by now. The fact of the matter is that we REALLY ARE BORED WITH IT BY NOW.
You have to be a borderline genius to get someone to read 300 pages of a novel. What keeps people turning pages? An interesting story isn't enough. It's your method of presenting the story in such a way that nothing jumps into the reader’s consciousness about the mechanics that makes the reader start thinking about anything else except the story which also better be good.
The same thing is true of songwriting. If only one thing in your song makes people start thinking it's strange or just bland that's when they'll stop listening. If only even one section doesn't transition well into the next thing then we start thinking about that instead of the good feeling the song is (was) producing.
In India they have a word for the feeling that music produces. The word they use is rasa which means taste. You never want to break rasa. But it's very easy to break.
If you don’t want to break rasa then the question isn’t so much what are you going to put into each section of music. The question becomes how are you going to put it in?
People have too many choices when faced with a blank page. To overcome the paralyzing nature of too many choices, composers learn to define the limits that their composition will fall within, such as how fast should it be, how many beats per measure will there be? What key will the piece of music be in? How long will it last? What chord should it start with? Surprisingly, composers sometimes even limit themselves to a few notes and a basic rhythm. I’ll now be talking about an important group of limitations.
Instrumentation
If you listen to a standard artist, the instrumentation they use is usually the same on almost every song. Keyboards, bass, drums, guitar, vocals. That doesn't change usually except they might add another instrumental player such as a harmonica but that occurs very rarely. There's usually a standard instrumentation for things.
Form
If you walk into a music store in America, it's clearly monocultural. About the only instruments to be found are guitars, basses, keyboards, and drum kits, with classical and jazz instruments thrown in for good measure. Walk into a music store in South Asia and you've got sitars, dutars, setars, esrajs, rebabs, shawms, etc... etc... etc... along with guitars and keyboards.
There seems to be some disparity between what many young songwriters from the west SAY they want and what they’ll actually put their money down for. They SAY they want to be totally unique and different and yet they buy the same instruments as everyone else and listen to the same music as all their friends. The next sentence may not apply to you but it probably applies to 99% of the people who might be interested in buying your music. It's VERY difficult to get a person to accept anything which is not what they expect, hence the difficulty of selling dutars in North America.
If you yourself or most of your neighbors at least, do not like anything out of the ordinary, how can you expect your listeners to go for what some aspiring composers are calling “writing from the heart?” This usually means a lack of knowledge of or lack of willingness to be constrained by accepted forms.
Don't let it escape your attention that it's possible to write from the heart within the form until you're established. On that day there will be people to buy your tunes that break the rules because enough people who matter, already know and trust you. Even then, it will only get sold if you broke the rules for a good reason, hence their trust.
When young songwriters hear someone talking about forms, they often say that the best music breaks the rules all the time. I don't believe the best music breaks the rules all the time. I consider experimental avant garde music to be nearly complete psychosis precisely because it doesn’t follow any traditional rules.
When the Beatles broke the rules, they had a very good reason for doing that. A phrase was shortened or lengthened because the lyrics demanded it not because of any animosity towards the normal sections built of eight or sixteen measures.
I often think about those people who don't want to constrain themselves to traditional forms. It's like saying I'll play football, basketball or soccer but I'm going to reach the goal by running outside of the boundaries, and then expect to be rewarded for that at the end and not be penalized. It's probably not in the realm of possibility.
Another metaphor is if you're painting, do you paint on the wall next to the canvas? It's about context. Only if you're an avant garde artist and the house owner knows you're going to do that and likes your work or you just want to piss him off and don’t really need the money.
Newbies, many of whom seem to like rock, heavy metal or punk listen to their favorite bands and hear them as icons of rebelliousness. Then they think to themselves, “How could my favorite icon of rebelliousness be following any rules, forms or formulas?” But naturally the newbies haven't analyzed their favorite bands and even if they had, they wouldn't know what to listen for.
Yes, in fact your favorite icon of rebelliousness, whether they play thrash metal, punk or rap, is using intros, verses, choruses, and bridges pretty much the same way everyone else is. They're not just doing their own thing as many newbies seem to think.
If they were doing that in the beginning, their manager or producer inserted the cold calculated reasoning that it takes to succeed in the biz. Then the guys in the band probably said, “Oh, is that all? We can still make music we like and have it mostly fit inside the basic guidelines.” It's not so difficult once getting past the emotional resistance to it.
Some might say that I'd be a good example of someone who writes only for themselves. I like World Music and am into stuff like microtonal tunings, 17/8 rhythms and all night songs played for the gods not for people on instruments like gopichands, seed pod and goat hoof rattles. My Garden of Contemplation CD has no chords per se from beginning to end. There's no guitar, bass, drum kit or keyboard. So, how did someone like me get my music forwarded and into music libraries waiting to be picked up by TV or film music buyers?
The people who might say I write only to please myself would be wrong. I don't inflict my interest in microtonal tunings on my listeners many of whom surely wouldn't like that. It's too far outside their expectations. Also the rhythms are kept to what people would expect, only breaking their expectations where they expect to have it be broken. SERIOUSLY. And I reign in world music's proclivities toward inordinate length and make my compositions conform to traditional popular song forms. Most of my stuff is instrumental but SONGwriting terminology is still useful. I write only 4 measure intros and get to the chorus fast which means no double verses before the first chorus.
All of this stuff helps people forgive the fact that my music has no chords and it's played on bamboo xylophones, three and four reed shawms, bowed spike fiddles and double headed hand drums no one has ever heard of. I love this stuff but I try to be realistic about what might go over well with the average person. In order to do that, it's important to at least try to really REALLY know what that is.
So, what is the popular song form and why is the popular song form so popular? The basic song forms 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".
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. Of course not all popular songs need to be aimed at radio. There are lots of great tunes longer than 6 minutes.
If your pieces have choruses in the B section here's a list of possible forms to put them in which are in the pop format ballpark so that A's =Verses, B's =Choruses, C's =Bridges, D's=make C's another section proper and the D is the bridge, T's=Transitions and R's=a rise to the chorus.
ABABCAB. This is good if you've got sections longer than 8 bars or a slow tempo. It will prevent you from going over 3.5 minutes.
ABABTCAB. transition before the bridge. There may not even be any melody in the transition.
ABTABCAB. Another good one for a slow tempo or longer sections.
ABTABTCAB The transition is repeated before the Bridge.
AABAABCAAB Double verses are too long for unknowns to sell easily most likely.
ARBTARBCARB This could work. Sounds perfectly postmodern.
ABBABBCABB Double choruses to lengthen a short melody.
AABAABTCAAB. Not much point in putting a transition before the bridge except such as where the band drops out 4 bars early while the improviser solos before the start of the solo section as in jazz.
ARBARBTCARB. Rise to the chorus with Transition before the Bridge.
ABBTABBCABB. No transition the second time. Double chorus.
ARBTARBTCARB. Contemporary practice often has the rise to the chorus and a transition somewhere.
AABTAABCAAB. If repeating the transition every time makes the song too long leave it out the second time. There's a bridge anyway. Damn double verses again though. Bane of the unsigned!
ABBTABBTCABB. Double chorus. Transition after the chorus.
AABTAABTCAAB Double verses again.
ABCDABCDABCD It doesn't end on the chorus. Good for smooth jazz or real Latin music.
AARBAARBCAARB Rise to the chorus is very common in the postmodern era of popular songwriting. Those double verses plus the rise will kill you though. The exec's aren’t gonna wait that long. Next!
AARBAARBTCAARB. Double verse and rise. Do you want to sell this song or not?
ARBBARBBCARBB Rise to a double chorus.
AARBTAARBTCAARB. Double verse AND a rise before the chorus. Forget it unless you're the Beatles or Elvis.
AARBTAARBCAARB. Ditto
AABBAABBCAABB. Double verses and choruses. NEVER try more! Otherwise we'll stamp "Rank Amateur" on your forehead permanently.
AABBTAABBTCAABB Double trouble with transitions.
AARBBTAARBBTAARBB. Are you Marilyn Monroe or Princess Di reincarnated? If not, then don't try it.
Sections
Normally, sections are either eight or sixteen measures in length. For variety’s sake here is a theoretical chart of how the sections could all be different lengths on your album.
8 8 8
8 8 10
8 8 16
8 10 8
16 8 8
16 8 10
10 8 8
4 8 8
8 16 10
8 8 6
8 6 8
16 8 6
6 8 8
8 16 6
16 16 16
16 16 10
8 8 14
8 14 8
14 8 8
14 8 10
14 8 8
8 16 16
8 16 14
16 16 14
16 14 16
14 8 6
14 16 16
8 16 6
etc…
The three basic sections of a tune, the verse, chorus and bridge, can all be eight or all be sixteen measures but you can make them shorter or longer usually in groups of even numbers so sections ten measures long and six measures long also occur. Odd numbers are also possible but you have to have a good reason for doing that.
Most of the time, there are two phrases in each verse section and two phrases in each chorus section. And possibly in the bridge section as well. However, you CAN use more, less and even no phrases depending. The intro could just have accompaniment and no melody at all. The same is true of the bridge. The intro doesn’t need to be terribly melodic. In my case, I often create my intros from material in the bridge. For the bridge to be self sufficient, it doesn’t need to have a melody but then the accompaniment would have to be very interesting and you might have to shorten it so that it doesn’t get boring for the listener.
As far as lyrics are concerned, the verse basically keeps the same melody each time it comes around but with different words. The chorus basically keeps both the same words and the same melody each time it plays.
Phrase Lengths
If you give weight to favor the most common phrase lengths such as “four bars with four bars” and “eight bars with eight bars” occurring the most frequently. That way you wouldn’t constantly be getting music coming out of the system which is barely in the ball park of expectation.
You also need to know that the consequent phrase within a section often reaches a greater height, has a wider leap, and/or has a greater dynamic.
You can also contrast melodic rhythms between sections or phrases: long held notes on the chorus and shorter note values for the verse.
You have to be a borderline genius to get someone to read 300 pages of a novel. What keeps people turning pages? An interesting story isn't enough. It's your method of presenting the story in such a way that nothing jumps into the reader’s consciousness about the mechanics that makes the reader start thinking about anything else except the story which also better be good.
The same thing is true of songwriting. If only one thing in your song makes people start thinking it's strange or just bland that's when they'll stop listening. If only even one section doesn't transition well into the next thing then we start thinking about that instead of the good feeling the song is (was) producing.
In India they have a word for the feeling that music produces. The word they use is rasa which means taste. You never want to break rasa. But it's very easy to break.
If you don’t want to break rasa then the question isn’t so much what are you going to put into each section of music. The question becomes how are you going to put it in?
People have too many choices when faced with a blank page. To overcome the paralyzing nature of too many choices, composers learn to define the limits that their composition will fall within, such as how fast should it be, how many beats per measure will there be? What key will the piece of music be in? How long will it last? What chord should it start with? Surprisingly, composers sometimes even limit themselves to a few notes and a basic rhythm. I’ll now be talking about an important group of limitations.
Instrumentation
If you listen to a standard artist, the instrumentation they use is usually the same on almost every song. Keyboards, bass, drums, guitar, vocals. That doesn't change usually except they might add another instrumental player such as a harmonica but that occurs very rarely. There's usually a standard instrumentation for things.
Form
If you walk into a music store in America, it's clearly monocultural. About the only instruments to be found are guitars, basses, keyboards, and drum kits, with classical and jazz instruments thrown in for good measure. Walk into a music store in South Asia and you've got sitars, dutars, setars, esrajs, rebabs, shawms, etc... etc... etc... along with guitars and keyboards.
There seems to be some disparity between what many young songwriters from the west SAY they want and what they’ll actually put their money down for. They SAY they want to be totally unique and different and yet they buy the same instruments as everyone else and listen to the same music as all their friends. The next sentence may not apply to you but it probably applies to 99% of the people who might be interested in buying your music. It's VERY difficult to get a person to accept anything which is not what they expect, hence the difficulty of selling dutars in North America.
If you yourself or most of your neighbors at least, do not like anything out of the ordinary, how can you expect your listeners to go for what some aspiring composers are calling “writing from the heart?” This usually means a lack of knowledge of or lack of willingness to be constrained by accepted forms.
Don't let it escape your attention that it's possible to write from the heart within the form until you're established. On that day there will be people to buy your tunes that break the rules because enough people who matter, already know and trust you. Even then, it will only get sold if you broke the rules for a good reason, hence their trust.
When young songwriters hear someone talking about forms, they often say that the best music breaks the rules all the time. I don't believe the best music breaks the rules all the time. I consider experimental avant garde music to be nearly complete psychosis precisely because it doesn’t follow any traditional rules.
When the Beatles broke the rules, they had a very good reason for doing that. A phrase was shortened or lengthened because the lyrics demanded it not because of any animosity towards the normal sections built of eight or sixteen measures.
I often think about those people who don't want to constrain themselves to traditional forms. It's like saying I'll play football, basketball or soccer but I'm going to reach the goal by running outside of the boundaries, and then expect to be rewarded for that at the end and not be penalized. It's probably not in the realm of possibility.
Another metaphor is if you're painting, do you paint on the wall next to the canvas? It's about context. Only if you're an avant garde artist and the house owner knows you're going to do that and likes your work or you just want to piss him off and don’t really need the money.
Newbies, many of whom seem to like rock, heavy metal or punk listen to their favorite bands and hear them as icons of rebelliousness. Then they think to themselves, “How could my favorite icon of rebelliousness be following any rules, forms or formulas?” But naturally the newbies haven't analyzed their favorite bands and even if they had, they wouldn't know what to listen for.
Yes, in fact your favorite icon of rebelliousness, whether they play thrash metal, punk or rap, is using intros, verses, choruses, and bridges pretty much the same way everyone else is. They're not just doing their own thing as many newbies seem to think.
If they were doing that in the beginning, their manager or producer inserted the cold calculated reasoning that it takes to succeed in the biz. Then the guys in the band probably said, “Oh, is that all? We can still make music we like and have it mostly fit inside the basic guidelines.” It's not so difficult once getting past the emotional resistance to it.
Some might say that I'd be a good example of someone who writes only for themselves. I like World Music and am into stuff like microtonal tunings, 17/8 rhythms and all night songs played for the gods not for people on instruments like gopichands, seed pod and goat hoof rattles. My Garden of Contemplation CD has no chords per se from beginning to end. There's no guitar, bass, drum kit or keyboard. So, how did someone like me get my music forwarded and into music libraries waiting to be picked up by TV or film music buyers?
The people who might say I write only to please myself would be wrong. I don't inflict my interest in microtonal tunings on my listeners many of whom surely wouldn't like that. It's too far outside their expectations. Also the rhythms are kept to what people would expect, only breaking their expectations where they expect to have it be broken. SERIOUSLY. And I reign in world music's proclivities toward inordinate length and make my compositions conform to traditional popular song forms. Most of my stuff is instrumental but SONGwriting terminology is still useful. I write only 4 measure intros and get to the chorus fast which means no double verses before the first chorus.
All of this stuff helps people forgive the fact that my music has no chords and it's played on bamboo xylophones, three and four reed shawms, bowed spike fiddles and double headed hand drums no one has ever heard of. I love this stuff but I try to be realistic about what might go over well with the average person. In order to do that, it's important to at least try to really REALLY know what that is.
So, what is the popular song form and why is the popular song form so popular? The basic song forms 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".
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. Of course not all popular songs need to be aimed at radio. There are lots of great tunes longer than 6 minutes.
If your pieces have choruses in the B section here's a list of possible forms to put them in which are in the pop format ballpark so that A's =Verses, B's =Choruses, C's =Bridges, D's=make C's another section proper and the D is the bridge, T's=Transitions and R's=a rise to the chorus.
ABABCAB. This is good if you've got sections longer than 8 bars or a slow tempo. It will prevent you from going over 3.5 minutes.
ABABTCAB. transition before the bridge. There may not even be any melody in the transition.
ABTABCAB. Another good one for a slow tempo or longer sections.
ABTABTCAB The transition is repeated before the Bridge.
AABAABCAAB Double verses are too long for unknowns to sell easily most likely.
ARBTARBCARB This could work. Sounds perfectly postmodern.
ABBABBCABB Double choruses to lengthen a short melody.
AABAABTCAAB. Not much point in putting a transition before the bridge except such as where the band drops out 4 bars early while the improviser solos before the start of the solo section as in jazz.
ARBARBTCARB. Rise to the chorus with Transition before the Bridge.
ABBTABBCABB. No transition the second time. Double chorus.
ARBTARBTCARB. Contemporary practice often has the rise to the chorus and a transition somewhere.
AABTAABCAAB. If repeating the transition every time makes the song too long leave it out the second time. There's a bridge anyway. Damn double verses again though. Bane of the unsigned!
ABBTABBTCABB. Double chorus. Transition after the chorus.
AABTAABTCAAB Double verses again.
ABCDABCDABCD It doesn't end on the chorus. Good for smooth jazz or real Latin music.
AARBAARBCAARB Rise to the chorus is very common in the postmodern era of popular songwriting. Those double verses plus the rise will kill you though. The exec's aren’t gonna wait that long. Next!
AARBAARBTCAARB. Double verse and rise. Do you want to sell this song or not?
ARBBARBBCARBB Rise to a double chorus.
AARBTAARBTCAARB. Double verse AND a rise before the chorus. Forget it unless you're the Beatles or Elvis.
AARBTAARBCAARB. Ditto
AABBAABBCAABB. Double verses and choruses. NEVER try more! Otherwise we'll stamp "Rank Amateur" on your forehead permanently.
AABBTAABBTCAABB Double trouble with transitions.
AARBBTAARBBTAARBB. Are you Marilyn Monroe or Princess Di reincarnated? If not, then don't try it.
Sections
Normally, sections are either eight or sixteen measures in length. For variety’s sake here is a theoretical chart of how the sections could all be different lengths on your album.
8 8 8
8 8 10
8 8 16
8 10 8
16 8 8
16 8 10
10 8 8
4 8 8
8 16 10
8 8 6
8 6 8
16 8 6
6 8 8
8 16 6
16 16 16
16 16 10
8 8 14
8 14 8
14 8 8
14 8 10
14 8 8
8 16 16
8 16 14
16 16 14
16 14 16
14 8 6
14 16 16
8 16 6
etc…
The three basic sections of a tune, the verse, chorus and bridge, can all be eight or all be sixteen measures but you can make them shorter or longer usually in groups of even numbers so sections ten measures long and six measures long also occur. Odd numbers are also possible but you have to have a good reason for doing that.
Most of the time, there are two phrases in each verse section and two phrases in each chorus section. And possibly in the bridge section as well. However, you CAN use more, less and even no phrases depending. The intro could just have accompaniment and no melody at all. The same is true of the bridge. The intro doesn’t need to be terribly melodic. In my case, I often create my intros from material in the bridge. For the bridge to be self sufficient, it doesn’t need to have a melody but then the accompaniment would have to be very interesting and you might have to shorten it so that it doesn’t get boring for the listener.
As far as lyrics are concerned, the verse basically keeps the same melody each time it comes around but with different words. The chorus basically keeps both the same words and the same melody each time it plays.
Phrase Lengths
If you give weight to favor the most common phrase lengths such as “four bars with four bars” and “eight bars with eight bars” occurring the most frequently. That way you wouldn’t constantly be getting music coming out of the system which is barely in the ball park of expectation.
You also need to know that the consequent phrase within a section often reaches a greater height, has a wider leap, and/or has a greater dynamic.
You can also contrast melodic rhythms between sections or phrases: long held notes on the chorus and shorter note values for the verse.
How "The Write Song" Can Benefit You
This course is for people interested in learning more about melody composition. It has a lot of information which may be useful to both the novice and the professional. Even if you’re a professional, we guarantee that you’ll find more than one thing which you can put to use right away. Many people coming to my course have some background in guitar/bass playing, piano/keyboard playing, singing, percussion or have already studied songwriting/composition. If you’re tired of wracking your brain to come up with new stuff and you either don’t come up with enough material you like, just don’t come up with enough music period, or you’d like to come up with more music than you already do, then you are the person I’d like to reach.
Purpose
The purpose of this course is to educate our course takers about how compositions are put together and to provide a method of transforming existing music you already listen to into new material. We’re going to show you techniques that will allow you to take any and all aspects of the music you like, then tweak them to make your own but our focus is going to be on melody. However, you can also use these methods to compose music for the drum kit, bass guitar, rhythm guitar, and keyboard part, as well as music for classical or jazz compositions. You can make the resulting music stylistically similar or entirely different than the original model. It’s up to you. The materials in this course can be used to compose music for pop, rock, metal, punk, classical, country, jazz, urban, rap, hip-hop, world music,…anything you like.
Why this book was written
We all have our favorite music, either on the radio, records, tapes, C.D.’s or on the web. Maybe you know someone who makes up their own music. Maybe you’ve wondered about what composers do or the order of steps involved. This course is a record of the learning I have acquired during my explorations into music composition. I realized in my early attempts to find information about composing music that there was a lack of some of the specific kinds of knowledge necessary to avoid the hit and miss method of my beginning efforts. Part of my problem was that I hadn’t listened to enough music analytically, a skill that’s not easy to acquire by oneself. I highly encourage you to analyze your favorite songs with whatever help you can acquire either through a university class, a knowledgeable friend, composition and songwriting books or private music teacher. I had looked at and listened to a lot of music but didn't know what to look or listen for even after working towards a Bachelors degree in music. Me and a lot of other people thought we knew but we didn't. I read all the books on writing music I could find but there were still some gaps in my knowledge that made composition an inefficient guessing game. Even the books on classical and jazz composition seemed to either leave things out, to lack an organizational scheme, used examples outside of my experience or were more technical than this present course assuming too much familiarity with the content. I’m really excited to share this course with others so they could possess, in one place, the important but elusive information to fill in the gaps left by other writers and teachers.
What you will get
Now I’m going to make some outrageous claims. This course is unique because there are students who are the inspiration behind this course that studied from the largest number of experts and studied more intensively with those experts than any other students who have ever lived. It might be an outrageous claim but it’s true. Now they have become teachers and are ready to teach us. Our new teachers have learned to consistently do what our favorite musicians do: to create new and effective compositions. And do it both quickly and easily. Even better than that, they can explain to us how we can also start doing that right away. I won’t tell you who our new teachers are just yet but it will become clear shortly. They won’t be teaching you everything that is normally taught in university composition courses whether pop/rock, classical or jazz. And yet what you take away will be good enough to make experts and the average listener believe that you too are also an expert. At that moment you will actually BE an expert.
Minimally, what you will need to know
Some knowledge of musical concepts is assumed to be possessed, the definitions of which may not be clear without demonstrations by a mentor in person. I’ve placed definitions to new concepts in close proximity to the words that introduce them and tried to make them as obvious as possible. Every attempt has been made to make definitions clear but because of the technical nature of the content they may not all necessarily be comprehensible to the uninitiated.
Purpose
The purpose of this course is to educate our course takers about how compositions are put together and to provide a method of transforming existing music you already listen to into new material. We’re going to show you techniques that will allow you to take any and all aspects of the music you like, then tweak them to make your own but our focus is going to be on melody. However, you can also use these methods to compose music for the drum kit, bass guitar, rhythm guitar, and keyboard part, as well as music for classical or jazz compositions. You can make the resulting music stylistically similar or entirely different than the original model. It’s up to you. The materials in this course can be used to compose music for pop, rock, metal, punk, classical, country, jazz, urban, rap, hip-hop, world music,…anything you like.
Why this book was written
We all have our favorite music, either on the radio, records, tapes, C.D.’s or on the web. Maybe you know someone who makes up their own music. Maybe you’ve wondered about what composers do or the order of steps involved. This course is a record of the learning I have acquired during my explorations into music composition. I realized in my early attempts to find information about composing music that there was a lack of some of the specific kinds of knowledge necessary to avoid the hit and miss method of my beginning efforts. Part of my problem was that I hadn’t listened to enough music analytically, a skill that’s not easy to acquire by oneself. I highly encourage you to analyze your favorite songs with whatever help you can acquire either through a university class, a knowledgeable friend, composition and songwriting books or private music teacher. I had looked at and listened to a lot of music but didn't know what to look or listen for even after working towards a Bachelors degree in music. Me and a lot of other people thought we knew but we didn't. I read all the books on writing music I could find but there were still some gaps in my knowledge that made composition an inefficient guessing game. Even the books on classical and jazz composition seemed to either leave things out, to lack an organizational scheme, used examples outside of my experience or were more technical than this present course assuming too much familiarity with the content. I’m really excited to share this course with others so they could possess, in one place, the important but elusive information to fill in the gaps left by other writers and teachers.
What you will get
Now I’m going to make some outrageous claims. This course is unique because there are students who are the inspiration behind this course that studied from the largest number of experts and studied more intensively with those experts than any other students who have ever lived. It might be an outrageous claim but it’s true. Now they have become teachers and are ready to teach us. Our new teachers have learned to consistently do what our favorite musicians do: to create new and effective compositions. And do it both quickly and easily. Even better than that, they can explain to us how we can also start doing that right away. I won’t tell you who our new teachers are just yet but it will become clear shortly. They won’t be teaching you everything that is normally taught in university composition courses whether pop/rock, classical or jazz. And yet what you take away will be good enough to make experts and the average listener believe that you too are also an expert. At that moment you will actually BE an expert.
Minimally, what you will need to know
Some knowledge of musical concepts is assumed to be possessed, the definitions of which may not be clear without demonstrations by a mentor in person. I’ve placed definitions to new concepts in close proximity to the words that introduce them and tried to make them as obvious as possible. Every attempt has been made to make definitions clear but because of the technical nature of the content they may not all necessarily be comprehensible to the uninitiated.
Shamanic Percussion
Unlike the African trance tradition, the shaman goes on a journey to the spirit world with the aid of music essentially drumming/chanting/singing. He or she goes to the spirit world (usually the "under" world) accompanied by his/her spirit helpers in the belief that he can recover lost souls or to see what are called power intrusions in the body of the sick person which are causing the illness from several supposed sources such as bad spirits or sent by evil sorcerers.
Shaman’s Rattle:
An interesting aspect of this is that the shaman's rattle is held close to his own head while he shakes it. I think it was Kay Gardner's book on healing music where I read about this aspect. The sound of the loud random multiple strikes occurring inside the rattle may be affecting brainwaves and keeping a "sacred rattle" used only for the purpose of achieving altered states helps the shaman strongly associate this state to the sound of the rattle. It's always wrapped out of sight in the ordinary day until it's time to do shamanic work so as not to dilute it's potency with random associations from ordinary waking life the same as with sacred masks, pipes etc. The sound of the rattle may also help the sick person enter into an alpha state which is considered the healing frequency you want to be in to recover faster. Shamans are also known to shake the rattle over the sick person.
However, shamans usually consider the voice to be the source of the greatest healing power. It can more fully express the healing intent/compassion/love. Getting clear on the intent of the work is usually considered the thing to do first before beginning any healing whether its vocal, musical or not. I heard a flute player online associated with Mathew Montefort/scalloped fretboard guitarist and Ancient Future/world music ensemble. She played a piece whose title was something for world peace. I really felt her intent come through that performance even on little computer speakers. Something I would aspire to.
Trance and Style:
Some studies have shown that there is no relationship between the types of music used and the types of trance induced. It’s been proven that music can help trigger and maintain trance states but all sensory stimulus, along with cultural belief systems and individual expectations contribute. The musical component of trances invokes an entire mythology to which certain emotions and behaviors are attached. Incense, flowers, costumes and ritual all play their part in invoking trances, not just the music. Sometimes the music is not even needed with the right individual.
African Music
African Music:
The African bell pattern.
The diatonic major scale can be assigned a rhythm to each scale degree so that the interval between C-D, for example, is related to a quarter note. The interval between E-F relates to an eighth note since there is only a half-step between them. The result of the entire scale related to in this way is the bell pattern found all over Africa in either its "Ionian, Lydian or Mixolydian rhythmic mode" form.
African rhythms are frequently interlocking and not conceived of having a downbeat or being grouped into measures. Like the music of India and much other music from around the world, the parts are additive such as 3+3+2 if we're in an 8 or16 beat cycle in a western conceived measure of 4/4. Western music seems to favor dividing the measure exactly in half. African, Indian, and Persian music rarely does this. African music has 3 basic kinds.. The first is a 12 beat rhythmic cycle in which in a western conceived measure would generally be in 12/8, which is reserved for funerals and royalty. A 16 beat rhythmic cycle in 4/4 is for light music. The last kind is a combination for ritual and worship where either triplets are occasionally superimposed over 4 16ths in 4/4 or 4 16th notes are occasionally superimposed over groups of 3 eighth notes in 12/8. Sometimes the beginnings and/or endings of triplets tie over into the next beat.
Interlocking African Rhythms:
To create an interlocking rhythm with what might be called the Ionian rhythmic mode, we can use the dorian rhythmic mode or the mixolydian mode played underneath it, either started an eighth note late in 12/8. Either of these will fill up all the holes in the Ionian rhythmic mode.
Tension/Stress/Anxiety and Healing Music:
The bell rhythmic pattern found all over Africa that is based on the C Major scales Ionian, Lydian or Mixolydian modes has “on the beat” events on at least the first three quarter notes in 12/8. The second half of the measure has most events that occur off the beats. This produces a "masculine" on the beat first part and a "feminine" syncopated second part.
Since there are 7 notes in a major scale, a rhythm based on it can never be divided exactly in half. One side either has 4 and the other has 3 events or visa versa. This may be where the preference for asymmetrical rhythms comes from around the world. This is possibly why the clave in Salsa music has two parts. One is on the beat, the other is syncopated. One has three events and the other has two.
The alternation of them produces the tension relaxation that we're used to as westerners. However, we need to be careful because the increase of tension so valued by westerners often has the result of producing anxiety in the listener. Not a goal of healing music but a little "interest" is good especially in dance music. African melodic cells would repeat ad nauseum except for the fact that they never play them the exact same way twice. I suspect this reduces the anxiety while simultaneously relieves the potential boredom.
Voudou Drumming:
Bata drums from Haiti (think voudou), use THREE drums/instruments to create the interlocking rhythm. I think the reason why so many people like interlocking rhythms such as Africa, Bali etc...is because they create a smooth rhythmic surface. The same things we find beautiful in art and in people we also like in music. We all love a symmetrical face with smooth clear skin.
In the Bata drumming of Haiti there are seven standard rhythms Bayuba, Yakota Ebipkumi, Biobayare, Idilantilanti, Bembe and Yanvalou. Each one is addressed to the Gods or a certain God and is in either a 6 or 12 beat rhythmic cycle and intended to induce trance. But unlike other trance traditions where the shaman travels to the spirit world, in Haiti the Gods are thought to descend and are said to "ride" worshipers. As Andy Narell’s lyrics say, “dress up in the beat and wait for the spirits to move.” When a person is posessed, people ask them questions about money, love and important information. The usualy stuff.
African Melody:
Amadinda xylophone music of Uganda
Africa has a scale in 5-tone equal that uses interlocking parts similar to gamelan music. So, western music is in 12 tone equal, gamelan music is in 10 tone equal, Thai is in 7 tone equal, Ugandan music is in 5 tone equal. I wonder if there are any cultures that use 11 or 9 tone equal. Maybe not.
Kora tuning:
The double harp from Africa known as the kora has a tuning in the more traditional inland regions having notes closer to the ones in 5 tone equal. These regions were less influenced by westerners and more influenced by Persian people.
The African bell pattern.
The diatonic major scale can be assigned a rhythm to each scale degree so that the interval between C-D, for example, is related to a quarter note. The interval between E-F relates to an eighth note since there is only a half-step between them. The result of the entire scale related to in this way is the bell pattern found all over Africa in either its "Ionian, Lydian or Mixolydian rhythmic mode" form.
African rhythms are frequently interlocking and not conceived of having a downbeat or being grouped into measures. Like the music of India and much other music from around the world, the parts are additive such as 3+3+2 if we're in an 8 or16 beat cycle in a western conceived measure of 4/4. Western music seems to favor dividing the measure exactly in half. African, Indian, and Persian music rarely does this. African music has 3 basic kinds.. The first is a 12 beat rhythmic cycle in which in a western conceived measure would generally be in 12/8, which is reserved for funerals and royalty. A 16 beat rhythmic cycle in 4/4 is for light music. The last kind is a combination for ritual and worship where either triplets are occasionally superimposed over 4 16ths in 4/4 or 4 16th notes are occasionally superimposed over groups of 3 eighth notes in 12/8. Sometimes the beginnings and/or endings of triplets tie over into the next beat.
Interlocking African Rhythms:
To create an interlocking rhythm with what might be called the Ionian rhythmic mode, we can use the dorian rhythmic mode or the mixolydian mode played underneath it, either started an eighth note late in 12/8. Either of these will fill up all the holes in the Ionian rhythmic mode.
Tension/Stress/Anxiety and Healing Music:
The bell rhythmic pattern found all over Africa that is based on the C Major scales Ionian, Lydian or Mixolydian modes has “on the beat” events on at least the first three quarter notes in 12/8. The second half of the measure has most events that occur off the beats. This produces a "masculine" on the beat first part and a "feminine" syncopated second part.
Since there are 7 notes in a major scale, a rhythm based on it can never be divided exactly in half. One side either has 4 and the other has 3 events or visa versa. This may be where the preference for asymmetrical rhythms comes from around the world. This is possibly why the clave in Salsa music has two parts. One is on the beat, the other is syncopated. One has three events and the other has two.
The alternation of them produces the tension relaxation that we're used to as westerners. However, we need to be careful because the increase of tension so valued by westerners often has the result of producing anxiety in the listener. Not a goal of healing music but a little "interest" is good especially in dance music. African melodic cells would repeat ad nauseum except for the fact that they never play them the exact same way twice. I suspect this reduces the anxiety while simultaneously relieves the potential boredom.
Voudou Drumming:
Bata drums from Haiti (think voudou), use THREE drums/instruments to create the interlocking rhythm. I think the reason why so many people like interlocking rhythms such as Africa, Bali etc...is because they create a smooth rhythmic surface. The same things we find beautiful in art and in people we also like in music. We all love a symmetrical face with smooth clear skin.
In the Bata drumming of Haiti there are seven standard rhythms Bayuba, Yakota Ebipkumi, Biobayare, Idilantilanti, Bembe and Yanvalou. Each one is addressed to the Gods or a certain God and is in either a 6 or 12 beat rhythmic cycle and intended to induce trance. But unlike other trance traditions where the shaman travels to the spirit world, in Haiti the Gods are thought to descend and are said to "ride" worshipers. As Andy Narell’s lyrics say, “dress up in the beat and wait for the spirits to move.” When a person is posessed, people ask them questions about money, love and important information. The usualy stuff.
African Melody:
Amadinda xylophone music of Uganda
Africa has a scale in 5-tone equal that uses interlocking parts similar to gamelan music. So, western music is in 12 tone equal, gamelan music is in 10 tone equal, Thai is in 7 tone equal, Ugandan music is in 5 tone equal. I wonder if there are any cultures that use 11 or 9 tone equal. Maybe not.
Kora tuning:
The double harp from Africa known as the kora has a tuning in the more traditional inland regions having notes closer to the ones in 5 tone equal. These regions were less influenced by westerners and more influenced by Persian people.
วันพุธที่ 8 กรกฎาคม พ.ศ. 2552
World Music Project with Robert Plant's guitarist wants me to play on their next world music CD
Some people making a world music project that has Led Zeppelin's singer's guitarist wants me to play on their next world music CD but it's not possible without a computer. My computer got a short and a small fire and is still in Ubud. The reason they want me to do it is because my music on Myspace sounds great and other examples like this.
It's composed to sound like Japanese folk music. I've got other examples in Thai, Chinese, Indonesian and Middle Eastern Styles.
I sent a message to Mark Slaughter asking him to endorse my music composition course. In the message to Mark it mentioned the opportunity with Robert Plant's guitarist emphasizing why they would want me and it also said,
"I was wondering if you'd be interested in having a look at the music composition course I'm currently marketing. It has the tools I used to put together all of my compositions. It's at www.thewritesongcourse.com. I could really use someone with your credentials to give their endorsement.
Free copies are below.
http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/the-write-song-course-ebook/6607644
http://www.lulu.com/content/multimedia/the-write-song-course-audio/6633066
Just listen to the audio while you passively scan the text. What could be easier?
I think we could both make a decent amount of money."
Best regards,
Greg Turner
It's composed to sound like Japanese folk music. I've got other examples in Thai, Chinese, Indonesian and Middle Eastern Styles.
I sent a message to Mark Slaughter asking him to endorse my music composition course. In the message to Mark it mentioned the opportunity with Robert Plant's guitarist emphasizing why they would want me and it also said,
"I was wondering if you'd be interested in having a look at the music composition course I'm currently marketing. It has the tools I used to put together all of my compositions. It's at www.thewritesongcourse.com. I could really use someone with your credentials to give their endorsement.
Free copies are below.
http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/the-write-song-course-ebook/6607644
http://www.lulu.com/content/multimedia/the-write-song-course-audio/6633066
Just listen to the audio while you passively scan the text. What could be easier?
I think we could both make a decent amount of money."
Best regards,
Greg Turner
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