Making Chords in Every Key May 15, 2014 No CommentIf you want to do this, you need to know your key signatures. Good news. It’s not that complicated. Take a look at the image below. Notice how, as you go clockwise around the circle (starting on C), you gain one sharp every time you change letters. The key of C has no accidentals (sharps and flats); the next letter/key – G – has 1 sharp; the next letter (key of D) has 2 sharps, etc. Go counter-clockwise and you gain a flat every time you move. So that means that you can take any key – say E major – and do the same thing that you did with the key of C. The key of E has 4 sharps (check this out above) so… E F# G# A B C# D# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Start on E, take the 1, the 3, and the 5, and you get an E major chord – E G# B. Now make five E major chords. Now move between them. Now move between them and the C major chords you made. This is a lot of work, I know. But worth it. guitarShare : Tweet
Resources May 10, 2014 No CommentThere are a ton of resources on the net for learning about composition. From my Pinterest page (where you might find other things of interest). http://www.pinterest.com/pin/543880092471243787/ If conventional composition is what you’re looking for, try this resource. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWbH1bhQZSw I’ll keep trying to put stuff up that you won’t find anywhere else. Not that the ideas are totally unique. But I haven’t found them expressed in this way anywhere else. Composition, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
Making your own chords May 6, 2014 2 CommentsThings to know if you want to make chords: Know the notes in the chord Know the notes on the neck of the guitar Knowing your key signatures is good, too. I’ll address that in the next post. For now I’ll just use the key of C major. No sharps or flats to worry about. Figure out the notes in any 3-note chord The key of C C D E F G A B C D E F 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 I take the scale up to the 2nd F (11) so you can visualize leaping every other note starting on every scale degree. Take the 1st note (C), the 3rd note (E), and the 5th note (G). You’re just leaping over every other note. Those three notes make a C major chord. If you know where all the notes are on your guitar, you can now start making a whole bunch of C major chords. A lot of people think there are only two – the open string C major and the barre chord. As it turns out, they’re wrong. Make some chords See if you can make 5 different shapes using C, E, and G. That’ll give you 5 different C major chords. All you have to do is find those three notes, and play them together. Now do this starting on D. Take the D and skip over every other note and you’ll have D, F, and A. That’s a D minor chord. Make 5 different shapes for this chord. guitarShare : Tweet
Repetition 2 April 29, 2014 No CommentCreate a phrase of music that demonstrates repetition. Then use the list from the last post to vary it. Here’s an example. This isn’t intended to sound musical. It’s just a few ideas strung together. The focus is on how to change it as it repeats. Here are a few variations. Variation 1: change the bass Variation 2: change the bass and treble Variation 3: add chords Variation 4: add chords change melody Look over these variations and you’ll notice that pitches change, but the rhythm stays the same throughout. Also notice that the pitches in the top staff all stay inside the staff. Most of the pitches in the bottom staff do, too. So rhythm and register are really constrained. Think about all the stuff you could do if you varied the rhythm a bit, and stretched out with the pitches… Composition, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
Repeat stuff April 26, 2014 No CommentIn the last few posts, I defined some relationships for a simple musical entity. Now what? This is the question every composer asks after the initial idea presents itself. What do Ido with what I’ve got? We answered that question in the last post by adding articulation, dynamics, and instrumentation. But how do we make it longer? Repetition Play it. Play it again. Play it one more time, but change it a bit. This technique has been around for quite awhile. The trick lies in how you make things repeat. Make a list of how to do that. Here’s a start. When you repeat an idea: Play it exactly Change one note Add one note Subtract one note Numbers 3 and 4 using two notes instead of one Change dynamics Change anything else Change one note while adding or subtracting one note Think of other combinations Think of completely different ideas There’s so many things you could do. Don’t censor yourself as you generate ideas; change stuff after you’ve tried it. Composition, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
Change the relationship April 23, 2014 No CommentLet’s add some more ways to play those two note ideas I’ve been talking about. Doing this creates new relationships. Idea A: Dynamics Idea B: Instrumentation Idea C: Articulations So we’ve created three ways to say the same thing differently. Pretty simple. If you were using language this could be thought of as a change of tone. Mixing ideas Mixing these simple ideas together can yield complex results. What happens when you follow idea A with idea C? How does going from a quiet dynamic to staccato make you want to proceed? (The complexity emerges from how you proceed, by the way; just sticking a couple of things together doesn’t do it.) Respond intuitively, then analyse what you’ve done (intuition to intellect). Maybe just thinking of dynamics made you repeat the figure, get gradually louder and end loud and staccato. Or maybe you alternated between quiet/staccato and quiet/no staccato. Don’t just take these ideas and stick them together. Play them and let stuff happen. Think of all the things you could do. Then write that stuff down. Composition, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
