Super Simple Fretboard April 8, 2014 No Comment This is kind of useful. Displays note names in a particular key, or the intervallic relationship of each note on the neck to the tonic note. Super Simple Fretboard – StumbleUpon. guitarShare : Tweet
Craft 3: Working with Chords April 7, 2014 No CommentChords Experimenting with chord relationships is part of the craft process. Why does a chord sound better going to one chord more than another? Why does a chord relationship work in one song, but not in another? Answers to these questions don’t emerge right away. You might have to wait for the next song. Or you might never get an answer. Or the “answer” might come in the form of an insight that has nothing to do with the question. Just ask the questions. Things will happen. You’ll get better. Developing skill means trying things out to see what works. Different chord shapes The most common chord progression in the world is C major to G major. How many C chords do you know? How many G chords? If you only know one of each, then you only have one choice for a progression. If you know two C chords (I’ll call them C1 and C2; same chord, different shape) and one G chord, you have two choices. If you know two of each, you have a total of four choices: C1 to G1; C2 to G1; C1 to G2; C2 to G2. And there’s a lot more than two of each. Here’s a link to major triads shapes. http://www.infosnacks.com/snack/428/guitar-major-triad-inversions/ Trying things out means doing the work to see what the possibilities are. Working with the possibilities develops skill. This is craft. thoughtsShare : Tweet
Craft 2: Material and Technique April 3, 2014 No CommentWriting music is like digging clay out of a riverbank so that you can make a pot. The first draft is a lump of clay. As you begin to shape it, the material suggests things to you. The way it develops takes you down paths you wouldn’t have thought about. The music teaches you. You develop skill with the materials. A precise understanding of the materials we use to make stuff, and of the techniques we use to make it is necessary for good work to emerge. In music, the materials are pitches, rhythms, timbre, etc. Technique is the ways that you manipulate the material. Having no technique means you wind up doing the same thing over and over again. Actually, that describes having one technique. Having no technique means you can’t do anything. thoughtsShare : Tweet
Craft April 1, 2014 No CommentI use songwriting to approach the next few posts on craft, but they relate to whatever you’re making. Craft is that thing you do when you want to make things better; it exists for the sake of clear communication. The clearer the expression, the more effective the piece. Honesty or clarity Some artists are more interested in what they think of as the honesty of the first draft. But when you look at your work and consider how and why you make it, it tends to get better. Being self-critical is an act of courage. You usually find out that you’re not as good as you thought you were. When you see that, you either quit, or you get better. You have to decide if the honesty of the first draft is more important than clarity. Often this honesty is about you, not about producing your best work. These two things don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand. Getting better Anything that we do can be made better. Craft means looking at what you’ve made and asking how and why it’s been made that way. For songwriting the question sound like this: Why is that chord on the third beat and not the fourth? Why am I playing this part loud and that part soft? Are there places where I should stop playing? Would a different rhythm work better here? How does the verse relate to the chorus? Should it be different? The same? It’s not that much different for concert music. As you write, questions arise. Don’t ignore them. Write them down if you don’t have an immediate answer. This is part of the artistic process. This process can be difficult because it makes you feel stupid if you don’t have an answer right away. The answer will come. It just might not come when you expect. And remember. The process only makes you feel stupid if you believe the lie that before you can be a good musician you have to be talented (as if being a good musician doesn’t take work). This is backwards. Becoming talented takes hard work. And this involves craft, which involves the development of skill. thoughtsShare : Tweet
Intuition and Intellect March 27, 2014 No CommentPutting sound together with apps is largely intuitive. Let’s add the intellect now. Writing stuff down As you notice things you like, the intellect unconsciously catalogues them. Take the time to write these things down. Or record them somehow. You can use the same idea in different pieces by figuring out how to vary them. Writing ideas down shows you what you’ve done. It creates choice and awareness. You can choose to do something you’ve done before (fully aware that you’re doing that), or do something new. That’s better than endlessly repeating yourself and feeling trapped. Example You have a chord progression you wrote at some point. If you know you wrote it, you can choose to use it differently. This means playing it in a different style, a different speed, on a different instrument, or any other way that’s not the same as the first time you used it. If you don’t remember writing it, you’ll often use it the same way without knowing it. Which gives you the feeling that you’re repeating yourself without knowing how. Which makes you crazy. Intuition is an important part of the decision-making process. But it only takes you so far if you don’t use your brain as another tool. Nobody builds bridges or buildings intuitively. Design ideas for a bridge or a building are often intuitive, but the way they’re put together comes from the brain. These construction methods come from centuries of trial and error. Exactly like music. So start noticing what you do when you make music. Then write it down. UncategorizedShare : Tweet
Making and playing March 10, 2014 No CommentWhere to start? And how to make it seem simple… Composition is about making. We all do it every day. Things like forming relationships, and having conversations are types of making. We make our life as we live it. If we have a hobby, then the making is more obvious. Electronics projects, woodworking, rebuilding the engine of a car, etc. produce tangible results. We learn to do these things as we do them. Music composition is no different. But it’s perceived as a calling rather than a hobby. That’s because of its history (all those dead composers we keep talking about), and its place in the art world. It can be intimidating. And then there’s the part about doing it in public. But like a hobby, it involves technique and craft that anyone can learn. The first thing to do is just start playing with sounds. This is where apps come in. Apps These are made to be played with. They aren’t fake instruments; they’re apps that let you combine sounds. I’ll list some of the ones I have, and add others as I discover them. Send me suggestions for any that you discover. Arpie Drop balls on a keyboard. This one is interesting because of the different cross-rhythms you can create. You can also sync multiple ball-drops to create chords. Aural Flux Drag elements onto the screen to create spacy textures. Adjust element positions once they’re on the screen. Choose between four moods as the texture plays. Loop Similar to Aural Flux, but more activity on the screen. Touch to place circles that grow until their edge touches another circle’s edge. As edges touch, delicate sounds emerge and the circles diminish to nothing before growing again. Add as many circles as you like. Bloom The inspiration for Loop and Aural Flux. More spacy textures, but the most interesting one visually. Costs more, but still less than $5. These are closer to improvisation than composition, but the two are related. Both are about putting sounds together in a search for something that sounds good. These apps don’t involve craft like composition does, but there are other apps that do. I’ll talk about those when they relate to other topics. UncategorizedShare : Tweet
