Writing Better Songs - Part III - Writing an Effective Melody To get the most out of this feature, it's suggested you read Writing in Major Keys and Writing in Minor Keys before proceeding. Writing an Effective Melody Of all the aspects involved with creating new songs, working on writing a strong melody is undoubtedly the most commonly overlooked in modern pop/rock music. This wasn't always the case; the "pop" songwriters of the 1930's and 1940's focused greatly on writing melodies. In many cases the melody was the basis for a song, with lyrics and chords added later. Generally, the process of writing a song is much different nowadays.
Arrangement Tips and Tricks: Fills and Transitions Twice a month we revisit some of our reader favorite posts from throughout the history of Audiotuts+. This tutorial was first published in March 2010. Even the best track can be let down by bad arrangement. Let things slide in this area and you're in danger of losing your listeners' interest. Often getting things right in this area is down to lots of small touches. It really is all in the detail. One area that is hugely important is creating interesting transitions and using varying fills when introducing new elements. Step 1: The Basic Drop For the purpose of this tutorial I have mocked up a small dummy arrangement showing the transition between a few different sections of a hypothetical track. In each step of the tutorial we'll look at different techniques for creating varied and interesting fills. First up let's take a look at perhaps the most simple method for moving between sections in your track, the drop. The basic drop. Automation is also added to compliment the edit. ... ...
Writing Better Songs: Part II - Writing in Minor Keys In the previous feature, we examined the basics of writing songs in major keys, and before you tackle Part II of this feature, it's advised that you familiarize yourself with that aspect of songwriting. Sometimes, the theme or mood you wish to create with a song doesn't suit the generally "happy" sounds that a major key tends to provide. In these situations, a minor key is often the best choice for your song. Which isn't to say that a song written in a minor key has to be "sad", or that a song written in a major key need be "happy". Many songwriters will use both major and minor keys within their songs, perhaps choosing a minor key for the verse, and a major key for the chorus, or vice versa. We've got lots more to discuss, but before we do, we need to learn what chords we can use in a minor key.
The Essential Secrets of Songwriting Blog Writing Better Songs - Part I Have you ever stopped for a moment to imagine just how many songs, in total, have been written? Consider... many thousands of years of songwriting, countless millions of songwriters during that period... there must literally have been billions of songs penned. What aspiring songwriters need to do is stop and ask themselves this question: "What can I do to make my songs stand out from all the others?" Types of Songs Most songs written in the last one hundred years can be loosely grouped into one of several categories; songs written around a chord progression, songs written around a melody, or songs written around a riff. Songs Written Around a Chord Progression - A favored method of songwriting by musicians like Stevie Wonder, the concept of writing around a chord progression involves initially creating an interesting series of chords, and then basing the vocal melody on that chord progression. This week, in Part I of this feature, we'll examine songs written around a chord progression.
I analyzed the chords to 1300 songs for patterns. This is what I found. (Part 3) Interactive Discovery | Blog – Hooktheory Last year, we discussed the first results of a long term effort to study the patterns found in the chords of popular songs. The reception that we got was incredibly positive, and we received a ton of great feedback. The two most common questions we’ve gotten from people have been: “I really like the sound of chords X Y Z together. What other songs use this same progression?““After I’ve written a few chords that sound good together, I need help knowing what a good next chord might be. Our answer: Hooktheory Trends Our crowdsourced database is uniquely suited to answer these questions because it contains the harmonic data of songs indexed in a way that makes it easy to perform this type of analysis. Hooktheory is experiencing VERY high traffic as a result of this article. Mirror 1 Mirror 2 How Trends Works When you open Trends, you will see the most commonly used chords in the key of C. Click a song to highlight where it uses the chords. Get started using Trends by clicking here!
Random Song Title Generator - Creative Titles And Band Names | MODPlug Central Stuck on a title for your song? Need a crazy name for your band? Let the MODPlug Central title generator get your creative juices flowing with some randomly generated titles. Just click the GIVE ME A TITLE button and you will be presented with a random title - do not enter any text into the form: Just click on the button, and a song title (or band name - you be the judge) will appear in the box. Some of them may not make much sense, such as "Violent Violence", but you may like them anyway. The "Give Me A Title" button can be continuously pressed until you get a song title that you like. Custom Web Programming by StudioKraft.
Writing Songs : Harmonic Movement : How Music Works In the previous topic, we created a harmonic backing for a melody using the related chords of the melody's scale. You may have wondered how we decided to arrange them in a progression, since there are so many combinations we could have chosen. In general, you will be relying heavily on your ear to decide which chords work well with the melody, and what order they should be arranged in. As you listen to harmonic movement, it may help to imagine a 'shape' to the music, feeling the tension varying with each chord change, up to the satisfing release (or resolving) of tension with the last chord. There are many common harmonic movements from one related chord to another that occur often in music. We will express all of these movements in roman numeral notation to help you transpose them to any key, but an example for each will also be given in the key of C. Here's another example progression with the I and V chords. The next most important chord after the I and V is the IV.
Music theory Music theory considers the practices and possibilities of music. It is generally derived from observation of how musicians and composers actually make music, but includes hypothetical speculation. Most commonly, the term describes the academic study and analysis of fundamental elements of music such as pitch, rhythm, harmony, and form, but also refers to descriptions, concepts, or beliefs related to music. Because of the ever-expanding conception of what constitutes music (see Definition of music), a more inclusive definition could be that music theory is the consideration of any sonic phenomena, including silence, as it relates to music. Music theory is a subfield of musicology, which is itself a subfield within the overarching field of the arts and humanities. Etymologically, music theory is an act of contemplation of music, from the Greek θεωρία, a looking at, viewing, contemplation, speculation, theory, also a sight, a spectacle. History of music theory[edit] Pitch[edit] Play . Play .
Electronic Music Theory: How to Quickly Write Better Chord Progressions w/ Pat Cupo « Dubspot Blog A lot of students have asked me for tips and tricks to writing better chord progressions. By that time they had already learned about building Major and Minor chords, but when it came to a chord progression – a series of chords occurring in time – they were a bit stuck. If you’re ever in the same position, then feel free to use these simple guidelines to help you quickly write chord progressions. Follow them carefully and strictly at first and over time it’ll start to come naturally to you. 1) Use only Major or Minor chords. Just keep things simple. C Major [audio: Major Chord C Minor [audio: Minor Chord 2) Begin and end with the same chord The thing about music is that it’s like a game. [audio: Minor Chord So what chord am I going to end with? 3) Move freely among diatonic chords The word Diatonic means “from the tonic”. What’s Included:
Harmony Barbershop quartets, such as this US Navy group, sing 4-part pieces, made up of a melody line (normally the lead) and 3 harmony parts. Etymology and definitions[edit] The term harmony derives from the Greek ἁρμονία (harmonía), meaning "joint, agreement, concord",[4] from the verb ἁρμόζω (harmozo), "to fit together, to join".[5] The term was often used for the whole field of music, while "music" referred to the arts in general. In Ancient Greece, the term defined the combination of contrasted elements: a higher and lower note.[6] Nevertheless, it is unclear whether the simultaneous sounding of notes was part of ancient Greek musical practice; "harmonía" may have merely provided a system of classification of the relationships between different pitches. In the Middle Ages the term was used to describe two pitches sounding in combination, and in the Renaissance the concept was expanded to denote three pitches sounding together.[6] Historical rules[edit] Types[edit] Close position C major triad.
Musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers. Although today composition is considered to consist of the manipulation of each aspect of music (harmony, melody, form, rhythm, and timbre), according to Jean Benjamin de Laborde (1780): Composition consists in two things only. The first is the ordering and disposing of several sounds...in such a manner that their succession pleases the ear. Musical compositions[edit] A piece of music exists in the form of a composition in musical notation or as a single acoustic event (a live performance or recorded track). Composition as musical form[edit] Composing music[edit] Methods Another method involves free playing of your desired instrument. As technology progresses, new and inventive methods of music composition come about. Structure Composers may decide to divide their music into sections. In the U.S.