 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: psychotic lil clarinet girl (don't as
Date: 2004-10-18 05:54
So... I'm composing a song for the piano... Dunno why I started, maybe just to get my frustration out one day... Somehow I came up with a pretty good beginning to the song... hehe... Maybe I should add clarinet in there... I'm just wondering if there are methods to composing... Because if there were than wouldn't pretty much everything sound the same? Whoever followed those methods that is...
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2004-10-18 06:16
There are more methods of composing than you can shake a stick at.
If you get stuck, try a few of these (plenty more where they came from)
- Work backwards from the end.
- Define a few arrival points and fill foward and backward to them.
- Think of accompaniment rather than melody.
- Think of places to make the texture thinner or thicker.
- Draw a road map of the piece. Determine what will be the points of high and low intensity of the piece. Follow the map for as long as it helps you.
- Think of all the different ways you can manipulate a single piece of musical material.
Methods of composition and orchestration will often determine the distinct sound of a composer. This is how, without knowing a piece, you might recognize who wrote it. Many of these are subtle, like what instruments are commonly placed where in a chord.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Tom J.
Date: 2004-10-18 17:12
1. Put some music paper on a stand.
2. Fill a squirt gun with ink.
3. Stand back and pull the trigger.
4. Connect the dots.
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Author: diz
Date: 2004-10-18 22:12
You are not composing a song for your piano ...
song = sung
piece = played
very generic and very broad terms.
I like Tom's method ... and it worked for a hell of a lot of late 60s early 70s composers. As to composing ... if you have a tune stuck in your head and you THINK it's your own ... write it down, for get harmonies for the moment.
If you are SERIOUS about learning to write music (of any sort), whether you like it or not, a basis in formal harmony OR jazz harmony is a good starting point. Oh, and acquiring THAT should only take about 4 years, if you work hard and get yourself a good teacher.
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2004-10-19 03:45
No.
So much has been played before, that it's just a bit harder to write something new, fresh, and original. There are plenty of styles of music that are possible and not fully explored. As a composer, I myself have often thought that there is nothing left to do with music. Then I discovered postmodernism.
If you're referring to diz's comment of a tune that you "THINK" is your own, it's a bit of a different situation. I've written some quite nice melodies that, after listening to lots of repertoire, I discover many parts of it have been thoroughly used before. Also, the jumble of music in my head isn't always connected to a source, so when writing I often forget if a certain tune is one I made up, or just one that I heard somewhere else and replayed in my head often. It gets worse once your work is actually performed, because then it BECOMES something you heard somewhere.
This coming from someone that recently realized that the Oompa Loompa song is harmonically compatible with both Chim Chim Cher-ee and Feed the Birds. Let the fun begin!
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: diz
Date: 2004-10-19 04:51
Nothing new since Bach, really ...
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
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Author: allencole
Date: 2004-10-19 07:07
There's plenty of recycling going on, and I think that many name composers would freely admit to that fact.
Don't avoid what you hear in your head over questions of originality. Play what you feel, and then see how original it is or isn't. Trust your first impressions--at least at first!
Allen Cole
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