By composition I mean sitting down and thinking about each and every note and rhythm you write. By improvisation I mean sitting down and playing or writing something as it comes to you, spontaneously. But right off the bat we know that they both involve sitting down. So that’s the first thing to practice.
Obviously I’m kidding, but there’s sometimes a distinction made between these two when discussing writing or making music. But I’m not sure that that difference is as important or even as noticeable as it is made out to be.
If I listen to a song, I have no idea whether something was improvised or whether it was composed. There’s no way of knowing which one it was. Because something that “sounds improvised” could very well have been composed specifically to make it sound that way. And something that “sounds composed” could’ve been improvised. I’m not sure there is much of a distinction between the two other than the way in which they’re created. The only difference is in what happens when the person making the music is making the music. They only matter in that moment. Afterwards the difference between them doesn’t matter much, because there’s no way of knowing.
There’s no definitive test to see whether a piece of music was composed or improvised. There’s no musical way to tell. There are some characteristics that are commonly thought of as being characteristics of “composed music” or characteristics of “improvised music”, but they aren’t exclusively one or the other. The only distinguishing characteristic between the two is something that has nothing to do with how the result sounds. What music is produced isn’t affected by it.
There are musical traditions that more commonly involve composing or improvising so you might be able to use that as a guess, but even then there’s no real way to know, unless you ask the performer. The only person that knows whether something was composed or improvised is the person that made the music. No one else will be able to authoritatively answer that question.
The reason I point this out is that I think people often get caught in saying which method of making music is “better”, but I honestly think that’s a little silly. Neither is better. What matters is whichever makes the music you want to make. If the music you want to create comes from improvising then improvise. If you prefer the music you make when composing then compose. But my guess would be that you’ll likely make music you are proud of through both means of creating. Sometimes you’ll make great music by composing. Sometimes great music will come from improvising.
I’ve got a new song coming out on September 1st called “Bd + Sn” and it has an ostinato in it. For those that are unfamiliar an ostinato is a short musical idea that is repeated throughout a song or throughout a section of a song. The word ostinato comes from the same root word as “obstinate” does and means something similar to “unchanging.”
Hence the usage of that word.
They’re common in two somewhat distant genres of music. Film music and electronic music both use ostinatos frequently. In film music they’re used because they keep the momentum going and keep the energy high. Film music needs to follow the film and sometimes there needs to be a constant sense of motion, without having much harmonic motion. That’s where ostinatos can be incredibly useful. Harmonic motion is changing chords and keys. Ostinatos provide a feeling of motion without having to have drastic harmonic changes that will draw the attention of the viewer away from the film. After all the goal of film music is to enhance the film, and the goal isn’t often to be the sole focus. The viewer should be focused on the story in the film. The film music enhances the telling of that story.
Ostinatos are great at this. They stay playing and stay “obstinate” and the same, so your ear gets accustomed to the sound of that ostinato, but they don’t take you out of the story of the film.
They’re also common in electronic music. The main way I’ve seen them used in electronic music is to play around with timbre. Timbre is the specific sound of a specific instrument being played in the specific way in which it’s being played. Basically it’s how different instruments sound. What goes into those differences is fairly complicated, but for an intro I’d recommend Andrew Huang’s video on the harmonic series. Timbre is an aspect of music that I hear being played with in electronic music quite frequently. It’s something that can be better manipulated with computers and synthesizers. Effects like filters, distortion, chorus, and flanger all make changing the timbre of a synth much easier.
One thing I’ve often seen and heard in electronic music is using one ostinato throughout a song and changing the instruments and timbre of the instruments or synths that play it. So the notes and rhythms stay the same, but the instruments change drastically throughout the song.
It’s similar to how ostinatos are used in film music in a lot of ways. They both might add layers on top of the ostinato, which put the ostinato into a different context. They both might move the ostinato around between instruments and change the timbre of those instruments.
Ostinatos can be a very useful tool when composing because they allow you to write in a different way than thinking of chord progressions and melodies. Ostinatos force you to think of textures and chunks of music and different ways to vary one idea.
September 1st is my birthday. So I’m releasing a song. It’ll be titled “Bd + Sn” for “Bass drum + Snare” and it’s an industrial track I made a few years ago. It was mastered by my friend Nick Calapine and the artwork was done by me. I’ll post the artwork shortly.
As a teacher I often hear the question, “How is this going to be useful?” And I don’t just hear it from students. I hear it from adults some times too.
But that question is missing the point of why people should learn about the arts and about music. Trying to make some strange reason why learning about art and learning to appreciate music is “useful” misses the whole point of learning about it.
It’s worth learning about it’s something that you’re interested in learning about. And music, art, literature, and every subject will have plenty of people that are interested just in learning about them.
One of the strangest reasons to teach music is “learning music improves math skills.” I understand the people that are saying this likely have good intentions, but I think it’s a strange and misguided way to say that “learning music is worthwhile.” If the only reason to learn or teach music is because it improves your math skills, then people should practice more math and not learn music. Working on math will improve your math skills more than learning about music. 12Tone has a great video about this topic that I suggest everyone check out.
Learning music is worthwhile on it’s own.
Having a deeper understanding and appreciation of music will allow you to listen to and appreciate more music over your whole lifetime. It opens up a whole new world of enjoying music. You’ll hear all types of music in different ways.
I personally don’t think everyone should be forced to learn about music and take multiple music theory classes. But having the option for the students that are interested, and there will always be people interested, is the goal. Music is worthwhile to learn about if it’s something you’re interested in, therefore it should be available for the students that are interested in it.
One of the things that’s helped keep me motivated to make music is to keep making music. The other day I wanted to work on some music, but I didn’t have much time so I set a timer for 25 minutes and pulled up an old song and edited it for 25 minutes. I didn’t write anything new, but I worked on some new music. I kept making music.
I didn’t really feel like writing that day, but I didn’t want that to keep me from making music. How you feel about making music shouldn’t prevent you from making music.
If you want to be someone that makes music then keep doing it. Keep making music.
Even if you don’t feel like it. Even if nothing sounds good that day. Even if you don’t have much time. Take even just a few minutes and make music.
It’ll keep the momentum going and it’ll keep you creative. You won’t ever feel rusty if you keep doing it. You’ll always be in practice and you won’t have to refamiliarize yourself with the tools that you’re using.
Some days when you don’t feel like writing maybe take some time and work on other aspects of making music. Work on mixing a song that you’ve already finished. Create .wav files or .mp3 files of a song you’re working on. Post old songs on Soundcloud. Take some time to figure out album artwork for a song that you’re planning on releasing. Find something related to music to work on so that you keep making music in some way.
I’m not good at this so this post is partially me reminding myself to do this.
But after you finish a draft of a song or piece of music try to give yourself a few days or even a week away from that piece of music. Give yourself some time to work on something else and not focus on that piece.
You’ll come back fresh and with a slightly different perspective. I also think it helps you forget some of the things that get in your head when writing. You might hyper focus on something while writing that you end up not noticing or forgetting about.
This means, to me, that it wasn’t as big of a deal as you originally thought. So when you forget about it and don’t notice it, it could’ve been that you were listening to that one piece of music so many times that you noticed every tiny little thing and made each one of those things into a big deal.
Try it with your music. The times I’ve tried it I always come back to the music much more fresh and ready to write and with new ideas and a slightly different perspective.
I was listening to “Spring Frost” by Brian Eno this morning and that piece of music is a somewhat simple texture. Most of the song is similar in texture to a solo piano piece, with some type of accompaniment and a melody on top of that. It’s a very pretty song.
Instead of being played on a piano though it’s played on some type of synthesizer that sounds similar to an electric piano, with some added synthesized textures in the background.
If the piece were taken to the piano it would lose a lot of it’s original appeal and flavor to me. I think it’s a beautiful piece of music, but many of the things that make it beautiful are the synthesized and electronic elements being added.
Timbre is what is being explored. This piece explores different timbres and uses timbral differences between the sections and that keeps me interested in the music.
For those that may be unfamiliar with what “timbre” is, timbre is the specific sound of a specific instrument. “Happy Birthday” played on a violin will sound different than if that exact song and notes and rhythms are played on a piano or a flute or a guitar. Some instruments may sound timbrally more similar than others, but those instruments will sound different even if they played the same song. That difference in sound is called timbre or tone color.
I’ve noticed that this is a common thing in much of popular music. Timbre is playing a larger role, especially if the music is electronic in some way. Electronics allow timbre to be changed and played with in a lot of different ways. There’s almost an endless number of ways to change timbre. The more you understand music synthesis and production, the more you can change the timber of your music.
And it’s a great way to add some type of large change and keep a piece interesting, without having to change the chords or the melody.
Chords and melody are only two aspects of music after all. Rhythm and timbre are also two aspects of music that can be changed as well.
I’m currently trying to find ideas for blog posts and for YouTube videos (subscribe if you haven’t already). Normally I like to brainstorm as many different ideas as I can think of. I’ll put a timer on and just write down as many as I can in that time period. Afterwards I’ll go through and select the ones that seem both fun and worth making. Most of the time that’s a good amount.
But currently I’m going to try a new approach. I’m going to take a look at trends.google.com and see what common searches are. That way I can see what people are searching for, choose which ones seem interesting to me, and write those specific blog posts. I haven’t ever tried this approach before. So I figure it’s worth trying.
Sometimes I get stuck in doing things in the exact same way. But it can be useful to look for other methods outside of those accepted methods.
Something that I often have my students do is isolate small pieces of technique.
For example if you have trouble changing between two chords I recommend my students practice only that. No playing. No strumming. Just switching between the chords. It feels a little strange to do this, but I do it and have my students do it because it isolates that movement. I think of it kind of like exercising those tiny muscles in your hands. You need to remember the exact shape of these two chords and how your fingers need to move to switch between them. So practice just that tiny movement between those chords.
The same could be said for strumming on guitar. The same could also be said for scalar runs on piano or rhythms.
If a specific strumming pattern is difficult practice “strumming” on your thigh. Rather than dealing with chord changes and holding the guitar and playing a chord, practice just that exact strumming pattern.
If one scalar pattern is tricky practice just that scalar pattern. Practice the finger pattern on your leg or something without having to deal with the actual piano. Isolate it and practice it separately.
If a specific rhythm is difficult, clap or tap that rhythm. Don’t practice with an instrument. Just work on that specific rhythm. Clapping and tapping your foot can be a great way to practice it. Counting and clapping is another great way to practice.
But try to isolate small pieces of technique to practice them separately to improve that specific thing.
It can help improve it faster because you aren’t also working on something else.
If you’re practicing playing guitar and there’s one specific piece of a technique that’s difficult then isolate it.