Everyone says “it’s a marathon not a sprint” making a career as a musician.
That’s true. Overall it is a marathon. It’s a long journey.
But sometimes you’re going to have to sprint. You’ll have quick deadlines and projects that need to be done quickly.
So don’t forget about sprinting all together.
Sometimes you have to sprint.
ISJ
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Getting into music composition can be a daunting task, especially if you’ve never done it before, but it’s simple. You’ll need a few things first like an instrument (or music sequencer) that you can play or use fairly comfortably, some knowledge of music, and some idea of what you want to write.
The main thing is to keep it simple.
I’d suggest writing music that’s tonal in a key that you know well and a time signature you know well.
My suggestions are 4/4 and C major.
The first way I’d recommend you start writing music is by replacing a melody over a chord progression that you enjoy. Start with an accompaniment + melody type of texture.
Take a chord progression from a song you like. It could be the four chord song (I V vi IV – OR – C G Am F) or any other chord progression you enjoy. I suggest a chord loop that’s around 4 bars long and doesn’t have more than a handful of chords. You want something that’s simple when you start out.
Then try writing a simple half note melody. Or even whole notes. Maybe quarter notes if you’re comfortable.
But keep it simple.
Once you’ve done that, congrats. You’re a composer now.
After that it’s just a matter of writing and writing and writing and writing and writing.
Keep doing it until you get the results that you want.
Rinse and repeat.
ISJ
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And when you question authority you should be looking for evidence and the process for how they came to their conclusion. If those are valid and logical then you’ve gotten your answer.
If those aren’t logical and aren’t valid, then there’s a problem.
Someone being an authority on something doesn’t make their statements true.
Ask questions. Learn how they reached the conclusion that they reached.
In music this means questioning the reasoning behind picking certain examples. It means questioning why certain composers are reused and replayed. It means questioning why people won certain awards. It means questioning why we analyze music in the way we do. It means questioning why we talk about music in the way we do.
You’ll find a variety of reasons. Some will be valid. Others won’t.
That’s why you question authority.
ISJ
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I enjoy listening to music by Charles Ives, Paul Hindemith, Igor Stravinsky, and I’ve recently started listening to Stan Kenton’s music. Basically I enjoy atonal music a lot and I’m especially interested in music that often sounds like chaos.
Now I’m not just interested in it because I like the sound of chaos, but because I’ve written music that sounds like chaos. It’s much harder than you’d think.
It’s not just about writing a bunch of random notes and random rhythms. Counter-intuitively that’ll end up sounding too controlled. That won’t sound chaotic enough.
Some things will eventually line up and some of the dissonance and chaos you’re trying to create will be gone.
So you need to choose the exact ‘wrong’ notes to be able to write a piece of music that sounds chaotic.
In order to do that you need to know the ‘right’ notes … and you need to avoid them.
You also need to choose rhythms that don’t match up, which is often hard to play and hard to write. It might mean that you write polyrhythms, or creatively use 16th notes and triplets. Often just a 3:2 polyrhythm will create a chaotic texture if the notes are chosen correctly.
Philip Glass’s piece “Mad Rush” uses a 3:2 polyrhythm quite often.
But if you chose the right ‘wrong’ notes and the right ‘wrong’ rhythms, you’ll have a chaotic texture like Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata.
ISJ
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Often I have my students practice just the two beats of a transition between two sections in a piece of music.
Transitions can be difficult to play, especially when there are large changes in groove or rhythm or key.
Practice those on their own.
Just two beats.
Over and over.
Put a timer on and play only those two measures for two minutes.
See how much better you are at playing through that transition after those two minutes.
ISJ
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I was teaching one of my students about move-able ‘do’ solfege and we were talking about the tendency tones. Specifically “ti” to “do” and “fa” to “mi”. He then asked, “Aren’t those the same interval? Can’t they be the same thing kind of?”
If you’re unfamiliar with solfege check out this video I made on solfege. Solfege is an italian naming system for the scale degrees within a major scale. It relates to the scale degrees of a major scale without referencing specific notes on the keyboard.
So I told him that solfege was contextual. The specific notes change depending on the context within solfege. An F# can be do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, or ti depending on context. It can be any of those. What changes is the key center.
Music is the same.
The music created by one specific composer can sound different depending on the context within which the music was created.
The music created by somebody today is being created in a completely different context than music being created 300 years ago.
Remember that context when analyzing music.
ISJ
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When a piece has dynamics that you want to bring out and really accentuate, try exaggerating them.
Rather than playing piano and forte, play piano as pianississimo (ppp) and play forte as fortississimo (fff). Make them the extremes. Pull them up and down to make them more exaggerated.
You’ll play in a much larger dynamic range than before.
It’ll make them much more pronounced.
And it’ll help you practice playing with dynamics because you’re focusing specifically on them.
ISJ
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When you’re practicing a piece of music, regardless of what the music is like, try looping a measure or two.
Play those two measures over and over again. Play them as if you’re a broken record looping those two measures. Keep playing them until they’re more comfortable and easier to play.
I use this technique while practicing all the time and it helps a lot.
It can help you play that one transition that always gives you trouble so much better. And it does it quickly.
I’ll often do this and put a timer on my phone. I’ll set a timer for one to two minutes and loop one or two measures for those minutes. I don’t play anything else.
After those two minutes you’ll be significantly better at playing those two measures.
ISJ
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ISJ
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