Something I do with my music is to add multiple simple layers to a sound. Even when creating one synth I’ll add one layer that just adds distortion, and another layer that adds chorus and flanger, and another layer that just adds a different reverb. Doing that can create a sound that’s much more interesting because it has these different elements and aspects to it.
You could think about this same idea with compositions. Adding another simple layer like a pedal to a song where that works could add another level of interest into the composition.
The layers don’t need to be complicated either. They can be really simple, like the examples above, but adding those different aspects will make the song more interesting because you’re adding different things to listen to. Simple is good, but even the sound of an acoustic piano has different aspects to it.
“Someone once asked me, in a public forum, whether I waited for inspiration. My answer was: “Every day!” But that does not, by any means, imply a passive waiting around for the divine afflatus. That is exactly what separates the professional from the dilettante. The professional composer can sit down day after day and turn out some kind of music. On some days it will undoubtedly be better than on others; but the primary fact is the ability to compose. Inspiration is often only a by-product.”
It stood out to me because this is what being a composer means to me. Writing music. It might not always be good music or music that you’re proud of or music that you want to release, but writing music is the main thing that needs to be done.
And just that act of writing music will lead to that music being good.
How can you ever learn to write music if you never write music?
Writing music is the practice that you need. You get better at playing piano and guitar by playing both of those instruments so you get better at writing music by writing music. Maybe you throw away a lot of the ideas. I’ve definitely done that. I’ve written music and thrown it in the trash or forgotten it or just moved on because I didn’t think it was any good. But I still wrote it. I got the ideas out and moved on.
Not all the music you write has to be good right away. You just need to be able to curate it and pick and choose the parts that are worth releasing and worth putting out into the world. And eventually, you’ll get better at doing that.
It’s also encouraging as a composer to hear someone like Aaron Copland say that. Inspiration is a by-product. Inspiration is not this magical thing that you need to get started.
Start. Then maybe you’ll get inspired.
I’ve definitely noticed that in my own music. Some days I’ll just say to myself, “I want to make a track.” So I’ll sit at my keyboard and play around until I find something cool and expand on it and use that for the track. I have two songs coming out next year called “Powerless” and “Caffeinated” and I wasn’t inspired when I wrote them. I just wanted to write some music and got inspired in the process.
Get someone else to work on your music before you release it. If you can afford to hire someone, hire someone. If you’re friend knows how to master music, see if they can give you some tips. If they know how to mix music, see if they’ve got some advice.
I always have someone else master my music and I’m always happy with the results. I don’t know much about mastering and I’m happy I can get someone else to hear it and add something to it before it’s released.
You’ve heard that song over and over and over and over. The other person hasn’t. They don’t understand every single piece of the music as intricately as you. They also haven’t heard all of the other versions of the song. They’ll be able to add something new to it specifically for those reasons.
They’re also not as close to the music as you. It’s a more personal thing for you to release your own music. For them it’s not their own personal music. They can listen more objectively to it and add to it in a different way than you can.
Have other people add to your music before you release it.
I’ve been writing a blog post every day for a little bit. I think I’ve only missed one week so far.
So far I highly recommend it. It’s gotten me to think a little more critically about music and think about my specific opinions about music.
It’s also gotten me to appreciate music in a different way than I did before. I’m starting to focus more on what I enjoy about music, and what I like about listening to, analyzing, and composing music. I’m thinking more about what I want to share about music.
Happy thanksgiving. Even though the evidence supporting the stories of thanksgiving is questionable at best (nonexistent at worst), thanking people that have been kind to you and being grateful for whatever gifts you’ve been given is always good.
Today I’m thankful for my family and friends supporting me in pursuing music, and all of the privileges that I’ve had in my life. I’m grateful for all the teachers I’ve had and all of the support I’ve gotten.
I hope you have something to be grateful for today too.
I recently learned about Julia Cameron’s idea of “morning pages” and I’ve started using that idea with music.
Every day, write something. Even if it’s garbage. I’m just using a manuscript notebook that I have and I won’t be posting all of them, but I’ll write them.
I’m on day 4 right now and so far it’s great. It keeps me thinking of new music and thinking of new ideas, even if they’re not great ideas. But it keeps me writing.
So give it a try with me. Write something every day. Even if it ends up being garbage.
Today’s video is about modal interchange, or mode mixture, or borrowed chords. If you get bored of using the same chord progressions and always using diatonic harmony then check this video out. We can use chords from parallel modes to add some extra flavor and spice into our music. It’ll change up your chord progressions so they aren’t always the same exact notes.
People often listen to music or play music during events, but what can we actually listen for in music? There’s a great book by the composer Aaron Copland titled What to Listen for in Music that you can check out. It has lots of musical examples, though you’ll have to find them yourself as it doesn’t come with a CD.
Let’s talk about why we might want to do this.
To quote Aaron Copland’s book
“Listening to music is a skill that is acquired through experience and learning. Knowledge enhances enjoyment.”
I definitely agree. The more I learn about music and the more music I listen to, the more I enjoy listening to music, regardless of genre. The more I learn about music, the more I enjoy it. This may not be you, and that’s fine. But then this post isn’t for you. Here aresome ofmy otherpostsyoumightenjoy.
So what are some things we can think about while listening?
A few things we can listen for are the four main aspects of music. These would be melody, rhythm, harmony, and timbre. I’ve got other blog posts on all of these things so definitely take a look at those.
We can also ask ourselves a few questions.
These are taken from Aaron Copland’s book.
“Are you hearing everything that is going on?”
“Are you really being sensitive to it?”
He then puts it another way.
“Are you missing anything as far as the notes themselves are concerned?”
“Is your reaction a confused one, or are you quite clarified as to your emotional response?”
The way I think about these questions is similar. So let’s take each question separately.
The first question.
“Are you hearing everything that is going on?”
Can you hear all of the different instruments and sounds in the music? And can you hear what they are doing individually?
Is it hard to pay attention to just the bass? Or just the drumbeat?
This one is mainly just about noticing the different parts of the music. This can be quite difficult if you’ve never tried. Picking apart a song and hearing each different instrument can be a weird thing to do.
One way to practice this is by going from top to bottom or bottom to top. Try to hear the highest pitched instruments first. What’s all there? Then once you can do that try to hear the instruments immediately lower than those. Then the instruments playing immediately lower. Then listen to the lowest instruments. Finally, listen to the drums and percussion instruments.
Depending on what type of music you’re listening to this can be more complicated. For example, hearing all the different instruments in a rock band is likely easier than hearing all of the different instruments in an orchestra. The main reason this would be the case is that there are many more instruments in an orchestra than in a rock band.
This can also be more complicated with electronic music because there is such a large variety of possible sounds.
But the main idea stays the same. Can you hear each different instrument or piece that’s being played?
The second question.
“Are you really being sensitive to it?”
Something I like to do to start answering this question is to ask yourself “do I like it and why or why not?” That way you’re deciding for yourself if you like the piece of music, and then figuring out what in the music do you like or dislike.
Something else to ask yourself is, do you know what your reaction is to them? What does it add to the music? How does it change the emotion being conveyed?
Another thing you can do with this one is relate the current musical material back to anything that was played before it. Is it repeating something that was already played? Or is it completely new?
This can get complicated pretty quickly because musical material can be related to other musical material in so many different ways, but the main idea is the same.
But try to listen for any musical repetitions. Most music has some type of repetition, and that’s something to be aware of when you’re listening.
It could be something simple like listening for the same guitar riff. Or it can be more complicated like trying to hear a variation of that guitar riff.
If you listen to classical music or jazz music, those composers often repeat ideas, but in different ways. Jazz musicians often use the same language to solo, and classical composers often vary one or two melodies or themes throughout the song. Same thing with film music. There are themes that are repeated in different ways and varied to keep them interesting throughout the soundtrack.
Those are some things you can listen to and listen for. Hopefully, it adds to your enjoyment of music as it does for me.
Putting together music to release is a process. And part of that process is deciding that a song is finished. In order for it to be released, it needs to be finished. That means you need to decide that it’s finished. There’ll always be some other detail you want to tweak or some tiny little thing that you want to turn up or down by only a few dB. Maybe there’s an EQ that you just want to tweak a tiny bit.
Some of these things are things that need to be decided not to do. Decide that it’s done and release it. It’ll never feel done. It’ll sound good, but you’ll always have that thought of “maybe I could learn this better and then edit it.” We don’t want to do that.
Doing that will prevent you from releasing any music ever. I’ve done that too many times; waited to release something until it was just right. And I think that a lot of those details that I waited to change probably wouldn’t have been noticed by many people.
We want to release music. And in order for it to be released, we need it to be finished.