Week 1
In the first blog, The piece that I am creating contains 10 measures with 15 instruments creating a grand total of 150 measures. Along with the 150 measures there are over 3040 measures with 38 parts, and 80 measures per part. These numbers will change over the time of the project when new melodic ideas come to mind. The video starts as the brass and some percussive parts make a more ominous tone to give the piece depth, meaning, and a story.
The key parts of a sturdy and structured piece is a good bass sound which creates a great foundation if played with proper tone and volume. Above the bass voices are the tenor voice which adds more structure and a high pitched harmonious tone. Next in the chain is the Alto voices which create a soft melody or counter- melody. This tone in the piece can create the most shape in volume and in the emphasis of a note or chord. Finally at the top of the pyramid is the Soprano voices which create the highest pitch. This pitch creates the melodic parts of a piece and can make a piece push forward, fall back, or stay with the tempo.
In the piece, The main part so far is the low brass, percussion, minor horn inclusion. The piece will start with a soft melodic chime by the tubular bells, followed by the low brass, and low winds creating a creepy, mellow rumble. Once the brass are cut off, the woodwind will take over with a light, and delicate melodic tone. There will be great differences in volume and shape with forte pianos, crescendos, various decrescendos. With good balance, blend and a melodic voice, a powerful piece can be orchestrated.
The key parts of a sturdy and structured piece is a good bass sound which creates a great foundation if played with proper tone and volume. Above the bass voices are the tenor voice which adds more structure and a high pitched harmonious tone. Next in the chain is the Alto voices which create a soft melody or counter- melody. This tone in the piece can create the most shape in volume and in the emphasis of a note or chord. Finally at the top of the pyramid is the Soprano voices which create the highest pitch. This pitch creates the melodic parts of a piece and can make a piece push forward, fall back, or stay with the tempo.
In the piece, The main part so far is the low brass, percussion, minor horn inclusion. The piece will start with a soft melodic chime by the tubular bells, followed by the low brass, and low winds creating a creepy, mellow rumble. Once the brass are cut off, the woodwind will take over with a light, and delicate melodic tone. There will be great differences in volume and shape with forte pianos, crescendos, various decrescendos. With good balance, blend and a melodic voice, a powerful piece can be orchestrated.
Week 2
When composing music, a musician may change around the the instrumentation to follow the style they are striving for. Style is the next key part to think about when composing a piece of music. The style of a piece is what gives it character and direction. Without any direction or shaping a piece will be boring and make a person fall asleep. To allow for a good style in a piece is if there are musicality components such as Shaping, Balance, Blending within sections or the band itself, Phrasing, and most important of all Energy.
A good musician has all of these components which together with a band can create, shape, and place a piece cleanly, while flowing and creating an overall shape and direction. This week I ended up changing the overall style of the piece, although it may not sound like much, it will build over the time of the final 10 weeks. By then the piece will be recognized as a piece, not a jumble of notes. The first 6 weeks is going to be the preparation weeks, while the last twelve weeks will be development of the notes with the melody. With a developed melody a piece can be musical.
Once the melody is created, the notes will be recognized as a piece. The chart below shows how each of the partials of the piece fit together, while also determining the key signature of the piece will be. The key signature is another important component to a well developed piece. A key signature allow a musician to tell how a pitch will sound when played, along with knowing how that pitch fits inn with the rest of the measures. The piece is still in the start of the development phase and will soon be more melodic and flowing.
A good musician has all of these components which together with a band can create, shape, and place a piece cleanly, while flowing and creating an overall shape and direction. This week I ended up changing the overall style of the piece, although it may not sound like much, it will build over the time of the final 10 weeks. By then the piece will be recognized as a piece, not a jumble of notes. The first 6 weeks is going to be the preparation weeks, while the last twelve weeks will be development of the notes with the melody. With a developed melody a piece can be musical.
Once the melody is created, the notes will be recognized as a piece. The chart below shows how each of the partials of the piece fit together, while also determining the key signature of the piece will be. The key signature is another important component to a well developed piece. A key signature allow a musician to tell how a pitch will sound when played, along with knowing how that pitch fits inn with the rest of the measures. The piece is still in the start of the development phase and will soon be more melodic and flowing.
Week 3
In week three the main goal is to fix some of the parts that do not blend well together while also adding the melodic part of the piece which will soon be followed by the bass and percussive parts. The main part of composition in a piece of music is the correct use of a balance and blend within each instrument, section, group, and the full ensemble. To acquire good balance and blend in a piece, a composer will heavily use chords.
Chords are used in a variety of ways, that being in vocalist or in an instrumentalist. A chord in any form of music can allow for direction in that piece, A chord is any note that are in intervals of 1, 3, and 5. Those notes can be with any bit of sharps, flats, or naturals. For example: A chord can be the notes Ab, C, and Eb; or Bb, D, F. These chord follow the same pattern in vocalist but as Do, Re, Mi; or se, le, te. When each note or pitch is played together, they harmonize to create one clean and fluid pitch. It also allows a musician to determine a wave in the sound which can determine whether the musician is sharp, flat, or in tune.
As I am a fourth of the way through the project many more changes will occur such as the dynamics, chords, pitches, instrumentalist cues, and various other musicality techniques that will improve the overall sound of the piece and better improve the musicians tone and musicality. Once the first six weeks are over, there should be more concrete measures and parts being played, but parts in a composers piece are always subjected to change even after publication of the piece, so that it will fit the style of the musicians playing the parts.
Chords are used in a variety of ways, that being in vocalist or in an instrumentalist. A chord in any form of music can allow for direction in that piece, A chord is any note that are in intervals of 1, 3, and 5. Those notes can be with any bit of sharps, flats, or naturals. For example: A chord can be the notes Ab, C, and Eb; or Bb, D, F. These chord follow the same pattern in vocalist but as Do, Re, Mi; or se, le, te. When each note or pitch is played together, they harmonize to create one clean and fluid pitch. It also allows a musician to determine a wave in the sound which can determine whether the musician is sharp, flat, or in tune.
As I am a fourth of the way through the project many more changes will occur such as the dynamics, chords, pitches, instrumentalist cues, and various other musicality techniques that will improve the overall sound of the piece and better improve the musicians tone and musicality. Once the first six weeks are over, there should be more concrete measures and parts being played, but parts in a composers piece are always subjected to change even after publication of the piece, so that it will fit the style of the musicians playing the parts.
Week 4
As the project is a third of the way done, many acoustic parts will change to better fit the melody and style. The full and attempted style of the piece is to divided into three parts. The first part being a slow melodic bell, chime, and bass rumble that represents a grandfather clock clicking and ready to chime its hourly bells. Then it will shift to a faster, more upbeat tone and sound that will give the audience some energy after being relaxed by the sections before. Finally ending with the melody that is slow and develops back into a fast, upbeat, and energetic finish with the last note ending in a chord that makes a ring sound in a Dome type pattern.
Music can be classified into any of six number categories and a separate category that is not represented by a number. Grade 1- 4 are more middle school and freshman level music that shows their development and skill level. While grade 5- 6 is for mid- high school, and the highest level that can be played is a masterwork. A masterwork is two grade six pieces in one song. This allows for a high up high school or college band to test their strengths and weaknesses, while showing major maturity within the musicians playing patterns.
A piece has many components that build its structure and make a platform or base that the piece can build on as seen below. As a piece builds in structure, it must develop a shape or form, as mention in previous weeks. Without shape there would be no enjoyment of the piece. As the week progresses, many bits in structure will change, giving the piece direction.
Music can be classified into any of six number categories and a separate category that is not represented by a number. Grade 1- 4 are more middle school and freshman level music that shows their development and skill level. While grade 5- 6 is for mid- high school, and the highest level that can be played is a masterwork. A masterwork is two grade six pieces in one song. This allows for a high up high school or college band to test their strengths and weaknesses, while showing major maturity within the musicians playing patterns.
A piece has many components that build its structure and make a platform or base that the piece can build on as seen below. As a piece builds in structure, it must develop a shape or form, as mention in previous weeks. Without shape there would be no enjoyment of the piece. As the week progresses, many bits in structure will change, giving the piece direction.
Week 5
In this week I try and tackle more of the bass and percussive part while tweaking the melodic lines, along with that I will add more measures into the piece to give it more shape, volume, contrast, dynamics, and overall a direction that the piece should travel in. In this weeks composition I hope to not change the piece in the way it is styled, but add on to what already being orchestrated on the page.
When a composer is writing a piece of music they focus on 9 key components that will improve a piece overall. Those nine aspects of music are tempo, rhythm, beat, melody, timbre, form, harmony, dynamics, and meter; not including the factors of style, balance, blend, and proper sight reading. Although the four that i mentioned are on the picture below, they are still equally important in forming a piece, that is not saying that there are not other factors that go along with this to improve a piece, but these nine are the aspects that are going to be tackled this week of my composition.
What are these nine factors and what do they have to do with music, its simple. The tempo is the speed at which a passage of music is or should be played or how fast a conductor takes the piece. The rhythm is a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. The beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse in an arrangement. The melody is a sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying. The timbre is the character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from its pitch and intensity. The form is the overall structure or plan of a piece of music. The harmony is the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect. Dynamics are how loud or quiet the music is. Finally the meter is a recurring pattern of stresses or accents that provide the pulse or beat of music.
When a composer is writing a piece of music they focus on 9 key components that will improve a piece overall. Those nine aspects of music are tempo, rhythm, beat, melody, timbre, form, harmony, dynamics, and meter; not including the factors of style, balance, blend, and proper sight reading. Although the four that i mentioned are on the picture below, they are still equally important in forming a piece, that is not saying that there are not other factors that go along with this to improve a piece, but these nine are the aspects that are going to be tackled this week of my composition.
What are these nine factors and what do they have to do with music, its simple. The tempo is the speed at which a passage of music is or should be played or how fast a conductor takes the piece. The rhythm is a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. The beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse in an arrangement. The melody is a sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying. The timbre is the character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from its pitch and intensity. The form is the overall structure or plan of a piece of music. The harmony is the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect. Dynamics are how loud or quiet the music is. Finally the meter is a recurring pattern of stresses or accents that provide the pulse or beat of music.
Week 6
As week 6 begins we are now halfway through the project and the learning experience. In week six I hope to finalize some of the melodic parts of the piece and make it concrete. The piece will incorporate some of the parts of music theory that was introduce last week to further progress the melodic part of it. This week the key concept in music theory that will be heavily used is going to be rhythm and dynamics.
Rhythm can be broken up into a series of parts that exist when used with a note. The note will determine a certain rhythm by how fast or slow the note is being played. There are levels to the note they consist of whole notes which is 4 beats. A beat is the duration of a note in a rhythm. The half note is as in the name half of the whole note which lasts for two beats. The quarter note is a quarter of the whole note which last for one beat. The eighth not is an eighth of the whole note which is held out for a half of the beat. The sixteenth note is a sixteenth of a whole note which is held for a fourth of one beat. The increments get progressively smaller the faster you get it doubles. 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 16th, 32nd, 64th, 128th, etc. The rhythm is just the series in which these notes and the speed are played.
Dynamics are a key factor in music, for they determine the shape at which the piece is being played. Shaping a piece gives it a sense of direction so that the piece when played doesn't fall flat and become boring to the audience and to the musicians playing it. Dynamics consist of multiple parts as well ranging from pp being the quietest mf being the middle and ff being the loudest. PP means pianissimo or light and soft with big air usage. MF means mezzo forte of moderate volume. FF means fortissimo which means full or with volume but light. Both of these concepts and the part that go together with them better form and shape a piece to being something that want to be heard and played.
Rhythm can be broken up into a series of parts that exist when used with a note. The note will determine a certain rhythm by how fast or slow the note is being played. There are levels to the note they consist of whole notes which is 4 beats. A beat is the duration of a note in a rhythm. The half note is as in the name half of the whole note which lasts for two beats. The quarter note is a quarter of the whole note which last for one beat. The eighth not is an eighth of the whole note which is held out for a half of the beat. The sixteenth note is a sixteenth of a whole note which is held for a fourth of one beat. The increments get progressively smaller the faster you get it doubles. 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 16th, 32nd, 64th, 128th, etc. The rhythm is just the series in which these notes and the speed are played.
Dynamics are a key factor in music, for they determine the shape at which the piece is being played. Shaping a piece gives it a sense of direction so that the piece when played doesn't fall flat and become boring to the audience and to the musicians playing it. Dynamics consist of multiple parts as well ranging from pp being the quietest mf being the middle and ff being the loudest. PP means pianissimo or light and soft with big air usage. MF means mezzo forte of moderate volume. FF means fortissimo which means full or with volume but light. Both of these concepts and the part that go together with them better form and shape a piece to being something that want to be heard and played.
Week 7
In week 7 the main focus is to bring more instrumentation to the piece and to add in the much needed amount of dynamics. Dynamics are an essential part of a piece, for dynamics are the parts in music that drive the piece and give it a sense of direction. If there are no dynamics then the piece can fall apart or fall short of being phenomenal. Music is like water and the dynamics are the current and the the wave. With out a wave or in this case dynamics, the water or piece doesn't go anywhere. The piece just remains stagnant, no direction, and just straight up boring.
There is a range to dynamics, that range is from really quiet increments such as piano or the softest that musician can play is the piananissimo or ppp and it goes in increments such as piananissimo being the quietest, then pp, then piano or p, mezzo piano or mp, mezzo forte or mf, forte or f, fortissimo or ff, and then fff which is the loudest but must be played with good tone. If there is bad tone with the quieter or louder note that can risk having the musician be blasting or splatting when to loud, and go flat when to soft and about to run out of air.
The key to knowing how to watch for bad use of dynamics is to do one of three things. One, if you are in a band setting then you as musician should watch and follow as the band director instructs you or the ensemble to do. Two, the major part to anything is to do two things listen and watch. Third and finally the key thing to do to keep from the use of bad dynamic contrast is to just blend your sound to other and just shape the piece, allow the piece to grow from more than what is just on the page.
There is a range to dynamics, that range is from really quiet increments such as piano or the softest that musician can play is the piananissimo or ppp and it goes in increments such as piananissimo being the quietest, then pp, then piano or p, mezzo piano or mp, mezzo forte or mf, forte or f, fortissimo or ff, and then fff which is the loudest but must be played with good tone. If there is bad tone with the quieter or louder note that can risk having the musician be blasting or splatting when to loud, and go flat when to soft and about to run out of air.
The key to knowing how to watch for bad use of dynamics is to do one of three things. One, if you are in a band setting then you as musician should watch and follow as the band director instructs you or the ensemble to do. Two, the major part to anything is to do two things listen and watch. Third and finally the key thing to do to keep from the use of bad dynamic contrast is to just blend your sound to other and just shape the piece, allow the piece to grow from more than what is just on the page.
Week 8
In week 8 we are two thirds of the way through the project and to finish the understanding of the melody, harmony, and bass; there has to be a way to understand how they are structured. As the picture below shows some of the ways composers of any type of music can write a piece or song. Like in classical, instrumental music, a musician that wants to write a song use some of the same techniques. This allows a musician and composer to build a story or path for the music to go. Along that, it allows the listener to build their own story of the music.
Week 9
In week 9 I am three fourths of the way done with the piece. Which in this week I am mainly focusing on developing more of the melody to fit in with the harmony that is in place. We have already the basics of a melody and what they consist of, now we will move on to the middle support of the piece that is in between the bass and the melody, the harmony.
A harmony is made up of two parts as seen below, a parallel harmony and a none parallel harmony. A parallel harmony is just as it sound, a harmony where the first, third, and fifth notes are all on a line or in between, this allows the piece to be consistent and create a beautiful major chord. The opposite goes with the Non- Parallel harmony where just like the parallel harmony is parallel or consistent, the Non- parallel harmony is not. The first, third and fifth note are not on the same interval of on the line or in between. Although they are not consistent, two of the notes will always be on the same interval while the other note is the opposite since that is how a bar goes. The line are in a duple pattern, either flat/ natural or sharp. This change of notes to be on opposite intervals of each other allows a band or musician to play a minor, more dreary chord, note or pattern.
When and if done properly the two types of harmonies can allow for a strong, structured support for the melody and a good build up of the bass´ base. This technique of interval notes can be used in any of the parts in the piece besides just the harmony, as long it is not a mix or minor and major chord progression in the same measures between parts.
A harmony is made up of two parts as seen below, a parallel harmony and a none parallel harmony. A parallel harmony is just as it sound, a harmony where the first, third, and fifth notes are all on a line or in between, this allows the piece to be consistent and create a beautiful major chord. The opposite goes with the Non- Parallel harmony where just like the parallel harmony is parallel or consistent, the Non- parallel harmony is not. The first, third and fifth note are not on the same interval of on the line or in between. Although they are not consistent, two of the notes will always be on the same interval while the other note is the opposite since that is how a bar goes. The line are in a duple pattern, either flat/ natural or sharp. This change of notes to be on opposite intervals of each other allows a band or musician to play a minor, more dreary chord, note or pattern.
When and if done properly the two types of harmonies can allow for a strong, structured support for the melody and a good build up of the bass´ base. This technique of interval notes can be used in any of the parts in the piece besides just the harmony, as long it is not a mix or minor and major chord progression in the same measures between parts.