COMPOSITION & ARRANGING

All aspects of writing music for media. Composing, arranging, programming.

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Discussion, articles, resources.

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MediaMusicForum.com

COMPOSITION - TIPS AND HINTS

• Know when to use rules, and when not to
• Think of the melody as a conversation, with phrases logically following one another, possibly as questions and answers.
• Repetition, development and contrast can all be used to create and release tension, but be careful, too much repetition is boring. Too much development can become obscure and too much contrast can be disconcerting. Melody writing, like all aspects of music, is about creating tension and releasing it in the right place. You will grab the listener’s interest if the tension is not always released where expected, but holding tension for too long may not be appropriate; always be aware of the genre in which you are writing.
• If you have already conceived the chord sequence this will often tell you where the first phrase will develop, but also feel free to go somewhere else and change the chords if inspiration arrives.
• Many good tunes are very simple either rhythmically or melodically or both. Compare composing with writing poetry where one strives to say a lot with a few words.
• If you are writing a pop song try starting with a title, a riff or hook.
• The first ideas are often the best.
• Study many types of music, not just the area in which you wish to compose, and allow ideas to crossover from one style to another.
• Analyse melodies and try to find out what makes them good.
• Try inverting or reversing your melodies. Study twentieth century compositional techniques, e.g. tone rows, chance (throwing dice to choose the notes - randomising function on a sequencer).
• Force yourself to write a tune every day. Sooner or later there have to be some good ones.
• Don’t just compose with your instrument, sing or whistle as you go about your daily life and write down the good tunes. Try to remember dreams with music in them.
• Try to bring original melodic material into your improvisation rather than relying on licks and clichés. Improvisation should just be a speeded up process of composition.
• Keep a notebook, tape recorder, note down any melodic fragments
• Try to be objective. Imagine yourself not as a composer or musician but the person listening to your music for the first time. You may suddenly some superfluous passages or devices that are just there to impress people with your musical knowledge.
• It helps to be aware of your reasons for composing, whether its money, respect (self or from family and friends) fame and stardom, spiritual awareness or a desire to entertain or spread love and peace. Try and be aware of what emotions you are trying to arouse in the listener.
• Don’t use rules to merely to compose, but use them to improve a tune if you think it could be better. Composition may be up to 99% inspiration: try to learn where that inspiration comes from. Some composers get it from meditating or being at peace with the world, others from the panic of fulfilling a deadline. Everyone finds inspiration in different ways.

ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

Music is the organisation of sound into melody (pitch) and rhythm (time). This is the basic structure on which a composer (or orchestrator) will add further elements including harmony, timbre and dynamics.

Composition (on its most basic level of writing a good tune) will often involve only the rhythm and melody, however in western tonal music the melody usually implies the harmony. Exceptions to this include a lot of pop/dance or rap music of the last two decades. Traditionally a composer or composer/lyricist team wrote the basic tune (melody and rhythm) and words along with any further orchestrational development, or else would get a dedicated orchestrator to do the latter.

In vocal music either the words (lyric) or the music could be written first, or both at the same time.

Most forms of pop and jazz music combine all the above elements. The basic melody usually consists of notes of different pitches (even rapping often varies the pitch and intonation) which are organised in time (rhythm). This is usually arranged against a backing provided by a rhythm section which can consists either of musicians or a programmed track (typically drums/percussion – bass –piano/guitar). This backing often contains a complex rhythmic and melodic counterpoint to the main melody, which can be divided into three main areas:

In addition the harmonic changes can form a rhythm, ie the position and duration of harmonic changes can imply a strong rhythm, especially if a recurring pattern is implied.