Anyone who has studied music history knows that musicians have been theorizing about music for millennia. However, that theory has not always served as the basis for musical training. In particular, many classical composers did not learn “music theory” as contemporary musicians typically understand it. Reconstructing how composers used to be taught has been a major facet […]
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What I Wish Someone Told Me about Music Theory
[Ed. — After publishing this post, I discovered that many readers were misreading my intent and were unfamiliar with the background of my critique. Accordingly, I added and tweaked several paragraphs below and wrote an additional post. New readers may want to start by reading that subsequent post, “How Composers Used To — and Could […]
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The Courage to Commit
A few days ago, composer Dan Forrest asked a great question in the American Choral Composers Forum: These are two great questions: How do you know you’ve found “a really beautiful and worthwhile musical idea” How do balance the “courage to commit to an idea that might be good” vs. “enough awareness” to abandon an […]
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Hymn Arrangement Study Party, Part 2: Workshop Replay (10/05/21)
Here are the highlights from the above replay: Part 1 — Simple Harmonization 0:00: Essentials of chords — Blocked, Broken/Arpeggiated, Inverted, Embellished Arpeggiations, and Embellished Blocks 6:55: How (nearly) all tonal melodies embellish the tonic chord, with “If I Listen With My Heart” as a specific example (audio on YouTube) 10:50: The “quick and dirty” method […]
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Onions and Ogres—and Music
So what DO onions and music (and ogres) have in common? . . . Layers! Layers are the key component of “melody and accompaniment” textures I wrote about earlier this week. This week I’ve been thinking a lot about texture — the layers of activity in a passage of music and the relationships between these […]
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Hymn Arrangement Study Party, Part 1: Workshop Replay (9/28/21)
Here are the highlights from the above replay: 0:00: Welcome, Introductions, and Reviewing Ryan Murphy’s arrangement of “If I Listen With My Heart.” See — Sally DeFord’s Original Version PDF Ryan Murphy’s Arrangement PDF Tabernacle Choir recording (YouTube) 11:20: How DeFord makes her melody easy to remember using Rhythmic Motives 20:00: Introduction to “Melodic Voices” […]
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Five Tips for Writing a Good Piano Accompaniment
So you’re writing a piece with piano accompaniment. You’re probably wondering, “What do I do with the piano?” Many singers and non–keyboard-playing instrumentalists find it easy to come up with melodies, but when it comes times to create a keyboard accompaniment, they get stuck. Even pianists themselves sometimes might feel a little overwhelmed. Here are […]
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Farmers Beat Composers at this One Thing
If you’re like most composers, when you sit down at your desk or think about what you’re going to work on tomorrow, you probably think some variation of “It’s time to compose!” You may get a little more specific, like “I need to write this passage” or “that movement” or “this cue.” But generally that’s […]
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The Bell Curve Lies about Your Impact
As creators, whenever we share what matters to us, especially what we create, we feel vulnerable. Here’s a key principle that can help soften the blow. Whatever you share will receive a spectrum of responses — it’s a classic bell curve. This bell curve lies about the worth of your work. Or, rather, if you […]
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Own Your Voice: Workshop Replay (8/31/21)
In the above replay, we discuss: How Artistic Voice is bigger than “style” or “technique” The four parts of an Artistic Voice — “The Chorale of the Empowered Composer” Stories (the “Soprano”) Process (the “Alto”) Technique (the “Tenor”) Relationships (the “Bass”) The typical reasons composers do NOT own their voice, but rather hide . . […]
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