Does anyone resonate or identify with the way of composing described in this video -
If anyone would like to participate in this journey in any way (details in the video), it would be great to hear from you. If not, hopefull, we'll have more videos coming soon. My next couple will probably be around Composers' Block and Dealing with Criticism. Any input/experiences you'd like to share with me in advance of making these would be really helpful.
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I'm curious what exactly you mean by "easier more accessible ways". Any specific examples?
I, for one, am always eager to find new approaches to learning (or teaching) the same material. The content is the same, but it can be presented differently, with different degrees of effectiveness.
Not really. Part of the journey is for myself, at the very start of my composing journey. I know there are a lot of gaps in what I know, and I know that the theory resources and videos out there that should be at my level (or lower) seem to go over my head (or maybe right through it), so I'm hoping I can myself discover different ways of learning from others who have built up their own knowledge in less conventional ways.
Well, in that case, if you have any specific questions, feel free to post on this forum. We'll try to explain it in a way that makes sense to you.
Thanks HS. For the moment, I have more of a technical question than a theoretical one. I'm wanting to use an occasional half-sharp in Cubase (adding 50 cents to the base note). However, I can't find a way to do it for MIDI notes. Pitch-bend is a sort of work around, but it sounds rough enough to make it unusable. Any ideas.
As far as I know, pitch bend is the only way to do it in MIDI, because the MIDI encoding is strictly 12-EDO based. I.e., the binary representation of the MIDI protocol encodes exactly 12 notes per octave; in-between stuff like half-sharps are not representable at all. In my own experiments with 19-EDO composition, I've had to use pitch bend as the only way to break out of 12-EDO in a MIDI setting.
P.S. as to the "rough" or weird sound of half-sharps, that's the way 24-EDO sounds. 24-EDO actually contains a lot of intervals that are very far from Just Intonation, so most of them sound extremely discordant to our ears. If you want to experiment with micro-tonality but want a less grating sound, you might want to consider other temperaments that contain more harmonious intervals, such as 19-EDO or 31-EDO. Admittedly, though, dealing with these temperaments within the scope of current technology's 12-EDO-centric-ness can be a pain to work with. Caveat emptor.
I resisted theory and reading for a while kind of because what you are saying about "Trad" composers using theory to create music but after learning a lot of theory and biting the bullet on reading I don't think theory is or should be the basis for generating music it is just a tool and a vocabulary. You probably don't have to have any training to know what V-I is but if you do you just know what to call it and how and why it is used. I think of theory as just centruries and generations of geniuses contributing to a knowlege base. Imagine if you had to start with nothing and had to invent scales on your own. It just allows you to take your ideas and manipulate them to your liking and you are free to explore on your own without having to reinvent the wheel.
I did listen to the 4th string quartet and agree the 3rd movement was the best. It was overall good flow and texture. If anything I would say there were a few ideas in there that could be further developed. But good work and keep composing.
Not sure what you do to compose if you are not writing but I am guessing you use piano roll which is a form of notation so you are reading and writing in that sense. I find traditional notation easier to see harmonies and rythms.
I would recommend if anything ear training, where you have to both listen and sing. Even if you have perfect pitch it helps.
Thank you Christopher. Yes, it's on the piano roll - so yes it is a form of reading as you say. i can sort of follow the rhythm of normal notation, and when the notes go up and down, etc, but not in any detail and I don't "hear" the sound in my head (definitely don't have perfect pitch) - especially when there are different clefs going on and having to mentally transpose and so on....
BTW - yes, you're right - that's a weakness of mine - that even though I get a lot of good ideas, I don't really know what to do with them and they end as soon as they are introduced.... I'd like to learn the skill of developing an idea without it becoming boring or cliched.
Talk to Mike, he's good at this. 😉
Also, write a fugue with your idea as the subject. I don't say that you should use the fugue as your final product, but the process of being forced to write subject entries according to the strictures of fugue will teach you many ways of developing your subject. Once you learn that, go back to free form composition and you'll see a huge difference. This I speak from personal experience. 👍
In the mornings, I sit down at my piano and start composing. Within an hour or two, the piece is finished. Some might call me an idiot savant because when I’m writing, it feels automatic. Often, I’m not even thinking about the music itself but about ordinary things—like where I’ll go on my bike this afternoon.
When I type the score into my laptop, I check the harmony to avoid unnecessary enharmonic notation and ensure proper voice leading, but that’s about it. If composing required me to think hard or study videos to get it right, I’d take up another profession (or hobby, now that I’m retired).
I worked this way as a beginner, before starting formal training, and a few years after completing my studies, I returned to my old method and style. You’re not likely to be a happy composer if you’re writing serial or atonal music. At least, I wasn’t.
So, study all you want, watch video's and read books, but never forget it's all just for the fun of it.
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