Lesson with JairCrawford

In this lesson, we shall cover the basics of: harmony, scoring/orchestration (basics, and I'll link to QC's masterclass), and form. Harmony will include voice leading, but we won't go into counterpoint for now. (You can look at my various other lesson threads in the archive, in several of which I covered counterpoint).

To begin with, a couple of short exercises, just to see where you are. (If you need a score, i can post a midi or a .sib file)

Exercise 1: I would like you to fill in a third part (alto).
To elaborate: there are two parts so far, a bass, and a melody; bass, and soprano, if you will. I would like you to add another voice in between those two.

Exercise 2: I have written a little phrase, which ends on what is called an imperfect cadence - it is an open phrase. A closed phrase ends with a perfect cadence. I would like you to complement my phrase with an answering phrase of about the same length, and which ends in a perfect V-I cadence.

Exercise 3: Here is a little 4-part writing. I would like you to score it for any small chamber ensemble. Strings, winds, voices, it's your choice.

These are just to see where you are, don't worry too much. Also, if you don't understand anything I've said, or any terminology, let me know.
(Oh, and I just put the exercise together there now; the music in it is terrible - I'm tired! )

I'm doing ex 1. right now.... Ok. Here is exercise 1.

What you've done is provide a nice running line in the inner voice. That is certainly something we would do in a real piece; however, for now we're just wanting to work with the harmony. Just use crotchets and minims for that exercise.
(There were a few mistakes, but I will discuss counterpoint much later)

Btw, do you prefer British terms (crotchet, quaver, semibreve, etc.), or American terms (quarter note, eighth, whole note, etc.)?

When you have done all three exercises, I will compile them into one, and post a pdf, so other people can see.

Oh... so do I use the same note values for the alto as the lead? (I'm much more familiar with the American note terms.) Crotchets and minims.... I'm assuming half notes and quarter notes given that those are the ones you used to make the exercise am I right?

(Oh, would it be alright if you posted a .sib for exercises 2 and 3?)

Ok. here's take two:

Your new ex. 1 is much better. I will comment in detail once all three exercises are done.
With exercise 3, I would prefer that you not copy and paste from the .sib file (I want you to think about each note carefully), but I'm providing the file anyway.

Ok. Here is ex.2 Ex.3 is in progress, I'm doing a string quartet... Ok. Here it is...

OK - attached are the midi and pdf files of the combined three exercises.

Now I will make some comments, but I will try to focus on basic principles rather than individual parts of the music.


Exercise 1
Mostly quite good. Be careful only to use one note per voice in this type of writing. If this were written for three singers, well an alto can't sing two notes! The appearance of an extra note makes the listener expect an extra voice, so in this type of writing, keep to one note per part. (Especially here, it is not saved by voice leading, as your F does not resolve to an E).
Another point: don't make the music too busy. If one part is moving quickly, it is often wise for the other parts to move less quickly. (This of course applies not to all situations).
So, for example, in measures 3 and 5, the alto needn't have had all those quarter notes.
That exercise was quite good, on the whole, though. You obviously have some grasp of harmony; we'll work on getting a little more-in-depth knowledge.

Exercise 2
Quite good.
The harmony of your second phrase is almost exactly the same as the first phrase, which makes it a little boring. Watch for this in future; boredom is the bane of music.
I expected you would continue more with the little motif, of which much use is made in the first phase. Think about what you would have done with that little motif (the dotted quarter, eighth, quarter motif which you use once in the 5th measure of the second phrase).
Again, try not to introduce an extra voice to the right hand; the first phrase used only one. The problem with this is consistency, as I mentioned regarding Ex.1. In the 6th measure of your second phrase, do you see the problem? The right hand has D C B, and with the G below, in the bass, those notes imply a certain dissonance (C above G) resolving to the G major chord (with B above G), but you have a B already in the left hand. Remove that B and listen to how much better it sounds. The problem is the clash between the C and the B, and the B ruins the nice suspension - resolution that the right hand gives over the G in the bass.
You did stay in character for the piece though, and it was fairly convincing, so a good attempt!

Exercise 3
Well you've really just copied and pasted it into a string quartet here. Nothing much to say. It would have worked equally well for voices, or woodwind quartet (if you transposed it), so this was not really orchestrating.
I will give you a tougher exercise next time on orchestration.
By the way, was the piano supposed to go with the string quartet? Because that does not make for a very good ensemble, when the piano is playing in such a 4-part hymn style.

Good work anyway. I will prepare another exercise.

I'm very busy at the moment, so you could post your thoughts on what I've said while I prepare the next exercise.

Here are the final .sibs.

Ok. Well, as far as the third exercise was concerned, it was pretty straight forward. There were four voices originally. So I applied each voice to a different instrument.