Things to look for while composing: a set of guidelines

I thought I'd post a few suggestions for technical details involved in composition.

1. Build harmony
While it's a lot easier to plunk along and record the first idea that comes to your head, it's a far better idea to build your harmonic progressions. Regardless of what musical language you use. This lets you give a clear direction to your musical phrases.
For example: you doodled out a brief beginning, 1 or 2 measures that you particularly like. Examine them. Find out WHAT it is that you like about them. Now try to apply that to how you will continue this brief phrase. Is there a particularly characteristic chord progression? Are there decorative notes that are creating a particular effect?

Build on these discoveries.

• You can try and transpose them.
• Modify one note in a chord.
• Alter the chord inversion (remember, a chord inverted is NOT a "new" chord").
• Change the mode (major/minor) of one element of a chord progression, or all elements.
• If there is a brief chord progression that appears to move a set distance (for example, it seems to modulate a 4th), then can you use that to further elaborate your harmonic backbone?

2. work on melody
It's pretty easy to just doodle along at full speed and improvise your thematic material as you go. However this doesn't make for a satisfying listen in the long run. Again, from your initial idea, find the elements that attracted you to this idea. Are there suspensions? Appogiaturas? Other sorts of non-chord tones present? Is there a particular rythmic motif to your theme?

Build your melody, note by note. Create the high points and the low points. Build tension and release. Make sure that characteristic rythmic or melodic elements get used! nothing is more frustrating to the ear as hearing one single time a brief shocking motif that forever disappears, never to be heard from again. The auditory memory will latch on to it, and wait for it to return, and no matter what follows, that expectation will remain, creating a strong sense of dissatisfaction and unresolvedness..

3. Examine the relationship between the soprano and the bass
This is a very fundamental relationship and it is often overlooked by beginner composers. it is actually a fundamental concept of counterpoint, and is applicable to atonal as well as strictly tonal music.

When your melody and your bassline coincide too often, you remove the effect of "harmony" between those two fundamental voices. the more satisfying the relationship you create between soprano and bass, the easier and richer the possibilities for what comes in between the two voices.

Watch for excessive unisons between soprano and bass. Examine the first beat of a measure and the first beat of the following measure and the relationship between the soprano and bass. Are they playing unison on both of those important beats? This weakens the sense of harmonic movement. This is basically an expansion of the concept of the parallel octave which we hear about so often in counterpoint discussions. While your harmony may change a number of times between the first beats of each measure, thus not technically actual parallel octaves, in the long run, the effect remains the same - the impression of a unison between the soprano and the bass and a weakening of the sense of harmony and independance betwen the soprano and bass.

4. Consider your harmonic choices carefully
Heavily chromatic harmony is difficult to deal with. It requires knowledge of the resolution of dissonant tones, and the natural harmonic movement of modal tones. Don't forget to include some "non-chromatic" chords as well! A high point in a melody can be a perfect major chord, despite the heavily chromatic material leading up to it. The entire concept relies on the relationship between tension and release.

5. Consider each line as a melody
Each inner part of a piece is a melody. These "counterpoints" create interest. Take the time to explore how each inner voice can be made more interesting, more melodic. Use echoes of the main theme in the inner voices, search for places to create contrapuntal imitation. You need only echo a few notes of a main motif to create interest, a full-blown fugue is not an absolute necessity. This applies to the bass part as well.

6. Search for harmonic common tones
A good way to create smooth harmony is to look for common tones in your chord progressions. You can build from a common tone, gradually moving away from and back to your tonal center. Through experimentation, you will come to an inate sense of balance between common tones and completely unique harmonic material.

If you are exploring more non-tonal harmony, examine the possibilities of transposing your harmony on itself. For example, a dissonant 4-note chord can be transposed once on each chord of itself. You create 3 additional chords this way, however, they are intimately linked to each other through their structure.

Explore how far you can go with common tones linking your harmony before you jump to more distant harmony.

A simple example - in common practice harmony, the dominant and subdominant both have a common tone with the tonic: in C, the V chord (G major) shares the note G, while the IV chord (F) shares the note C. Is it surprising that the subdominant and dominant are thus the most important chords in the tonal relationship?

The emphasis on experimentation and learning balance is particularly important, because the inverse is that if you too often use chords with MANY common tones, then you completely lose the sense of harmonic independance - for example, a common modal practice in contemporary music is chord movement in 3rds. eg. C - A - F - D. each chord shares two common tones with its predecessor. If this movement continues without respite however, one loses the sense that there is actual harmonic movement. Therefore, the necessity to balance out common tones with "harmonic surprises".

7. Principles of orchestration
Orchestration is NOT the assigning of instruments to lines to fill out an orchestral part.

Orchestration is a fundamental process of composition.

A melody composed for trombone is NOT a melody that will suit the violin. Likewise, a melody composed for the flute will not be advantageous on the oboe. The two instruments are markedly different despite having similar ranges.

When you compose for instruments, consider the capabilities of each instrument for which you will be writing. A piano part written consistantly within the two middle octaves of the piano is a boring piano part.

Consider relative tone weight of instruments when composing. An orchestra has 2 or 3 of each woodwind, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, usually a tuba, and a string section.
Two flutes are NOT twice as loud as one.
One single flute playing the C 2 octaves above middle C will readily drown out 4 flutes playing middle C.
A good book on instrumentation and orchestration is a MUST for any student composer.

There are many more considerations when one is writing for orchestra, which are covered in the Orchestration Masterclass.
If you have any questions, feel free to pose them here, or if orchestration-related, in the discussion threads for that purpose in the masterclass section.


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I hope some of this will be of use to a few of you.

Thanks for the post, it sure will help me. I find your comment on melody interesting, as I usually would try to get a sense of the overall phrase first before I create the notes in between (or just doodle along).

Valuable advice indeed - others would charge people for that!

And for those starting in orchestration, study scores in any spare moments you have. If you hear an effect that strikes you, borrow the score and find out how it's done, possibly by copying the passage(s) out by hand, with or without transpositions. It's important to develop a good inner ear.


M

Yes! This is the kind of thing that I need. Thank you for posting something like this. I am sure it will ehlp to grasp the fundamentals of composition theory. I have copied and pasted it into word and I will save it at least for a while.

Well, it's very difficult for me to follow the first two points due to the fact that I have found that ideas come to me more in rhythm and direction. It's hard for me to hear the exact pitches I want in my head, but I can hear where I want a note to go, and what I want the rhythm to be. Do you have any advice about how someone like me should go about following these methods? I usually try to define the melody, then the bass line to fill in the chord, all according to the rhythms and "pitch identifiers" that I heard in my head.

I would like to add on a bit to point 6 if I may. I feel that the structure of bass in a piece of music is to define a "point of reference" if you will for the ear. Thus, I feel that what is truly important when defining movement is what is "on top" For example, songs that stay in pedal do feel as if they are moving due to the fact that the chords are unstabalized on top. I think that the best example of what I'm trying to explain is Stephen Sondheim's "God, That's Good" from Sweeney Todd. The bass line stays a continous I-V chord, while various dissonances are heard in the chords above. The fact that at times the diatonality is broken is, to the audiences ears, irrelevant due to the fact that a strong bass line is used. Another similar thing that uses the chord progression you used is "Every Day a Little Death" Which follows the I-vi-IV-ii pattern, but due to the occasional sharped 4th and 2nd, it feels more that it's heightening the action then staying stagnant.

So, in summation, I feel that what is more important is establishing a bottom for the listener and placing suprises on the top half of the piece folowing an odd bass line that isn't really what you want. Of course, this is only case-only, and if an odd bass line is what is necessary, then I feel that that should be the road taken. It just seemed to me that rule six was discouraging using common chord progressions even if you were to have some sort of variety in the upper voices. Of course, I might be misintrepreting what you've said (and actually, I fear I might, since I always think in Bass Lines unless Roman numerals are used. If I did, excuse this post.)

I don't think Sondheim is a good example here.
I admire his music, and am actually of the opinion that he is one of the great geniuses of the 20th century. I actually conducted the Canadian premiere of Into the Woods.. lots of fun!

However, this is neither here nor there.
Sondheim's music is a particular case in point - musical theatre.

First of all, I did not write these guidelines out as "rules". They are guidelines, tools, an aide to easing workflow.

They are also not aimed at anyone who is doing popular music. They are squarely aimed at those who wish to write concert music. (please, no arguments about what is concert and what is not... I think we all understand the generalisation I'm making)

I can think of many instances where the bass-to-melody principle will not apply (or at least, not in the same way): minimalism for instance.

Again, these are guidelines for people who intend to write concert music.
These guidelines also require a certain level of musical training. You should be able to read music with ease. If you cannot, then it is probably premature to start examining these guidelines. One needs to walk before one can run. This is not a question of elitism. I don't think I would give someone in their first year of German a book of guidelines to writing medieval germanic poetry.

You err, however, in saying that the bass "define(s) a point of reference... for the ear". A good bassline is as melodic as the soprano above it. Only in the most basic of music does the bass act purely as a harmonic drone. AGAIN, I'm sure you could find hundreds of examples to contradict this, but I will reiterate: these are guidelines for writing "concert music". They are not guidelines for writing exceptions to any rules. I love the Bolero, I think it's a wonderful piece of concert music, but I certainly would NOT want to write another one. One is quite enough.

If you don't feel that these guidelines have anything to offer you, then by all means, please ignore them. If you feel that I have erred in posting them, then please give me some sort of technical reason supporting your claim.

one last time: guidelines, tools, not rules. nothing absolute in what I wrote.

I'm not trying to attack you about the guidelines you posted, I just wanted clarification. If I've offended you, then I am sorry.

However, I feel that it important to look at writing popular music as importantly as writing concert music, and thus, wished for a little clarification about point six.

Are you attempting to say that I cannot read music with ease? If so, that is not the case. I am sorry if it turned out that way in my previous post.

Again, I was just asking for clarification.

EDIT:

I'm not sure where I said that the bass line could be nothing more than a drone note. If I may clarify what I meant; I mean that the bass sets up whatever chord is being presented, be it a major chord, an inversion, something completely diatonic, or not. I was trying to state that, and it may have came out wrong.

you did not offend me. I clarified that my post was aimed principally at composers interested in concert music.
while the concept of the "melodic" bassline is not unique to concert music, it is more prevalent in that medium.
However, I think that you may also have misunderstood the point of that section.
It is a uniquely "pop" musical vision to interpret the bass part as the harmonic foundation and no more.

when writing for orchestra it is important to consider the bass as more than simply the harmonic foundation. else this leads to very boring orchestration.

as I noted, when the bass part coincides too often with the soprano what we get are parallel and direct 8ves between the two parts that establish the entire harmony. by assuring yourself that the two parts are in and of themselves independant melodically you assure yourself of avoiding those parallel and direct 8ves. I'm having difficulty putting this into words without musical examples.

I'm attaching an image. Strictly speaking, there are no actual "errors" in this short example, but the bass part is extremely weak because it does not show true independance from the soprano. The number of coinciding octaves create too much of a sense of unison between the two parts.

"God That's Good" is based on a pedal tone. if you notice, the bass moves melodically very strongly once you're past the chorus section (into the minor "What's my secret? Frankly dear - forgive my candor"). As well as in the intervening scenes with Todd. there is a strong balance of stability between the chorus and the considerably more dissonant bridge and verses.

as for "Every Day a Little Death", it follows perfectly the principle of the melodic bass.

I believe you are reading too strictly into what I have written. I am not saying "avoid using harmonic movement by 3rds". I use this continuously, it's a major part of my own harmonic language. I'm saying learn to explore the balance between common tones and chords without any common tones.

oo, a sticky, and well deserved, there's a lot of good advice here

Originally Posted by Qccowboy

you did not offend me. I clarified that my post was aimed principally at composers interested in concert music.
while the concept of the "melodic" bassline is not unique to concert music, it is more prevalent in that medium.
However, I think that you may also have misunderstood the point of that section.
It is a uniquely "pop" musical vision to interpret the bass part as the harmonic foundation and no more.

when writing for orchestra it is important to consider the bass as more than simply the harmonic foundation. else this leads to very boring orchestration.

as I noted, when the bass part coincides too often with the soprano what we get are parallel and direct 8ves between the two parts that establish the entire harmony. by assuring yourself that the two parts are in and of themselves independant melodically you assure yourself of avoiding those parallel and direct 8ves. I'm having difficulty putting this into words without musical examples.

I'm attaching an image. Strictly speaking, there are no actual "errors" in this short example, but the bass part is extremely weak because it does not show true independance from the soprano. The number of coinciding octaves create too much of a sense of unison between the two parts.

"God That's Good" is based on a pedal tone. if you notice, the bass moves melodically very strongly once you're past the chorus section (into the minor "What's my secret? Frankly dear - forgive my candor"). As well as in the intervening scenes with Todd. there is a strong balance of stability between the chorus and the considerably more dissonant bridge and verses.

as for "Every Day a Little Death", it follows perfectly the principle of the melodic bass.

I believe you are reading too strictly into what I have written. I am not saying "avoid using harmonic movement by 3rds". I use this continuously, it's a major part of my own harmonic language. I'm saying learn to explore the balance between common tones and chords without any common tones.

I forgot about this little conversation.

I guess I was confused by your usage of the word "melodic." In the end, we were actually talking about the same thing. When I read melodic, I was assuming that you were talking about a line that was taking place or coinciding with the melody, a la certain sections of Shostakovich 6th Symphony (and countless other pieces.) Of course, there's sections in that that goes along with this conversation as well.

In that case, I highly agree. I think it also goes with the idea of having seperate lines going on in a composition at once, thinking more about the seperate lines rather than harmonically, which is essential to orchestration.