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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/05/2013 in all areas

  1. Hello Everyone! I joined this forum a day back.. was going through the posts here, and I feel there's always so much to learn. Have a great day ahead! I look forward to a lot of learning here.. :nod:
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  2. Improvisation and composition are one and the same; composition just happens much more slowly ;)
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  3. To find good melodies, first spend time playing music that has melodies that make you feel wonderful. And listen to music that has melodies you like. Then you will unconsciously create better melodies, because you will have many good examples in your mind.
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  4. Before anyone can truely come up with an original melody, you must first have a rudimentary understanding of basic music theory... You must be able to resite at least 4 basic scales in what ever key you find most comfortable the scales are major, minor, harmonic minor, pentatonic. Once you learn each scale, then comes phrasing and timing exercises of those scales. For example instead of playing the scale in simple quarter notes, playit in 8th notes... Mix the quarter notes and 8th notes together and you have a amatuer melody, but nevertheless a melody. If you find yourself stuck with that same similar melody over and over again, for me, it's my chord progression that is the problem... Change up the chord progression and it usually will inspire a new melody. Never force you self to write music (unless there is a deadline of some sort). I have physically and mentally collapsed due to working on a peice too hard, if you can't come up with something, go relax and eat and apple or something... Then later on, come back to the old' piano (or whatever instrument you are playing). Honeing your improvisational skills will greatly help your writing abilities. Take the easiest scale (pentatonic), go to you tube and slap on a simple blues rock backing track and jam for a half hour. It's super fun!!! I could go on for a long time about all the different tips and trick to making a master peice, but feel free to PM me with any questions. I would be more then happy to help :) This post is not ment to be a lesson but just some basic insight.
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  5. English isn't everybody's native language. If you look at Marzique's profile it says he's from Mexico so it is likely that English isn't his native language. Either way, maybe you should cut him some slack. You understood the point of his post regardless of any grammatical issues so I don't see what the problem is. Also, if we're going to be pedantic about grammar, the comma in the above quote should be a semicolon.
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  6. Fantastic idea (and also crazy, hehe)!!!!! I think I'll go in through this insane adventure too, hehehe. Unfortunately, any of these works won't be heard here in a complete version, isn't it =(
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  7. There are lots of ways to learn music, and all the aspects, of course the most direct is playing experience, taking courses.. If you're working on your own, a good thing would be do to some covers or write something similar that conveys what you are trying to experience. On numerous occasions, i have taken chords from other songs, and written new songs. Listen to one song, learn the melody and then adapt it to your song, (making the appropriate changes). This seems like a great site, (I'm new here). I belong to a couple of other sites, and often learn from comments I get, or what other people are uploading. Keep challenging yourself. Make it a point to learn the basics, you are going to have to.. I was mostly self taught (many years). I took some Berklee on Line music courses in arranging (which are great but expensive). Many of the techniques I subconsciously learnt in years of playing, but didn't know why it worked. I really wished I had overcome my arrogance as a young man, that I wanted to be self taught. I would have saved so much time, had I gone to music college. But the point was I wasn't ready for it. But also make time to have fun, spend some time, without a goal, just to have play. Truth is man learns a lot when he plays, whether music, or any other activity. 5 years back for the first time, I got serious about scoring the music. I use Logic Pro.. The scoring section of logic is b*****ch to learn, but the beauty, you can write, edit, play realtime with your hardware, Virtual instruments, etc. I downloaded a lot of scores and studied them. I started scoring out my own pieces. It became much easier to see sections that needed help. Now you are using your eyes as well as your ears to make music.. I've found now, I can write or edit parts, just from the score without playing the keyboard. You'll find the method that works best for you. I have a part the job at a club, I basically spend a lot of the night listening to music, estimating the chords, (don't have perfect pitch, but gotten pretty good with relative pitch). I created alternate bass, melody lines to the songs, as fun. I practice improvising scales of the chords that are used in the song. And you know it begins to rub off. Sometimes I create a riff by playing it.. Other times, I sing a part, and then learn what I sang.
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  8. First of all, welcome to YC! If I understand well, your problem is that you cannot express your emotions through music, and don't know why. Imagine, that you want to write a love poem in Spanish, but you know nothing or only a little about the Spanish grammar. Well, music is some sort of language, and if you don't know its grammar you can't express yourself through it. ( <-- it is my personal opinion, many have different thinking about this, but please, do not start an endless "What is music?" thread again. We are here to help, thank you.) Ok, here are some practical suggestions how to improve your melodies: 1. Learn rhythm and meters. Rhythm is the primitive level of music, it is vital to understand different note values and meters. 2. Learn scales, minor and major at least. Learn key notes like tonic/1st, dominant/5th, subdominant/4th, and tendency tones (leading note/7th , supertonic/2nd, ...). There are stable notes and less stable or unstable ones, the latter need some sort of resolution. 3. Learn phrasing. Make short phrases instead of a very long melody line (In other words, try using "simple sentences" instead of one long "compound sentence"). Try to build short phrases purely by different rhythm values / or purely by different pitches with same note values. 4. Learn cadences. Listen to the difference between ending on the 1st degree of the scale and ending on the 2nd, 3rd... etc. degree. Experiment with cadences and listen how they sound. 5. Study scores of great composers. Listen to parameters listed above (1-4.) Good luck! Máté
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