A short video demonstrating the sound of doubling, in unison, various combinations of instruments. I thought this video would make a useful reference. The instrument combinations demonstrated in the video are:
Brass & Woodwinds
Trumpet + Oboe -or- Flute -or- Clarinet
French Horn + Clarinet -or- Bassoon
Trombone + Bassoon -or- Bass Clarinet
Tuba + Bassoon
Woodwinds & Strings
Violins + Oboe -or- Flute -or- Piccolo
Violas + Oboe -or- English Horn -or- Clarinet -or- Bassoon
A short video but I found it interesting how the composer starts by creating a 4 bar loop in his DAW, adds one chord per bar (Dm, C, Gm, Am), then while the loop is still playing quickly adds accompaniment. This seems like a good idea for quickly generating ideas.
The elements of this composition are as follows (in the order they were added to the video):
strings playing chords
harp playing arpeggio
low brass playing bass notes
basic steady percussion rhythm (sticks or something light)
taiko drums providing rhythmic accents
violins playing legato lead melody
strings playing simple ostinato (alternating between 2 or 3 notes, but simpler than harp arpeggio
horns play melody when violins are not playing melody, then harmony/counterpoint when violins are playing melody
What I would do after what the composer has done, is go back and pull apart the added accompaniment so it eventually builds up to the point where all the accompaniment is playing. I’d try mixing and matching the accompaniment, perhaps repeat the whole process to create a B section then put everything together for a complete composition
Orchestration in 5 minutes with 4 chords (by Wangching Vamnokhu)
Here’s how the composition from the above video sounds when pulled apart a little bit and rendered using Virtual Playing Orchestra (plus some taiko drums)
This video demonstrate a few good techniques for smooth transitions between chords. My explanations below, taken from the video (far below), assume a general knowledge of scales and chords. The techniques used in the video are:
1. Using a pedal note.
This is a note that remains the same through each chord in the chord progression, usually higher or lower in pitch than the chords in the chord progression. This could be a common note in the chords or the root note of the scale from which the chords originate. For example, in the key of C, if playing a C F G C chord progression, you could use C as the pedal note. This technique can be a good effect when used sparingly. Hearing the same note frequently or for long periods of time, gets boring quickly.
2. Chord inversions, or voice leading.
For smooth chord transitions, it’s best to keep the distance between adjacent chords to a minimum. For example, if transitioning from a C (CEG) to an F (FAC) chord, recognize which notes both have in common and place those notes in the same position in each chord. Look at the difference in movement to get from one note to the other in these 2 examples of transition from a C chord to an F chord.
This is good voice leading with minimal movement between a C and F chord (C root position to F second inversion or C to F/C):
C -> C (no movement) E -> F (semi-tone) G -> A (2 semi-tones)
This example is more movement which will not sound as smooth between C and F chords (C root position to F root position):
C -> F (5 semi-tones) E -> A (5 semi-tones) G -> C (5 semi-tones)
3. Suspended chords.
A suspended chord is achieved by moving the 3rd of the chord up or down. This is a useful way of providing a smooth transition between chords that have no common note. For example, to transition from a C (CEG) to a Dm (DFA) a suspended chord can be injected between the two as a short transition chord. In the following example, the 3rd in the C chord (the E) is raised to F to create a Csus4 chord. This means the 3rd has been suspended and replaced with another note.
C -> C -> D E -> F -> F G -> G -> A
In the above, there are now common notes between the C and the Csus4, and the Csus4 and the Dm chord.
4. Anticipation.
This involves playing a note from the next chord, early in anticipation of the new chord. A suspended chord achieves this but this can also be achieved by anticipating any note in the new chord:
C -> D -> D E -> E -> F G -> G -> A
… or both can be used one after another for an even more smooth transition, first the sus chord, then the anticipation:
C -> C -> D -> D E -> F -> F -> F G -> G -> G -> A
As you can see, the C (CEG) chord, one note at a time, blends in to the Dm (DFA) chord.
5. Joining notes.
This means instead of playing the same note twice, hold the note twice as long. In the first example where the chords were C played as (CEG), and F, played as (CFA) instead of playing the C twice, just hold the C.
C ____ E -> F G -> A
The above is meant as a brief summary or reference. This is best understood by watching the video from “Hack Music Theory” which demonstrates these concepts very well.
This short video shows some simple steps to easily create a harmony for your melody, whether the harmony is for a vocalist, a piano or an accompanying instrument.
To find the high harmony, start with the melody note and move 2 scale notes up. The low harmony is the melody note but 2 scale notes down. For example, if your melody note is an E (in the key of C), your high harmony is a G, your low harmony is a C. You can use either the high harmony, the low harmony or both harmony notes together with the melody.
If the high and low harmony notes are played together, they form a chord with the melody note, so adjustments may be necessary if the harmony forms a diminished chord (which may sound too dissonant). Try lowering or raising a harmony note to avoid this.
Check the harmony notes against the chord progression. In the video, the low harmony note had already been lowered a tone to avoid a diminished chord. This turned the harmony from a 3rd below the melody to a 4th below the melody but this clashed with the chord progression so the low harmony was lowered another scale note, which then made the low harmony a 5th below the melody which fit with the chord progression.
Also note that the high harmony can be played an octave lower, and the low harmony can be played an octave higher. This turns harmony in 3rds to harmony in 6ths.
This is a 4 part series that starts with a piano sketch for 8 bars and goes through a few options for how to orchestrate it. The piano sketch is interesting to me because it starts with 3 staff lines. One for melody, one for chords and one for bass line. In the first video, Peter Scartabello turns his 8 bar piano sketch into an orchestration for woodwinds. The second video repeats the process for brass. The third video does the same for strings. The 4th video is where things really get interesting as elements of the 3 previous versions are blended together into 2 new versions of a much more “colourful” orchestration using woodwinds, brass, strings and some added percussion.
The videos might start out a little slow, but stick with it. When he gets to the actual orchestration, his technique represents an interesting formula for composing and orchestration.
In a marathon video session, broken into 2 parts lasting over 15.5 hours, (Yes that’s right. Part one is over 11 hours) Mike Verta critiques works of music submitted by various amateur composers (like us) and offers tips on how to improve them. Over the course of the long video, the same problems are found in many of the musical pieces. I recommend watching the video, (yes the entire 15.5+ hours but not all in one sitting) to really drive home the tips he offers. The tips that stand out the most to me, have been summarized below:
Don’t expect the listener to focus on more than 2 things at a time. If your music is too busy, the listener will be lost.
Establish a pattern that the listener can lock on to. This requires something to be played at least twice.
Don’t abandon an idea too soon. Develop an idea. Change the accompaniment, change the harmonization, change the instruments (often referred to as changing the colour).
At the same time, be wary of too much vertical development or horizontal development. Both are important but in the right proportion. Vertical development refers to changing/adding instruments to the same melody. Horizontal development refers to modifying a melody/rhythm, or changing and developing an idea.
When moving forward with developing an idea, only change one thing at a time. Change just the rhythm or just the melody or just the accompaniment or just the colour.
When transitioning from one section to another (from an A section to a B section or verse to chorus) keep a common thread between the two so it’s clear they are related otherwise is will sound like a completely unrelated piece of music.
If you start your introduction with the focus on what will become the accompaniment, perhaps you start with just chords or an ostinato pattern, when the melody is laid over top of the accompaniment, decrease the volume of the accompaniment. The listener will still hear it because they are familiar with it and they will know that their focus should be shifted to the new music that was just added.
Don’t use more instruments than you truly need. To paraphrase Mike Verta “no colour is as clear as a solo instrument”.
Beware of the trap of over orchestration. You will have listened to your music for hours while working on it and what has become a boring 8 bars that needs more instruments to keep it sounding fresh to you, is new and fresh to a first time listener without any extra instruments and will sound muddy and confusing to a new listener if too many instruments are added.
Keep your melody and accompaniment in different registers (or at least very different tone colours). If your melody is focused around middle C, keep your accompaniment an octave higher or lower, especially if the accompaniment is similar in colour to the melody.
Never forget that your MIDI mockup is supposed to sound like real people are playing real instruments. Real brass and woodwind players need to breathe. Real string players can’t play really fast ostinato patterns forever.
Be aware of the relative power of each instrument. A solo flute will not be heard over a loud brass chord. Sure, you can turn up the fader to make the flute louder but it won’t sound realistic.
Well, that’s what I remember at the moment from watching the video below (and other videos from Mike Verta). Take your time, watch the whole video and it could make your music better.
There is more to a chord progression that just a sequence of chords. The video below offers some good tips for enhancing a basic chord progression such as:
lining up common notes between chords for a smoother transition
ensuring the common note between chords occurs in the same voicing (top, middle or bottom note)
switching from a chord to an inversion of the same chord
using sus chords to add extra interest (can also be used to force a common note between chords)
using syncopation to have the chord change with the off beat
These are all good tips to add extra interest to your composition.
If you are interested in some free advice on how to make your lyrics, music, song writing, mixing better, consider visiting one of the links below. They are all free forums where you can post your song and or lyrics and have other songwriters listen and offer their opinion. All you have to do is return the favour. Listen to their songs and offer your opinion.
Friends and family will mostly say nice things about your music and they may or may not know the difference between a good song and a song that has room for improvement. For honest, informed opinions, these forums are the place to go. I’ve spent most of my time at the first link below, but I’ve had songs reviewed at the others as well.
I strongly recommend reading the above post and watching that video first. With just the few counterpoint rules demonstrated, the above video will take you pretty far. The following 2 videos take things even further and discusses the rules for other intervals besides just 3rds and 6ths.The addition rules discussed below, are summarized as follows but will make more sense after watching the video.
First we need to define some terms
IC – Imperfect Consonances : 3rds and 6ths, major and minor
PC – Perfect Consonances : unison, 5ths, octaves
D – Dissonances : 2nds, 4ths, 7ths
The counterpoint rules for the above groups of intervals are:
1. You can arrive at an Imperfect Consonance (IC) by way of any other interval
IC (3rd, 6th) -> IC (3rd, 6th)
PC (unison, 5th, octave) -> IC (3rd, 6th)
D (2nd, 4th, 7th) -> IC (3rd, 6th)
In other words you can arrive at a 3rd or 6th by any other preceding interval.
2. You can only arrive at a Perfect Consonance by way of an imperfect consonance
IC (3rd, 6th) -> PC (unison, 5th, octave)
In other words you can only arrive at a Unison, 5th or Octave, by way of a 3rd or 6th.
3. You can only arrive at a Dissonance by an Imperfect Consonance.
IC (3rd, 6th) -> D (2nd, 4th, 7th)
In other words, you can only arrive at a 2nd, 4th or 7th by way of a preceding 3rd or 6th.
Basically, 3rd and 6th are like wild cards. They can do anything. They can follow or precede any other interval. All other intervals must be preceded by and lead to a 3rd or a 6th.
The above refers to harmonic intervals, both notes playing at the same time. For melodic intervals where notes play consecutively, only the augmented 4th and 7th intervals are considered dissonant.For a more complete explanation of the above summary, see the 2 videos below:
https://youtu.be/ZiFzLzDKZe8
Counterpoint P1 (Introduction) – by JJay Berthume
https://youtu.be/T7lNDhOykTo
Counterpoint P2 (Basic Principles) – by JJay Berthume
one or more independent melodies added above or below a given melody
The rules of counterpoint have been developed to instruct a composer on how to create a counter melody that can be independent yet still blend harmonically with the main melody.
The video below (by Jon Brantingham from “Art of Composing”) demonstrates the steps to composing with nothing more than the most basic understanding of music theory and counterpoint. All you need to know is what notes are in a chord, what notes belong to the scale in the key of your chord progression, how to choose a chord inversion so that one chord more easily flows into the next and 2 very simple and basic counterpoint rules. That’s it.
For choosing chord inversions, what I mean is that if you are playing a C chord “C-E-G” and you wish to move to an F chord, instead of playing C-E-G and then F-A-C, you are better off playing C-E-G and then C-F-A, because this represents less movement. Instead of all notes moving up by 4 notes, one note stays the same and the rest only move up by one note. This is referred to as good voice leading.
So, the steps from the video below are as follows:
Start with a chord progression One chord per bar. You could use C F Am G C for example – though that’s not what was used in the video. It’s just a nice easy chord progression
Create a half note melody using chord tones from whatever chord is being played in that bar. If you are playing a “C” chord, your chord tone melody can use “C”, “E” or “G” since those are the notes that make up a “C” chord
Replace some half notes with shorter notes to move from one melody note to another, usually by playing a fragment of a scale moving up or down towards the next melody note
Add a half note harmony (which will become the counter melody) to the existing main melody you already have from step 3. To do this, choose a note that is a 3rd or 6th below the melody note. Other intervals can be used but this requires a slightly more advanced knowledge of counterpoint which provides guidance on which intervals can follow and precede other intervals (see my follow up post about counterpoint). 3rd and 6ths can always follow and precede each other so for now, it’s simplest to stick with 3rds and 6ths. Note that steps 3 and 4 can also be done in the opposite order.
Repeat step 3 for the harmony, with this rule in mind: generally, when the melody is holding a note, the counter melody should be moving. When the melody is moving, the counter melody should be holding a note. So for example, if the melody is playing a half note, perhaps the counter melody could be playing quarter or eighth notes using either chord tones or part of a scale.
Between 4:18 and 18:26 is a good example of easily using just the basics of music theory and counterpoint as described above. (I’ve already set the video to start at 4:18)
