“Good artists copy, great artists steal.” This is a common saying, but what does it actually mean? Don’t worry, we're not actually committing a crime or anything like that.
Let's demystify that quote – and I’ll teach you how to “steal” someone else’s music and make it your own. Making you, according to this quote, a great artist! And who doesn’t want that?
Be sure to subscribe to the youtube channel, like the video, and leave a comment if you’ve ever “stolen” music before. I’ve 100% done it and there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s an integral part of advancing as a songwriter.
You may think I'm crazy, telling you to write bad music, but stay with me...
We all want to write our masterpiece, but oftentimes I find that many don't understand how to get there.
Today I breakdown that path in a simple and easy to understand way. There's no real secret to it, but I see a lot of creators struggle to feel good about their art. We're going to address that and more today.
Be sure to subscribe to the youtube channel by clicking on the title in the video, and if you want to be super awesome, head to the video on youtube itself and hit that like button. It's so so so helpful :)
This week, we're into Part 2 of our series on using chords like the pros do. Remember, all of this information is only meant to help you solve problems. The intent isn't to rely solely on these functions to write music. They are analytical structures meant to help us understand music phenomena we hear.
Last time we covered the major scale, the chords built from each scale degree, and how to put together a basic chord progression. Today, we're diving in deeper, learning how to use substitutions for our tonic, subdominant, and dominant, to create more varied atmospheres and expressive qualities. We'll also talk about our naming systems and why we use more than one. It's useful, I promise.
I honestly love talking about this stuff because it was a huge step for me as a musician to understand the music I was listening to, writing, and performing. The better understanding we have of our music, whether it's technical, or emotional, gives us a bigger well to draw from as we express ourselves. It brings more intention into our writing, rather than using trial and error when we hit a snag.
I have a confession to make: I'm behind schedule. I had a totally different video planned out, but it just didn't happen. It's all written, though, so stay tuned for that in the next couple of weeks.
I wanted to take this opportunity to share a piece that I finished earlier this year. It was a testament to a philosophy that I will be bringing into this community in the near future: Process.
The piece is for a Piano Trio; piano, violin, and cello and taught me a lot about the proportions of a song or piece, especially when they're on the longer end.
Don't be afraid to set lofty goals, just remember that it's the small steps you take that actually lead to them.
Let me know think of my piece by commenting below :)
Intervals, in my opinion, are the basic building blocks of music theory. They're what give you the understanding of how to dive into the deeper pool of more advanced musical concepts.
For this reason, I think they're an invaluable tool in any songwriter, composer, or musician's arsenal.
That's why I want to go over them in detail, how they work, and how they can help, as well as how you can integrate them into your practice routine and know them like the back of your hand.
Intervals were the point when music theory really clicked for me and I hope they'll be the same for you.
Apologies for the radio silence. The current pandemic has left me busier than usual (which is common for many in the online space).
For now, you may only be see a video every other week. But, I'm going to try my hardest to make that content as valuable to you as possible. To that end...
I want to tackle something really controversial today, something that really eats at me whenever I hear it. And maybe you've heard this phrase from someone you know, or even said it to yourself:
"I don't have any musical talent."
I hate this so much, because it's simply not true. First of all, talent is the wrong word to use. You'll find out why in the video :)
We give ourselves a lot of reasons to keep us from doing the things we want to do; whether that's writing a song, symphony, or anything that could be a positive force in our lives.
Is there something you've always wanted to learn how to do, whether that's musically or otherwise, that you've put off or told yourself you simply couldn't do? Let me know in the comments.
Let's discuss why talent doesn't actually exist, at least, not in the way that we think it does, and why you have everything you need to make your dreams come true, TODAY.
Last week, we covered a method called "Follow The Chords," where we wrote out a chord progression first and then wrote a melody to it. This takes away a lot of options in terms of the notes we can hit that will sound good, which helps us make better use of the ones that do.
This week we're diving right into the deep end and talking about using established forms to write a melody. Forms have been around for a long time and take a bit of front-end music theory in order to use them to their fullest degree, but that doesn't mean you can't understand and utilize them if you don't.
Forms are extremely useful, especially if you're in a tight spot. They explicitly outline exactly what to do to make a melody that sounds fantastic. Think about it like a formula; all you have to do is start punching things in.
In this video, we're going to discuss how a Sentence is constructed and how we can use it to create a melody that sounds fantastic. A musical sentence consists of two basic phases, each with it's own parts:
Presentation Phase – This consists of a basic idea, a one or two measure phrase, that will then be restated.
Continuation Phase – This phase cuts up the basic idea using fragmentation, and then we throw everything away to get to our cadence, a type of musical pause.
What did you think of form? Do you think these forms can be useful outside of composing classical music? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Last week, we covered an extremely popular and versatile technique for writing melodies. I called it, Follow The Notes.
Today, we're going to cover another popular technique, one that you may not even know that you're using:
Follow The Chords.
This is a very common technique among songwriters, particularly those who play multi-string instruments capable of playing chords, like keyboard and guitar. While it may seem similar to Follow The Notes, it has some pretty key limitations that will result in drastically different results.
(No, I'm not sorry for the pun XD)
With this technique, you write the chord progression first, and then write the melody to go along to it.
This is far more limiting than Follow the Notes. But that's not a bad thing. Limitations are actually a really powerful tool; they allow us to limit our options, which in turn lets us use those options more creatively. In other words, it focuses the melody to what will sound good with the chords.
What did you think of this technique? Have you used it before?
Leave a comment below with any thoughts, feelings, or observations you may have. Any and all feedback you have is welcome, as it helps me provide you with better content.
For the next part of our "How To Write A Melody" series, we're talking about an extremely common method for writing melodies. In fact, if you've written any amount of music at all, I can almost guarantee you've already used this method.
So, what gives, why talk about it?
Because, when you do something with intention, the result can be extraordinary.
I like to call this method "Follow The Notes," because that's exactly what this method consists of:
You just start hitting notes and see where they take you.
This may seem basic, but remains one of the most popular methods of music and melody making among beginners and professionals alike.
The difference between those two groups, however, is that professionals don't rely solely on it; but when they do, they have a well-developed inner ear––how you "hear" music inside your head––to guide them in the process. This means the notes they're following aren't the ones they're playing on an instrument, but the ones in their head. This key difference, and the ability to use your inner ear, is often what separates a beginner from a professional.
Following the notes is partly an exercise in developing your inner ear, which is integral to taking the music in your head and putting it out into the real world.
Check out the video:
What did you think? Have you ever used this method for writing a melody? If not, will you now?
Let me know in the comments! Thoughts, feelings, observations; all feedback is welcome.
Welcome to the new Musical Engineering! After taking a couple years off, I decided to get back in the game and pivot to focus more on the in's and out's of songwriting and composing, rather than focusing mostly on audio engineering. Here's why: It's what I'm truly passionate about.
Now, that doesn't mean we won't cover any audio engineering at all; but, we'll focus mostly on composing in a DAW using MIDI, basic recording and editing, but also getting your music––whatever genre it's in––to sound professional in the audio world.
This is a necessity if we're going to get our music out there on a budget!
Without further ado...
One of the hardest parts of getting started writing music that I actually thought was good and enjoyed listening to was writing a melody. It tends to be the first thing people latch onto when listening to music, so it's important to make sure our melodies are up to snuff.
In this first part of a multi-part series, I go over the very basics of melodic structure. Understanding the parts of a melody, even at the most basic level, is helpful in figuring out what a melody we wrote might actually need to be more effective.
In the video, I go over three basic aspects of a melody:
The Set Up
The Climax
The Resolution
Melodies are like stories, and you can think of these structures as a kind of beginning, middle, and end.You can find these three parts in a ton of melodies, but it's important to note that not every melody will have this type of structure. But, for the most part, you'll find these structures in much of popular music and classical music that's considered "tonal."
Check out the video:
If you want to know more about what is or isn't "tonal," or if there's anything else you want to know about in terms of songwriting, composing, or audio engineering, shoot me a comment or email:
Musical Engineering is a collaboration and I want to hear from you!
Thanks so much for being here. We're all in this together.
