How To Use Tension And Release In Your Melodies
April 23, 2007
3 CommentsMusic, much like life, is fundamentally a swinging pendulum between tension and release. Fortunately, with music, this is easy to represent objectively and to utilize in your music composition.
Taking a look at the C major scale, you can see that each note has a relative degree of stability or instability. We also call this consonance and dissonance. Traditionally, the rules of counterpoint dictate that the unison, third, fifth, sixth, and octave are consonances. The unison, fifth, and octave are perfect consonances while the sixth and third are imperfect consonances. The second, fourth, diminished fifth, tritone, and seventh are called dissonances.
It’s important to note that dissonance doesn’t mean being wrong or bad. Dissonance simply indicates an increase in musical tension.
So a diagram of the C major scale, showing the relative degree of stability to instability, would look like this:
How can you use this as a composer?
Think of where you want to take the listener. A melody is like a roller coaster. It goes up, it goes down. It builds tension and releases tension. The final release doesn’t come until the ride is over and you are still again. Your job as a melody writer is to take your listener on a journey, weaving through tension and release just like that roller coaster ride.
A very practical way to illustrate this is to look at the end of melodic phrases. Perhaps your entire melody has 8 melodic phrases. It would make sense to increase tension in the first few phrases by ending on relatively unstable tones. Then you can resolve it, but not completely, on the fourth phrase. Increase the tension again, and then release it completely on the last phrase by ending on the first or fifth scale degree.
This is also a great strategy for improvisation. If you’ve got 32 bars to solo, don’t resolve until the very end. Or, depending on the section that follows, you may want to increase the tension during the entire solo so that the following section can provide the release.
We just looked at how to use tension and release on an entire melody by choosing stable and unstable tones for the endings of melodic phrases. You can also look at the individual melodic phrases and determine the motion between tension and release you would like the listener to feel within each phrase. You can zoom in and out as far as you need to help you create the desired effect.
Obviously, tension and release are created by a combination of factors, like rhythm, harmony, motion, and so on. I’ve only discussed one aspect of tension and release in melody so far. Here’s the bottom line, whenever you need to make a melodic choice, ask yourself, “What level of stability or instability am I trying to create?” Then make the appropriate choice.
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(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Songwriting Challenges - Where Do I Begin?
March 8, 2007
2 CommentsOne of the most common challenges I hear about songwriting is not knowing where to begin. With the lyrics? With the music? Or something completely different? It’s a rather simple challenge to find a solution to, really.
Start with a single note or single word
Play a single random note and just listen to your imagination. Does a second note enter the picture? Does a chord or harmony enter the picture? If so, then add what you hear to the mix and keep listening like that. Don’t think about it or edit what you hear in your mind, just dictate.
If you don’t hear anything in your imagination, then force it. Play a single interval up or down. Does that spark another idea? If so, then dictate. If not, play a different interval. If after a number of tries your imagination doesn’t take over, then force it even more. Play a pattern or a sequence that you are familiar with and build a melody around that.
The important thing to remember here is that your melody is not going to be perfect. It’s just a first pass. You can edit after you have 32 bars or so of material to work with. The point is you can’t have a melody to edit if you don’t start writing one.
You can apply the same technique to lyric writing. Write a single word. Use a random word generator or just pick a word from a book. What does your imagination tell you to write next? If nothing comes to you (which would mean that you really just aren’t paying attention) force it by just making stuff up. Rhyme comes later. Prosody comes later. Form comes later. Same as with music, you can’t edit a lyric until you have a lot of lyrics to edit.
An exercise like this should open your mind to the constant stream of ideas that is always occurring beneath the surface of your conscious mind. Just practice opening the aperture until you always have music and lyrics to write.
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5) Loading ...Music for 12-29-06
December 29, 2006
0 CommentsMusic for 12-07-06
December 7, 2006
0 CommentsThis is a verse and chorus I came up with tonight. I’m not really sure how I want to modulate back and forth from major to minor yet. The rhythm of the melody and harmony don’t provide much contrast but the move from minor to major might be enough. Another option is that the verse is a prechorus.
85bpm Db C#min pop rock verse chorus prechorus ToWrite composing
(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5) Loading ...Is Your Ear Suspect?
November 15, 2006
1 CommentIf your ear can’t understand whatever it hears, then it’s suspect. Whatever the application — composing, songwriting, singing, playing the guitar, piano, or any other instrument — there is a logic to becoming a spontaneous musician. Your goal as a musician should be to get your musical intellect to the point where it becomes intuitive.
Dick Grove has taught music to well over 25,000 musicians! He teaches stuff you won’t get in music school. And he understands how to give you a strong musical foundation so you don’t fall for the dangers of intellectualizing your music… and you can become a truly spontaneous musician.
Watch and learn…
- The six different ears a musician must have
- The “tree” approach to musicianship
- Why you should know at least some piano or keyboard
- The logic to being a spontaneous musician…
Click here to find out more about Dick Grove’s music theory and ear training.
(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5) Loading ...