Music Theory - Tips For Making And Playing Better Music

[Blue0ctane]

I'm sure that a lot of you have struggled while trying to compose original pieces. Here are some tips derived from basic music theory that can help you make a more interesting song.

Drum Climaxes - If you listen to any self-respecting music artist, you'll notice that they often use percussion rolls, kicks, crashes, and fills while transitioning percussion beats/bringing the band to a climax point. This should be utilized while composing music. For example, if you were going from a classic rock background beat with snare on 2 and 4 to a more active beat (say, kick on 1 and 3, high hat every eight note, snare on 2 and 4), you might want to bring in the new beat with a snare roll and a crash cymbol. If the melody is going from staying focused on one pattern to another, you might want to get a fill going.

Mix Your Percussion - I hate seeing people using nothing but a snare and maybe ride cymbol on 2 and 4. It may sound good, but experimenting with other beats can sound much better. There's nothing like variety. Oh, by the way, don't make your introduction on the snare be 16th-16th-8th-16th-16th-8th. It's overused.

The Sound Pyramid - Bass is good. More bass is better. I used to wonder why the all-district band that I auditioned for took in more tubas than they did alto saxophones. That's because BASS IS GOOD. To help with this, try using the sound pyramid. Imagine how a pyramid starts out narrow at the top and gets wider as it goes down. Now put your piccolo at the top, flutes and oboes under, clarients and soprano saxes under, trumpets under, alto saxes and french horns under, tenor saxes under, baritones, alto clarinets, and trombones under, bass clarinets and bari saxes under, and finally tubas and contralto clarinets. Of course, you can adjust this if it's not perfect (it's definitely not).

Accentuate Your Accents - Oftentimes, an accented note will be brought out more by playing the note before it softly. This is known as a ghost note. Use it.

Dynamics - Dynamics are the difference between playing music and feeling music. Playing music would just be staring at the notes and playing them exactly as written. Don't do that! Watch your conductor for dynamic cues. On a solo, add in some! While playing jazz, use a fortepiano on any note longer than one and a half beats.

Accidentals - Accidentals can often make music sound different. They are a good thing! You usually don't want to leave your audience expecting what will come from the melody. Most solo pieces don't throw in accidentals and grace notes to make them more challenging; they're added because it gives the music unique character. If writing music, remember that accidentals can be used wisely. Don't go for the same cookie-cutter tune at every point in time.

Key Changes - Some people think that key changes are overused, but I personally like them. There's nothing like changing the keys. Even if you play the same old refrain, it will sound different to a casual listener when put through a key change.

Solos - If playing a solo, don't play it as written. Ad lib it. Even if it's adding a couple grace notes or trills or sustaining some notes while cutting others short or adding dynamics, ad lib is one of the best things you can do on a written solo. While the album version of a song might contain a mild solo, go to one of their concerts and you'll definitely hear some on-the-spot changes thrown in.

I hope that these tips have helped you while playing and/or writing music.

[DjMeas]

VERY WELL PUT!

You've pretty much hit every major point ^_^

[jihnsius]

Don't forget the key point: Don't suck!

[Rush More!]

Originally Posted by Blue0ctane

Drum Climaxes - If you listen to any self-respecting music artist, you'll notice that they often use percussion rolls, kicks, crashes, and fills while transitioning percussion beats/bringing the band to a climax point. This should be utilized while composing music. For example, if you were going from a classic rock background beat with snare on 2 and 4 to a more active beat (say, kick on 1 and 3, high hat every eight note, snare on 2 and 4), you might want to bring in the new beat with a snare roll and a crash cymbol. If the melody is going from staying focused on one pattern to another, you might want to get a fill going.

Mix Your Percussion - I hate seeing people using nothing but a snare and maybe ride cymbol on 2 and 4. It may sound good, but experimenting with other beats can sound much better. There's nothing like variety. Oh, by the way, don't make your introduction on the snare be 16th-16th-8th-16th-16th-8th. It's overused.

- Bass is good.

Oftentimes, an accented note will be brought out more by playing the note before it softly. This is known as a ghost note. Use it.

Dynamics - Dynamics are the difference between playing music and feeling music. Playing music would just be staring at the notes and playing them exactly as written. Don't do that! Watch your conductor for dynamic cues. On a solo, add in some! While playing jazz, use a fortepiano on any note longer than one and a half beats.

Accidentals - Accidentals can often make music sound different. If writing music, remember that accidentals can be used wisely. Don't go for the same cookie-cutter tune at every point in time.

Key Changes - There's nothing like changing the keys. Even if you play the same old refrain, it will sound different

ad lib is one of the best things you can do on a written solo.

Quoted and Restated for extreme fucking importance. Remember that you are making music, and don't get trapped into the mindset of thinking that your field is different if you are making electronica. These are things that make music good. Make your music stand out, people!

ps everything quoted is quoted for extreme importance. phenomenal post

[Blue0ctane]

Wow, thanks. I never knew that I knew music that well.

[Torukine]

Very useful post indeed! But...what's an accidental?

[Blue0ctane]

An accidental is a sharp, flat, or natural. If you're composing things in a program such as FL Studio you probably don't need that terminology. Simply put, it's a note outside of the 8 notes on the major scale.

[DJ SymBiotiX]

I.e. If you are composing something in C major (all white keys make up C major) then any black key would be considered an accidental.

[Kyrandian]

These guidelines are intended to help you improve your music, but if you don't suck, why follow guidelines at all? Hmm... I say do what sounds good and make your own guidelines, without worrying about using simplistic or generic percussion and rhythms. With electronic music originality a good grasp of music theory compliments solid production knowledge, but isn't at all neccessary.

Like Jihnsius said, the best rule to observe is "Don't suck."

[DjMeas]

May i also add that it's nice and fun to make music that you know
OTHER PEOPLE would WANT to hear....

But........!

Also make music with yourself in mind too~
Don't get trapped into thinking that "Aww, they may not like this part!"

Create a style all your own ya know! Be fearless in your creativity!

And if you've only been making music for yourself~
Try making music with others in mind ^_*

[Rush More!]

Originally Posted by Kyrandian

These guidelines are intended to help you improve your music, but if you don't suck, why follow guidelines at all? Hmm... I say do what sounds good and make your own guidelines, without worrying about using simplistic or generic percussion and rhythms. With electronic music originality a good grasp of music theory compliments solid production knowledge, but isn't at all neccessary.

Like Jihnsius said, the best rule to observe is "Don't suck."

Noise may be music to your ears, but in general, music is like eccentric math (or field of science). following some sort of a structure, especially when you've gotten good is (while not completely essential) highly reccomended, and can make your music more pleasant both for you and everybody else. And some grasp of music knowledge is imperetive to making music, otherwise, you'd just be making noise. and while it may be avant-garde to pretend the following isn't true, I'm here to inform you that there is in fact, a difference between noise and music.

[Blue0ctane]

You guys are right. Music is not a thing that a guide will create in perfection. You need experience to be able to create truly masterful music.

[Kyrandian]

Originally Posted by the red rebel

Noise may be music to your ears, but in general, music is like eccentric math (or field of science). following some sort of a structure, especially when you've gotten good is (while not completely essential) highly reccomended, and can make your music more pleasant both for you and everybody else. And some grasp of music knowledge is imperetive to making music, otherwise, you'd just be making noise. and while it may be avant-garde to pretend the following isn't true, I'm here to inform you that there is in fact, a difference between noise and music.

Yeah, the difference is noise sucks more than music. What I'm saying is, just use your ears.

[Enoch-Fox]

in b4 hipster war.

also, I've heard noisy stuff that is music. None of it was electronic, though, I'm talking stuff like Sonic Youth or Glenn Branca, but yeah. Structure and that sort of stuff? Very important. You can't make noise sound good unless you have some sort of grasp of the underlying structures. It's like these kids who try to draw anime people without first trying to draw real people. You can improve up to a point but you can't ever get past that because you're basing your work on a flawed foundation.

[noisy doll☆]

Here's another tip or two, though it may probably help more for instrumentalists than composers:

Learn your scales, keys, and learn about modes. Writing music in a particular key makes it recognizeable. Although in more contemporary music, tone collections are getting more and more arbitrary, most forms of music are still playing by at least some of the rules. Memorizing scales will help you with melody runs, and even though you certainly don't have to confine yourself to only the notes that are in the key you've picked (hello, accidentals), just knowing your musically easiest choices within the key help to make music a little less weird.

Though I really don't want to go into explaining all the modes here in this post, modes can really open up the possibilities of your composition. You can go beyond just composing in major and minor keys. Jazz tends to use a lot of mixolydian mode; along with rhythm and the characteristic instruments they use, the modes are part of what make jazz sound like jazz. Look it up on Wikipedia and try to expand your horizons.

And of course there's chords. Chord progression is pretty much the basis of all popular music. The human ear expects certain patterns to come from chords, and although we intuitively know what the cadence, or "last part" in a phrase ought to sound like, the method of creating these chords certainly needs to be studied before you can start cranking them out.

Music isn't just about putting out whatever sounds you can make on a computer. I mean, you can do that, but there is a reason musicians are all taught music theory. What we call "music theory" is the generally accepted language of musicians, and I disagree with Kyrandian. To be a serious musician, you really should learn music theory. You need to know the rules before you can successfully and stylishly break them.

Besides, if you consider yourself an artist, why would you turn down the opportunity to learn more about your craft? I haven't looked at this site extensively since I'm taking theory for credit and already bought the textbooks and such, but it seems like a decent free resource: http://www.musictheory.net/