Melodies and rhythms [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
In this lesson, we provide you exercises to stimulate
inspiration by creating melodies, rhythms and instrumentations.
We will use the chords progressions made during the previous
lesson. You can also use progressions from the Chords library
- 3.piz document located in the Music folder (in DataEN).
A melody is a succession of
notes played by an instrument. A melody is often made by
musical sentences alternated with rests. We often speak of a
voice, by analogy with the singing human voice. With each
note of a melody, a rhythmic value is associated and
specifies the duration of the note.
Just as for a chord, a melody will use the
notes of a tonality at a given time. When several voices are
played together and with different notes, they form a chord.
The notes of a chord can indeed be played by different
instruments.
- Open the Chords by
tonality.piz document as well as the document
containing the chords progressions made during the
preceding lesson. Drag Score 1 to 5 as
well as the whole note rhythm into your document and
then close the Chords by tonality.piz document.
- Open the Score 1. Drag the Whole
note rhythm in the first measure and do the same
with one of your chords progressions based only on 3
notes chords. The chords appear in the measures.
- You may notice that the chords notes
are very close. It is called a tight position of a
chord. You can move the notes down or up by one or
more octaves in order to get a large chord position.
Drag for example the middle note of the first chord
one octave higher and listen to the result. The chord
keeps the same type but seems more open, has a wider
sound spectrum.
- The Pizzicato original chords are all
in a tight position. By creating chords progressions,
the 3 or 4 chord notes are abruptly moved all
together to go from one chord to the other. It is
called a parallel movement of voices. This movement
is limited to the view point of the sound effects. As
each voice does the same movement, it quickly becomes
monotonous and annoying. The exercise which follows
will help you improve the chords progressions so as
to create several independent melodies formed by the
notes of the chords. For each chords progression of
your document, do the steps which follow:
- Drag the chords folder into the Score
1, in measure 1. The chords appear in the
measures.
- Organize the chords notes so as to
form melodies. The only modification you can make
is to move one or more notes by one or two
octaves up or down (it corresponds to a
vertically motion of the note by 7 positions on
the staff). Use the following rules to improve
the progressions and to create melodies:
- Create melodies with a maximum
of consecutive notes, i.e. melodies which go
up or down by one position on the staff. A
melody will often be made of consecutive
notes alternating with more significant
jumps.
- Give an independence to the 3
or 4 melodies. For that, prevent all voices
from moving in the same direction. Use
contrary movements, i.e. a voice which goes
up while the other goes down.
- When a note is common between
two successive chords, try to keep it within
the same melody (for example the second note
of the two chords). You can also tie them.
- Try to specially take care of
the upper and lower melodies, because they
are particularly well noticed.
- When using the V-I cadences,
preferably use the fundamental note (i.e. the
note on which the chord is built) in the
lower melody. It tends to reinforce the sound
effect.
- Once you are satisfied with
the result, you can create a new document and
drag this score in it to save it. Then, start
with another progression. Do that until you
can do it easily, without having to search
too long.
- The following exercise consists in
creating a melody on a separate staff. Open Score
2. For several chords progressions, do the
following operations:
- Drag a chord folder into the last
staff, first measure. Drag also the whole
note rhythm. The chords appear.
- Using half notes or whole notes,
create a melody based on the chords notes. Place
these notes in the upper staff. Take all the
advices given above to create melodies. Take care
to separate the pitches from the two melodies, so
that they are quite distinct while listening. Be
guided by the sound result and correct so that
you like it.
- Same exercise, but this time using Score
3, which contains staves to create 2
simultaneous melodies. Take care to use different
notes for the two melodies. You can use different
rhythms (2 half noted for the first and a whole note
for the other). Use only the chord notes. Once the 2
melodies are created, erase the bottom chords and
listen to the result.
- Same exercise, but with Score 4,
which contains staves to create 3 melodies. Take care
to distribute the notes between the melodies. Take
care to separate the pitches from the various
melodies (a lower melody, a middle one and an upper
one). Once the exercise is finished with a
progression, erase the chords and listen to the
result. As there are three different voices, you will
be able to hear the chord effect, but this time, it
is distributed on 3 different instruments.
- Same exercise, but with Score 5
which contains 4 staves for melodies. Use the 4
sounds chords progressions.
- It usually happens that a melody uses
other notes than those of the current chord. These
notes are called passing notes. They give more
freedom to the melodies by going from one note of the
chord to the other. These notes are used as a
transition and are not heard a very long time (eighth
notes or quarter notes in our exercises). Do the
previous exercises again but by using some passing
notes. Especially place them on the second and the
fourth beat of the measure and use quarter notes or
eighth notes as rhythmic values. You will notice that
they enrich the melody.
- Do the four preceding exercises again
by using different rhythms. Use rhythmic cells among:
- 4 quarter notes,
- 1 half note + 2 quarter notes,
- 1 dotted half note + 1 quarter
note,
- 1 half note + 1 quarter note + 2
eighth notes,
- 3 quarter notes + 2 eighth notes,
- 2 quarter notes + 4 eighth notes.
You can use passing notes. You can also
imagine other rhythms and use them.
- Until now, we used one chord per
measure. Remember that we had associated a whole note
duration with the chords. Take one of the
progressions and modify its options to associate it
with one half note. Create then a rhythmic cell with
a half note repeated ad infinitum and drag it into
Score 5, on the last staff (first measure). The
chords appear in half notes. By holding down the
SHIFT key, double-click on the progression. You get
the dialog box allowing to specify for each chord the
duration in multiples of half notes. Modify some
progressions in this manner. Use shorter durations
for degrees II, III, VI and VII and longer durations
for degrees I, V and IV. Then, you can do the
preceding exercises again.
Each element added to the exercise will
give you more freedom of expression. One can imagine lots of
exercises to develop the composition technique. The chords,
the melodies, the rhythms or sonorities all can be used as a
starting point for musical inspiration. There are often one
or two elements which form the beginning of a musical idea.
By singing some notes and you find that they sound very well.
You encode this small melody and try to find which rhythm
could reinforce it, which chords could support it and which
instruments could make it more expressive. Step by step, you
work out the score, you structure it, you repeat several
times the main theme with different instruments families and
various accompaniments, you introduce secondary themes which
are related to the main theme, etc. This is called the
development of a musical idea. Most traditional repertory
works are based on such developments of a starting idea.
Generating melodies using libraries [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
When you have a chord progression, you can
find rhythms and melodies elements in the Melodies
library.piz and Rhythms library 44.piz
documents . Here are the steps to help you exploit them to
compose musical scores and accompaniments:
- Determine a set of instruments to
express yourself. It can be one or two instruments or
even a whole symphonic orchestra. Start nevertheless
with a small number of instruments. Create the score
starting from the orchestra or light music templates
and add the necessary measures.
- Drag a chord progression into staff 1,
measure 1. In the libraries options, specify that the
chords progression is in the first staff.
- For one instrument at a time, select
rhythmic cells and drag them into the instrument
measures. Add the melodies element. Generate the
score if it is not automatic and listen to the sound
result. Correct and modify the library elements in
order to orient the style.
- Take care to keep a good coherence
between the instruments. All rules expressed in this
lesson stay valid. You orient the musical libraries
to get coherence.
- Modify the options of the Pizzicato
library elements. Create new elements. Try out many
different possibilities and you will end up to
discover very rich and pleasant structures. You will
be able to find ideas of melodies and rhythms. Then,
use what you learned in this lesson and the preceding
one to develop the interesting elements.
Instrumentation and effects [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
The choice of the instruments very much
affects the sound result of a score. With the instruments
view, you have a very easy tool to try sonorities. You can
play a passage and test various sounds of instruments to
locate the one which sounds best.
Also exploit an equilibrium of sound
volumes. The instruments view provides a configuration where
you can separately regulate volumes, balances (right/left
position), reverberation as well as other effects. Use them
to enrich the instrumentation.
Also use the nuances symbols (F, FF, p, MF,
cresc., decresc
) to create intensity contrasts. Modify
sometimes the tempo according to what you want to express.
Use the various tools palette.
General rules of composition [Professional] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
Here are a series of practical tips that
you can use to compose.
- Above all, your music must communicate
something. That can be an emotion, an impression, an
atmosphere, a hope, love, an idea, an object
It
does not matter what it is, but it is you who
communicates with your public, thanks to your music.
Art is communication. If you do not have anything to
communicate to your listener, then the composition
will remain a simple theoretical exercise without any
purpose. It is your communication which must remain
the master and the composition techniques must be the
servant. To do the opposite is to put the plough
before the oxen. When your desire to communicate
inspires a sound effect which transmits it to your
satisfaction, use it, it does not matter how many
rules this effect breaks. To this end, we advise you
to practice the following exercise regularly:
- Find or invent something to
communicate. That can be almost anything. Take
the most banal or most original ideas and write
on paper in some sentences what you want to
express. That can be "today is all right and
the small birds are singing" or "my cat
has just made a very elegant jump. I would like
to express this jump in a musical form" or
"holidays on the beach, I will remember and
express it in music". You can also take
emotions and express them through a musical
score. Take for example: apathy, sorrow, fear,
anger, trouble, interest, enthusiasm, joy,
serenity. You can also take two emotions
(negative and positive) and compose a score which
expresses a progressive transition between the
two. There is an infinity of things which you can
communicate with music. Also think about the
public or the people to whom you would like to
communicate this message. If you want to
communicate something to young children, adults
or teenagers, the implemented means of expression
will be very different. So that your message goes
through, you will need to take into account the
reality of your public's way of life.
- With your subject and your public
well in mind, seek an element which expresses
this message. It can be a rhythmic cell, one or
more chords, a melody, an instrument sound,
To find it, no mathematical formula exists. You
can stimulate your inspiration by thinking about
the subject and by testing various rhythms,
sonorities, melodies, chords or all combinations
of these elements.
- Be free especially do not destroy
your ideas before even expressing them. A
reasoning of the kind "Perhaps this rhythm
will express this very well and
, oh no,
nobody will understand it anyway and they will
believe that I am hopeless in music and
bla, bla, bla" will only make you stop
composition.
- It is probably the most current
barrier for a person who begins in art. The fear
of being ridiculous, of looking clumsy or not
"talented" prevents many people from
starting out in art. Do not hesitate to express
yourself, even in a clumsy way at the beginning.
It is normal and you should not be expected to
create an extraordinary work after the first
hours of composition (though it could arrive, you
are perhaps more talented than you think
).
With practice and perseverance, you will manage
to express what you want. Nobody never published
the first composition exercises of Mozart, Bach
or Ravel. They also made their beginnings (and
they did not have a computer
).
- As soon as you have one or more
elements expressing your message, use them and
develop them. If the element is a rhythm, find
which melody could reinforce the effect of this
rhythm, while keeping the expression of your
message. Seek the chords which could support it
well. Test and listen to various sonorities of
instruments. Build in this manner your score. At
the beginning, do not make it too long (8 to 16
measures). Gradually, you will be able to
increase the length, because a long development
of an idea requires practice and a good control
of the composition techniques. Develop the
starting idea by keeping in mind your message and
your public, which will increase the coherence of
the all.
- Constantly keep the interest of your
listener awake, by the addition of new ideas,
developments and changes. You can transpose a melody,
a chords progression. It is a change, but which
remains coherent with the original melody. You can
slow down or accelerate the same rhythm, create a
dialog between instruments of different sonorities,
create melodies or rhythms repetitions, extend, move
or narrow the range of instruments, use percussions,
synchronize or oppose melodies
The total number
of effects is really enormous and you need to let you
go and test.
- Make a coherent work. It is what makes
your music organized. You need to establish links
between most elements. These links can be for example
:
- a chords progression which
harmonizes the melodies,
- similar, opposed or inverted
rhythms,
- similar, opposed or inverted
melodies,
- chords, rhythms or melodies
repetitions,
- a synchronization or an opposition
of various rhythms,
- sound effects (percussions,
synthesizers sounds
),
- rhythms, melodies and sonorities
which answer each others,
- contrasts of intensity, rhythms,
melodies or chords.
- etc.
These links establish a coherence and
obtain the agreement of your listener, because he can in
some way predict it and it helps him to understand your
music and to receive your message. By understanding your
music and receiving your message, the listener will be
able to like and appreciate your music according to his
tastes.
- Create contrasts in the sound effects.
A very strong passage is better highlighted if it is
surrounded by very soft passages. A fast passage
contrasts better if it is preceded by a slow passage.
A melody appears better if it is followed or preceded
by a rest. You can still find many other examples of
this kind. By creating contrasts, you maintain the
interest of the listener and you can highlight
elements in this manner. Take care that these
contrasts have however a common link for the
coherence of the score.
- Balance the sound spectrum. If most of
the instruments exploit the extent of the same
octave, it is probable that the sound result will be
rather muddled and the listener will not be able to
distinguish the instruments. If you want to emphasize
an instrument, take care that the other instruments
do not play in the same range at the same time. Also
contrast the sound spectrum of your instruments by
creating answers between the instruments families and
the different ranges.
- At the beginning, voluntarily limit
the number of elements in your compositions.
Gradually, when you control some elements, add
others. It is the idea behind this composition course
exercises: start with little raw material, learn how
to handle it and then increase the possibilities and
be accustomed to them, etc.
- By using the rhythms and melodies
libraries, take care to personalize and sort out
these elements so that they transmit your message. Do
not expect the computer to do it for you. Composing
is not simply to throw notes, rhythms and chords in a
score. You need to organize these elements in a
coherent set which transmits your message, and only
you can do that. Good road and have fun!
PS: Send us your compositions sometimes. We
will be very happy to listen to what you composed with
Pizzicato!