I am still new enough at this to pretty much just try to ride along with the flow. Whenever I try too hard to make something happen it generally doesn't. Theory is great and can be interesting, but face it, chord progressions are a bit boring and worry about key signatures and chords and manufacturing a flow often has the effect of slowing the creative process rather than helping it.
I find I work much better if I have an idea whether it is a beat or a bassline and just put together sounds as opposed to sitting down with a key and a set of chords and trying to make something happen.
So I had a beat floating around in my head Sunday that I decided to turn into a piece of music. I really didn't know what to do with it since it was very hip hop and I don't generally do hip hop. But nonetheless I decided to just sit down and see where it went. By the time Jen got home from the island that evening I had put together something that sounded pretty cool to me. So of course I shared it with her.
Then it happened.. She used the word bubblegum. I didn't hear that in the piece really though I suppose it was "bright" due to a set of melody lines in it. Not that I haven't done bubblegum before, bright songs are fairly simple to create even if by accident. Now I understand that I am still absolutely a raw newbie, BUT, as always, I am a bit competitive with myself (yes, really) and I expected to be past that at this point.
So that lead me to completely break the thing down Sunday night and start with just the beat and bassline, which were the core components of the thing. The result is something I called Mystery Beat Theatre (click to play when you get to soundcloud - you can see some of the other things I have posted on soundcloud while you are there). If you remember not too long ago I did a bubblegum bit called 1CC (found on my music page) which was the first piece of complete music I had done. I think you will agree, things have come quite a ways from there.
Have a great day and thanks for playing along.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
12 Bar Blues
A lot of modern music is based on 12 bar blues. Lots of people have heard of it, but what is it really?
Well, it is based off a sequence of chords lasting 12 bars then repeating or in some cases repeating with slight variation. If we work with just the basic 12 bar blues configuration, you'll find it really isn't that mysterious.
I have mentioned the concept of I IV V chord progressions before, and 12 bar blues is the poster child for this idea. The basic pattern for classic 12 bar is I, I, I, I, IV, IV, I, I, V, V, I, I in any key. There are variations on this theme, but this is in a nutshell, the idea. You may never hear the chord played, but the music in each bar falls into the rules for the chords in the key.
In my continued journey, I purchased a book called Blues Piano For Beginners by Mark Harrison which I highly recommend by the way, if you are learning to play. In the book Mark explains the basic concept of playing 12 bar blues. His examples use the "Quick-Four" variant and M7th chords in C Maj. It looks like this:
I (C7), IV (F7), I (C7), I (C7) - IV (F7), IV (F7), I (C7), I (C7) - V (G7), IV (F7), I (C7), I (C7).
There are a lot of resources out there to talk about why, and about the mechanics (like the book linked above).
Knowing this you can apply it to your composition, you don't really need to know WHY it works, only that it does. Using notes from the chords or the chords themselves inside the bars assigned, you can make music that sounds "right." Putting the notes together in a particular way is what makes your composition unique.
I put together a song based on Mark's book. The music is in C Maj, the chord changes as described above, and the piano part is Pretty Close to his. I used a little artistic license (but not much) with the right hand and varied the left hand part also slightly. He has you play a repeating I-V, I-VI, pattern and a repeating I-V, I-VI, IIIb, III pattern with the left hand. I use the I-V, I-VI, IIIb, III pattern in the first 12 bars, and a I-V, I-VI, I-V, I-VI, I-V, I-VI, IIIb, III in the second 12 bars and alternate between those two patterns for the duration.
What does it sound like? Well, It sounds like this: 12 Bar Blues obviously I had to find some guitar, drums and bass that went along with it, the Guitar is a midi VSTi that strums the chord changes and I located drums and bass in a Mixcraft song kit. Hope you enjoy it.
Thanks for playing along.
Well, it is based off a sequence of chords lasting 12 bars then repeating or in some cases repeating with slight variation. If we work with just the basic 12 bar blues configuration, you'll find it really isn't that mysterious.
I have mentioned the concept of I IV V chord progressions before, and 12 bar blues is the poster child for this idea. The basic pattern for classic 12 bar is I, I, I, I, IV, IV, I, I, V, V, I, I in any key. There are variations on this theme, but this is in a nutshell, the idea. You may never hear the chord played, but the music in each bar falls into the rules for the chords in the key.
In my continued journey, I purchased a book called Blues Piano For Beginners by Mark Harrison which I highly recommend by the way, if you are learning to play. In the book Mark explains the basic concept of playing 12 bar blues. His examples use the "Quick-Four" variant and M7th chords in C Maj. It looks like this:
I (C7), IV (F7), I (C7), I (C7) - IV (F7), IV (F7), I (C7), I (C7) - V (G7), IV (F7), I (C7), I (C7).
There are a lot of resources out there to talk about why, and about the mechanics (like the book linked above).
Knowing this you can apply it to your composition, you don't really need to know WHY it works, only that it does. Using notes from the chords or the chords themselves inside the bars assigned, you can make music that sounds "right." Putting the notes together in a particular way is what makes your composition unique.
I put together a song based on Mark's book. The music is in C Maj, the chord changes as described above, and the piano part is Pretty Close to his. I used a little artistic license (but not much) with the right hand and varied the left hand part also slightly. He has you play a repeating I-V, I-VI, pattern and a repeating I-V, I-VI, IIIb, III pattern with the left hand. I use the I-V, I-VI, IIIb, III pattern in the first 12 bars, and a I-V, I-VI, I-V, I-VI, I-V, I-VI, IIIb, III in the second 12 bars and alternate between those two patterns for the duration.
What does it sound like? Well, It sounds like this: 12 Bar Blues obviously I had to find some guitar, drums and bass that went along with it, the Guitar is a midi VSTi that strums the chord changes and I located drums and bass in a Mixcraft song kit. Hope you enjoy it.
Thanks for playing along.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Practical Applications
As I have been exploring music in this new way, my practical side wants to know what the heck I am going to do with what I am learning, other than to amuse myself and "show off" to both of the people who read this blog... er I mean my "worldwide audience."
As you likely already know my wife likes to take pictures. She does a fabulous job with a basic digital camera. I know she could do a lot better with better equipment, but we just haven't deemed it necessary to spend $4000 on a camera for her hobby. For years, with those pictures, and others she has collected from family members and scanned, she has created slide shows for special events. So when she wanted to post a slide show she made on YouTube only to be rudely greeted by the copyright message, which she (unlike most people) did not ignore. She shelved the project as buying licenses for that potential audience was impractical given it was just some photos. We have since started a small business for her surrounding that sort of thing, and really wanted to get those photos up, but we don't have a great deal of capital for the venture, and buying music for a promotional show was not an option.
Given the nature of my new hobby I thought it would be interesting to see if I could create something suitable that she would not have to pay for. The result of that endeavor can be found here. In this case the beginning of the process pre-dated my recent trend to composing my own music, I did not compose the music for that. I did it using Mixcraft loops, as explained in my Tools: Mixcraft post. The major benefit to this is that music arranged in this manner is royalty free. Meaning I can use it anyway I want, and any original arrangement is mine regardless of the origin of the loops (provided they are also royalty free) as obstensibly, nobody has arranged things in the same way I have done it. So I have obtained the individual rights through various means to the little blocks of music (or loops: in this case everything is 8 bars or less) and arranged them in a totally unique way creating art that did not previously exist, even though the individual sounds did. Make sense? Well, I can understand if it doesn't.
Seasons is an arrangement that lasts just under 8 minutes consists of well over 100 individual elements probably a third of that are unique elements. So an interesting puzzle. One that I originally had done in a completely different order (though now I wish I had rendered it to MP3 so you could hear the difference) and remixed sunday for the final version of the slideshow. After the final mix I decided it was good enough to go without composing my own tracks for it.
Now again, this is done with a relatively inexpensive tool, one that I just purchased and figured out as I went along. The video track was created from other relatively inexpensive tools, and while we would like smoother transitions, and a smooth zoom feature, we are not real fond of the super duper transitions seen in many similar productions. This is about the photos, not an exhibition of fancy animations. The music is done simply also. I do not do anything tricky with panning or adding effects. It is a simple thing, designed to compliment another simple thing, all put together to showcase the actual content. In this case the wonderful pictures. It is an old school approach I admit.
The point of the preceding 5 paragraphs is that, this type of thing is obtainable by basically everyone. If you have a desire, there is no reason you shouldn't give it a try.
Thanks for playing along.
As you likely already know my wife likes to take pictures. She does a fabulous job with a basic digital camera. I know she could do a lot better with better equipment, but we just haven't deemed it necessary to spend $4000 on a camera for her hobby. For years, with those pictures, and others she has collected from family members and scanned, she has created slide shows for special events. So when she wanted to post a slide show she made on YouTube only to be rudely greeted by the copyright message, which she (unlike most people) did not ignore. She shelved the project as buying licenses for that potential audience was impractical given it was just some photos. We have since started a small business for her surrounding that sort of thing, and really wanted to get those photos up, but we don't have a great deal of capital for the venture, and buying music for a promotional show was not an option.
Given the nature of my new hobby I thought it would be interesting to see if I could create something suitable that she would not have to pay for. The result of that endeavor can be found here. In this case the beginning of the process pre-dated my recent trend to composing my own music, I did not compose the music for that. I did it using Mixcraft loops, as explained in my Tools: Mixcraft post. The major benefit to this is that music arranged in this manner is royalty free. Meaning I can use it anyway I want, and any original arrangement is mine regardless of the origin of the loops (provided they are also royalty free) as obstensibly, nobody has arranged things in the same way I have done it. So I have obtained the individual rights through various means to the little blocks of music (or loops: in this case everything is 8 bars or less) and arranged them in a totally unique way creating art that did not previously exist, even though the individual sounds did. Make sense? Well, I can understand if it doesn't.
Seasons is an arrangement that lasts just under 8 minutes consists of well over 100 individual elements probably a third of that are unique elements. So an interesting puzzle. One that I originally had done in a completely different order (though now I wish I had rendered it to MP3 so you could hear the difference) and remixed sunday for the final version of the slideshow. After the final mix I decided it was good enough to go without composing my own tracks for it.
Now again, this is done with a relatively inexpensive tool, one that I just purchased and figured out as I went along. The video track was created from other relatively inexpensive tools, and while we would like smoother transitions, and a smooth zoom feature, we are not real fond of the super duper transitions seen in many similar productions. This is about the photos, not an exhibition of fancy animations. The music is done simply also. I do not do anything tricky with panning or adding effects. It is a simple thing, designed to compliment another simple thing, all put together to showcase the actual content. In this case the wonderful pictures. It is an old school approach I admit.
The point of the preceding 5 paragraphs is that, this type of thing is obtainable by basically everyone. If you have a desire, there is no reason you shouldn't give it a try.
Thanks for playing along.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Scales and Chords and Semitones Oh My...
As always, I am here sharing my continuing education on music. Today I bring something from an actual music teacher. The following is an email exchange between myself and my father-in-law Jack Clifford, my questions in blue his answers in red:
They have F# Maj as - F# G# A# B C# D# E# F# but have the chords as all major chords with the exception of the A# which is an A# Minor. Both C# Major and A# Minor contain a natural F, which does not exist in the key.
F# = F#, A#, C# G# = G#, B#, D# A# = A#, C#, E# (E# = F) B = B, D#, F# C# = C#, E#, G# (again, E# is F) D# = D#, F#, A# E#= E#, G#, B#
Chords based on any/all major scale(s):
I = Major II = minor III = minor IV = Major V = Major VI = minor VII = diminished
Is this right? If it is, how does that affect using the I, IV, V chord progression?
I = F# Major (F#, A#, C#) If extended by adding an E#, chord becomes F# Major 7
IV = B Major (B, D#, F#) If extended by adding A#, chord becomes B Major 7
V = C# Major (C#, E#, G#) If extended by adding a B, chord becomes a C# Dominant 7
Get all that?
So I am reading on the interwebs about F# Maj (because I am working with a sound kit in that key and want to write a keyboard part)
Why not either down 1/2 step (F Major) or up 1/2 step (G Major)???? GRIN
Why not either down 1/2 step (F Major) or up 1/2 step (G Major)???? GRIN
They have F# Maj as - F# G# A# B C# D# E# F# but have the chords as all major chords with the exception of the A# which is an A# Minor. Both C# Major and A# Minor contain a natural F, which does not exist in the key.
F# = F#, A#, C# G# = G#, B#, D# A# = A#, C#, E# (E# = F) B = B, D#, F# C# = C#, E#, G# (again, E# is F) D# = D#, F#, A# E#= E#, G#, B#
Chords based on any/all major scale(s):
I = Major II = minor III = minor IV = Major V = Major VI = minor VII = diminished
Is this right? If it is, how does that affect using the I, IV, V chord progression?
I = F# Major (F#, A#, C#) If extended by adding an E#, chord becomes F# Major 7
IV = B Major (B, D#, F#) If extended by adding A#, chord becomes B Major 7
V = C# Major (C#, E#, G#) If extended by adding a B, chord becomes a C# Dominant 7
Get all that?
Well, let me try to simplify it a little bit.
All of the scales have a pattern. Each pattern has multiple variations some based on a concept called the "semitone." Which is basically a half step. Natural notes become flats and sharps and vice versa.
It doesn't take much thinking to figure out that a half step UP in one scale renders the same note as a half step DOWN in another. A good explanation of the patterns can be found here. What Jack is explaining about is the pattern for each CHORD in a scale rather than the NOTES. If you read the link above, or at least the part on patterns, it will be much more clear what Jack was saying.
As always, I was looking for this information to fill a practical need. The result of that experimentation can be found in this song. Where I needed the information to write the organ part. Enjoy.
Thanks for playing along.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Fun with Midi
Today I want to talk about Midi, and my first complete composition. One of the tools for non-musicians or aspiring musicians (and for actual professional ones too) is called a midi sequencer.
Musical Instrument Digital Interface is a basically a standard for interfacing computers with instruments. You can check out the wiki link if you want a full explanation. By using this tool, some creativity and some patience, you can create some pretty cool stuff. The sequencer is a computer or digital tool used for making midi files, which you can also do by recording from a midi instrument. But we will cover that in another blog. I am talking about the sequencer or computer side today.
The sequencer I used is part of mixcraft. A quick tutorial on YouTube will give you a better idea how it works than I can do with a few pictures or words. What I want to talk about isn't how to use the specific tool, but (as usual) the reasons for it and my theory behind the music that made it happen.
So why use a midi sequencer? Well, I use one because I can do it anywhere I have a computer, and I never disturb anyone. Also, it allows you to use virtually any instrument you can think of, virtually. It can be a great tool for putting an idea into music which can then be converted to sheet music (easily). It is also very good for people whose minds work better than their fingers. I like to use my keyboard to work out songs, but I am not practiced enough to play an entire one yet and certainly not reliably. The sequencer puts my notes exactly where I want them. It allows me to move and copy them as well as other useful things. It also allows me to apply different instruments to the same notes, to get just the sound you want, or to easily create complimentary tracks.
So, this piece of music 1CC which stands for 1st complete composition, or as it says in the file, 1 crazy circus. Which is a name based on the brass parts, and an organ tone (which I removed - but the name stuck anyway). This was written, sequenced, arranged, and recorded entirely by me. There are no loops used that I did not personally create. It was all done with a midi sequencer. There are several instruments, Piano, French Horns, Trombone, Tuba, Bass Guitar, and Drums.
The method for doing this, like anything, starts with an idea. I am spending a lot of time on the keyboard for the basic reason it is easiest for me to physically play. So this leads me to thinking about piano music. Pianos are special in that you can play from two different octaves at the same time. There are other instruments that can do this, but they are in the minority. Because of the left hand, right hand thing you can play things in a way other instruments can't, like notes on one hand and an accompanying chord with the other. You'll notice I take advantage of that in the sequences in 1CC.
The choice of piano as the main voice was an important choice. The next choices are what key, I went with C Major for simplicity sake (as the piano is naturally C maj), and the tempo which is 69 BPM. You notice that I start slowly and pick up the pace, so it sounds like I am playing more than 69 BPM but I am really not, I just altered the back beat from every other note to every note. You can play downtempo or uptempo with pretty much any BPM by altering your beats and note pacing. I am not using any 32nd notes here, so you can see even at this tempo, you can make a fast sounding song.
C Major is CDEFGABC. The I, IV, V, chord progression for C Major with no modes is C (root) F (Major 4th) and G (Perfect 5th). This gives you the entire scale to work with and uses no flats or sharps. So the building blocks I used were the chords C maj, F maj, G maj, and all of the individual notes in the scale as they are contained in those three chords. You might remember this trick from an earlier post. Harmonically, if I stick to these building blocks, I really can't make something that has sour notes in it. Maybe they sound funny being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but they won't be sour. I know most people just want to play something that sounds good. As funny as this may seem, if it sounds good, you are almost certainly following the rules even if you don't know that you are, which is one of the cool things about music. I am writing this stuff because I am composing music, so I am starting with a theory and then writing something, not starting with something and translating it. By all means, if you can play, just play and be happy. You don't need to know how this all went together.
Now there may be music grognars among you, who may notice I mess up on one or more of these technical details on occasion, which is fine, I am new at it, and I already wrote something in A Major Transposed Ionian Mode when I was shooting for A minor.. Live and learn right?
A little music humor there, I know, very little.. ;)
Thanks for playing along.
Musical Instrument Digital Interface is a basically a standard for interfacing computers with instruments. You can check out the wiki link if you want a full explanation. By using this tool, some creativity and some patience, you can create some pretty cool stuff. The sequencer is a computer or digital tool used for making midi files, which you can also do by recording from a midi instrument. But we will cover that in another blog. I am talking about the sequencer or computer side today.
The sequencer I used is part of mixcraft. A quick tutorial on YouTube will give you a better idea how it works than I can do with a few pictures or words. What I want to talk about isn't how to use the specific tool, but (as usual) the reasons for it and my theory behind the music that made it happen.
So why use a midi sequencer? Well, I use one because I can do it anywhere I have a computer, and I never disturb anyone. Also, it allows you to use virtually any instrument you can think of, virtually. It can be a great tool for putting an idea into music which can then be converted to sheet music (easily). It is also very good for people whose minds work better than their fingers. I like to use my keyboard to work out songs, but I am not practiced enough to play an entire one yet and certainly not reliably. The sequencer puts my notes exactly where I want them. It allows me to move and copy them as well as other useful things. It also allows me to apply different instruments to the same notes, to get just the sound you want, or to easily create complimentary tracks.
So, this piece of music 1CC which stands for 1st complete composition, or as it says in the file, 1 crazy circus. Which is a name based on the brass parts, and an organ tone (which I removed - but the name stuck anyway). This was written, sequenced, arranged, and recorded entirely by me. There are no loops used that I did not personally create. It was all done with a midi sequencer. There are several instruments, Piano, French Horns, Trombone, Tuba, Bass Guitar, and Drums.
The method for doing this, like anything, starts with an idea. I am spending a lot of time on the keyboard for the basic reason it is easiest for me to physically play. So this leads me to thinking about piano music. Pianos are special in that you can play from two different octaves at the same time. There are other instruments that can do this, but they are in the minority. Because of the left hand, right hand thing you can play things in a way other instruments can't, like notes on one hand and an accompanying chord with the other. You'll notice I take advantage of that in the sequences in 1CC.
The choice of piano as the main voice was an important choice. The next choices are what key, I went with C Major for simplicity sake (as the piano is naturally C maj), and the tempo which is 69 BPM. You notice that I start slowly and pick up the pace, so it sounds like I am playing more than 69 BPM but I am really not, I just altered the back beat from every other note to every note. You can play downtempo or uptempo with pretty much any BPM by altering your beats and note pacing. I am not using any 32nd notes here, so you can see even at this tempo, you can make a fast sounding song.
C Major is CDEFGABC. The I, IV, V, chord progression for C Major with no modes is C (root) F (Major 4th) and G (Perfect 5th). This gives you the entire scale to work with and uses no flats or sharps. So the building blocks I used were the chords C maj, F maj, G maj, and all of the individual notes in the scale as they are contained in those three chords. You might remember this trick from an earlier post. Harmonically, if I stick to these building blocks, I really can't make something that has sour notes in it. Maybe they sound funny being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but they won't be sour. I know most people just want to play something that sounds good. As funny as this may seem, if it sounds good, you are almost certainly following the rules even if you don't know that you are, which is one of the cool things about music. I am writing this stuff because I am composing music, so I am starting with a theory and then writing something, not starting with something and translating it. By all means, if you can play, just play and be happy. You don't need to know how this all went together.
Now there may be music grognars among you, who may notice I mess up on one or more of these technical details on occasion, which is fine, I am new at it, and I already wrote something in A Major Transposed Ionian Mode when I was shooting for A minor.. Live and learn right?
A little music humor there, I know, very little.. ;)
Thanks for playing along.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Tools: More Mixcraft
Rather than talk about how to do something, I will mostly talk about concepts and maybe ideas what to do rather than specifically how to do it. The reason is, most of the tools have extensive resources on their site on HOW. They just don't deal with What or Why.
So today, I want to talk about matching in parts from different kits or from outside sources. In addition to the Mixcraft loops and loops I built, I acquired a set of loops online, from a website called Prime Loops. There a lot of sites out there that supply them, some of them for free. Though I have yet to find a free site that isn't in some way funky (and I am not talking Parliament). Prime Loops has good loops, and they are reasonably priced. They are not the only site that fits that description, but they are the ones I chose.
The most daunting part of the project is importing them and doing the data quality. You don't HAVE to do that step, but I am doing it because it will allow me to search for them more easily later rather than just clicking on the imported list and fishing through them that way. So I am changing the names, adding the key where it is missing, and placing them into song kits. You can just leave them in imported and listen to them to see if they fit the project you are working on.
Loops can be altered, gently using Mixcraft and radically using something like Audacity, which I will cover later. Mixcraft allows you to alter things like the key and tempo to match a project. Not all loops will sound good when altered in either of those two ways, but some will sound fine, or maybe even better than the original.
So on Project Alpha I used some imported and altered loops. I am pretty sure you wont be able to tell from listening to this which parts are which. In fact, I will guess that most people will guess parts that came from this kit actually are the foreign parts. Part of that is the magic of arrangement, and part is the choice of sounds they included in the original kit. The new bits were altered for both pitch and tempo, but I think it sounds pretty good. Of course, that is the reason to make your own music in the first place isn't it. If this sort of thing isn't your style, then there are plenty of things out there to make your own favorites.
By using the ability to alter pieces, you can get a melody you like matched with a beat you like, and other supporting instruments that may not come in a given kit. It also allows you to use a number of different voices and melodies in sequence to change up what may seem to be a bit too homogeneous, or fill out a kit you like, that simply came with too few parts to make anything full length.
Anyway, thats all I have for today. Thanks for playing along.
So today, I want to talk about matching in parts from different kits or from outside sources. In addition to the Mixcraft loops and loops I built, I acquired a set of loops online, from a website called Prime Loops. There a lot of sites out there that supply them, some of them for free. Though I have yet to find a free site that isn't in some way funky (and I am not talking Parliament). Prime Loops has good loops, and they are reasonably priced. They are not the only site that fits that description, but they are the ones I chose.
The most daunting part of the project is importing them and doing the data quality. You don't HAVE to do that step, but I am doing it because it will allow me to search for them more easily later rather than just clicking on the imported list and fishing through them that way. So I am changing the names, adding the key where it is missing, and placing them into song kits. You can just leave them in imported and listen to them to see if they fit the project you are working on.
Loops can be altered, gently using Mixcraft and radically using something like Audacity, which I will cover later. Mixcraft allows you to alter things like the key and tempo to match a project. Not all loops will sound good when altered in either of those two ways, but some will sound fine, or maybe even better than the original.
So on Project Alpha I used some imported and altered loops. I am pretty sure you wont be able to tell from listening to this which parts are which. In fact, I will guess that most people will guess parts that came from this kit actually are the foreign parts. Part of that is the magic of arrangement, and part is the choice of sounds they included in the original kit. The new bits were altered for both pitch and tempo, but I think it sounds pretty good. Of course, that is the reason to make your own music in the first place isn't it. If this sort of thing isn't your style, then there are plenty of things out there to make your own favorites.
By using the ability to alter pieces, you can get a melody you like matched with a beat you like, and other supporting instruments that may not come in a given kit. It also allows you to use a number of different voices and melodies in sequence to change up what may seem to be a bit too homogeneous, or fill out a kit you like, that simply came with too few parts to make anything full length.
Anyway, thats all I have for today. Thanks for playing along.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Tools: Mixcraft
There are a lot of tools I have found, some cost money, some cost more money. Though I have done this fairly inexpensively, as it is a hobby not a vocation. There are a few free tools out there, I will talk about those also as I get more experience with them. Mixcraft is relatively inexpensive, and you can buy 1 license and use it on your laptop and your desktop if you want to take it with you.
I have talked about arranging. Let me be clear what I am talking about. I am not taking "a Canon in D" and arranging it for a middle school band, which is something my father-in-law Jack could do probably during his lunch break, but that is what he does for a living, and he is very good at it. What I am talking about is quite literally arranging music samples or loops as they are sometimes called, into something that sounds like music.
So here is the library of loops that come with Mixcraft 6 arranged by "song kit." That is pretty much exactly what it sounds like a complimentary set of loops that work well together like a kit. As you can see the loops range widely in length. This kit has loops that range from 1 bar (4 beats) to 32 bars (128 beats or just over 1 minute at 120 BPM).
Here is an example of the mixcraft interface with 1 loop inserted in it.
You can see the loop, this one happens to be 8 bars or 32 beats long which at the 120 BPM tempo is roughly 15 seconds.
Now I am not going to get into all the advanced features in this blog. If this is something tha interests you, you can download a demo version and try it out. You can aslo find many instructional videos on their web site and on youtube.
It is pretty common for a song to be between 3 and 4 minutes in length with some going a bit longer and some going a LOT longer. So when you are arranging your loops, some math must be done to figure out how long everything is. At 4:4 time and 120BPM, 120 bars would be 4 minutes. So you have to put quite a few of these piecces together to make a full song. With each loop generally being one "instrument."
What a full project looks like:
This one is a version of TechJazz1 so you can see a lot of little parts go into making one big thing. But all I did is take a number of small puzzle pieces and arrange them in the order you hear them in. Pretty cool huh? All it takes is some time and an ear for what you like. That's it. No special skills required.
So for the time being, if you read about me doing arranging, this is what I am talking about. If you hear me refer to sampling, it is crating the loops to be used here, whether by playing them and recording directly, or by figuring out what I want it to sound like, and using a MIDI editor. Something that is also pretty easy, we will get to that later.
Thanks for playing along.
I have talked about arranging. Let me be clear what I am talking about. I am not taking "a Canon in D" and arranging it for a middle school band, which is something my father-in-law Jack could do probably during his lunch break, but that is what he does for a living, and he is very good at it. What I am talking about is quite literally arranging music samples or loops as they are sometimes called, into something that sounds like music.
Here is an example of the mixcraft interface with 1 loop inserted in it.
You can see the loop, this one happens to be 8 bars or 32 beats long which at the 120 BPM tempo is roughly 15 seconds.
Now I am not going to get into all the advanced features in this blog. If this is something tha interests you, you can download a demo version and try it out. You can aslo find many instructional videos on their web site and on youtube.
It is pretty common for a song to be between 3 and 4 minutes in length with some going a bit longer and some going a LOT longer. So when you are arranging your loops, some math must be done to figure out how long everything is. At 4:4 time and 120BPM, 120 bars would be 4 minutes. So you have to put quite a few of these piecces together to make a full song. With each loop generally being one "instrument."
What a full project looks like:
This one is a version of TechJazz1 so you can see a lot of little parts go into making one big thing. But all I did is take a number of small puzzle pieces and arrange them in the order you hear them in. Pretty cool huh? All it takes is some time and an ear for what you like. That's it. No special skills required.
So for the time being, if you read about me doing arranging, this is what I am talking about. If you hear me refer to sampling, it is crating the loops to be used here, whether by playing them and recording directly, or by figuring out what I want it to sound like, and using a MIDI editor. Something that is also pretty easy, we will get to that later.
Thanks for playing along.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Music is really hard. Or is it?
One of the things a lot of people I know think about music is that it is really hard to learn, and that you need to have talent to do it. Well, like any other profession, on the high end of things, those things are both true. Systems Engineering isn't exactly a walk in the park, and if you are going to be one of the best at it, it requires some talent. However, getting into the IT field is relatively easy.
The same rules apply to music. Some things seem daunting, like scales and chords. If you want to learn all of them, yes. However, a little knowledge can go a long way.
Lets take the C (referred to as C Major) scale as an example. The notes in the scale are C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The observant will notice this is all of the major notes, and the order is just slightly out of alphabetical order. Anyone who has played piano also knows that is what comprises the white keys in each octave. If we look at another scale D (D Major) it is D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#. So you can see the pattern is close here, except we have a couple sharps, the F and the C. Since we know there are a bunch of combinations in major and minor, it can seem to get confusing quickly. We also have modes which complicate things further. The thing is, chances are you have something in mind you want to play. Each piece of music is played in a particular key, some will oscillate or change keys, but a that isn't something you need to get into on day one.
Most modern music styles, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Dance, etc. are played with a finite group of keys, and using a limited number of modes, or no modes at all. This means that you can get into it without memorizing the whole thing, you just need to know what Key, Scale, and Mode you are working with on a particular piece of music. With this along tempo and time, you have all the basics covered. I will cover some of this stuff in more detail in other posts around particular pieces of music, but lets just say that your goal, as a novice who doesn't really want to go out and learn all of this stuff at once from a professional teacher, the idea is to limit the number of variables.
So for instance on my music page, there are (or will be soon) a couple versions of a song called Jen's Jazz (the filenames are smoothjam, smoothjamv2, and smoothjamnokb). This arrangement is done in the Key of D. So the chords and notes are largely pulled from the D Maj scale. Some of the instruments may be using different modes, but the central voice in the piece is a soprano sax, which as far as I can tell, is just using the standard D scale. While I arranged the full length piece, I noticed there was something missing. There it was lacking depth and none of the samples available to me solved the problem. So I decided to sample my own. You can here what it sounds like without my samples by listening to "smoothjamnokb".
In order to do that, I needed a midi keyboard, which I have, and some basic musical tricks. I laid down a series of chords and used them to accompany the track. The same piece of music with the keyboard bit I created is here "smoothjamv2". I think it makes a pretty big difference. But it is just a series of basic chords.
So what is a chord? It is just a few notes played together. While this can get even more complicated than scales, a basic cord is made up of 3 notes from the scale. The root note, the 3rd note and the 5th note. So a D maj chord is D, F#, and A. So as I knew what key the piece was in, and I just jotted down all the base chords in D. Then with the music playing I played chords on my keyboard using a basic trial and error method until I found some that sounded good. I also used another musical trick. Its called the 1,4,5 chord progression. A lot of music can be played by using the 1st, 4th, and 5th chord in the key and flourished using notes from those chords. We are a bit too early into this to be adept at flourishing, so we will stick to just accompanying with chords for now. So, the chords I put down are the 1st, the 4th and the 5th, or D maj (DF#A), G maj (GBD), and A maj (AC#E). I only got a little tricky in that in the different sections I play them in a different order and at at a different pace, and I invert one of the chords (play the 3rd and 5th from an octave and the root of the next higher octave) for a section.
Now keep in mind I have only been at this whole music thing a short time. So, this is a trick I picked up on the interwebs, was able to execute, and I think, makes a big difference in that arrangement. It isn't rocket science, it is simply reducing the variables, working with a finite set of notes and chords, and figuring out what sounds good to my ear. Anyone can do it. Really.
Anyway, until next time..
The same rules apply to music. Some things seem daunting, like scales and chords. If you want to learn all of them, yes. However, a little knowledge can go a long way.
Lets take the C (referred to as C Major) scale as an example. The notes in the scale are C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The observant will notice this is all of the major notes, and the order is just slightly out of alphabetical order. Anyone who has played piano also knows that is what comprises the white keys in each octave. If we look at another scale D (D Major) it is D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#. So you can see the pattern is close here, except we have a couple sharps, the F and the C. Since we know there are a bunch of combinations in major and minor, it can seem to get confusing quickly. We also have modes which complicate things further. The thing is, chances are you have something in mind you want to play. Each piece of music is played in a particular key, some will oscillate or change keys, but a that isn't something you need to get into on day one.
Most modern music styles, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Dance, etc. are played with a finite group of keys, and using a limited number of modes, or no modes at all. This means that you can get into it without memorizing the whole thing, you just need to know what Key, Scale, and Mode you are working with on a particular piece of music. With this along tempo and time, you have all the basics covered. I will cover some of this stuff in more detail in other posts around particular pieces of music, but lets just say that your goal, as a novice who doesn't really want to go out and learn all of this stuff at once from a professional teacher, the idea is to limit the number of variables.
So for instance on my music page, there are (or will be soon) a couple versions of a song called Jen's Jazz (the filenames are smoothjam, smoothjamv2, and smoothjamnokb). This arrangement is done in the Key of D. So the chords and notes are largely pulled from the D Maj scale. Some of the instruments may be using different modes, but the central voice in the piece is a soprano sax, which as far as I can tell, is just using the standard D scale. While I arranged the full length piece, I noticed there was something missing. There it was lacking depth and none of the samples available to me solved the problem. So I decided to sample my own. You can here what it sounds like without my samples by listening to "smoothjamnokb".
In order to do that, I needed a midi keyboard, which I have, and some basic musical tricks. I laid down a series of chords and used them to accompany the track. The same piece of music with the keyboard bit I created is here "smoothjamv2". I think it makes a pretty big difference. But it is just a series of basic chords.
So what is a chord? It is just a few notes played together. While this can get even more complicated than scales, a basic cord is made up of 3 notes from the scale. The root note, the 3rd note and the 5th note. So a D maj chord is D, F#, and A. So as I knew what key the piece was in, and I just jotted down all the base chords in D. Then with the music playing I played chords on my keyboard using a basic trial and error method until I found some that sounded good. I also used another musical trick. Its called the 1,4,5 chord progression. A lot of music can be played by using the 1st, 4th, and 5th chord in the key and flourished using notes from those chords. We are a bit too early into this to be adept at flourishing, so we will stick to just accompanying with chords for now. So, the chords I put down are the 1st, the 4th and the 5th, or D maj (DF#A), G maj (GBD), and A maj (AC#E). I only got a little tricky in that in the different sections I play them in a different order and at at a different pace, and I invert one of the chords (play the 3rd and 5th from an octave and the root of the next higher octave) for a section.
Now keep in mind I have only been at this whole music thing a short time. So, this is a trick I picked up on the interwebs, was able to execute, and I think, makes a big difference in that arrangement. It isn't rocket science, it is simply reducing the variables, working with a finite set of notes and chords, and figuring out what sounds good to my ear. Anyone can do it. Really.
Anyway, until next time..
Friday, March 22, 2013
Play Along
Nearly everyone has some affinity for music. I personally don't know anyone who doesn't have at least some even among those friends of mine who are legally deaf. I have several friends and family who are musicians, and some of them actually make a living at it. This blog, honestly, is not for them. Unless they wish to look at this journey from the other side.
I am not even qualified to be an amateur musician, I have a day job and simply do not have the talent or the ambition to put in the 10,000 hours required to be one. More on that figure later. What I do have is a love of music and the earnest desire to create some of my own. I do not wish to play for anyone but myself. As a point of fact, I absolutely have NO ambition to play in front of anyone, even were I accomplished, but that, in the immortal, though slightly paraphrased words of Alton Brown is another blog.
In my personal quest to play music I have traveled down many roads, got lost, and wandered back to my normal life. I have again started down the path, only this time, I seem to have struck on a set of tools and techniques that changed how I look at it. It is all really beginning to click for me, and I am the most excited I have ever been for my musical future. I have even created my first pieces of music, and am learning to play three instruments. While I will forewarn you I don't recommend that last bit, you should probably pick one to start with and then once you have that where you like it, expand from there. There is a story as to why I am trying to play those particular three, and I will tell it in an upcoming post.
Nearly everyone can tell you a story that has for it the moral "stick to it" or "try, try again" and this is definitely one of those stories. If you love music, listening to a piece of it that you constructed is amazing. It can only be described as a religious experience. There is nothing like it. It is also obtainable.
Anyone can do it. Believe me, I have only been doing this a short time, and I have no intrinsic musical talent, at all. I was literally arranging (producing) music in a matter of minutes. I had an idea, I found a tool, and in under an hour, I had produced a tune that sounded like real music. I will explain that tool later, and how to use it a bit later than that.
In the sidebar you will find a link to my music page where my creations are available to listen to. There will also be posts about how I made them, some of them quite detailed as to the tools and methods. I will put recordings of my playing as well (eventually), and link them.
Anyway, thanks for playing along, and stay tuned.
Scott.
I am not even qualified to be an amateur musician, I have a day job and simply do not have the talent or the ambition to put in the 10,000 hours required to be one. More on that figure later. What I do have is a love of music and the earnest desire to create some of my own. I do not wish to play for anyone but myself. As a point of fact, I absolutely have NO ambition to play in front of anyone, even were I accomplished, but that, in the immortal, though slightly paraphrased words of Alton Brown is another blog.
In my personal quest to play music I have traveled down many roads, got lost, and wandered back to my normal life. I have again started down the path, only this time, I seem to have struck on a set of tools and techniques that changed how I look at it. It is all really beginning to click for me, and I am the most excited I have ever been for my musical future. I have even created my first pieces of music, and am learning to play three instruments. While I will forewarn you I don't recommend that last bit, you should probably pick one to start with and then once you have that where you like it, expand from there. There is a story as to why I am trying to play those particular three, and I will tell it in an upcoming post.
Nearly everyone can tell you a story that has for it the moral "stick to it" or "try, try again" and this is definitely one of those stories. If you love music, listening to a piece of it that you constructed is amazing. It can only be described as a religious experience. There is nothing like it. It is also obtainable.
Anyone can do it. Believe me, I have only been doing this a short time, and I have no intrinsic musical talent, at all. I was literally arranging (producing) music in a matter of minutes. I had an idea, I found a tool, and in under an hour, I had produced a tune that sounded like real music. I will explain that tool later, and how to use it a bit later than that.
In the sidebar you will find a link to my music page where my creations are available to listen to. There will also be posts about how I made them, some of them quite detailed as to the tools and methods. I will put recordings of my playing as well (eventually), and link them.
Anyway, thanks for playing along, and stay tuned.
Scott.
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