Music Composition For Dummies

You can hum it, but can you write it down? When most people think of a composer, they picture a bewigged genius like Mozart or Beethoven frenetically directing mighty orchestras in the ornate palaces of Vienna. While that may have been the case once upon a time, modern composers make themselves heard far beyond the classical conservatoire and concert hall. These days, soundtracks are in high demand in industries such as TV, film, advertising, and even gaming to help create immersive and exciting experiences. Whatever your musical ambitions—composing a dark requiem in a beautiful Viennese apartment or producing the next great Star Wars-like movie theme in LA—the fully updated Music Composition For Dummies hits all the right notes to help you become confident in the theory and practice of composition. To help you translate your musical ideas from fleeting tunes in your head to playable bars and notation on paper, professional composer and instructor Scott Jarrett and music journalist Holly Day take you on a friendly step-by-step journey through the process of musical creation, including choosing the right rhythms and tempos, creating melodies and chord progressions, and working with instruments and voices. You’ll learn how to match keys and chords to mood, use form to enhance your creativity, and write in different styles from pop to classical—and you'll even learn how to keep hammering away when inspiration eludes you. Organize and preserve your musical ideas Formalize your knowledge with professional vocabulary Get familiar with composition apps and software Make a demo and market on social media Filled with musical exercises to help you acquire the discipline you need for success, Music Composition For Dummies has everything you need to turn your inner soundtrack into a tuneful reality!

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Basics and Rhythm 5 Chapter 1: Thinking Like a Composer 7 Limitations as Freedom 7 Composing as an Extension of Listening 8 Rules as Inspiration 9 You as Your Own Teacher 10 Know what your options are 10 Know the rules 10 Pick up more instruments 10 Understand when to put something aside 11 Get something from nothing 11 Trust your own taste 12 Chapter 2: Tools of the Trade 13 Composing with Pencil and Paper or a Tablet 13 Performance Skills 14 Composition Software 15 Finale 16 Sibelius 16 Logic Pro X 17 Cubase 17 Ableton 17 Pro Tools 18 A Pair of Moderately Well-Trained Ears 18 Knowledge of Music Theory 19 Space, Time, and Ideas 19 A Pack Rat Mentality 20 Chapter 3: Musical Scrapbooks: Writing on Paper and Screen 21 Writing It Down 22 Using Software 22 Computer versus Paper and Pencil 23 File Management 24 Chapter 4: Rhythm and Mood 27 Sculpting Time into Music 28 The Feel of Different Rhythms 28 Speed Bumps and Rhythmic Phrases 31 Mixing It Up: Back Phrasing, Front Phrasing, and Syncopation 33 Back phrasing 33 Front phrasing 33 Syncopation 34 Finding Your Own Rhythmic Phrases 35 Rhythm and Mood Exercises 36 Part 2: Melody and Development 39 Chapter 5: Finding Melodies Where You Least Expect Them 41 What is a Musical Framework? 42 Finding Melody in Language 42 Let’s Eat(,) Grandma! 44 Finding Melody in the World Around You 45 Helping Your Muse Help You 47 Finding Melody in Your Instrument 49 Using scales in composition 49 Using music theory in composition 50 Using musical gestures as compositional tools 50 Exercises 51 Chapter 6: Scales and Modes, Moods and Melodies 53 Major and Minor Modes and the Circle of Fifths 54 Getting Moody 56 Moods à la Modes 58 Ionian (major scale) 58 Dorian 59 Phrygian 59 Lydian 59 Mixolydian 60 Aeolian (natural minor) 60 Locrian 61 The Pentatonic Scale 62 Harmonic and Melodic Minor 62 Exercises 63 Chapter 7: Building Melodies Using Motifs and Phrases 65 The Long and Short of Musical Themes: Motifs and Phrases 66 Building a Melodic Phrase 68 Spicing It Up by Varying the Phrase 70 Rhythmic displacement 70 Truncation 71 Expansion 71 Tonal displacement 72 Exercises 73 Chapter 8: Developing Your Melodies 75 Structural Tones 75 Step-wise and Skip-wise Motion 76 Passing Tones 77 Neighboring Tones and Appoggiatura 78 Other Melodic Techniques 79 Escape tones 79 Suspension 80 Retardation 80 Anticipation 80 Pedal point 81 Exercises 82 Part 3: Harmony and Structure 85 Chapter 9: Harmonizing with Melodies 87 Harmonizing Using Consonance and Dissonance 88 Tritone: The devil’s interval 89 Conflict and resolution 90 Harmonizing Using the Circle of Fifths 92 Harmonizing Using Pivot Notes 94 Exercises 95 Chapter 10: Composing with Chords 97 Chords and Their Moods 98 Major 99 Minor 99 Major seventh 99 Minor seventh 100 Dominant seventh 100 Major sixth 101 Minor sixth 101 Suspended fourth 102 Ninth 102 Minor ninth 102 Diminished 103 Augmented 103 Minor 7, flat 5 / half-diminished 104 Putting Chords Together 105 Rhythmic Movement 106 Chord Progressions 107 “Rules” for major chord progressions 107 “Rules” for minor chord progressions 107 Coming Home with Cadences 108 Authentic cadences 109 Plagal cadences 109 Deceptive or interrupted cadences 110 Half-cadences 110 Fitting Chords and Melodies Together 112 Extracting harmony from melody 112 Using chord changes 113 Exercises 116 Chapter 11: Composing from the Void 119 Composing Using the Movement Around You 120 Composing Using Musical Gestures: “Gestural Space” 121 Introducing Effort Shapes 122 Weight: heavy versus light 123 Time: Sustained and staccato 123 Flow: Bound and free-flowing 124 Space: Direct and indirect 124 Composing Using Effort Shapes 125 Dab 125 Flick 125 Glide 126 Press 126 Float 126 Punch 126 Slash 127 Wring 127 Shaping story and mood by combining effort shapes 127 Exercises 130 Chapter 12: Beginnings, Middles, and Endings 131 A Word About Form 132 Beginnings: Intro and letter “A” 133 The power of titling 133 Starting a piece 134 Chord progressions 134 Middles: Letter “B” 135 Endings: Return of the Chorus or Refrain 136 Exercises 137 Chapter 13: Musical Forms 139 Combining Parts into Forms 139 One-part form: A 140 Binary form: AB 140 Song form: ABA 140 Arch form: ABCBA 142 Classical Forms 142 The sonata 142 The rondo 143 Concerto 144 Symphony 144 Fugue 144 Divertimento 145 Minimalism 145 Through-composed 145 Popular Forms 145 The blues 146 32-bar blues and country 147 Rock 148 Jazz 149 Atonal Music 150 Atonality and form 150 Atonality and instrument realities 151 Atonal Music and You 152 Listening for atonality 153 Exercises 154 Part 4: Orchestration and Arrangement 157 Chapter 14: Composing for the Standard Orchestra 159 Concert Pitch and Transposition 160 Pitch Ranges of Transposing Instruments 161 Alto flute 162 B flat trumpet 163 B flat clarinet 164 B flat bass clarinet 166 E flat clarinet 166 English horn/cor anglais 167 Flugelhorn 168 French horn 169 Piccolo trumpet 171 Non-Transposing Instruments 172 Concert flute 172 Bass flute 173 Bassoon 173 Double bass/contrabass 174 Oboe 174 Orchestral harp 175 Tenor slide trombone 176 Viola 176 Violin 177 Cello 177 Where they all are on the piano 178 Getting the Sounds You Want 179 Stringed instruments 180 Brass and woodwind instruments 182 Chapter 15: Composing for Rhythm Sections and Small Ensembles 185 The Drums 186 The Bass 187 Upright bass 187 Electric bass guitar 188 Acoustic bass guitar 188 The Guitar 189 Acoustic guitar 189 Electric guitar 190 Twelve-string guitar 190 Steel guitar 191 Free Reed Instruments 192 The harmonica 192 The accordion 193 The concertina 193 Chapter 16: Composing for Multiple Voices 195 Story Lines and Instrumentation 195 Writing Multiple Harmony Lines 196 Independent Voices 198 Counterpoint 200 The Five Elements of a Musical Tone 202 Pitch 202 Duration 202 Intensity 203 Timbre 203 Sonance 203 Some Do’s and Don’ts 204 Don’t write more than three independent melodies at one time 204 Don’t cross melody lines over each other 204 Do be deliberate in the use of octaves and unisons 205 Do consider tessitura 205 Exercises 205 Chapter 17: Composing Commercial Music and Songs 207 Composing for Film 208 Working with time code 210 Working with proxy movies 211 Composing for Video Games 211 Composing for TV and Radio 212 Composing for the Orchestra 214 Composing for Yourself 215 Composing Teams 216 Helpful Organizations and Web Sites 217 Film Connection 218 American Composers Forum 218 American Composers Forum, Los Angeles Chapter 218 Film Music Network 218 Music Licensing Companies 219 Musicbed 219 Jingle Punks 219 Marmoset 219 Taximusic 220 Working with Agents 220 Songwriting 221 Deciding on lyrics and tempo 222 Building rhythm 223 Choosing your form 224 In the beginning 225 Making your song moody 226 The hook 227 Making a Great Demo 228 Keep it short 229 Only include the best stuff 229 Organize it 229 Have more ready to go 230 Identify yourself 230 Invest in quality 230 Copyright it 230 Chapter 18: Composing Electronic Music 231 Software and Hardware for Composition 231 Sequencers and digital audio workstations 232 Music notation software: scorewriters 232 Repetition and the computer 234 Sound libraries 234 Composing on Computers 235 Thinking in sections 236 Linear composition 236 Loop composing 236 Computer as recorder: musical scrapbooking 239 The bad news 239 Saving and backing up 240 Chapter 19: Composing for Other Musicians 241 Composing with Lead Sheets 241 Composing with Guitar Tablature 243 The Score 246 Writing for Ensembles 247 Working with Foreign Scores and Ensembles 249 Working with Drums 250 Part 5: The Part of Tens 253 Chapter 20: Ten Career Opportunities for Composers 255 School Bands and Choirs 256 Incidental Television Music 257 Musical Theater 257 Concert Composition and Performances 259 Producer/Arranger 259 Industrial Music and Advertising 260 Business conventions 261 Music libraries 261 Film Scoring 261 Video Game Scoring 262 Songwriting 262 Teaching 262 Chapter 21: Ten Recommended Books for Composers 265 Songwriter’s Market 265 The Shaping of Musical Elements, Vol II 266 The Norton Scores, Vols 1 and 2, 10th Edition 267 How to Grow as a Musician 267 Analysis of Tonal Music: A Schenkerian Approach 268 The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music 268 American Mavericks 269 RE/Search #14 & #15: Incredibly Strange Music, Vols I and II 269 Silence 270 Chapter 22: Ten Platforms for Promoting Your Music 271 YouTube 271 Bandcamp 272 Show.co 273 CD Baby 273 Distrokid 273 ReverbNation 274 TuneCore 274 Spinnup 274 Amuse 275 Ditto 275 Part 6: Appendixes 277 Appendix A: Modes and Chords Reference 279 Appendix B: Glossary 299 Index 305

About the Author :
Scott Jarrett has been a theatrical music director and has taught recording labs, voice, guitar, music theory, and composition. He has worked with artists from Willie Nelson to Dave Grusin. Holly Day has created work for over 3,000 international publications including Guitar One Magazine, Music Alive!, and Brutarian Magazine. She is also the co-author of Music Theory For Dummies.