Category Archives: Composing

Writing a melody, two secrets to achieve a greater variety

chiave-do5How to write a melody

Do you believe that creating a melody is really difficult? After today’s lesson you will have to change your mind.
That’s because today we will learn how to put into actual use the knowledge gained in the previous lessons about the passing tones.

Specifically, I will let you in on two simple improvements, really simple but quite effective when creating melodies.
You’ll see that thanks to this advice, you’ll be able to start writing some melodic frames, already pleasant enough, only using chord tones and passing tones.

Remember that music has to be simple, and it’s from this notion that we have to start the path that will one day let you write something more complex and interesting.
Also, we will be seeing how by using alterations we will have a wider array of passing tones to use.

And lastly, in the third video I will show you some actual exercises that will let you practice what we are learning today, so that you can immediately start to create some short melodies on the piano!

For a better understanding of today’s lesson, my advice, if you haven’t yet, is to watch the video of the following lesson;

Musical alterations (part one)

Learning material of this lesson

3 videos 35 mins
1. How to use chromatisms to achieve a wider assortment in passing tones 8m 57s
2. Two secrets to have a wider variety 11m 01s
3. Learn to create a short melody 14m 31s

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The first step to start composing a melody: the passing tones

chiave-do5Non harmonic tones; the passing tones

Today we begin discussing in a more meaningful way the non harmonic tones (non chord tones) that will greatly help you in the act of composing melodies, as we were saying in previous lessons.

Also, as you will see further on, this knowledge will help you understand better some concepts tied to other subjects: in fact, it’d be difficult to learn how to play the keyboard or the the modern piano without having mastered the non harmonic tones.

But this is another issue and we will tackle it in due time.
In today’s lesson we will approach the first kind of non harmonic tones:

  • the passing tones

We will try to understand what they are and how they can be used.

How to compose melodic fragments

Some foreview: in the next lesson I will teach you to put into use what we learned today and I will reveal some small tricks and tweaks that by using the passing tones, will let you start composing some melodic fragments on the piano which will already be catchy and nice to hear!
But to be able to put into practical use all of this, it’s essential that you understand what the passing tones are, and for this very reason, today’s lesson is really important.

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Learning material of this lesson

3 videos 33 mins
1. What are the chord tones? 9m 35s
2. The passing tones 13m 19s
3. Let’s learn to use the passing tones 10m 21s
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With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition for a total of 36 videos.

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You’re finding it difficult to write a melody? Here’s something that can help you!

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How to write a melody

Chords and harmony are an extremely important part of composition, but of course they’re aren’t everything!
Another important part is the melody, and it isn’t always easy to write a melody.
You might have found yourself from time to time, while playing the piano or the guitar, in the situation where you found a very interesting sequence of chords, and not being able to compose a vocal melody on which you could sing.

The “non-harmonic tones”

We will begin today with a series of video lessons that approach the so-called “non-harmonic tones”, which will help you a lot in composition and writing arrangements.

In today’s videos we will approach two themes in particular:

  1. Why are “non-harmonic tones” so important when writing music?
  2. What are non-harmonic tones?

Enjoy!

Learning material of this lesson

3 videos 15 mins
1. The relationship between harmony and melody 7m 18s
2. Composing a melody on a sequence of chords 3m 43s
3. The non-harmonic tones 3m 54s
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Arrangements, three different ways of working

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We can agree or not about the details of an arrangement, about the use of some instruments in place of others, but I believe that everyone can agree on one aspect:

the arrangement is an essential phase for the correct outcome of any musical piece.

A great arrangement has the magical ability to turn a very ordinary melodic fragment into an excellent track.
Since this topic is of great importance, let’s try to understand exactly what we’re talking about.

What is a musical arrangement?

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With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition for a total of 36 videos.

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Composing, a couple of tips for beginners

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Introduction to composing

When someone approaches composing for the first time or generally feels the desire to express their emotions through music, they often face the harsh reality of the difficulties of this activity, tied with the difficult part of not doing it very often.

Today I would like to answer two frequently asked questions:
1.    Is writing music only tied to instinct and our irrational side?
2.    Is there a method for writing music which is particularily efficient?

We tackle these topics in the following videos.

Enjoy!

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With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition for a total of 36 videos.

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