In today’s track I decided to keep trying out some of the ideas I talked about in yesterday’s post on writing longer progressions by systematically using simple short progressions as presented in a blog post by Gary Ewer. I’ve also been reading a bit about contours and motifs in melodies which in the past always seemed to be too vague and simple to have any real application.
I decided to try out a motif where the rhythm of the phrase stays the same and where the contour of the melody falls in pitch. The notes themselves change on the context of the underlying chords but the rhythm and contour of each phrase is the same. I was surprised by how effective this ended up being and I think that the melody is one of the best I’ve come up with.
The basic concepts used in songwriting are pretty underwhelming on their own – when I first heard about chord inversions I was baffled as to why anything so simple could even be considered a worthy concept. After having experienced the difference that chord inversions can make, my opinion on their importance has changed forever. The same can be said about chord progressions, modes and motifs – they’re extremely simple and on their own don’t amount to anything. It’s the tasteful combination of all these tiny concepts that ends up creating something worthy of being called art. Anyway, that’s all for now.
qsma music 