In this post I will be making music using the techniques and music theory concepts that you can find in the Beyond Music Theory Blog. My goal is to show you ways in which you can put this knowledge… Read More »Create Tension with Anticipation and Suspension
In this post I will be making the distinction between the act of copying or stealing from another artist as tool in the creative process and, along the way, give you some suggestions of what to look for in… Read More »Why Copy and Steal From Music?
This is the first post where I will be talking about the composition process behind the music I make. I won’t go into detail about every little something that happens in the song and instead try to highlight some of… Read More »Contrasts and Motive Expansion – “Stay”
To be able to harmonize a melody you first need to have a melody and/or know how to make one. The next piece of knowledge you must have is about chord formation; and finally, the experience of how each… Read More »How to Harmonize a Melody
Most likely, you don’t have any problems with coming up with a basic idea for a beat, melody or some chords. What may happen is that you might not know how to go from there and consequently turn those ideas… Read More »How to Develop Your Musical Ideas
There are lots of ways to approach this process, probably as many as there are musicians. It is up to you to find out what suits better to you, considering your working process, the way you think and how you… Read More »8 Practical Tips to Make a Melody
In this post, as strange as it may seem, I will focus on ways of gathering materials from a single chord. And why would we do that, you may ask? – First, because it’s fun! – Second, because this is… Read More »Creating Musical Materials From Just One Chord
Simple doesn’t have to be boring! In fact, it can be fresh and uplifting. Even the most complex things usually sound better when presented in such a way that all seems logical and make complete sense – complex and yet,… Read More »How to Make Simple Chord Harmonies Sound More Interesting
We can do music just for the pleasure of making it without even thinking that we want to convey a message. But having a sense of where we want to go by trying to convey a message, an idea or… Read More »The Importance of Planning Your Musical Compositions
Explore how modulation can add some freshness to your music with the different types of modulations and contrasts, modal modulation, polytonality, among other techniques:
Compose a chord progressions using harmonic cadences, cycle chord progressions, negative harmony, chord substitutions, back cycling or spice up and thicken your melodies with block chords, among many other harmony techniques:
Harmonize a melody using different chord extensions and chord formations like triads, seventh chords, chords by fourths, seconds or clusters:
Never get stuck again and unleash your creativity by re-purposing your musical materials:
Rhythm and melody go hand in hand as it creates movement, tension and contributes to the emotional value in the development of your musical ideas – learn how by using polyrhythms, different meters, accents, metric modulation and other techniques:
Use scale materials like modes, symmetric scales, two-octave scales or create your own to compose your melodies and extract your harmonies from them.
Experiment with the different interval relationships and learn how these can affect the feel of your main melody and chords – more about intervals:
Tempo can also be modulated just as you can modulate to a different tonality. That can be achieved by simply performing a given musical passage in a faster or slower tempo, or even gradually change the tempo (Ritardando or Accelerando).… Read More »Metric Modulation
Also called irregular meters, these can be considered the sum of two or more simple meters or time signatures. For example, a 5/4 can be the sum of a 2/4 + 3/4 meters. As a result, the natural accents of… Read More »Asymmetric Divisions of the Meter
In this post I will be mentioning two ways you can influence the listener in how a given rhythmic part or groove is perceived. In some cases you can even use the same rhythmic cell that you have been… Read More »Rhythmic Accent and Polymeters
Polyrhythms are a way of introducing some freshness and novelty in the way you combine different rhythms played by different or a single instrument. Also referred to as cross-rhythm, a polyrhythm is essentially a combination of two or more different… Read More »Polyrhythms
