I'm a little anxious because I've never been asked to compose with specific guidelines in mind--heck no one's ever actually asked me to compose period. While I'm not totally dead set in classic tonality, I'm definitely heading out into uncharted territory--and without any chord progressions to cling to! Still, I am looking forward to it.
I like the idea of creating your own scale as a starting point for composing. It certainly allows for a whole new range of chords, melodies, feelings and combinations. I know I struggle with writing melodies, and often rely on harmonic progressions to lead me through a composition, so these projects will give me a chance to explore a new area, come what may.
1 comment:
Great post, Simon! I can understand the discomfort/fear of attempting to move beyond tonality, but I am confident that you will come up with music of which you can be proud, and hopefully also develop an expanded palette of harmonic resources upon which you can draw for future compositions.
Regarding your struggles with melodies, I believe that your renaissance counterpoint training from last semester should help you, since it gives you an awareness of how to 'balance' melody lines in terms of rates of activity and overall contour.
You don't have to apply these considerations to music you write, of course, but you could if you wanted to. Or you could do so for some sections, and deliberately do the opposite for other sections to create one type of contrast...
Good luck!
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