Module 1 of 6: Creating Music

Summary

Learn how to create music in the styles of your favourite artists and writers: people like Point Blank friend Mark Ronson, Beyonce, Rihanna, Amy Winehouse, John Lennon, Killers, Eminem. You can study your all-time favourites - its up to you! We are not just dealing with 'pop' songs here though - there are many different opportunities for working music-writers: the record industry needs songs; TV and radio needs jingles, theme tunes and incidental music; the theatre needs supporting scores; film and TV requires soundtracks; computer games need music; and increasingly the internet requires the skills of the composer. Composing Music works through the entire creative process, from the conception of an idea, through development and exploration, to fully formed song/composition.

Content

Creative Inspiration

Starting points: images, video, text, chord progressions

Melodic phrases, riffs or hooklines

Rhythmic phrases, samples

Giving constructive feedback on each other's work

Developing and Completing Your Work

Extending, developing and manipulating the music

Using your favourite artists and their work as inspiration

Analysing production phase and quality of the finished work

The finished audio will be added to your portfolio CD

Working to a Brief

Responding to a specific brief

Working to timing deadlines

Working through the entire creative process:

Conception, development, exploration and completion

Structure & Rhythm

Song structure: verse, chorus, bridge (pre-chorus), middle 8

Writing a hook: musical, vocal and lyrical hooks

Groove & rhythm in modern music from R&B to drum n bass

Music composition - definitions and terminology explained

Chord Sequences

Scales, chords, keys and harmony

Chords: major and minor. Key notation

Chord sequences and key changes

Chord sequences used in modern music styles

Rhythmic Parts

Creative use of percussion to add "groove"

How to add rhythmic interest to your track

Percussion software tools: BFD, Stylus, Battery

Other software instruments: Virtual Guitarist, B4

Pads & Strings

What are pads and when do you use them?

Classic pad sounds: hardware and software

Using inverted and extended chords

Minor chords, augmented chords, diminished chords, suspended chords

Audio-Visual
Importing movies into Logic.

Producing a score using the most appropriate format

Recording soundtrack to 3 minute movie clip

Looking at inventiveness and originality

Compile a Portfolio CD

Compiling and producing a portfolio CD

Sleeve notes, artwork and the score

Focusing on range and style of your compositions

How to analyse inventiveness and originality