In this week’s Audio Premium content, Ryan Leach explores how you can use music to express feelings and ideas in a completely intangible way. He takes a detailed step-by-step approach, with full examples including notation and audio examples.
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One of the greatest things about music is it’s ability to express feelings and ideas in a completely intangible way. Music can convey ideas as disparate as water, springtime, machinery, melancholy, and exuberance. When you’re just starting out as a composer or songwriter, using instrumental music to express specific ideas can be a daunting and overwhelming task.
The purpose of this tutorial is to present a step-by-step process you can use to convey a non-musical idea in musical terms. It is by no means the only approach, and often times pure intuition is the best way to go, but it’s a logical and easy way for a beginning composer or songwriter to get started.
I’ll begin by briefly discussing the basic idea of program music, and then go on to the step-by-step process, followed by a few examples of putting the process into use.
Here’s the kind of music you’ll be able to create once you harness the knowledge inside:
Download audio file (example.mp3)
Table of Contents
- Absolute vs. Program Music
- Program Music Today
- Step 1 – Know What You’re Trying To Say
- Step 2 – Rhythm
- Step 3 – Harmony
- Step 4 – Melody
- Step 5 – Orchestration
- Example – Step 1 – Sorrow
- Example – Step 2 – Rhythm
- Example – Step 3 – Harmony
- Example – Step 4 – Melody
- Example – Step 5 – Orchestration
- Example – Filling out the piece
- Conclusion
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