# The cheater's guide to composition. (a request)



## Soundhound (Mar 17, 2018)

I watched some of Junkie XL's videos a while ago and in this one he shows how he uses some Bach tricks in a piece he wrote. Particularly at (time) he shows the sound of going from minor to major while dropping the bass from root to b7. Love that sound.

at 4:45:



He's talking about V/I movement, and this is just a part of it of course.... I've picked up various things like this over the years and am always hungry for more. Anyone know of sources of these kinds of compositional ideas? Particularly for a lazy ass, completely ADD riddled, time starved knucklehead like myself?

I picked up Shoenberg's Theory of Harmony, am thinking about maybe taking a composition class when I can find time to squeeze it in. But I'm wondering if anyone knows of any good source of these kinds of things in videos available online. Being able to hear the harmony, movement etc. actually demonstrated is just great. Aside from the fact that my reading sucks rocks.

At the risk of being ridiculous (trying to find a lifetime of learning in a few videos) but I just love absorbing this stuff, which I've picked up as we all have from a grab bag of places over the years: Going V to I with the bass moving from the third of the 5 chord to the root of the I creates that lovely half step resolve (from Keith Richards, Lowell George) the Lydian sounds (Jackson Browne) etc etc.

Whatever you got, a single clip, someone's youtube page, anything would be much appreciated.


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## Anami (Mar 17, 2018)

Check Rick Beato on YouTube...


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## vintagevibe (Mar 17, 2018)

Anami said:


> Check Rick Beato on YouTube...


Ditto - huge wealth of this type of stuff, clearly and musically demonstrated.


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## BenG (Mar 17, 2018)

vintagevibe said:


> Ditto - huge wealth of this type of stuff, clearly and musically demonstrated.



Yes, Rick has some great videos!

Also, TRANSCRIBE pieces you like and see what is going on in the composition, harmony, counterpoint, etc.


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## Quasar (Mar 17, 2018)

JJay Berthume's educational video content is absolutely top notch:

https://www.youtube.com/user/JJBerthume/videos


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## Florian_W (Mar 18, 2018)

Soundhound said:


> At the risk of being ridiculous (trying to find a lifetime of learning in a few videos)



I am absolutely with you! I know there is nothing that can replace experience and there is just nothing like a shortcut. We all have to go the way... but I also think this kind of videos can just can lead you into the right/a new direction. Always very helpful.


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## aaronventure (Mar 18, 2018)

http://imslp.org/


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## sinkd (Mar 18, 2018)

Schoenberg _Structural Functions of Harmony_ is also good and more compact than _Theory of Harmony. _Both are of course dealing with functional western common practice. Another slim volume, _Models for Beginners in Composition, _is very good as well.


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## David Hall (Mar 19, 2018)

good information here, I would like to point out that there is nothing better than practice. spend a few hours on the keyboard and let it go!.. I started playing the piano by myself a few years ago and I used to come home and immediately sit there and play I even forgot to eat dinner lol. But in all honesty, you just have to get there and experience it. 

You will get to a point where harmony as well as music theory, becomes more of a helping tool rather than the workhorse of your creativity and composition, well that is what I have noticed in my experience.


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## gsilbers (Mar 19, 2018)

I find it interesting the lack of harmony lessons in film music. i mean, they borrow from great composers but i feel its one of the more important things in film which has evolved. well, at least for me. i see all these comments and talks about using specific instruments or that they recorded 100 guitars to get a specific sound but seldom i see how harmony was structured or its relashionship to a scene or melody etc. so much info can be extrapolated from there. i think it was someone posting here a long time ago about a specific parallel harmony technique used in xmen which was very cool to learn. i dont think i would of undertood what was going on if i had transcribe it 1st. after reading it in the comments it was very obvious and simple.
maybe more folks are adept at film music than me because but film music main purpose is to enhance but stay out of the way so harmony thats more "pop" (with more resolutions, definition etc) would be a no no so harmony helps keep a score in undisclosed varying moods. and i think this is something the good orchestrators in hollywood know. who imo are the main ones making those great scores


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## Replicant (Mar 19, 2018)

Poor man's guide to film music, specifically harmony:

• Learn how to make major/minor triads

• Learn basic voice leading

• Learn the difference between chord tones and non-chord tones to create melody

• Create progressions that are a distance of major/minor thirds and sixths or a tritone apart and you'll recognize their typical associations. (Chromatic mediants)

Done.

Explained in two videos.


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## Soundhound (Mar 20, 2018)

Thanks! I'd seen the major/minor triad one before, terrific! And I saw Jay Berthume's stuff, including the Harmonic Relativity video at Quasar's suggestion. Jay is hilarious and terrific and needs to cut back on the coffee (I'm one to talk.) 

Yes, these are the kinds of delicious tidbits I'm looking for. Junkie XL's little snipet (see original post) about the Minor to Major while dropping the root to the b7 is a great example of a sound we're all familiar with but might not have thought to figure out how it works. 

Bring 'em on!

Thanks everybody! 




Replicant said:


> Poor man's guide to film music, specifically harmony:
> 
> • Learn how to make major/minor triads
> 
> ...


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## JohnG (Mar 21, 2018)

Depends a lot on what kind of music you want to write, though. Some movie music has quite a bit to do with production, by contrast with harmony / voice leading and so on. 

That spread is something I love about media music (games, movies etc.). One week it's one thing, the next it's something almost opposite.

I'm working on a quasi-horror / dark story right now and that has a lot to do with atmosphere, far less / nothing to do with voice leading and functional harmony. Harmony is more like clusters and keeping it scary. By contrast, I just finished a Hallmark movie (never thought I'd do that style again, but...) and, as you might imagine, that is entirely different -- comedy / drama / love story as you might imagine, and targeted at a particular audience.

So for the former (scary / dramatic / atmospheric etc.) you can watch Youtube videos if you like, and spend time listening veeeerrry carefully. 

If, by contrast, you want to approach "regular" orchestral music alas I don't know how to avoid studying (which I get the lazy ADD thing) can be daunting. However, you don't have to study the Whole Thing -- even a few bars, like four or eight, if you literally transcribe it onto, say, four staves, will generate ideas and insight. 

You can buy John Williams scores in many places and they are gold.

There is also a tantalising tome for Lord of the Rings' scores by Doug Adams that's interesting because those scores lie somewhere in between. I say "tantalising" because there are only snippets; sometimes a page or a few bars, sometimes just a melody, but nevertheless you can learn from them.

And one more -- if you can stand it -- Debussy and Ravel. Their orchestral scores are composition / orchestration lessons in and of themselves.


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## Craig Peters (Mar 27, 2018)

Yeah I would say check out Rick Beato. Some of the best educational content out there. Especially on film score style writing.


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## Vik (Mar 28, 2018)

CraigPetersSI said:


> Yeah I would say check out Rick Beato. Some of the best educational content out there.


Yes, he's a good teacher, and here's a clip that proves that:


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