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Contrapuntal techniques can be applied to more complex rhythms. When you start learning counterpoint on its own (especially from Fux) it might be hard to see how the techniques apply to the pieces you want to write. One trick is to make sure you understand nonharmonic tones, or ways of creating melodic motion in a tonal context. I don't have time right now to give examples on staff paper, but some terms to know are accented (occurring on the beat or on a strong beat), unaccented (occurring off the beat or on a weak beat), auxiliary tone, passing tone, neighbor tone, incomplete neighbor, double neighbor, anticipation (or portamento if you're working in a sixteenth century style), suspension, retardation, escape tone, pedal point or pedal tone, consonant leap, arpeggiation, appogiatura, enclosure, nota cambiata...

Hello everyone my name is Marvin Giordano and I am very passionate musician who is just beginning to get his music promoted. I enjoy writing contemporary and classical as well as jazz and a lot of experimental compositions with vocals. http://www.youtube.com/deanmurder292 I do not rap, I am very dedicated to more emotional kinds of music, and music involving family and having fun. I amcurrently working on writing vaudeville based music. the lyrics are posted for two of my songs so far and i would really appreciate some feedback from the community, i also look foward to hearing all of your works as well. I hope you enjoy.

I have long considered writing some kind of manual suggesting exercises to practice composition. I think being exposed to, and trying out, as much as possible is key - far too many young composers simply imitate one or two favourite composers without bringing anything new, and as a result their work just sounds second-rate and derivative. In general you should try and do exercises that introduce ideas so far unfamiliar to you. For example, writing for untuned percussion forces you to think about using rhythm and timbre as the main variables, rather than harmony or melody. One thing my second-year composition teacher had us do was write pieces that were a maximum of ten seconds in length. This again forced us to focus on devising very small units of material and condensing ideas as far as possible. So, off the top of my head, I would reccomend: - Write for instruments you have little or no knowledge of. This will make you read up on their capabilities but also introduce new sounds. - Write exercises in which a certain parameter is fixed or removed (melody, timbre, note values, etc). This will make you more creative with the other variables. - As above, write very short pieces, maybe a few seconds in duration, for as many sizes of ensemble as possible. How can you use a full orchestra in ten seconds? - Experiment with following historical forms to the letter (serialism, sonata forms, rondo) then write something that deliberately subverts the rules of these forms. - Orchestrate music by others. This will not only help your learn about instruments but give you an intimate knowledge of the work being done. The purpose of these exercises is not to make your music into some kind of eclectic post-modernist grab-all that doesn't have any individualisty, quite the opposite. If you experiment with as many ideas as possible you can decide what you want to use and what to reject. And don't worry if anything you write sounds terrible, because it's just an exercise. No-one cares about student pieces or exercises, they care about the good work that eventually results from doing all of that.

I I think the colour of "Thanks" should be changed to contrast a little better :happy:

and if you wait...you will learn it in my course. haha!