Techniques to bring variety to your composition

(This is actually my response to a composer's question from another website, but thought some might find this useful.)

Some times young composers have a hard time with progression, so here are some simple ways to bring new life to your pieces. These methods can be used one at a time, or in combinations and are by no means the only ways to further develop your pieces.

Fun things to do to the melody:

1) Inversion: Take the melody line and flip it upside down keeping all of the intervalic relationships the same. (For example, instead of going up a major 3rd, go down a major 3rd.) See what kind of new line this gives the piece.

2) Retrograde: Take the melody and play it backwards.

3) Retrograde-Inversion: Do both steps, invert all of the intervals and then play it backwards.

4) Call and response: Layer the melody (either direct echoes or start on another pitch) and create an interesting texture and interchange.

5) Toward climaxes, fragment the melody line (works best with something well defined and understood by the listener) and build it towards the climax. You can even begin to begin to branch out into other keys (using chromaticism) and then land on the home key at the climatic point. This helps create frenzy and the sense of motion up to the climatic release.

Fun things to do to the harmony:

1) Sometimes just changing the background chords alone can breathe new life into your piece. Try selecting new chords.

2) Closely related to step 1 is changing the mode (major vs. minor).

Fun things to do with orchestration (or arrangement):

1) If you always have the melody on top, and the harmony below then try flipping them. Play the melody in the lower range while having the harmony up high.

2) Imbed the melody within the harmony (beware those this requires carefull attention to make sure the balance is still appropriate).

3) Have the instruments you've used change roles. For example, one is primarily the melody carrier, then changes to a background or side role while another instrument takes over.

4) You don't have to have everything in the piece going from measure 1, you can slowly build it up. You can take everything out except for one section in the middle and slowly build everything back into the sound. You can try different combinations of parts throughout the piece. This is how much of the trance music is designed, and it is effective when done well.

Fun things to do with rhythm:

1) Set things up for a while, and then change the rhythm or the melody and/or the harmony.

2) Change meter, for example go from 4/4 to 3/4.

There are many things you can do to make your piece come alive and have more variety. Try some of these tricks out (they're tried and true) and see if that helps.

Remember, good music is all about a journey, having some direction and taking your listener with you to that goal. Sometimes, you can surprise the listener with a new direction, but the path *to* that new direction has to be something the casual listener can understand. (This is probably the primary reason serial music is no longer super popular, the general public couldn't understand or grasp it).

Finally, always use your ear and try to distinct what is bothering you. Is that high line too repetitive and getting on your nerves? Then try changing a note or rhythm of that line and see if that makes it better. Careful listening (and often many sessions of listening) to your work really helps. It also helps me to sometimes take a break. Put a piece "on the shelf" for a while and come back after either working on other music or doing another activity (like jogging) and being refreshed.

Suggested reading and resources:

The Art of Orchestration by Benard Rogers

Amazon.com: The Art of Orchestration: Principles of Tone Color in Modern Scoring (Contributions in American History): Books: Bernard Rogers

Materials and Techniques of Twentieth-Century Music by Stefan Kostka

Amazon.com: Materials and Techniques of Twentieth-Century Music (2nd Edition): Books: Stefan Kostka

Norton Anthology of Western Music

The Norton Anthology of Western Music

A History of Music by Donald J. Grout

Amazon.com: A History of Western Music: Books: Donald J. Grout,Claude V. Palisca,J. Peter Burkholder

There are many more, but I'll have to go home and look through my library to make sure I give you the right titles and authors!

I hope that helps!

Nathan Madsen

Composer-Sound Designer

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Very informative, how would you feel about this being turned into a wiki article to which people could add more ideas under each heading, could turn into quite an extensive idea bank ;)

Thoughts?

Sure, I'll be fine with that! Thanks for asking.

Nathan

Great, I'll post a link here once I'm done. ;)

[[Variation Ideas]]

Augmentation and diminution. It's often surprising how different a melody sounds when played at half speed over a fast-moving background, or when played at double speed. These devices can be especially effective when being used to superimpose two of the main themes in a movement over one another.

Also useful, particularly in a contrapuntal setting, is slightly changing one or two intervals in the theme to fit it to the prevailing harmony. This is especially noticeable in fugues where the 2nd voice to be introduced often begins in a different key (usually the dominant).

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BITONALITY!!

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Ummm THANK YOU!!!!

As a pretty new composer, Ive been thinkng that my works are similar, in some ways and now you've given me some excellent ideas to try.

Just as a side note, surely you mean "Techniques to bring variety to your composition" ?

You pick up these tricks with experience - one has to be careful and judicious in their use though, as too many tricks spoil the broth.

Thanks, fixed it! :laugh:

CaltechViolist- yes augmentation and diminution can be very effective, especially when having the melody augmented in a lower octave while the melody is present in its "original" format above.

oboehazzard- bitonality can be very effective, and is what I was referring to about using chromaticism towards a climatic point. Having bitonality throughout a piece can often lose, repel or frustrate casual listeners because it is something they're (probably) not used to.

Thanks for all of the input guys!

Nathan