Wandering!

Hey there, guys. I've got a problem.

I'm a composition major in my second year of study, and so far I've taken two semesters of theory (and I'm in the middle of learning some Jazz theory). However, I feel like what I've learned so far is hardly enough to get the ideas that are in my head onto paper. Theory was helpful, but it didn't really teach me how to apply what I learned.

I can write a melody well enough. It just takes some playing around with the piano to achieve a proper melody. But it's like I get stuck from there... as if one or two block chords per measure is my only choice for accompanying my melody. When I try composing voices besides the melody, I end up with something overly simplistic and sometimes emotionless.

Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what I'm asking for. I imagine that fluent, rhythm-complimenting harmony is a form of counterpoint, but I don't know enough about it. If you have any idea what I'm talking about, or even if you don't, please leave a comment and help me out. Thanks! :D

I attached a MIDI of something very simple I've made -- I think it's very nice, but that's about as much as I can flesh it out. I wouldn't know else how to handle such a thing.

Ingenuity.mid

Okay, that came off as a little confusing... in other words:

I can write melodies fairly well, but I can't seem to add accompaniment that gives it personality and interest. I'm stuck with just block chords. Any suggestions?

Sometimes when I have a melody and no accompaniment, I'll try and find a segment of the melody that has some kind of unique characteristic about it and use that figure somehow as my secondary part.

I took your melody and basically extended the opening arpeggio downwards and made that the "main idea" of the secondary melody.

Creating a good accompaniment is part of composition. Have a look for pieces where the accompaniment approaches your requirements then see how it's done. Theory will give you the means to harmonise but doesn't resolve in accompaniments except in the most generic (and usually simple) ways. Alternatively, experiment with different styles. Much depends on the medium you're compsoing for. Is is a vocal with piano; orchestra; pop; classical?

Wow Tuma, talk about taking the extra step! That's a great tip, but what about when there are multiple voices, like in a string quartet? I imagine it would get way too crowded with all the voices doing that at once.

And Mont: The best accompaniment I know of seems completely customized to fit the melody and flesh out the rhythm, so it's tough to apply what I see and hear to my own work. I'm definitely experimenting, but it feels like I'm just training myself in the wrong direction... I don't feel any better than I was a year ago. :P

Well if you look at scores where there are lots of voices(The obvious example is a bach fugue) you'll notice that all four voices aren't blaring away at once. In most of Bach's fugues there's only a small portion of the piece where you genuinely have all four voices in independent motion.

Take the example I posted, an easy way to add ANOTHER voice would be to just complement the secondary line I wrote by harmonizing it in sixths/thirds/fourths/fifths. Then perhaps a tertiary line could be written by writing a voice that just plays the root motion on the strong beats or something.

This just sounds like a lack of understanding of the language, which is fine. What will help you out a will be listening with the score. You're a composition major? Go the library all the time and listen/study everything possible. It will help you immensely, and you will be able to develop your understanding of the musical language more. Composing is like writing an essay/book, and for anyone who's taken any advanced English class knows the complexities of our language and the supreme command that writers have over it in order to write. The same goes for composing.

Something I'm being recently exposed to in a modern piece of music we're doing in honors band, is having a set of instruments create a texture, and the rest have fun playing melodic parts. In our piece, the clarinet sections come in one by one in a single rhythmic figure, in harmony, creating a chord of some sort, and then the flutes come in with an opposing rhythmic figure, and then percussion and saxes with another... and after all this, we have a texture, and then brass get to have all the fun on top of it. The piece is called Gavorkna Fanfare, by the way.

So maybe as an exercise, try creating an interesting background (of any nature, my example is only a more modern approach) and put a melody to it, to see how these things go together and compliment each other... then maybe you can learn to work it the other way around.

There's some juicy advice here...　：）

I'm at the library constantly, my room is packed full of fifty year-old music books that I'm never going to read... :D

But I just recently rented out a book of analysis examples and scores, and I'll definitely take a listen as I look. I'm sure it will be a great way to get acquainted with counterpoint and voices that clearly aren't a part of the melody. Thanks for the advice, everybody!