Just getting started with musical composition

Hello.

I have a million questions - and I'm sure I'll try to ask them all at some point - but I'll start with one first; it relates to timing.

Often times I "audition" various instruments and synth sounds - and even record some ethereal pads that turn out to be quite long and loosely timed - with little to no real concern for time signature. If it ends up being something I like - and want to work on further - the difficulty I'm running into is - how to pick a tempo/time signature that makes sense and fits - once I decide what I'd like to do with the piece once it's recorded.

I realize this is 'cart before the horse" kinda stuff. Really.

So what I'm trying to learn - is how to, BEFORE I start to record, choose the proper time/tempo/bpm  to apply to longer, slower material so that I am at least following some sort of recognizable pattern to the music.

For example - single notes that are between 7-10 seconds long. (or - the opening 30 seconds of Beethoven's 9th) -  I have not a clue how to even begin to approach putting them into some sort of musical framework.

At best - I need some really good "101" type resources to read.

Depends. Do you want to generate a score? In that case, try to listen to the underlying tempo that should be implicit in your work. It may change from a passage to another, even from a bar to another, but you have to try framing everything in a more or less defined tempo in order to make something others could reproduce. Once you got the tempo speed, you should figure out what the signature is by counting how many beats pass between a "strong" one.

You don't want a score? Fine, then you don't reeeeeally need to care (but you really should imo) about a specific tempo marking but at least you must have a beat in your piano roll or whatever you use but a sheet music maker software. It may help you to apply some simple maths to determine that beat speed, which will help you to situate yourself. See how much your notes last and try to find out the beat speed that fits with all of them simultaneously. If your first piece is simple enough (you ain't using tuplets, erratic or irregular rythms, etc.) long notes should be multiples of the unit of bpm chosen, and very short notes should be simple fractions of it. None of this is super simple but I hope you get the hang of it once you try.

 Also remind that at 60 bpm, 1 quarter note = 1 second and you can use that beat or multiples/divisors of it to easily work in seconds if you find it more comfortable.

If you managed to find the pulse speed of your piece in your mind (and hopefully you will after a few tries), you can rapidly find the bpm using Taptempo, it's very useful to me when I imagine things and want to put them in the paper. You just have to tap repeatedly at the tempo speed you got.

Hope my two cents served you of something.

Kind regards,

Daniel–Ømicrón.

Thank you for the thoughtful reply.

In looking at my DAW (Ableton) - the closest I can come to rhythm/time signature that most closely matches what I was doing by ear - is a 3/4 at 55 BPM.

I plan on taking the midi tracks and rearranging them to fill that pattern - I guess "manually quantize" the arrangement and see if it still has any of its organic feel left.

Part of my challenge is to preserve the feeling and emotion of the recording while still coloring inside the lines as far as tempo. This is a really inspiring pursuit for me - and it's just the beginning. I appreciate you being so helpful. I'm going to rearrange the audio and report back. I have so much to learn.

Thank you.

I dream of a way to create music that does not attempt to follow extremely precise timings but is instead allowed to flow freely as it will as it were. And not just for solo instruments which may not be too difficult but also for ensemble playing. I don't know if this is possible for the latter when the instruments are played live by humans but it should be within the digital realm. I believe there have been proposals to extend MIDI into a form more conducive to all of this. I'll have to google it but if anyone knows anything about this or wants to respond in any way then I would like to hear it.

I once heard Gould in a performance of a work I now forget but as the music went continually went up the scale and down it felt like there was an object in the room sailing up to the ceiling and hitting it with each highest note. Duplicating that in the minds of listeners in other works might be interesting even if no one knew what was happening or specifically perceived it in any way. Whatever we must do to get something to come to fruition, I think we should do.

On 10/7/2022 at 5:34 PM, studioq said:

"101" type resources

I remember the first time I tried to stare down an open score in Sibelius knowing full well that I would lose that battle. It was like, where the heck do I begin? Where do 'real' composers begin. Maybe the answer to that question was not immediately obvious to me but over the course of 5 or 10 years of on and off attempts at this, I have learned a few things. One is that all you need to get started is the germ of a musical idea - or even a fully formed one! - which you can expand upon over time in various ways. Some of the best examples of this can be found in Bach - not to relegate this conversation to only the esteemed predecessors in the so-called Classical genre but also many others. His seemingly simple two part inventions have many examples of this. The first 8 notes of the C major provide material for all that follows.

Developing a conception of the totality of the work at the start can also be helpful, then you have something to aim for at the beginning. That aim may change as you proceed, if it does, then presumably it will be in a good direction else why do it? This need not be done only or even in musical terms. It could be conceived of in images or architectural structures or what have you. 

Of course there is also the idea of music theory but don't get too much into that at first, not verbally anyway. Try first to hear the way things sound and then try to explain them, if you so choose, later on.

I am sure some of this is blatantly obvious but if there is even a small kernel of knowledge that we can gain from each other then that is surely worthwhile, hence these discussions.

On 10/8/2022 at 9:57 AM, studioq said:

I plan on taking the midi tracks and rearranging them to fill that pattern - I guess "manually quantize" the arrangement and see if it still has any of its organic feel left.

Oh probably you already found that it might have zero organic feel left depending on how sharp your quantization is but in case you didn't... Beware, lol.

12 hours ago, Omicronrg9 said:

Oh probably you already found that it might have zero organic feel left depending on how sharp your quantization is but in case you didn't... Beware, lol.

 

I was aware of this. I  had to rearrange certain elements manually in order to preserve the intended sound. Slowly - piece by piece. Not the way I want to work in the future. I settled on a 3/4 time at 60bpm and arranged the "bass" notes to align with the timing - allowing the other more 'ethereal" notes which extend for (almost) 4 bars to ride along over-top of them.

It was a great learning experience - and I'm now a little more confident to get started with instrumental arrangements as opposed to more synth related sounds full of reverb and effects. I appreciate the feedback here.

In the future  - when I want to record something that is a little more open-ended as far as timing is considered - I'll set my DAW for 40-60bpm while recording and try to stay within some sort of window while laying down tracks. Vangelis - Beaubourg - is an album which comes to mind when I try to consider how to keep time during free-form performance or recording.