This is a GREAT way to really strengthen your understanding of the fundamentals of harmony – consonance and dissonance, as well as spark an idea that could be developed into a finished composition/track demo.
It’s also a great way to get to know the twelve different ‘colours’ available to composers working in the Western tradition, something that will give you a great point of reference when approaching scales, degrees, melodies and chords.
why write about it?
Writing about what you ‘just did’ will make you aware of your brain’s unconscious decision-making process
the goal is that someone could recreate your idea perfectly just by reading the comment
Step 1: Create a Drone
- Open Logic and/or Ableton
- Create a new software instrument capable of playing a low, sustained note (something not too bright e.g. a subby synth)
- Programme a sustained note on a low ‘G’ (either G0 or G1)
If it’s a sustaining instrument (like a bass synth) you can hold a long note; if it’s a plucked instrument (e.g. a bass guitar) you’ll need to create a short loop to make sure the sound doesn’t die away too soon)
now explain what you just did
- Create a new Word or Pages document
- Explain what you did (above) using appropriate terminology
- Save this – you will come back to it later (below)
Step 2: Explore Intervals
- Create a second track and load another software instrument (it can be a similar sound or a contrasting sound as long as it has a ‘full’ timbre – nothing too bright or ‘thin’)
- Have a play around playing differnt notes over the bass ‘drone’ to explore different intervals (interval = the distance between two pitched notes)
- Get a feel for different combinations – which ones feel ‘consonant’ and which ones feel ‘dissonant’
now explain what you just did
- Create a new Word or Pages document
- Explain, in words, how the second instrument create basic harmonies with the bass drone.
- Try to be mindful of the effect of different combinations of intervals – what do they express? How do they feel to you?
- Save this – you will come back to it later (below)
Step 3: Tell a story using single notes
- See if you can tell some sort of abstract ‘story’ using combinations of disonant and consonant intervals
- Notice the tension that is created by more dissonant intervals, and the ‘resolution’ that results when you follow them with more consonant intervals
now explain what you just did
- Take the Word or Pages document from the previous step (above)
- Explain which notes were used (Logic/Ableton will tell you if you’re not sure)
- See if you can begin to explain the feeling that results in some of the choices, and how they were used expressively
Though you can base this exercise on any note, using ‘G’ makes sense as it’s it’s the note on which, if you play all the white notes (G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G) you get the mixolydian mode – the scale which most adheres to the harmonic series (I feel strongly that this should be the first scale we’re taught, not C major. But alas, the patriarchy…)
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