(part 15 of 20)
More Advanced Composition
After you’ve composed a good number of simple pieces, pick one, and try adding more detail to it. Think of the melody and bassline as a skeleton. Your task now is to flesh it out with organs, meat, and…flesh…or if you prefer, think of your simple melody/bassline composition as a simple sketch that an artist would draw before turning it into a detailed and colorful painting.
One way to add detail might be to make your bassline more intricate. Let it move around more, add passing tones, give it some interesting rhythmic variety, and add occasional chords. Also, try dressing the melody up a bit. Add rhythmic variety, perhaps a single note or small chord underneath the melody (but still in the right hand) to highlight an important melodic note.
As you gain experience with this you can take it further. Use the suggestions for improvisational techniques (More Improvisation Techniques) as the basis for different compositions. For example, try composing in a variety of keys and tonalities*, with an ostinato in the bass, perhaps a melody could be passed to the left hand in another piece, more chords could be added, arpeggios, and extra voices. Also try to write dances of different types and try your hand at different musical styles.
Writing counterpoint is also great practice. A good way to get started is to take one of your simple two-part works and add more and more passing tones in the bassline until it’s a melody in its own right, giving you two voices in free counterpoint.
And of course come up with your own ideas, search for unique sounds, rhythms, harmonies, and textures. As before, keep these pieces short and with simple forms.
Note:
*When composing using modes or other less familiar scales, it is critical that you fully internalize the tonality you are working with. The best way to become fluent with unfamiliar tonalities is to improvise with them. You should be able to really feel the tonal center and anticipate how the various scale degrees change harmonic colors. Many people get lost with modes because they haven’t internalized them, so they wander off thinking they are in phrygian when really they’ve shifted to natural minor.
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Index
- Introduction
- Why Piano?
- Improvisation:
- Notation:
- Related Skills/Knowledge:
- Composition: