This week we learnt more about compositional techniques in compositional techniques #2. It started off with a text on music fundamentals, these being Melody, Harmony and Rhythm. I think for my compositions I will mainly be focusing on Harmony and Rhythm. I have also decided that I will be making the music for the Nike video in the key of C major. The text this week also discussed Phrases and Motives in which we also looked Arnold Schoenburg’s Phrases and Motives. I think this is important as it gives the composer somewhere to start and build his work around an opening melodic phrase however it is important to note that a melody shouldn’t be invented without a harmony. I also learnt that motives are repeated throughout a piece but is changed a little. I can relate to this by thinking of any House and Techno song.
Another video on Hans Zimmer was also watched this week, this one was discussing his soundtracks and how they relate to time. It was interesting to see how he created the music with relation to the film for example, how the music became deeper and longer the further, they went into the dream, or how secret messages of Morse code was included within Interstellar to match the theme of time. I think these techniques have the ability to fit into many different compositions as they are so broad.
This week I have also continued work on my assessments and made some real progress on it. I have composed a Synth part to compliment the Drum and Bass beat for the Nike video using the Massive plugin and using the Twist n Shout setting however I feel the sound is not what I am really looking for, I like the notes but I feel like the sound itself is out of place, I will continue to play with other sounds for this part however keep the notes basically the same. A sample of the sound recorded using my phone is below:
This week I also made a fair amount of progress on the Walking Dead Video. I added a previously made piano loop in the key of F min which was created by the producer Slow Magic, I also added some breathing sounds to create that feeling of isolation which works quite well with the piano loop as the loop itself creates emotion. I also added two kick drums and panned one hard left and the other hard right and placed the kicks on every second beat alternating on each one. Finally for this week I added some chords in using massive and the Dance on Glass preset which creates a eerie, isolating feeling which works well with the piano. I wish to add more parts to this and work on possibly adding more drums to this.
I didn’t really do any work on the unravel video this week as I have been focused on the other two videos and work has been busy.
Music weekly blog 