I don't have anything to write about on my blog, so I'll talk about the music knowledge and techniques I'm studying right now.
A composer I follow on Twitter casually muttered about counterpoint, and I knew that a technique with that name existed, but I didn't know exactly what kind of technique it was.
Out of curiosity, I looked into it and found out that it was a technique for intertwining multiple melodies, so I immediately bought the book.
Practice understanding with chords and melodies! Easy-to-learn popular counterpoint
At the time of writing this article, I'm only halfway through the book, but about a million scales have fallen from my eyes, and the flow of composition is fundamentally changing.
The basis of counterpoint is "two-part counterpoint," which intertwines two melodies.
There are many challenges in arranging the melodies of familiar nursery rhymes and famous classical songs in two-voice counterpoint, so I am proceeding while reproducing them on my DAW.
Here are four tips.
・Do not use the same sound as the melody as much as possible
・Using chord constituents as much as possible
・Use 3rds or 6ths as much as possible for downbeats and chord changes
・Retrograde when using sounds other than 3rd and 6th
I try to say as much as possible, but if you stick to the rules, your free thinking will be hindered, and if you stick too much to the tech, you won't be able to write songs.
That's what the above book says, so I guess it's "popular counterpoint".
It feels more like an introductory book for popular music and DTM rather than an academic book.
It's perfect for DTMers who have just learned the basics of music theory.
The last ``retrograde'' means that when the upper melody goes to the high pitch side, the lower melody moves to the low pitch side.
It's getting long, so I'll continue next week.