Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. – Maya Angelou
SUMMARY
- This week I learned how about how music works and learned how to use hooktheory. I think this week was good.
PRACTICE ROOM (TUTORIALS)
CLASSROOM (THEORY & ANALYSIS)
- Melody is musics most powerful tool
- we have 4 notes that we know that are basically “genetic”
- however many notes you have determines how small the space is between the notes
- Aeollen mode
- every song within the last 100 years has been dompletely diatonic
- there are 3 elements that are key to melody: their pitch, the note, and their pattern
LAB (THEORY PRACTICED)
- I learned how to use hookpad and how to make my own melodies
OUTSIDE (CREATIVITY & THE BRAIN)
- Set a timer
- Spend a total of 35 minutes in this ‘room.’
- For the first 20 minutes, watch Elizabeth Gilbert discuss creativity and genius
On my walk in the afternoon I walked around my neighborhood loop again and thought about school. After i’ve been going on walks it eases the anxiety
STUDIO (SONGWRITING)
Melody Composition Terms
- Theme – a longer more flowing idea
- Motive – a short rythmic idea (beethoven’s fifth symphony)
- Period – 8 measures of music
- Phrase – a sentence fragment, 4 measures of music
- Antecedent (Question) Phrase – first phrase
- Consequent (Answer) Phrase – second phrase
- Scale Degrees
- Tonic – one scale degree creates a feeling of stability and resolution
- Supertonic, Mediant, Submediant – several scale degrees create a high level of tension / need to resolve tonic
- Dominant, Subdominant, Leading Tone – scale degree with a moderate level of tension
- Steps – any movement using hald or whole steps
- Leaps – any movement using intervals larger than a whole step
- Conjunct motion – melody built primarily out of steps
- Disjunct motion – melody build primarily out of leaps
- Repetition – use repeated material to create a link between the two phrases of a period
- Contrast – write two phrases that contain contrasting material to create tension and interest
- Variation – half way between repetition and contrast. The two phrases include some recognizable material and some varied materal.
Melody Resources
Mr. Le Duc’s Key of C Major Notes and Chords Chart (PDF)
WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED
- Today I learned how to use hooktheory and hookpad. One problem I had was trying to get the twinkle little star melody, I have very good pitch and usually can get that stuff but I was having a hard time with that especially because im knew to hooktheory so I wasn’t quite sure how to use it. I did it though.