Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 14, 2011 kekeke~~ I'm here! I wonder if misaki chan and lia chan is here too? doesn't matter... I'll just start without them Joking.... Anyways I don't want to make this too formal, so I'll just skip the lessons introduction and objectives etc (ultimately the objective is only to learn about composition) ... This is not a guarantee, since to actually be able to do composition well, usually there's a need for strong theory. But of course the most important is feeling and creativity, and so, I'm going to try to just go through the basics and give hints and tips. If you have extra questions you can ask me since I'm not going to explain every single detail unless asked (forgive me for being lazy >_<) But before we actually start with the lessons, we should go through some of the basics. I'm sure you'll be familiar with your C's and D's and E's. Right? In music, we Start from the note called middle C, and the most basic key is the C major. So this is our scale: C D E F G A B C. If you don't know this, perhaps you should read it up in the Internet or ask your school's music teacher. You should have learnt this. Ok. Now we shall go on to rhythm. First off, we need to know about time signature. The most common is the 4/4 and 2/4. Next is followed by 3/4 and 2/2 and then many more... But we shall concentrate only on 4/4 and 2/4. 4/4 means there are 4 beats in a bar. (Ive put it simply so if you want to know the reason behind the denominator you can ask me separately. By the way it is not a fraction. ) 2/4 means there are 2 beats in a bar... So 3/4 is.....? Yea. 3/4 is 3 beats in a bar then. If you have learnt music before you will know what is a crotchet and quaver and minim... Etc So I will not explain what those are. For our one beat here, what I'm referring to is one crotchet. So if there are 4 beats, there are 4 crotchets. I'll sometimes refer to a quaver as 1/2 beat and semiquaver as 1/4 beat, so perhaps you want to take note. Let's talk about 2/4 then. 2 beats. So 2 crotchets. Or 1 minim. Or 4 quavers. As long as it adds up to 2. Let's take some examples from songs then... Twinkle twinkle little star... London bridge (if you have heard of it) could be examples of songs written in 2/4. (I said "could be" because it is possible to write them in 4/4 if the composer felt like it... But 2/4 is more appropriate.) So it goes like this: Twinkle 1 1 twinkle 1 1 Little 1 1 star 2 beats How I ... Wonder... What you... Are. So? Got it??? can you see the rhythm? How about finding some famous songs with 4/4 now???? Let's analyze the time of the songs before moving on shall we??? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 14, 2011 I'm fine when it comes to basics. I studied music theory for nine months. But I'm not sure about Neechan... As for a famous song in 4/4 time, how about.... I have none. Sorry, blanking out.... =___=;;; Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 14, 2011 Yep. Then how about a revision then...? Love story by Taylor swift. could be considered 4/4. ......... Rebecca black's Friday can be considered 4/4 but well... If you want to say it as 2/4 it's possible too... DC main theme can be considered 4/4 too. Any others? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 14, 2011 Hm.... Um.... How about Don't Stop Believin' by Journey? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 14, 2011 Yup yup! it is... Changin' too. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 14, 2011 kekeke~~ I'm here! I wonder if misaki chan and lia chan is here too? doesn't matter... I'll just start without them Joking.... Anyways I don't want to make this too formal, so I'll just skip the lessons introduction and objectives etc (ultimately the objective is only to learn about composition) ... This is not a guarantee, since to actually be able to do composition well, usually there's a need for strong theory. But of course the most important is feeling and creativity, and so, I'm going to try to just go through the basics and give hints and tips. If you have extra questions you can ask me since I'm not going to explain every single detail unless asked (forgive me for being lazy >_<) But before we actually start with the lessons, we should go through some of the basics. I'm sure you'll be familiar with your C's and D's and E's. Right? In music, we Start from the note called middle C, and the most basic key is the C major. So this is our scale: C D E F G A B C. If you don't know this, perhaps you should read it up in the Internet or ask your school's music teacher. You should have learnt this. Ok. Now we shall go on to rhythm. First off, we need to know about time signature. The most common is the 4/4 and 2/4. Next is followed by 3/4 and 2/2 and then many more... But we shall concentrate only on 4/4 and 2/4. 4/4 means there are 4 beats in a bar. (Ive put it simply so if you want to know the reason behind the denominator you can ask me separately. By the way it is not a fraction. ) 2/4 means there are 2 beats in a bar... So 3/4 is.....? Yea. 3/4 is 3 beats in a bar then. If you have learnt music before you will know what is a crotchet and quaver and minim... Etc So I will not explain what those are. For our one beat here, what I'm referring to is one crotchet. So if there are 4 beats, there are 4 crotchets. I'll sometimes refer to a quaver as 1/2 beat and semiquaver as 1/4 beat, so perhaps you want to take note. Let's talk about 2/4 then. 2 beats. So 2 crotchets. Or 1 minim. Or 4 quavers. As long as it adds up to 2. Let's take some examples from songs then... Twinkle twinkle little star... London bridge (if you have heard of it) could be examples of songs written in 2/4. (I said "could be" because it is possible to write them in 4/4 if the composer felt like it... But 2/4 is more appropriate.) So it goes like this: Twinkle 1 1 twinkle 1 1 Little 1 1 star 2 beats How I ... Wonder... What you... Are. So? Got it??? can you see the rhythm? How about finding some famous songs with 4/4 now???? Let's analyze the time of the songs before moving on shall we??? Can you think up of any songs which are 2/4 or 4/4??? Ok...After analysing songs which might be 4/4 and 2/4, lets start by learning how to use notes? Ok, this is the 5 lines of the manuscript. ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ -O- ......And This is middle C. *SORRY TO BE LAZY TO FIND A PICTURE FOR YOU. (I will find it soon... Im busy now, so I guess try to understand I'm guessing you know how to place the notes? (Like where is C where is D ...etc) Well, if you don't, PLEASE TELL ME. Else, I'm assuming you do. Ok lets continue... Ok. lets try twinkle twinkle little star. I'm hoping all of you know this song by heart... >_< DO YOU? If not, please tell me also. >_< ok... Time signature: 2/4 Twinkle twinkle little star : C C | G G | A A | G ~ | How I wonder what you are : F F | E E | D D | C ~ | Up Above the world so high : G G | F F | E E | D ~ | Like a Diamond In the sky : G G | F F | E E | D ~ | Twinkle twinkle little star : C C | G G | A A | G ~ | How I wonder what you are : F F | E E | D D | C ~ | Am I right? I will now introduce the notation that I will use so that you can understand. Okay... For Middle C all the way to B, I will just use it as it is. Anything higher(octave), for example high C, I will use this notation --> C1 D1 E1 Anything lower, for example, low G, I will use this notation --> B-1 A-1 G-1 For quaver notes I will put a line below CD EF GA For semiquavers I will do this --> \C\D\E\F\ \F For LONG notes (e.g minims and semibreves) I will use tilda's --> ~ E.g A ~ ~ ~ | B ~ ~ ~ | F ~ C ~| And if you have noticed, I used | as bar lines. I will use . as dotted. E.g A. B. C. D. For now, I will not do chords... yet. Will teach you how to write the melody first. Why don't we try urm... London bridge? Fill in the time signature and the melody! We'll use 4/4 instead for London bridge this time. Let's try! Answer: (Try first before viewing!) I'll use 4/4 to write instead Time Signature: 4/4 London Bridge is: G. A G F | Falling down : E F G ~ | Falling down : D E F ~ | Falling down : E F G ~ | London Bridge is: G. A G F | Falling down : E F G ~ | My Fair Lady : D ~ G ~ | E C ~ ~ || Did you get it right? Any other songs you can do? Well, if you ask me the reason to do this... Will be,,, If you cant put a song into words, you wont be able to use words to form a song... This is so that you can have the visualisation of the song in your head. You HAVE TO be able to visualise the song without the need to listen to it. So the first step is to be able to put the song DOWN into words. So let's say, you have a song in your head. You will need to be able to write it down. It would be difficult to write the entire song into the FIVE LINES if you dont have a manuscript with you. So you'll need an alternative. kekeke for me, in real life, I use the simplified script, which is in numbers : "1 2 3 4 5 6 7". But it would be difficult for you to visualise that in your head so im using C D E F G A B C instead. Ok. I'll stop here for today >_< You can try on other songs by yourself. And if you want me to see if its correct, you can send it to my email. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 As for notes, how about the Jaws theme song? B|Bb|B|Bb etc, etc. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 As for notes, how about the Jaws theme song? B|Bb|B|Bb etc, etc. Jaw's theme? *goes off to check since she never heard it before >_<* Hmm how about try tetris theme? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 Jaws is a movie. It has a REALY repetitive theme song. So it's super easy! XD But the tetris theme? Never heard it before. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 Jaws is a movie. It has a REALY repetitive theme song. So it's super easy! XD But the tetris theme? Never heard it before. Its a very popular game XD Like Super Mario. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whBg7IF5JUg Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 How catchy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 How catchy. *nods* I love the piano version >_< Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 I love the piano version for Still Doll from Vampire Knight. It's so eerily good! XD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 I love the piano version for Still Doll from Vampire Knight. It's so eerily good! XD o.O where did you hear that from? XD I think I did a dub on that last time Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 I think you did too. As for where, on YouTube. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 oh lol. Still doll? I thought its.... Cello? hmmm..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 'Hmmm...." what? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 15, 2011 'Hmmm...." what? hmmm = I shall relisten it again... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 16, 2011 Ok then! But why? Because it's such a good song? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 16, 2011 It's good. The composition is really good. Don't you think? Hahah perhaps I should start the next lesson...? Hmmmmmm... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 16, 2011 Go right ahead if you want to. Since you're the teacher, you decide when you start the class. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 16, 2011 Can you think up of any songs which are 2/4 or 4/4??? Ok...After analysing songs which might be 4/4 and 2/4, lets start by learning how to use notes? Ok, this is the 5 lines of the manuscript. ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ -O- ......And This is middle C. *SORRY TO BE LAZY TO FIND A PICTURE FOR YOU. (I will find it soon... Im busy now, so I guess try to understand I'm guessing you know how to place the notes? (Like where is C where is D ...etc) Well, if you don't, PLEASE TELL ME. Else, I'm assuming you do. Ok lets continue... Ok. lets try twinkle twinkle little star. I'm hoping all of you know this song by heart... >_< DO YOU? If not, please tell me also. >_< ok... Time signature: 2/4 Twinkle twinkle little star : C C | G G | A A | G ~ | How I wonder what you are : F F | E E | D D | C ~ | Up Above the world so high : G G | F F | E E | D ~ | Like a Diamond In the sky : G G | F F | E E | D ~ | Twinkle twinkle little star : C C | G G | A A | G ~ | How I wonder what you are : F F | E E | D D | C ~ | Am I right? I will now introduce the notation that I will use so that you can understand. Okay... For Middle C all the way to B, I will just use it as it is. Anything higher(octave), for example high C, I will use this notation --> C1 D1 E1 Anything lower, for example, low G, I will use this notation --> B-1 A-1 G-1 For quaver notes I will put a line below CD EF GA For semiquavers I will do this --> \C\D\E\F\ \F For LONG notes (e.g minims and semibreves) I will use tilda's --> ~ E.g A ~ ~ ~ | B ~ ~ ~ | F ~ C ~| And if you have noticed, I used | as bar lines. I will use . as dotted. E.g A. B. C. D. For now, I will not do chords... yet. Will teach you how to write the melody first. Why don't we try urm... London bridge? Fill in the time signature and the melody! We'll use 4/4 instead for London bridge this time. Let's try! Answer: (Try first before viewing!) I'll use 4/4 to write instead Time Signature: 4/4 London Bridge is: G. A G F | Falling down : E F G ~ | Falling down : D E F ~ | Falling down : E F G ~ | London Bridge is: G. A G F | Falling down : E F G ~ | My Fair Lady : D ~ G ~ | E C ~ ~ || Did you get it right? Any other songs you can do? Well, if you ask me the reason to do this... Will be,,, If you cant put a song into words, you wont be able to use words to form a song... This is so that you can have the visualisation of the song in your head. You HAVE TO be able to visualise the song without the need to listen to it. So the first step is to be able to put the song DOWN into words. So let's say, you have a song in your head. You will need to be able to write it down. It would be difficult to write the entire song into the FIVE LINES if you dont have a manuscript with you. So you'll need an alternative. kekeke for me, in real life, I use the simplified script, which is in numbers : "1 2 3 4 5 6 7". But it would be difficult for you to visualise that in your head so im using C D E F G A B C instead. Ok. I'll stop here for today >_< You can try on other songs by yourself. And if you want me to see if its correct, you can send it to my email. Then I'll start then Hopefully you all understood the previous few lessons Shall we go faster this time? Lets do "lyric writing and melody insertion" today then? Ok. Im not very good in lyric writing... Cause my language skills sucks... BUT I can give hints and tips to writing lyrics. Ok. I can't tell you what words you have to use, but I can share with you some techniques. Basically, writing lyrics is similar to writing a melody. You have to consider the length of the lyrics and its pattern. Its just like writing a poem. If you can write a poem, you can write lyrics The most basic of writing lyrics is, you will first need a theme. You will need to understand what is the feeling you want to get out of the song. Is it happy, peaceful, sad, disappointment, sense of giving up, furious, panick...??? But let's try the most basic: Sad and happy(or cheerful). Usually, for sadness, the lyrics are often spaced out and consists of one word or short sentences. For example: Rain... Rain is pouring... Teardrops are falling... Water is everywhere... Short and sweet. Sometimes, it is perfectly fine not to have any grammer or subject in the lyrics (BUT DON'T GO TOO FAR "Water ARE everywhere" is NOT fine ) However, for happiness, or cheerful and lively songs, the lyrics are often spaced closer to each other and tend to have longer sentences. For example: If you're happy and you know it clap your hands... If you're happy and you know it and you really want to show it, if you're happy and you know it clap your hands! OR (let me write a new example ) erm... here goes o.O My heart is beating fast til I don't know what to do... I need something to calm me down but I haven't a clue... So everybody come, maybe they can help me out? Oh no~ This is bad.. I'm so hot now but my fever is not coming down~~~ XD XD XD ... Something like that? (Ok.. I know this sounds more like panic instead XD Ahhh but you get the idea... ) Ok... Now that we know what is the theme of your song and how you are going to write it, lets go on to patterns. Ok. For EVERY SONG WRITING, WE NEED TO USE PATTERNS. What are patterns? Well, its a repeat of something... like words, or rhythm or verses. And choruses repeat and verses repeat as well. So you need to know how to write repeats and write patterns. You know that your song has verses (unless you dun intend to give it one... like my "Life" <--) So, if you intend to write verses, you have to have the same pattern for your first verse and your 2nd verse................... What do I mean? Lets say, if you said something like "Rain... Rain is falling." --> Subject... Subject is verb. Your second verse should have the same thing as well, for example... "Wind... Wind is blowing." "I... I am sinking." ... This is a common convention used in song writing. If you don't like it, you can try something a little different.. example: "No... Nothing is right." <--- Realise, that the first and second expression is not the same word, but it carries similar meaning and the last word is not exactly an action verb. This will make the song a little less easy to write because you have just changed the number of syllables for each word. Yep! Now, we come to the next part. Syllables! Well, the best is you can write with the exact pattern in the syllables: "1 syllable, 1 1 2" <--- according to the above. So if you don't want to write according to the "Subject and verb pattern" Then you should at least follow this? But Of course, if you are an expert song writer, this is actually nothing to be concerned of... But well, Im telling you a convention. Some techniques in song writing... Well there are lots! This will have to come from your creativity... I can name a few... but the rest you will have to come up yourself You could repeat the words for the starting and ending... erm... lets see... Example: Friday... Friday... XXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXX on Friday Everybody's lookinnn... XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Weekend... Weekend... ^ Repeating the words technique. Hmmmm... how about the "repeating the sentence" XD ... ok you prob knew that already ... Like IF you're happy and you know it clap your hands... If youre happy and you know it clap your hands... XD Ok.. There's also a "describe the above word" / "describe the bottom word" pattern E.g Memories... They're empty as ever... My heart... They're broken like glass... Or perhaps: Wait... I ask my darling to wait... So that I can tell him what I wanna say... Stop... I asks my legs to stop... I couldn't control them any more... Or perhaps... I see myself but its not me... I move around and it follows me... Reflection. Or maybe.. I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me... Papa... paparazzi Right... and There are many others... well, it all depends on your creativity. Well, you could write a story.. or flashback: We were both young when I first saw you I closed my eyes and the flashback starts I'm standing there... On a balcony of summer air... You could do echos as well: Stand under my umbrella, ..Ella, ella, eh eh eh... Under my umbrella, .. Ella , ella, eh eh eh ... under my umbrella.... Or perhaps you've heard of... Pappppppaaa... paparazzi... Or maybe: Keep bleeding Keep, keep bleeding love I keep bleeding I keep, keep bleeding love Keep bleeding Keep, keep bleeding love You cut me open~~~ Ok.... well, I think we'll continue part two of this some other day... It's a ... long enough post now Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 16, 2011 Oh~! I see! I can't wait for the next lesson! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kaitou Kid Legendary Thief 197 Report post Posted June 16, 2011 Lol... I thought it was long... until I read it... I took like 10 to 15 mins writing but I finished reading in... 1-3 minutes... LOL! (Ok I dont type very fast) >_< But can you understand? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Misaki-chan 164 Report post Posted June 16, 2011 Yep! *nods head* I do at least! I'm not sure about Neechan though... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
