by David Doty
There are two primary approaches to writing music: Outside-In and Inside-Out.
The Outside-In approach begins with the macro, the big picture. It involves planning the structural elements, instrumentation, duration, etc. before getting down to actual pitches, rhythms, melodies and harmonies, etc. This is a great approach if you want to work with elements of hypermeter and large form structure, such as the intentional use of the golden mean as a compositional device. For many, however, this approach may be too abstract.
The other approach, Inside-Out, begins with a germ… (*cough*) a brief, simple idea which the composer builds upon. This could be a guitar riff, an ornament, a hook, or a tag line. It could be a twelve tone row, a pitch cluster, a mode, or a scale. Or it could even be a sound, recorded or generated, that you modulate, interpolate, transpose and in all manner of electronic music mutilate into a sonic mind-blowing odyssey.
In my own composing I enjoy employing a combination of both approaches. A solely Inside-Out approach can get one stuck quickly (and turn one’s composition into a type of minimalism when undesired) while an Outside-In composition sometimes feels impossible to start without some sort of kernel from which to work. I like starting with such a kernel, then stepping back and asking, "Now, what's going to happen to this idea throughout the course of the piece?"
This is to say there’s no right way to write music. The important thing is to start. The Chinese have a saying, “The longest journey begins with a single step.” The longest composition is no different. It begins with a choice: What happens first?
Click Here to go to "How to Write Music, Part 2."
There are two primary approaches to writing music: Outside-In and Inside-Out.
The Outside-In approach begins with the macro, the big picture. It involves planning the structural elements, instrumentation, duration, etc. before getting down to actual pitches, rhythms, melodies and harmonies, etc. This is a great approach if you want to work with elements of hypermeter and large form structure, such as the intentional use of the golden mean as a compositional device. For many, however, this approach may be too abstract.
The other approach, Inside-Out, begins with a germ… (*cough*) a brief, simple idea which the composer builds upon. This could be a guitar riff, an ornament, a hook, or a tag line. It could be a twelve tone row, a pitch cluster, a mode, or a scale. Or it could even be a sound, recorded or generated, that you modulate, interpolate, transpose and in all manner of electronic music mutilate into a sonic mind-blowing odyssey.
In my own composing I enjoy employing a combination of both approaches. A solely Inside-Out approach can get one stuck quickly (and turn one’s composition into a type of minimalism when undesired) while an Outside-In composition sometimes feels impossible to start without some sort of kernel from which to work. I like starting with such a kernel, then stepping back and asking, "Now, what's going to happen to this idea throughout the course of the piece?"
This is to say there’s no right way to write music. The important thing is to start. The Chinese have a saying, “The longest journey begins with a single step.” The longest composition is no different. It begins with a choice: What happens first?
Click Here to go to "How to Write Music, Part 2."
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