From the letter: “My daughter goes to the third grade of music school: for the summer, according to solfege, we were asked to compose music. Could you tell me how we can help her?”.
Well, let's try to suggest something! You do not need to be afraid of this task - you need to do it simply and correctly. It is best to write a song or a small play for the instrument on which we play.
We compose a song on the words of a children's poem
The easiest way to write a song. For her, we either compose the words ourselves (a small rhyme for 4 or 8 lines), or take any ready-made children's poem, a toed, etc. For example, the well-known "teddy bear goes through the forest ...".
Poem we divide into phrases, just as it goes along the lines or half the lines. One phrase or line of poem is equal to one musical phrase. For example:
Bruin Bear
Going through the forest
Cones collects,
Songs sings.
Now we make all this musically. Choose any major key, if the content of the song is funny and bright (for example, in C major or D major), or some minor key, if the poem is sad (for example, in D minor, E minor). Put the key signs, farther choose size (2/4, 3/4 or 4/4). Immediately, you can schedule bars - four bars on one note line. And also, based on the nature of the text, you can also immediately come up with pace - slow it will be a song or fast, cheerful.
And when we decided on such simple things as fret, pitch, tempo and size, we can proceed directly to inventing a melody. And here you need to consider two main points - the rhythm of the melody and the sound of which the melody will be made up.
Variants of melodic development
Now we will show several examples of how the melodic line can develop in your song:
- repetition of the same sound or even a musical phrase;
- movement up the gamma steps;
- movement down the gamma steps;
- movement up or down through one step;
- different types of singing one note with neighboring notes;
- jumps at any intervals (no wonder you went through them?).
It is not necessary to adhere to only one method of melodic development throughout the whole song, it is necessary to alternate, combine, mix these methods with each other.
And still need to ensure that the melodic movement in its direction was not uniform (that is, only down or up). Simply put, if in one measure we tune up (by step or jump), then in the next measure we must either keep the reached height by repeating on one note, or go down or fill the resulting jump.
What note to start and finish a song?
In principle, you can start with any note, especially if your music begins with an outbreak (remember what it is?). The main thing that the first note belonged to the tone that you originally chose. And yet, if the first note is not one of the stable stages (I-III-V), then you need to put a note as soon as possible after it, which would be considered sustainable. After all, we must immediately show in what key we are.
Well and, of course, we must finish the song on the tonic - on the first, most stable stage of our tonality - do not forget about it.
Variants of rhythmic development
Here, so that everything worked out as it should, we just carefully study our text: we put stress in every word. What will it give us? We will find out which syllables are stressed and which are unstressed. Accordingly, we should try to compose music so that the stressed syllables fall on the strong beats, and the unstressed syllables on the weak.
By the way, if you understand the size of a poem, you can easily understand the logic of a musical rhythm - sometimes the size of a poem can literally coincide with the musical one by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables (beats).
So, here are some variations of the rhythmic pattern for the melody of the song you compose (as well as the melody techniques you need to combine them):
- uniform motion of the same duration, one for each syllable of the text;
- chanting - two or three notes for one syllable of the text (more often the ends of phrases are sung, sometimes the beginning of phrases too);
- longer durations on stressed syllables and shorter durations on unstressed syllables;
- offense when the poem begins with an unstressed syllable;
- rhythmic stretching of phrases to the end (slow motion at the end of phrases);
- the use of dashed rhythm, triple or syncope as needed.
What is the result?
Well, of course, no one expects any masterpieces from an elementary school student at the music school - everything should be quite simple, but with taste. Especially since this is your very first compositional experience. Let it be a very small song - 8-16 cycles (2-4 lines of notes). For example, something like this:
The melody that you composed should be beautifully copied onto a separate piece of paper. It is advisable to pick up, draw or paste some beautiful thematic pictures to your work. The same clumsy bear with cones. Everything! The best is not necessary! Five solfeggio you provided. Well, if you definitely want to reach the level of "aerobatics", then you need to pick up a simple accompaniment on your piano, accordion, guitar or other instrument to your song.
What other music can I write?
Yes, it is not necessary to compose a song. You can write and instrumental play. How to do it? In any case, it all starts with an idea, with an idea, with a choice of a topic, inventing a name, and not vice versa - first composed and then think how to call this nonsense.
The topic can be connected, for example, with nature, animals, fairy tales, books that you read, toys, etc. Names can be, for example, such: "Rain", "Sunlight", "Bear and bird", "Brook runs", "Birds sing", "Good Fairy", "Brave soldier", "Brave knight", " The buzz of bees "," A terrible tale ", etc.
Here you will have to approach the solution of the set tasks creatively. If a there is a character in your play, then you have to decide how you are going to introduce him - who is he? what does it look like? what is he doing? what does he say to whom? what is his voice, character? what habits? Answers to these and other questions that you yourself ask, you need to translate into music!
If your play is about some nature phenomenon, then you have means of music painting, pictorialism: it is both registers (high and loud or low and loud?), and the nature of movement (measured as rain, or violently, like a stream of a stream, or fascinating and slow, like the sunrise?) and dynamics (silent trills of a nightingale or the deafening roar of thunderstorms?), and harmonic colors (gentle pastoral consonances or sharp, harsh and unexpected dissonances?), etc.
In composing instrumental music, another approach is possible. This is when you are referring not to some specific images, but rather to famous dance genres. For example, you can write "Little Waltz", "March" or "Children's Polka". Choose what you want! In this case, you will need to take into account the features of the selected genre (they can be viewed in the encyclopedia).
In the same way as in the case of a song, composing instrumental music can be a big plus for you provided a drawing on the theme of your music. This is the time for us to finish. We wish you creative success!
Read also - If asked to create a crossword puzzle in music
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