Re: If you had to state 5 rules of a successful music compositionfor 12th grade students...

[Florian Anwander <fanwander@mnet-online.de>]

Hello Margaret

>          2. Must have an *intro* (some sonic moment that leads us into
>             the bulk of the composition)
>          3. Must have an *ending/outro * (some sonic moment that shows
>             closure to the composition.
>          4. In addition to intro and ending/outro, * your track must
>             also have a minimum of 3 core sections*. Which could be
>             thought of  as: verse, course, bridge, or A, B, C and/or 1,
>             2, 3. These sections should be connected to form your main
>             composition. These sections/parts can be repeated if you
>             would like to add thematic ideas to your song. Repetition of
>             your 3 parts is not required but sometimes helpful. 
This is limiting extremely to the classic pop song. There is a lot of 
very pleasing music, which does not know this kind of compositional 
variety (it knows only one part), but has a lot of variety in 
arrangement. See the (in)famous "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel.

>          6. *No audio pops from sample cutting or poor quality
>             recordings of sounds.*
ok, this is topic 6 so it may be counted as overflow, but in fact, it 
has nothing to do with composition. It is simple "craftmansship ability".


And now my five points:
1.) If you make music intended to be listened by others, then don't bore.
2.) A composition must made "rememberable" (right word? - I am not an 
native english speaker). Listen to two other great compositions and then 
try to remember your own composition. If you can, then your composition 
is good.
3.) A composition must work without beeing related on dedicated sounds. 
To achieve that, I suggest to simply use e.g. a single piano preset 
sound for all tonal stuff and a tunable tom-like sound for all 
percussive stuff. If the composition works with that, then it will work 
with any other sound too (it is the reversion of the most hated argument 
"Beatles songs work regardless whether played on a detuned campfire 
guitar or by the London Symphonic Orchestra")
4.) Don't care for the taste of others. Taste cannot be discussed.
5.) Always pretend you would have a fifth secret criterion ;-)


Aaah, and by the way a tip for beginners: Arrangement and production can 
be made very interesting by two simple tricks.
1.) "Terassendynamik" - I don't find an english word for that in the 
dictionary; may be stepped dynamics. It is an arrangement, which simply 
adds layers or other instrumentations, but does not change the 
compositional aspect (see bolero, see Beethoven, see Steve Lipson/Trevor 
Horn at FGTH or Grace Jones "Slave to the Rhythm").
2.) You can repetitive an monotone with the core of your 
instrumentation, but at each repetition add a small adornment, which 
should only happen a single time in the complete composition. Best 
example: The verse of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes, produced by 
Trevor Horn (damned .. again him). The is an endless repetition of the 
same guitar riff, but it becomes extremely diversified by thousands of 
little effects.


Florian