Re: Alternative approaches to arrangement/composition?

[Ricky Graham <rickygrahammusic@gmail.com>]

Changing the tonal percepts of melodies through chord scales is a lot
of fun. Look into common tones if you are looking to re-contextualise
tonal music.

A good start is taking (or looping) a lovely minor melody/scalar
structure (say, the dorian mode - II mode of the major scale) and
performing different chord structures underneath which possess common
tones and desirable harmonisations to change the predominant interval.

Then try tritone substitutions to makes everything over your II-V
sound chromatic. Try building textures based on unrelated chords, and
manipulating various stages of each note-event (attack, decay,
termination).


My three cent(ences)

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 7:21 PM, Marcus Kirby <marcusloops@gmail.com> 
wrote:
> I generally loop guitar, get the skeleton of the drums/bass, then
> arrange via adding/subtracting.
>
> Does anyone have any different philosophies/methods that they use for
> arranging and composing? Borrowing techniques from different fields,
> maybe something like compositions based on "game of life" or art, or
> whatever.
>
> Sorry for being vague, but I don't even know what exists.
>