Tune development

[rick-slo]

When composing an instrumental what does what does composition development mean to you?

[stanron]

It can be said that the simplest tunes are folk tunes. They usually have a structure of ABAB or less often ABCABC.

Each of these parts will usually have an internal 'melodic' structure of Motif, Variation, Repeat Motif and Resolution. This usually occurs twice with the first resolution being to chord five and the second to chord one. Each of these parts can be two or four bars long making eight of sixteen bar sections.

Any thing that makes a composition more complex than this might be called Composition Development.

If the structure is ABAB then varying the repeats of A and B would be one form of simple development.

[Doug Young]

Interesting topic. Sort of depends on style and context. Back when I took composition in college, we learned a bunch of ways to massage a basic motif into a longer composition. Seems more common in classical music, to some extent in jazz. Folk music tends to be simpler. "Question and answer" as a development form seems pretty common there.

I just read an interesting article about Lindsay Buckingham where they were saying that the band wasn't sure Dreams was worth recording. They thought it was too boring and plodding, and of course basically 2 chords back and forth, with a fairly mundane melody. But in the studio, Lindsay used production to develop it so that it keeps moving and building in subtle ways. Maybe not what we'd consider "tune" development in a classical melodic sense, more orchestration, but the end goal's the same, to "develop" an initial idea into something that can hold listener's attention for a while. You can do the same with solo guitar, keep it simple at first, add more harmony and variations later on.

[rick-slo]

Yes, should be some development in some way IMO to keep interest though in some types of music,
say Irish reels, it can be very repetitive even though the melody line can be catchy. Classical music
usually has better develop and variation over time though there are exceptions that are still quite
popular (such as Ravel's highly melodically repetitive "Bolero" where instrumentation and volume
carries the piece to a longer length).

[hatamoto]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

When composing an instrumental what does what does composition development mean to you?

This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately. I usually use my looper and lay some chord progressions to have as a backing track and compose single lead lines over it. When I'm done, I'm going to take the whole track and combine both elements to make a fingerstyle tune out of it.

For me, it is like telling a story. Perhaps the intro can be in the lower registers with a call and response. Something simple to get the listeners warmed up. Then the verse can be something catchy. Maybe a longer passage with the same call and response format, or something that builds up to the higher registers as you approach the climax. At the peak, it has to be exciting, so show off, then finally back off.

I could focus on the roots or thirds for the intro, then probably change it up and target a different set of intervals in the verse and climax. Maybe a series of fifths and sixths to evoke some kind of excitement...

[The Bard Rocks]

I separate it into 2 parts. Music development is me trying out different chords, play it faster or slower, changing modes, altering the rhythms going up on a note instead of down and vice versa - where I have a melody that I like and am trying out variations on it to decide what will stick. Making variations on the melody for the breaks, and perhaps obligato over the vocals. Deciding upon what instruments will be used and where.

And then there is the development of the words, deciding where the subject is going, what is going to happen with it and how it will end, eliminate what is unnecessary, hone my rhymes, fit the words closer to the melody....

[stanron]

Perhaps the most prolific 'Tune Developer' on record, and definitely my favourite, is J S Bach. You can find find more musical ideas in eight bars of some Bach's instrumental work than you will in eight minutes of some 19th Century composers.

Two of the many ideas he used were Inversion and Retrograde. Simply put, Inversion is turning a tune upside down and Retrograde is turning a tune back to front.

He also explored notes outside the scale giving the effect of multiple key changes.

Back, not Bach, to the guitar. There is the subject of what I call 'Finger Music'. A guitarists hands take positions and use 'shapes' that can be moved on the fretboard or to different tunings and produce astonishing effects. Turning these discoveries into coherent and extended pieces of music may need more than a reliance physical memory.

The process of taking the sounds 'found' from the fingers into your mind, projecting that into a future set of sounds that you like and then bringing that back to the fingers on a guitar is worth pursuing.

[capefisherman]

....and do not ignore the importance of dynamics!!!! That is single, biggest deficiency I see and hear with almost all singles and bands. Vary your volume and also don't be afraid to even add short periods of silence from time to time in the middle of tunes. Letting a song grow by reaching peaks rather than just playing the same changes and singing verses at the same volume can get boring. Like the old commercial said: "If you want to get someone's attention....whisper!"