Ah that mysterious process! I’ll try my best here to offer some insight into what the title is asking using some pieces that I’ve recently written as specific examples. I’m trying to make this accessible for those who have little to no musical background, so my apologies to those who want some more music theory and deep analysis.
Case Study: 'Euphoria' — BPM: 40, KEY: b-flat Major
For this blog, I’ll use the piece titled Euphoria from my latest album Finding Stillness II. I hope most of what I describe becomes clear once you listen to the track.
While writing all of the music on this album, I had a few general ideas or overarching concepts running through my mind, which helped guide my decision-making. They included things like:
Create beautiful, calming ambient-cinematic music
Write music that can help the world slow down
Introspective, reflective, and meditative
Euphoria begins with a layer of lush pads creating a place for everything else to sit on top of. These were created using synthesizer and piano. Within this background ambience, a few of the layers are actually repeating patterns, providing a feeling of constant motion. Hear these layers below.
Next there is a layer of softly picked electric guitar that comes in. One guitar plays in the left ear and one in the right ear. They play the same pattern over and over but not in sync with one another, which again creates a feeling of constant motion.
Another layer in the track was created using electric guitar, a volume pedal, and a reverb pedal. The volume pedal removes the start of the note (the attack) so you’re left with a soft swelling sound. Playing that into a lush reverb pedal created some beautiful textures. It is actually these layers that the track concludes on!
Gibson Les Paul (red) and Schecter KM7 (blue)
Volume pedal (grey) and Reverb pedal (black)
This piece is in the key of Bb Major. For most of the track, elements continue to drone away on the Bb, really cementing the fact that it is home base. Every so often we hear an Eb major chord appear, gradually swelling on trombones, trumpets, and guitar (using the volume pedal again). This new Eb chord always resolves once again to the Bb. These Eb chord swells are really what make this track special for me. It’s the anticipation of knowing that they’re coming again but not being sure when. Also adding to the importance of these moments is the fact that every chord swell is bigger and more dynamic than the last. Here are two of the swells below.
A few other additional layers fill out the track. For example, there is a picked guitar lead that’s included sparsely throughout. There is also a layer of guitar “E-bow” parts. (An e-bow is an electronic device that causes the strings to vibrate similar to the way they would using a real violin bow, but it does this using electronics to induce forced string vibrations – it’s really cool!). Check out the isolated E-bow part below.
There’s also a trombone part that plays twice in the track, using long sustained notes. And lastly, there are some high string layers for the last couple Eb swells.
So there you have it! A brief description of the piece with some of the parts isolated for clarity. Obviously I’ve only scratched the surface here, but hopefully it has opened your ears up a bit to what’s happening in Euphoria and opened your mind up a bit to some of the processes that I use when writing music.
Check out Euphoria and the full album Finding Stillness II. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
If you do enjoy the music, maybe you’d consider buying it - every little bit helps. Available for purchase on my Website or on Bandcamp. Following and streaming helps as well!
