Ah that ever elusive question! I’m going to try 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: 'Forgiveness' — BPM: 50, KEY: C-sharp Dorian
For this blog, I’ll use the piece titled Forgiveness 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
Forgiveness is a deep, melancholic solo piano piece. While upon first listen the track may appear to only have a piano present, there are actually some subtle droning background layers tucked underneath. In you’re curious, I’ve isolated those layers here.
At the start, we hear the theme played in the upper register of the piano. Around the 1:20 mark, the left hand moves lower, down an octave, for a second time through the theme. The piece concludes similar to the beginning, in the piano’s upper register. Here is a section of the solo piano part.
When looking at the notation, the music appears to be possibly in B Major (5 sharps). But in fact home base for this piece is one whole step up on C#. So the piece is in essence in C# minor, but with a raised 6th (A#). In musical terms, this is a ‘mode’ known as C# Dorian. I didn’t write the piece thinking: “Okay, I want to create something in C# Dorian”, and instead I’m really only realizing now that’s what it is, as I’m going back and analyzing it. Okay glad we got to nerd out a little on modes in here! …
Sheet Music available at music-within.com/sheet-music
Photo by SKearns Photo @steveak
Another interesting thing to note with this piece is that the opening and closing chord, which is also heard many times throughout the track, is a somewhat unusual chord to call ‘home’. It’s a C#sus2 – (C#, G#, D#) – and you say “sus 2” or “suspended 2nd”. Normally the ear expects this kind of chord to resolve to a more ‘settled’ chord, where the suspended 2nd goes down to the root or up to the 3rd. For whatever reason, in the context of this piece, the C#sus2 feels perfectly natural to resolve to, or at least it feels perfectly natural for me!
So that’s how you write music! This was 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 Forgiveness and opened your mind up a bit to some of the processes that I use when writing music.
Check out Forgiveness 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!
