Good 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: 'Transcendence' — BPM: 60, KEY: E-flat Major
For this blog, I’ll use the piece titled Transcendence 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
Transcendence begins with a soft, warm synthesizer changing slowly between 4 chords. I used extended chords to create more interesting tonal colour. [A typical chord (triad) has 3 unique notes but in these chords I’m using 4 or 5 unique notes]. The first 2 chords are extensions Eb Major and then next 2 chords are extensions of F Major. You can hear them isolated below.
Once this framework is established, more and more layers are gradually added on top, building the piece to its climax about 3 minutes later. Generally a new part comes in every time the chord progression reaches a repeat. Initially, these additional layers just include more synth parts to further support and enhance the background chords.
Photo by SKearns Photo @steveak
Around 1:10 a melody line is introduced on synth and string section. At 1:40, this melody is then doubled with the same instrumentation, but in a higher register one octave up. It is a slow melody of 10 notes – (5 notes over the Eb chords and 5 notes over the F chords).
At 2:10, an expressive solo viola comes in and pulls the listener’s attention towards it, playing a part complimentary to the melody we’ve heard so far. On the next repetition, a second viola enters playing notes in harmony to the first viola, and taking us to the climax. Once the violas have reached the peak and get more subdued, other layers gradually fade away too as the track eventually concludes on a long sustained chord.
Some food for thought! 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 Transcendence and opened your mind up a bit to some of the processes that I use when writing music.
Check out Transcendence 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!
