How Do You Write Music? - 'Petrichor'

It’s not a simple, straightforward answer, but I’ll 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: 'Petrichor' — BPM: 60, KEY: C Major

For this blog, I’ll use the piece titled Petrichor 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

Petrichor is a soft, ambient track with a relaxing, positive mood. It feels like a lazy day song. If you thought you might have heard water, you’d be correct! The gentle sounds of flowing water is heard in the background throughout the piece. These are nature sounds that I recorded while on a few hikes.

I kept the instrumentation for this track quite sparse, with a few layers of Rhodes electric piano and a few layers of electric guitar. As with some of the other tracks on this album, I used extended chords throughout the piece to create more interesting tonal colour. [A typical chord (triad) has 3 unique notes but in many of these chords I’m using 4 unique notes].

There are 3 main sections that make up the form of Petrichor. For the sake of explanation, we’ll call these sections “verse melody”, “chorus melody”, and “guitar lead.” The track begins with the electric piano playing a repeated pattern based around an F Major 7 chord. After several repetitions, the “verse melody” comes in on electric guitar and high electric piano.

Reverb pedal (black) and Volume pedal (grey)

Gibson Les Paul (red) and Schecter KM7 (blue)

This leads into the “chorus melody” section. The guitar and Rhodes play the melody together – a line that jumps down for 4 notes before climbing back up for the last 3 notes. During this part, an additional layer of guitar is playing background chords that repeat and fade, using a delay effect.

Next we jump back to a version of the “verse melody” that’s half as long as before, which then moves into the “guitar lead” section. In this part, a few of the chords beneath the guitar lead are new, not yet heard in the track, and so they add an element of “newness”. This part is met by the second half of the “verse melody” that was, in a sense, interrupted.

The track then returns to the “chorus melody” again exactly the same as the first time it was introduced. Finally, it concludes with a softer, slightly more sparse version of the “verse melody.”

For your interest, I’ve included below a version of the entire track with the melody parts muted. For me it’s a less interesting listen this way, but it could be helpful to hear.

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 Petrichor and opened your mind up a bit to some of the processes that I use when writing music.

Check out Petrichor 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!

How Do You Write Music? - 'At the River's Edge'

In case you were wondering the same thing!  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 minimal musical background, so my apologies to those who want some more music theory and deep analysis.

Case Study: 'At the River’s Edge' — BPM: 64, KEY: A-flat Major

For this blog, I’ll use the piece titled At the River’s Edge 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

At the River’s Edge 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. These background textures feel bright, positive and peaceful.

Over top of this ambience, long, slow synths swell in and out establishing the first main chord progression. You can hear this part isolated below. As the piece continues to grow, piano accompanies the synth chords along with celeste (a bell-like sound).

Photo by SKearns Photo @steveak

String parts for ‘At the River’s Edge’

Around 2:35, a soft cymbal swell marks the start of a new section in the track. In this 2nd half the energy increases a bit, with the chord changes now happening twice as fast. A layer of strings also come in here, starting very quietly and growing in dynamics to the end.

At the same point, a piano and guitar pattern begins as well, adding some more momentum. At 3:15, this piano/guitar pattern is doubled on violin. While the pattern was only a soft background element up to this point, once the violin comes in, it becomes the main melody. You can hear these 3 layers isolated below.

The track ends with everything fading away except for a single viola that continues playing, almost as if it were holding onto a memory of the piece and not wanting to let go.

Well there you go folks! 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 At the River’s Edge and opened your mind up a bit to some of the processes that I use when writing music.

Check out At the River’s Edge 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!

How Do You Write Music? - 'Transcendence'

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!

How Do You Write Music? - 'Forgiveness'

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!