How Do You Write Music? - 'Floating in the Depths'

I’m often asked this 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: 'Floating in the Depths' — BPM: 66, KEY: E-flat Major

For this blog, I’ll use the piece titled Floating in the Depths 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

Floating in the Depths is all based around a slow progression of 8 chords, which we hear develop in the first minute of the piece on a swelling synthesizer. These chords are a mix of major and minor chords, creating a situation where the mood varies from lighter to darker throughout. In addition, I used a lot of extended chords to create more interesting tonal colour. [A typical chord (triad) has 3 unique notes but in many of these chords I’m using 4 or 5 unique notes]. Beneath these chords, shimmery, water-like textures can be heard in the background.

To add some subtle pacing to the piece, there is a synthesizer part playing a steady stream of eight notes in a repeated pattern. The notes change to correspond as the chords change. Later on in the piece, this part is doubled by a celeste (a bell-like sound). Around 1:00 (the 2nd repetition of the chord progression), arpeggiated chords are heard from a high, distant-sounding piano that repeat several times before fading away. You can hear these two parts together below.

Photo by SKearns Photo @steveak

At the 2:00 mark, the main melody comes in, played on piano and electric guitar. It’s quite slow and in no rush to develop, taking the duration of the chord progression to get through the full phrase. The part has a lot of reverb and delay added to the notes, resulting in them take longer to fade away.

For the final repetition through the chords (3:00), the melody is subtly doubled in a higher register on piano and synthesizer to make it a bit more present. I also introduce a few new layers to fill everything out. Very low strings (basses) and bass clarinet are added for weight. Also very high violin chords come in sounding almost like magical fairy dust on top of everything! You can hear these new layers below.

And that’s the story! 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 Floating in the Depths and opened your mind up a bit to some of the processes that I use when writing music.

Check out Floating in the Depths 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? - 'The Tide'

How do you write music? I’m going to try to offer some insight into that question 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: 'The Tide' — BPM: 40, KEY: G Major

For this blog, I’ll use the piece titled The Tide 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

The Tide is a very slow track with the tempo at 40 beats per minute. Throughout the piece, no elements come in to add momentum or pacing, and it intentionally remains very slow-moving. This is later why I decided to name it The Tide, as it reminded me of very slow waves of water washing in and out. This track is in the key of G Major. There are layers that drone away throughout the track always reminding the listener that G is home base.

Over top of these layers, long, slow chords are swelled in and out, alternating between G Major, E minor, C Major 7, and Am (not in that order exactly). The chords get more and more powerful throughout the piece as they are built up with additional layers. Initially we hear them played on synthesizer and cello.

Photo by SKearns Photo @steveak

As I mentioned, as the track progresses, the chords get more and more powerful. The next layer to come in is an effected electric piano. This is followed by guitar swells (with a volume pedal), and additional high synth layers. You can hear these parts isolated below. Near the climax, high strings and a deep synth bass come in helping to build the music up to its peak. Finally the track ends by repeating the first few chords again, but now softer and with fewer layers, similar to earlier in the track.

So there it is! 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 The Tide and opened your mind up a bit to some of the processes that I use when writing music.

Check out The Tide 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? - 'Expanse'

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: 'Expanse' — BPM: 42, KEY: D Major

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

Expanse is a track that’s built around an almost mantra-like piano melody. It repeats over and over, developing throughout the piece. While the melody remains constant, the chords shift beneath it from D major, to B minor, to G major. As this fixed melody is played over those different chords, it changes its tone and feeling.

On this track, I also spent a significant amount of time creating the background layers that provide the pillow or cloud-like space for the piano to sit on top of. The main layer was created from the reverb tail of an electric piano chord – meaning you don’t really hear that attack of the instrument, just the spacious tone as it rings out. I exported multiple versions, panned them left and right, faded them in and out, and created an interesting texture that has some great motion to it.

Photo by SKearns Photo @steveak

Later on in the track, I’ve added other layers added, such as soft strings, effected electric piano, guitar swells using a volume pedal, and celeste (a high bell-like sound). You can hear those layers isolated below.

Viola! A quick description of the piece with some isolated audio examples 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 Expanse and opened your mind up a bit to some of the processes that I use when writing music.

Check out Expanse 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? - 'Sunshower'

A great question! And one that I’m going to try to offer some insight into 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: 'Sunshower' — BPM: 41, KEY: B-flat Major

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

Sunshower begins with a background ambience of lush pads creating an atmosphere for other layers to build upon. These were carefully created using several layers of synthesizer. Over top of this, a slow phrase of 10 notes is introduced on a high synth, reaching the end of the phrase every 30 seconds or so. You’ll also hear electric piano notes that are sent through a long delay, repeating many times before gradually fading away.

The tempo of the song is very slow at 41 beats per minute. But around 1:10, a pattern comes in on the electric piano (Rhodes) which adds some subtle momentum to the piece. The part is a continuous line of triplet eight notes repeating every bar. At first this part is almost inaudible, but it gradually gets more and more present as the piece progresses.

Photo by SKearns Photo @steveak

At 2:08, the first of several long, swelling string and synth chords comes in. These swelling chords become the focus of the piece for the next minute and a half, with each new chord getting more dynamic than the last. After the last string chord fades away, the track gradually fades back to the place where it began. You can hear the swells isolated below. I’ve also isolated some of the other production layers that fill out the track, including a very high frequency synth, a delayed celeste part, and a swelling guitar part (using a volume pedal).

So there ya go! 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 Sunshower and opened your mind up a bit to some of the processes that I use when writing music.

Check out Sunshower 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!