Preview of Section 2 - Music Staff & Scale Notes

Creative Music Composing
Self-Teaching Manual

Releasing soon......

Creative Music Composing

Self-Teaching Manual

By Paul Rodricks

Have you ever felt the urge to write your own songs? 

To compose your own lyrics and melody?

Are you a lyricist wishing to set music to your lyrics? 

Or a music composer desirous of writing the lyrics to

your music? Or a music lover and hobbyist wondering

how songs are crafted? 

If so, Creative Music Composing 

is just the right practical

self-teaching manual for you. Because Songwriting has

never been made so easy and simple.

The Manual  covers all the music aspects of Writing Melodies– melody notes, tonality of scales and harmony in chord progressions and rhythm. You begin from learning to create simple melodies to composing complete performing versions of songs by using the Digital Numbering System, the Solfeggio (do-re-mi) and ABCDEFG notation methods. 

Become a successful Songwriter.  Compose your

own Lyrics and Music to styles such as Pop, Rock,

Blues, Country, R&B, Jazz, Gospel and others.

Read here the Preview of the Section 2 from Creative Music Composing by Paul Rodricks:

Section 2

“If I were not a Physicist, I’d probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music … I get most joy in life out of music.” 

- Albert Einstein

Music Staff and Scale Notes

Fig. 1 - The music staff with its elements at a glance:

The Music Staff, Bar/Measure

     In the following Sections of the music theory, we shall deal with only the essentials of music fundamentals as may be necessary to write simple melodies to begin with.  For a more thorough study, you would need a music theory book available at any local music bookstore.     

    Fig. 2 and 2(a) below shows a group of 5 lines and 4 spaces (created between these lines) together called the Music Staff:   

    Fig. 2

                                                                     

     Fig. 2(a)  The Number of Lines and Spaces in a Music Staff:

     The Staff, which holds the musical notes on its lines and in the spaces, corresponding to the movement of your lyrics, is divided into equal parts called “MEASURES”.   

    

     A Measure is a vertical  line that you see drawn across the musical staff in Fig. 3, which is in turn popularly called the “BAR” line. The latter rhythmically splits the melody patterns of your lyrics in the

Measure. 

     Fig. 3 – The bar line defining the number of measures or bars in a music score or sheet-music.

     In the following Fig. 4, you see the double-vertical lines called the Double Bar which signify that the section or part of music notation before or in front of the double bar symbol ends there and the last darkened thick bar tells you that the music score or the song ends there

     Fig. 4. – The Double Bar & Darkened Bar

                                                                        Double        Darkened 

     In the case of a pair of dots appearing with a double-bar (generally darkened), it means the music score before the two-dotted double-bar or between any 2 (two)-dotted double-bars must be repeated. 

    

     Fig. 5. The Two-dotted Bars

   

                       Repeat this Section       Repeat this Section                

     D.C. is the abbreviation for da capo meaning that you play or sing from the beginning.

     Fig. 6 – The D.C. Symbol

                            Play/Sing from the beginning

     See below for an explanation of the abbreviations in the Fig. 7:

     Fig. 7 – The D.S., Coda other Symbols:

                              

Skip these measures 

                                                                                Continue from D.S. sign                           
               D.S. is a term for from the sign.

              The stricken “S” with the (slash) / across it and two dots                    is a continuation symbol.

                
              Coda symbol - The Circle with the Plus sign within                                      is a sign for skipping the measure/s.

     In playing or singing a music score when you come across a D.S. sign, it says that you go back to that part/measure of music which displays the “S” symbol with the slash and two dots over it, and continue from there.

    

    While the Coda symbol - Circle with the Plus Sign - tells you to skip or rather not to play or sing from all those bars/measures of notes that appear between this symbol and the bar or measure marked “CODA”, as you continue along the music score.   

     

   Notes can be held over bar lines by connecting them with ties, as depicted in the example below::

     Fig. 8 – Bar Line Tie

NEXT: Music Notes/Tones

                                                                                                To reserve your digital copy at 

pre-release price, 

please use the CONTACT FORM or contact

Author: paulrodericks@gmail.com

                                          
Reviewers can avail a FREE Digital copy.

I invite your comments and queries. Thank you.

Paul Rodricks, Author

Paul's WRITERS DIG 7

Contact: paulrodericks@gmail.com

Blog: www.paulswritersdig7.blogspot.com

SECTION ONE: Lyrics and Melody

Creative Music Composing
Self-Teaching Manual

Releasing soon......

Creative Music Composing

Self-Teaching Manual

By Paul Rodricks

Have you ever felt the urge to write your own songs? 

To compose your own lyrics and melody?

Are you a lyricist wishing to set music to your lyrics? 

Or a music composer desirous of writing the lyrics to

your music? Or a music lover and hobbyist wondering

how songs are crafted? 

If so, Creative Music Composing 

is just the right practical

self-teaching manual for you. Because Songwriting has

never been made so easy and simple.

The Manual  covers all the music aspects of Writing Melodies– melody notes, tonality of scales and harmony in chord progressions and rhythm. You begin from learning to create simple melodies to composing complete performing versions of songs by using the Digital Numbering System, the Solfeggio (do-re-mi) and ABCDEFG notation methods. 

Become a successful Songwriter.  Compose your

own Lyrics and Music to styles such as Pop, Rock,

Blues, Country, R&B, Jazz, Gospel and others.

Read here the Preview of the Section 1 from Creative Music Composing by Paul Rodricks:

Section 1

“I love the development of music, that’s what I really dig about the whole thing. How we’ve tried to develop, you know? It grows. That’s why every day people come forward with new songs. Music grows forever.” – Bob Marley

Lyrics and Melody

A Study of Contrast

Lyrics and musical notes work together to produce a variety of effects, the important one being that of producing a contrast.

    

     You may have already learned in the relevant Sections of the companion Manual, “Creative SongLyris”,  that every line of lyrics in your verse or chorus can be made to stand out and we do this in many ways:

    (a)  By proper use of the stressed and unstressed word-syllables;

    (b)  Varying the length of the lines in your verse and chorus/bridge; 

    (c)  Doing a different rhyme scheme besides the perfect rhymes, such as the near-soft-false-rhymes and even creating your own, including making use of the intensity of inside and outside rhymes;

    (d)  Creating an air of expectation and suspense in the flow of your rhyme pattern, i.e. 

by rhyming and un-rhyming end words;

    (e)  Giving a twist to the main theme in the bridge section;

    (f)  Correct use of the personal nouns, genders, conjunctions and tenses;

    (g)  Adopting a chronology of events and time-frame for constructing your verses;

    (h)  Presenting varying points of view in each of your verses and the bridge;

    (i)  Using graphic, emotive and imaginary lyrics, not the least metaphors and similes;

    (j)  Repeating the hook or your title line maybe once in every verse and twice in your Chorus;  

    (k)   Repeating whole lines of phrases and so forth.

    That was mostly about writing some real good lyrics. 

    Now to turn those lyrics into a successful song, we need to put your lyrics to music, depending on your ability and preferences.

    If you have already done the music or have some idea of it, you will still need to grasp the basics of writing lyrics.

    You will find for yourself how easily everything falls in place after you have acquired the necessary basic knowledge and simultaneously with some practice.

“Creative Music Composing”

begins with the basic rhythmic value of the musical note. We then learning the structure of melodic patterns, the changes and contrast that can be effected through different values of the musical notes.

    By altering the rhythm, we learn to write short and long interludes, and how the correct use of scale-tones and music chords can give us  a wide choice of melody variations. 

    Just as you learned  to write lyrics in the companion Manual, “Creative SongLyrics”, you will now begin your journey into composing melodies for your lyrics with ease and simplicity.

    However, at this stage, it is essential that you familiarize yourself with the basic elements of music, i.e. acquire some knowledge of the shape and time value (rhythm) of the melody note, the Bar which is a division unit in a Measure; the latter containing the melody-notes pattern of any song corresponding to your lyrics as they are sung or played - known as sighting reading from sheet-music.

    If you play the guitar or keyboard, you would know or at least be familiar about the common major and minor chords including the names of the music notes, namely 

C-D-E-F-G-A-B.

    These letters are the names for the notes or tones of the music scale. 

    Both chords and scales play a very important role in composing melodies.  You just cannot have any semblance of a pleasant or even unpleasant sound without striking the right or wrong note or chord.

    The study of music theory can turn lyricists into accomplished songwriters.

    So do not just stop at writing lyrics, as the advantages to you of learning to compose music, as an experienced or aspiring lyricist, are too many.  And, it is never too early or too late to learn. 

    Studying music theory is a mental learning process that is richly rewarding.

    Some of you who have played or still play the guitar or keyboard or any musical instrument would be knowledgeable in terms of the music theory or basic sight-reading at least. 

    Hence, setting music to your lyrics is not that great a deal. 

    What matters is acquiring the right know-how and the 

experience that comes from learning and then practicing.

    This is same as you would depend on your regular individual practices and group rehearsals to prepare for any public performance.

    Playing by ear can be further aided  and enhanced by learning to sight-read the music score.  

    Here we take a brief look (some parts are more in details because of their related importance) into the essentials of music theory.

    It is possible that you may choose to skip some of the following Sections; may be for later reference.    

    However, it would be worth your while going through the book thoroughly at least once.

    You would first become aware of the considerable scope of knowledge available in terms of a clearer understanding of the various aspects of the musical note, musical rhythm and the chord harmony.     

    Some of these elements, you may learn for the first time, but the knowledge will certainly help you to advance in writing independently the suitable music to your lyrics.

    Those of you who are familiar with the music theory would have the opportunity of writing better melodies.

***

To reserve your digital copy at 

pre-release price, 

please use the CONTACT FORM or contact

Author: paulrodericks@gmail.com

I invite your comments and queries,

Paul Rodricks, Author

Paul's WRITERS DIG 7

Contact: paulrodericks@gmail.com

Blog: www.paulswritersdig7.blogspot.com