What is tempo? What is an ensemble? What is pitch? These questions are all answered in this LTGuitarist Beginner's Dictionary for Musicians. Not understading commonly-used terms is one of the biggest barriers to progessing in music, especially as a beginner. There's loads of great music tutorials online, but not many of them take the time … Continue reading Beginner’s Music Composition Dictionary
composition
Month of Chords
Througout April I challenged myself to write a new set of chords every day, posting them up on Twitter. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Liam, you're a musician. Surely you're writing music all the time?" Yeah, sure, but I don't usually have the time to actively improve on my craft. Working on something will … Continue reading Month of Chords
Intro To Speed Composition
https://youtu.be/Ckv3siqzvYA Talking about why composers may want to prioritise speed over quality and offering some ideas for musicians wanting to try out speed composing. This is the first of several videos on faster music composition - future videos will look at specific techniques and ideas in detail.
Phasing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ5h7WZn8Pw Exploring Phasing through traditional music score and digital audio manipulation. Phasing as a super cool composition technique which is used to great effect in minimalism and abstract pieces of music but can be equally useful and intriguing in modern music too. The scoring software is Guitar Pro 7 and the DAW is Cubase 8.5
The Picardy Third
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLXk1xcvQck What is a Picardy Third and how can you use them in your compositions? RE the thumbnail: Yes. I know. That's the joke.
Retrograde
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuy3-YvcoLI A new compisition technique for your toolbelt - used in minimalism and more abstract styles, Retrograde can be a fun way to manipulate a phrase or leitmotif.
Addition & Subtraction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRg3lro2Fik A new composition technique for you. Addition & Subtraction are commonly found in minimalism but has uses in contemporary cinematic music or even pop and rock.
Musical Terms Defined: Music Theory, Batch 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4lOYESPdG4 Musical terms defined, including Interval, The Modes, Orchestra, Inversion, Lyrical, Cadence.
Creating Music With Found Sounds for Inflated Inspirations
An installation of Balloon Art, telling the story of Pop My Mind. I was invited to Inflated Inspirations' build days to record audio, and create a musical piece out of the resulting samples.
