Composition Diary
As you read through, listening links are available to hear my progress via the Soundcloud links.
30/9/15
The aim of this composition is to fulfill the composition activity that we created for our iBook. My iBook was all about tuning, and the composition activity is to compose and record a piece for an instrument with an alternate tuning.
I decided that I will compose a guitar duet. So I had to decide which alternate tuning I would use.
For the iBook, I compiled a playlist on Spotify with a variety of examples that used alternate tunings.
Click the Spotify play button to hear this.
I decided to go with what is most likely the most commonly used alternate tuning for guitar - drop D. This is where the bottom E string is dropped down a tone to a D, which means that power chords (base note + 5th and octave) become really easy to play.
To make the most of it being in drop D tuning, I decided to compose my piece in D minor, meaning I can use the bottom three open strings.
I just played around with the different sounds I could make, and what chord progression I thought would work well. You can hear the riff below.
With the slide up from the F to the G chord, it is somewhat influenced by the opening of the Breaking Bad theme song, which features slide guitar, you can listen here
This project will be recorded using the following gear:
- PreSonus USB AudioBox
- Breedlove Acoustic Guitar
- Logic Pro X
I have decided that I will record my composition using multitrack, and will experiment with improvisation, and then I will notate my recorded track.
1/10/15
Today I planned out the structure of the piece. I decided I would use ternary form, as it provides a nice rounded structure for a relatively short piece.
So I knew section A would be in D minor, and using the riff I created yesterday, and to create some nice contrast, I would have section B going to the relative major, F major.
I also decided that it would be nice to have a short introduction. So using the chords that I had previously used in the riff, I created a similar riff but using held chords.
So the introduction goes for 8 bars, and I experimented for quite a while with a different solo part for the second guitar to play over the top.
I began with the first four bars being relatively simple, starting quietly, and building on a D minor chord, and ascending up the octave.
The second four bars then become more complicated and are more soloistic, and basically runs up and down a D minor scale.
I used markers in Logic to plan where each section would B, and dragged out my created loops to allow for me to improvise the solo part over the top.
2/9/15
Today I continued working on section A of my composition.
I also had the accompanying guitar riff recorded, so I experimented with improvising over the chords to come up with the solo part.
It begins with a slide onto a D minor chord, but with an A in the bass. (2nd inversion). From there I go back down in register, and have a faster melody than the intro.
After 12 bars, I jump back up an ovtace and then was playing the D minor chord, and then doing some fills between the chords.
The piece is definitely influenced by Black Magic Woman by Santana, which is also in D minor. Santana uses the slide up to the D minor chord in 2nd inversion, and I thought it was something I just had to include in this piece. Also the free flowing feeling the guitar solos have (if only I was as good a guitar player as Santana).
3/10/15
I began working on Section B today. I wanted Section B to be quite contrasting to Section A.
To do this I:
- Changed the key to F major, the relative major of D minor. Decided the chord progression would be F, C, Bb, C.
- Changed the accompanying part to be finger picked rather than strummed chords, and changed this to be played on the higher strings rather than the lower.
So this chord progression repeats twice.
I then started to improvise the solo part over the top over the recorded chords. I originally was going to have this section in the lower regioster of the instrument to have contrast from Section A, but then put it up the octave and it blended really nicely with the accompanying part.
It's a bit more lively and playful than Section A.
4/10/15
So I have finished recording the intro, Section A, and now Section B. To finish the piece off, I put the original chord progression from Section A for 16 bars.
I wanted the guitar solo to remain relatively similar to the first one, but have some more complexity in the part.
It has many familiar elements as the first Section A.
The piece finishes with a held D minor chord on the accompanying guitar with a small run on the solo guitar.
Although I have finished recording all the parts, the editing process is not finished yet. Unfortunately recording a guitar through a pick up means that you do not achieve all the intended dynamic changes, so I will need to go through and edit the dynamics throughout and also clean up some of the sounds.
5/10/15
Editing time!
When I was originally recording the piece I just recorded over two tracks, but because I recorded over multiple days, the settings weren't always the same meaning I got slightly different volumes across the recordings.
To fix this, I split the recordings up across tracks, and then generally edited the output volumes.
Then when listening back to it, between sections / different recordings, some clicks could be heard, so I went through and mapped out automation for the volume to ensure that there were smooth transitions between the sounds.
Check out the screenshots of this progress.
Now that my recording is complete, it is time to start creating my score!
To create this, I am going to use MuseScore 2, a great free software.
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17/10/15
Today I began notating my composition. I began by putting in the accompanying guitar part, which was quite simple because it is very repetative.
So I put that guitar part in for the intro and Section A, and then quickly discovered it was not easy at all to notate the solo part (why oh why did I make it so syncopated) so the easiest way I found for me to be able to notate it was to record it into Logic on my midi keyboard, then look at the score on there, when I tried to just export the midi straight into MuseScore, everything went wrong, so I just had to type it in myself, but this definitely helped a lot.
I tried to keep the rhythms looking as simple as possible, although in some spots, it might not be exactly technically correct (two dotted crotchets in a row in 4/4) but it just made the score look a whole lot cleaner.
Then I continued onto to add in Section B, this part was much easier to notate as it is not nearly as syncopated as Section A.
Now the final Section A was almost the end of me, it switches from syncopated semiquavers to triplets and back again, but I persevered and managed to get something that at least resembles the recording.
Check out the draft of my score here.
18/10/15
Time to get this score finished! Now that all the notes are in, it's time to add in dynamics and expression. As I was adding in the notes I did most of the slurs, and arpeggiated some of the chords, but at this stage there aren't any dynamics or much else happening throughout.
To add all this in, I just listened to the piece and added bits and pieces in as I went through.
I've put in some expression markings, but for a piece like this, I think it would be very important for the two guitar players to really think about how they want to play it.
I've named the piece Guitar Duet for guitar in Drop D tuning.
You can download my score here.
19/10/15
I went back and had another look at the marking rubric to be on the safe side, and it said that the parts must be appropriately written for the instrument, so that made me think that I should include the guitar part in tablature.
So I copied and pasted the guitar parts into tab, which of course puts all of the notes onto the wrong strings, so I went through and edited it.
Then because of the four parts, and the tab part coming down underneath the stave, I had to stretch the staves apart quite a bit, meaning the score now takes up 14 pages.
I will leave the original score with just the two lines available to download.
To download / view the updated score with tab please click here.