YWS Music

YWS Music

The musicians of YWS :)

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  • Created Fri Jun 12, 2015 10:31 pm

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  • NateAtNight
    NateAtNight · Jun 6, 2021
    I CANNOT WRITE MUSIC FOR SONGS AND I AM *EXTREMELY* ENRAGED WITH MYSELF. I can play piano, some guitar, and I can hear the notes in my head but I just don't know what notes they are... if that makes any sense. Does that happen to anyone else? How do you know what note it is that you're hearing in your head? Are there any exercises I can do if it's just practice?

    yoshikrab replied · Jun 6, 2021

    I cannot write music. I would consider myself decently good at piano, but composing is something I just can't do. I think it's just something that you find by yourself. You think of a tune, and you just figure out what it sounds like on the piano, and then you write it down. Most of the time, though, I like to start on A Minor and build from there, because it's the easiest for me.


    Hijinks replied · Jun 8, 2021

    Hey Nate! I totally know what you mean, it's practically impossible unless you have perfect pitch but I sure don't to know what the notes are in the tune you have in your head.

    I have found some tactics to make it easier to figure out what in the world you're trying to write, though!

    > If you already know the tune, record yourself humming/singing it. It does not need to be at all good or fancy, you just need to hit the pitches you want so when you come back to it later you'll remember the tune you had in mind. You can record in super small clips too if you like!

    > Note by note, hum them and find the note on the piano that matches. Usually you can be like "oh this is a high note, definitely above middle C" and go from there, or "hmm this is around middle pitch, probably in the B below C to F above range" and plunk out those ones to see what matches.

    (This is where the recording comes in handy -- it can be easy to forget the pitches and get muddled by all the random notes you're plunking on the piano, so if that's the case, just hit play on your recording to refresh your memory!)

    > One you've figured out all the notes, I usually move on to rhythm. I find it EXCRUCIATINGLY hard to figure out the rhythms my head, but usually once I figure out what meter I'm in it gets easier. To do that, start clapping an even rhythm and say/hum the melody over it. Usually you can figure out from there if the notes are grouped in fours or threes (though they could be twos or sixes or even fives; that's usually not what the rhythms in my head end up being though xD) and name the meter from there. (i.e. if they're grouped in fours, chances are you're in 4/4 time; if they're in threes, probably 3/4.) Once you've got that established, you can do the rhythm bar-by-bar, which makes it much more manageable.

    Spoiler
    > If you want a full-on composition, not just a melody, now's when you write the accompaniment. This is the part I'm admittedly the worst at, but generally the first step is to figure out what key you're in. Once you've done that, you figure out what chords you want supporting your melody. (If you can play the piano/guitar I assume you have a fairly solid understanding of the different chords within a key -> in C major, the I chord is C, the ii chord is Dm, the iii chord is Em, the IV chord is F, the V chord is G, the vi chord is Am, and the viio chord is Bo.)

    There are conventions for writing chord progressions that sound good: typically you start with the tonic function, move to predominant, then dominant, and resolve to tonic eventually. "Tonic" function chords include I and vi, "predominant" include ii and IV, and "dominant" includes V and viio. Generally speaking, avoid iii -- it just doesn't fit in anywhere.

    I could blab forever about that, but that's probably not what you're interested in (if you are though, feel free to PM me and I can go into more detail! I would really love to ^^); the main thing is that if there's a C in the melody, you could support it with a) I, b) IV, and c), vi. That's because those chords all have a C in them. (Not every note requires a chord change though!)

    > Once you've decided on your chords, you can use the notes from those chords to write an accompaniment (in theory. In reality it's not that simple @_@ but hopefully you get the gist!)


    Aaah I may have rambled, my apologies! I hope that helps a bit, and good luck writing music! <3



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