Composing

Elí Saúl

Greetings!
Well i made this thread hoping someone could recommend some book or tips for composing, i'm stuck.
Recently I finished my jazz studies on the conservatoire of my town, we had this composing and arrangements class where we would follow Ted Pease's jazz composition book and use its methods for our practices but i feel i need some new approach, it has been a while since i wrote a melody i actually like.
Im pretending to compose for gypsy jazz so if anyone has some insight i'd be very thankful! Cheers

Buco

Make sure you always have your guitar nearby in case of aha moment. Couple of days ago I sat down to watch the latest Christian Van H YouTube video and figured I'll pick up my guitar so I don't feel like I'm totally wasting my time and my fingers fell on this chord I liked and then I played this opening lick and I thought maybe there's something here, stopped the video and a few hours later this came out. It came without any trouble but I have a few themes I started and every time I try to finish it, it just doesn't want to go anywhere.
Sorry I don't have any real tips other than to share my experience, and I heard this from other people too, that sometimes song is already finished as you start composing it, you're just putting it out and sometimes it comes over several days or even months.
And I kinda wanted to share what I came up with in the composing thread.

Jazzaferri

Paul Hindemith "The Craft of Music Composition"


Rimsky-Korsakov "Principles of Orchestration"


Sammy Nestico "The Complete Arranger"

Elí Saúl

Buco wrote: »

Make sure you always have your guitar nearby in case of aha moment. Couple of days ago I sat down to watch the latest Christian Van H YouTube video and figured I'll pick up my guitar so I don't feel like I'm totally wasting my time and my fingers fell on this chord I liked and then I played this opening lick and I thought maybe there's something here, stopped the video and a few hours later this came out. It came without any trouble but I have a few themes I started and every time I try to finish it, it just doesn't want to go anywhere.
Sorry I don't have any real tips other than to share my experience, and I heard this from other people too, that sometimes song is already finished as you start composing it, you're just putting it out and sometimes it comes over several days or even months.
And I kinda wanted to share what I came up with in the composing thread.

Man, i loved what you came up with, really dig it.

Bones

Nice one Buco!

Scoredog

Jazzaferri wrote: »

Paul Hindemith "The Craft of Music Composition"


Rimsky-Korsakov "Principles of Orchestration"


Sammy Nestico "The Complete Arranger"

These books are fine books but I would never suggest reading them before learning to write a Gypsy Jazz tune, it's like trying to kill an ant with a sledge hammer. Good chance you'll miss the ant and smash your toe.

For writing GJ I'd suggest looking at tunes already there and see how they are constructed and the chords they use. Do you have the GJ Fake book?

Buco

Well, what Craig said, never would have I been able to write this if my brain wasn't so saturated with the music from this genre.
Actually as I was putting this melody together on the guitar, I was really worried that I'm not just lifting someone's song that lingers in my subconscious. And I'll admit, two songs that really resonated with me recently and possibly influenced what came out is @adrian latest arrangement of one of Super Mario themes and Thomas Baggerman Trio's song Le Weekend. Once I was done and went to listen to both I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Another thing, maybe it's a tip and maybe it doesn't make sense at all, but what I try is to pick from the same cluster of notes even when the changes are not necessarily lending themselves that way.
For example in the B part, the changes are two bars each of Gm/C7 then Am/D7 then Bm/E7.
What I notice I hear often in these types of situations is that the same or more or less the same melody line will move up a whole step following the changes. But I try to develop a melody that will progress and fit the changes but from the same group of notes... kinda, like I said I don't know if that makes any sense.

Thanks everybody!

wim

...Thomas Baggerman Trio's song Le Weekend

Heh, oh boy, I had almost posted: it reminds me of Thomas Baggerman "Le Weekend" - but didn't want to be rude, and changed my mind about posting it in case it was taken the wrong way. But now that the cats out of the bag..! Anyway, sounds good, nice one!

Elí Saúl

Scoredog wrote: »

Jazzaferri wrote: »

Paul Hindemith "The Craft of Music Composition"


Rimsky-Korsakov "Principles of Orchestration"


Sammy Nestico "The Complete Arranger"

These books are fine books but I would never suggest reading them before learning to write a Gypsy Jazz tune, it's like trying to kill an ant with a sledge hammer. Good chance you'll miss the ant and smash your toe.

For writing GJ I'd suggest looking at tunes already there and see how they are constructed and the chords they use. Do you have the GJ Fake book?

I'm always analyzing tunes and such, the issue is in the creativity side, I'm trying to get a refreshment trying some new composing methods.

If you refer to the Facebook with the poorly written melodies and wrong chords yeah, it's somewhere lying around on my files. I don't like it.

Last months I was composing a lot cause some acquaintances payed me to do so, that made me get a bit frustrated, since I had to compose for other styles and so, algo having deadlines was really stressing. I feel idk "drained"? I wouldn't know how to put it, it has lasted a while and I'm eager to get unstuck.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll check those books out, maybe I'll grab piano or some other instrument for different insights

Elí Saúl

Buco wrote: »

Another thing, maybe it's a tip and maybe it doesn't make sense at all, but what I try is to pick from the same cluster of notes even when the changes are not necessarily lending themselves that way.
For example in the B part, the changes are two bars each of Gm/C7 then Am/D7 then Bm/E7.
What I notice I hear often in these types of situations is that the same or more or less the same melody line will move up a whole step following the changes. But I try to develop a melody that will progress and fit the changes but from the same group of notes... kinda, like I said I don't know if that makes any sense.

Thanks everybody!

Yeah i get it, it's a common resource for composing. It's actually pretty useful when it comes to improvising as well.

I find myself having a hard time developing melodies this days. I mean they sound like me definitely but I still don't like them! It's driving me a bit crazy this days.

Buco

Have some beers and then listen to it.

Watch the: https://www.score-movie.com

Everyone has a slump, mine lasted about 20-some years prior to the last few.