Thematic Thinking

[Vintage73]

First of all, I know very little about music theory, though I played bass for quite a few years and wasn't too terrible at it. So I'm sorry if I use the wrong terms...

Something I'm noticing lately in constructing music in Acid with VSTis is that I tend to think note-to-note (chromatically?) rather than thematically (themes and variations of those same themes).

Do you have any suggestions on learning to think about music differently to come up with themes rather than just stitching one note to another repeatedly?

I hope that makes some sense.

Any good (free) websites or (purchased) books?

Thanks!

[Ogg Vorbis]

Any good (free) websites or (purchased) books?

I think I understand...you are sort of using an arpeggiator or other means in your DAW to come up with note figures that get repeated but aren't actual melodic phrases, right?

Some members will suggest some books which will help you establish phrase structure and form structure. You can start with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrase_%28music%29 and follow the links to motives and sections, etc. This will give you some basic concepts and terminology.

But don't stop at wikifuckia...keep googling these terms. Understand "antecedent" and "consequent" phrases. Find written examples of each concept.

Then, I'm big on aural transcription and analysis. So pick three of your favorite songs or pieces and write down what you hear. Write all the notes down as best as possible. Try to come up with your own analysis of its structure. Where is the antecedent phrase? Where is the consequent phrase? What is the tonal structure? Does it establish one particular key center? Does it drift off and change tonal centers or at least flirt with them? How do these combine to create an "A" section? What methods of contrast (theme, key center, texture, etc) are used in the B section?

Come up with test songs of your own using this new analysis as your template. Don't keep it, it's just a learning exercise. Use the structure to guide you as you try to fit an original melody into the existing structure. Insight will happen!

Then, avoid writing ideas in your DAW. You will automatically revert back to the old methods. Instead, sit down with your bass or keyboard and work out new sketches there. Once you have a basic structure, then you can launch your DAW and input the notes.

But if you must sketch on the computer, have you tried Live? It's a really great sketchpad for this kind of thing because it's non-linear. You can download a 30 day demo. What I do to sketch sometimes is record a MIDI clip of, say, 4 bars length. This will be an antecedent phrase. Then I can record a 4 bar clip of a consequent phrase. The next 4 bar clip will use a variation of the "A" clip. Then the next one will be a variation of the "B" clip and so on.

You can play each clip in tempo, thus giving you the ability to experiment using larger "chunks" of music to grow even larger structures. I can usually get a little intro phrase going, bring in a basic melodic idea, come up with an "answer" in another phrase, work out a countermelody in the next clip, move into a contrasting section in the next clip and so on very quickly. I rarely keep what I have literally from the clips, but the process usually brings forth some ideas that can be developed mentally or on the keyboard.

I think you'll need to bone up on some basics of theory though. Get the fundamentals of scales, key, meter, harmony, etc. soon. Otherwise you'll be dogged by some mysterious unseen force keeping you from moving forward quickly. It's not about learning "rules" - it's learning the alphabet so that you can form words so that you can form sentences so that you can form paragraphs so that you can form stories.

[Vintage73]

Wow. Thank you for such great, detailed pointers! Really, I thought I might be laughed off this forum with my question.

I'll search for the terms you mentioned and research general music theory.

I don't have any of my basses anymore, but I do have a simple midi keyboard now.

Thanks again!