Chord Voicings Without Fifth

Chord Voicings Without Fifth When constructing chords, try the difference of leaving out the perfect fifth of the chord and having it in. Due to the fact that the fifth will be quite a strong overtone of the root (=usually the bass note) anyway, it will be present in...

Narrative Links Beyond Themes

Narrative Links Beyond Themes Themes are not the only thing that can be used to identify characters/locations/situations musically. In fact, using too many themes especially on a genre that usually doesn’t have many themes might just become feeling strangely operatic...

Chord Arpeggios

Chord Arpeggios Arpeggios or respective broken chords can be a great tool for accompaniment patterns or sources for melodic gestures. On accompanying figures they help to establish a sense of harmony but also keep a steady rhythm going. On melodies they help to...

Alternative Bass Notes of a Chord

Alternative Bass Notes of a Chord Altering the bass note of a chord to a note different than the root note can create quite new harmonic impressions than the original chord. If you change the bass note to a different chord tone like the third or fifth of the chord,...

Handling Dissonances

Handling Dissonances Dissonances need to be written very carefully. While many inexperienced composers write in a way that they just add “random” notes to a sound in order to make it dissonant, it will most likely result indeed in a very dissonant sound, however...