Music Composition DUMmIES

Rhythmic Movement ..................................................................................

When composing with chords, determining a rhythmic movement for your

chord changes may help. What this means is that you will decide how often,

and on which beats or accents, your chords will generally change. You could

have a chord change every measure, every four measures, every two beats,

or even every beat within a measure. The choice is yours, but remember that

fast-moving melodies can sound awkward if the chords change too quickly. A

general rule is that more frequent chord changes work better with slower

melodies, but this, like most rules, can be broken from time to time.

Of course, the rhythmic movement of your chord changes can vary as your

composition moves along. You don’t need to keep the chords changing at the

same rate throughout the section of your piece (Figure 10-19).

The chords you write might not be played by a guitar, piano, or other poly-

phonic instrument. They might be played by a string quartet, a horn ensem-

ble, or any other combination of instruments. Writing chord changes out first

is just one way to create some underlying structure for your composition.

You may want to find some locations in the rhythmic structure of your com-

position that lend themselves to pivoting your chords out of the key center. It

is not difficult to hear in your head where a surprise or a change harmoni-

cally would be good.

Just don’t overdo the surprises and departures. If you are driving down a

bumpy road and you hit another bump, it doesn’t mean much. Lead the lis-

tener into your changes. Build drama, tension, and release.

&b

b

4

4 ̇ ̇ ̇ ̇ ̇ ̇

Eb Bb

œœ

œ

b œœ

œ

œœ

œ

œœ

œb

Ab Eb Bb Ab

̇ ̇

̇

̇ ̇

b ̇

Bb Ab

ww

w

w

Gm7

Figure 10-19:

Different

melodic

rhythms in

the same

piece of

music.

112 Part III: Harmony and Structure