This motif series is saving me right now as I need to write melodies and motifs for characters. Cannot thank you enough! Please continue this series, it is amazingly helpful!
I found it very helpful indeed! I'm gonna write and print out the table at the end and put it on the wall just as a reminder of the possibilities. Thanks man!
Every time I watch one of these videos, I cross something that instantly opens up a new avenue to me and expands my toolset. Yours is the gift that keeps on giving.
Just finished the first part and couldn't hold back the excitement to reach to this part. This is goldmine. Thank you so much. Have been searching for years to find such quality content on this topic. ❤
this might be an armature question lol, but I was wondering if its possible to develop a motif into one emotional direction. like, i want to develop a motif from "sad" to even "sader", do I increase the number of minor intervals that i use? or its pretty much dependent on the Harmony/Chords?
This is a great question! Yes, you can definitely make a motif sound "Sadder" as you develop it, and both strategies you mention could definitely work! Every composer has a bag of tricks that they like to rely on for manipulating emotion in their music, and it all comes down to finding a couple strategies that work for you. However, one strategy that seems to work in a lot of film music is to focus on manipulating the "intensity" of the music. Emotions become stronger the more intensely they are experienced, and the same is true in music! A super simple, but effective, strategy for this is to introduce a new layer/sound to your music that hasn't been used in the piece yet. For example, hold out on using the brass until the climax, or introduce a new counter melody at a key moment! Introducing new material goes a long way in amping up the intensity of the music. one of my favorite examples of this is Historia's Theme from Attack on titan. The initial theme is stated, and then explodes in intensity by doubling across multiple octaves and adding both an organ and brass instruments. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x4GSKdkZEus.html For your second question, I'll have to say it depends on what I'm writing. Sometimes I spend a lot of time deciding on the individual intervals, others I don't care about so much. Regardless, it's not something you need to worry too much about unless you want to. There will definitely be a video on it later on in the melody series though!
A great series of videos. I am finding them a great refresher and good deal more. I was curious about the absence of permutation (a change in the order of pitches from the original pattern) in the list of melodic options. I suppose that the included melodic retrograde option could be considered a specific type of permutation.
I'm glad you enjoyed them! I thought about including a few different types of permutation, but the focus of this series was to just focus on the strategies I find most useful. In my experience permutation is useful for coming up with new ideas that are distantly related to the original, but it isn't one of my go-to's so I didn't include it :)
12:30 - Hmmm, maybe I just need another cup’o’joe, but it seems like your “exact” inversion would be C Bb Ab C F? FWIW, I recall your “exact inversion” being termed a “chromatic inversion” as opposed to a “diatonic inversion,” but maybe I’m just remembering wrong…
