Writing: taking on the beast that is PItch and Har

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Postby Simon B » Sun Aug 11, 2002 10:07 pm

How many of you write/score music as opposed to just rhythm notation. I want to get into writing tunes for my funk band but with one forgotten year of piano lessons fifteen years ago I don't feel at all able. A lot of famous percussionists, e.g. Mongo, have songs credited to them. Were they all pitch/harmony-literate?

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Postby 120decibels » Mon Aug 12, 2002 3:17 pm

Simon,

I have dabbled in writing based on the limited harmony/form/composition classes that I took in college. Most of what I've written has come from dabbling chords and melodies on my piano, vibraphone or marimba. Not much has come of any of it.

As for Mongo and the others, I don't know if they new a lot of music theory.

Good luck. A venture into melody and chord structure is complex enough. Add into it the complexity of Jazz progressions and chord structure, and you're biting off a chunk of meat that people study for years to understand. However, I've found that a lot of really solid composers are percussionists.

My $0.02,

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Postby JohnnyConga » Mon Aug 12, 2002 7:49 pm

:D Well the History on Mongo is that as a child he played the violin into his teen years even while drumming which came after a brief stint as a Mailman in Havana,before he moved to Mexico City to play with Perez Prado. Mongo also had a lifelong arranger work with him by the name of Marty Sheller. so you might want to try and collaborate with someone who is an arranger and can notate your music for you also. What I did with my Sax player was put my originals on tape and give it to him and he would run it thru Sibelius and boom got me charts. Of course i would pay him for that too. I don';t notate I'm a 'GRIOT' when it comes to rhythms. Usually the musicians that work with me as we say in NYC "know there shit",already,soo it's just a matter of working out the form. Hope this helps,,,At your Service...JC JOHNNY CONGA...
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Postby Bongo Boy » Sun Aug 18, 2002 7:51 pm

I don't write, but I have found several incredible sources for music theory--and by that I mean stuff like how do you create all the major scales, what are the basic chords that go with each of those major scales, what chord progressions are frequently encountered and why, etc.

You may already know all this stuff, or may not feel it's essential--but it's been a huge new world that's opened for me, and I think it's important as I learn guitar.

Try the following:

http://www.ibreathemusic.com
http://www.jazclass.com

the ibreathe site is focuse on guitar, but the fantastic materials there apply to all instruments, as does the stuff at jazclass.com, which by the way goes well beyond jazz.

Hope this helps.
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