Revision as of 19:11, 4 February 2009

Four Bar Phrasing - Composition

SI Introduction

Hey GMC – I'm Matthew Craven.

I live in Menstrie, a village in Scotland. I'm 14 years old, and have played guitar for about 1½ years. Before that I taught myself to play a bit on the keyboard and my sister taught me some chord theory, which was very useful for the guitar. I also had lessons for the oboe, which taught me the basics of music, which was even more useful for playing the guitar. Soon after I started the guitar I gave both up, but I have started playing the keyboard again.

Some of my favourite guitarists are Joe Satriani, Buckethead and Andy McKee. I especially like Joe Satriani because of his fantastic phrasing and technique.

Some of my favourite bands are Dream Theater, Ozzy Osbourne/Randy Rhoads, Iron Maiden, and Rush. I also like quite a lot of modern metal bands, in particular Killswitch Engage. I also like odd songs by other bands of completely different styles. I am also a big fan of the Celtic style.

When I am not practising, I like to snowboard, compose, and play the keyboard.

Anyway, without further ado here's my lesson. I hope I can show you some cool phrasing tricks.

The Lesson

Introduction

Introduction

I am going to teach a little about a very important topic in this lesson: phrasing. Phrasing is what gives music a structure, and what stops it from being random melodies put together. If you compare music to writing, then notes are words, and licks are sentences. If you just put random licks together then it's the same as putting random sentences together; it doesn't make sense. Phrasing is being able to put licks together that do make sense, and relate to each other. In this lesson I am going to teach you a phrasing trick that Joe Satriani uses a lot, and that is used by many other musicians as well. It is quite simple when you get used to it, and can make your improvising sound better, as well as your composing. I have composed this lesson in an atmospheric, slightly spooky style. Even if you don't like this solo this phrasing concept is well worth learning as it is used in many other musical genres.

In this lesson we will be looking at:

• Compositional techniques
• Dynamics
• Modulation
• Phrasing

I have tried to include comments at different theory levels, so whatever you know, you can get something out of this lesson.

The Phrasing Idea In This Lesson

This phrasing technique, in the form I'm going to show you today, works over a 4 bar chord progression, with the chord changing every bar. The first bar and third bar chords must be the same, so you could use a chord progression like I-IV-I-V or, as we have in this lesson, I-VI-I-bV. Very simply it could even be something like I-V-I-V.

What we do is compose a melody over the first chord, then we compose a melody over the second chord that "answers" the first one. We then repeat the first melody in the third bar, and make up a completely different fourth melody to "answer" both melodies and finish off the phrase. So in the first bar we have our first melody. In the second bar we have a second melody that answers the first. In the third bar we repeat the first melody, and in the fourth bar we play a fourth melody that rounds off the whole four bars. We can also use this idea for riffing. If you don't understand this yet, don't worry, it should become clearer to you as you see it in practise throughout the lesson.

How I Made The Main Chord Progression

First I decided a key. I decided I wanted the lesson sort of spooky and atmospheric and so I chose Aeolian. I chose E as it is a key a lot of guitarists know well, so people are familiar with the intervals and notes of it.

I knew the chord progression was going to last four bars - because of the phrasing concept - and that the first and third bars were going to be the same. I also knew that to give the piece a strong feeling of Em tonality, which is what I wanted, I would have to start on Em. This meant my first and third bars would be Em. I already knew that using the minor sixth chord (Cmaj here) would sound good for the atmosphere I wanted and so I put that second. I chose Bb (the tritone) as the final chord as it sounds a little strange and contrasts with the rest of the progression. It also sounds quiet scary which is what I wanted. The tritone was actually banned for a while in olden times because they thought it was the "devil's note".

Details

Key: E Aeolian + F# Phrygian
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: 120bpm
Tuning: Standard E

Chord Progression:
Em-C-Em-Bbaug
Em-C-Em-Bbaug
Em-C-Em-Bbaug
Em-C-Em-Bbaug

F#m-G-F#m-Em
F#m-G-F#m-Em-F#m

I hope you enjoy this lesson!

Video 1

Composition

Here is the first part of the lesson. As you can see we have the same melody in the first and third bars and different melodies in the second and fourth bars. The first bar goes mainly up in pitch (like we would do in speech if we were asking something), and the second bar goes mainly down. This is to achieve a "question and answer" effect in the music. I make the fourth bar different from the other bars so it is like an "answer" to the last three bars, as it contrasts with them.

I play this section "mp" which means quite quietly. I do this so I can build up in volume throughout the piece.

You can see that I leave an 8th note rest at the start of each bar except the last one. Leaving a rest at the start of a bar is a good way to try playing as it introduces the chord before the melody plays over it. I don't leave a rest at the start of the last bar, as that has to contrast with the first three bars of the phrase.

You can see I use mainly notes of the chord of each bar, but that there are some other notes. In the first and third bars I use the 6th of Em as it has quite a spooky sound. In the second bar I use the major 7th of C as it has quite an atmospheric sound and adds a bit of flavour to the melody. All the other notes are part of the chord that plays in the backing.

How I Composed It

1st and 3rd bars: Here there is an Em chord in the backing so, especially since it is the start of the piece, and I want to create a strong tonality, I start on an E. Since this song has a sort of atmospheric, spooky feel to it I tried to introduce this by using the minor 6th. A lot of horror movie themes use the minor 6th to create a scary atmosphere. I also think the semitone interval is quite good at sounding scary (remember the Jaws music) so I use the 5th as well which conviently is part of the Em chord.

2nd Bar: Here I don't do anything very fancy, I just descend through 3 notes of the Cmaj7 chord. Again I start on the root note of the chord C to maintain a strong feeling of tonality. I go down so as to contrast with the first bar which mainly ascends, and dive with the whammy bar at the end to "round off" the melody.

4th Bar: Here, as the chord in the backing is quite dissonant, and for now I want to keep my melody quite consonant, I only use the root note, but to make it interesting, in 2 octaves. I also use the whammy bar to make the notes sound more interesting. I also deliberately didn't make this bar similar to the other two so it contrasts with them both.

Video 2

Composition

This is a slight variation on the first phrase. You will see that the first, second and third bars are the same as before, but the last bar isn't. In the last bar we are playing an E tritone chord which fits over the Bb chord, as Bb is the tritone of E. The particular inversion of the tritone chord that I use here is one of my favourites. You might want to remember that chord shape to use in your own songs.

How I Composed It

Here I will just write about the last bar, as it is the only bar different from the previous section.

4th Bar: Here I play one just one chord that lasts the whole bar. It is the first dissonant idea in the piece and so I don't want to go full out straight away. That is why I restrain myself to one chord. I pluck the chord using "glissando" to make it a bit more interesting though.

Video 3

Composition

You can see we're using our 4 bar phrasing technique again. It is the same chord sequence but there is a new melody.

We aren't leaving rests at the start of any bars here as this section is more full on than the last one.

I make this section mainly mezzo forte so it contrasts with the first section. So I can still build up a bit more I make some bits of it quieter.

You can see I use mainly notes of the chord of each bar again, but that there are some other notes. In the first and third bars I use the 7th of Em as the 7th chord is a common extension of the Em triad so the note doesn't sound out of place. In the second bar I use the major 4th and 6th of C, but they are just passing notes. All the other notes are part of the chord that plays in the backing.

How I Composed It

1st and 3rd bars: Here – since the tonality and chord progression of the piece have been clearly established I start on a B, the 5th of the Em chord, to make things a bit interesting. I then bend down from an E to a D, as if you finish on a note that isn't in the backing chord, then the listener wants a resolve and so it leads onto whatever happens next in the music.

2nd Bar: Here I start on C as it is the root of the chord, and you should try and aim to start any bar on the note of the chord in the backing. The main point of the four notes after is that they finish on A which is the note just below B (which will be the first note in the next bar). The A acts as a leading note to the B in the next bar.

4th Bar: Here I play another dissonant idea, slightly more complex than the first one. It is a Bbaug chord which I play in separate notes. To make it a bit more interesting I don't just play a basic arpeggio, I do some string skipping and play the notes in a more interesting order.