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Friday 13 February 2015

Starting to create your own music



This week we’re going to look at actually creating our own music.  A lot of people that I have talked to have thought that it must be a masterpiece with many fluid parts, such as having multiple rhythms on the go to be considered music.  Some of it is, but accompaniment alone is also essential, and particularly easy to play.  


For instance, check out Eminem’s classic “Lose Yourself”.  If possible, listen to the piano and bass notes, and hopefully you’ll come to understand that such a vital part of the song is simply a few notes repeated multiple times.


In my video posted above, the simple melody can be broken into two different parts.  Here is a quick break down:


Part 1 Right hand: Hit the two keys on the outside of the two black keys – specifically “C” and “E” over and over again at any desired tempo (they are both listed as #1 located in the middle of the piano in the video).


Part 2 Left hand: This is like your bass.  The cool part about this is that you can play it alone or in accompaniment with other melodies.  In this case, if you wish to mimic the video, match the tempo of your right hand or get creative and make a new one that harmonizes itself well with it.  The notes you’ll want to hit are “A” (#1 in the video), “C” (#2 in the video), and “G” (#3 in the video) on the left end of the key board.


This is a meant to be a quick demonstration that simplicity can lead to new levels of musical beauty, either in aiding other parts of the same song, or by standing out on its own.

Please leave a comment below if you have a hard time understanding or wish for some of the mechanics to be further explained.

2 comments:

  1. Would love to see a video of you playing the piano, Ben! I took a few lessons way back in the day and it was too frustrating for me (I couldn't play an instrument to save my life!). One hand was hard enough to master, but TWO? At the same time?! Not happening. I'm insanely jealous of people who can play piano!

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  2. You should do some show and tell in class and play us a little concert one day! Great post!

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