I love [[How I Think|thinking in patterns]]. Here's the patterns I found in music theory. This is a dumping ground for now. I'll clean it up once it's more comprehensive. ### What's music made of On a high level, if a music piece is like a movie, we have three major components: - **Melody (or motif) is the character**. It develops and interacts with each other. To most people, the melody is the most memorable part of the music, just like characters from movies. - **Rhythm is the plot**. It moves things along the time axis and provide a timeline for the melody and harmony to develop. It can be fast or slow, smooth or jumpy, methodical or casual. - **Harmony (or accompaniment) is the setting**. It might not be the most memorable part, but it's essential to make the movie immersive and consistent. The setting needs to be compatible with the melody going on at the same. Below we dive into different tools at our disposal for each component. ### Tools by their function Technique are our tools. What do we use those tools for? - Melody functions - Emphasize a note - Repeat the note - Slow trills (need to start and stop on the note to emphasize) - Whole step down (diatonic) - Half step down (chromatic) - 3rd down - 5th down - 8ve down (broken octaves) - Jump: if all previous notes are smoothly stepping, a skip would make a note jump out - Circle around center note, e.g. 3513 or 12543 - Vary a motif - Exact repeat - Transpose up or down - Echo: repeat in another hand in a quieter voice - Transition between two phrases - Step wave - Step size can vary, from semitone to scale step to triads like 8531 - The journal can vary - The melody can linger half way to emphasize a note - Go back to a previous point and continue - Close in from left and right, e.g. 645 or 271 or 423 - Recap and summarize with characteristic notes - e.g. the third phrase in Brahms lullaby uses 35 to summarize two 335 phrases that come before it - Octave rocket, e.g. happy birthday third phrase or somewhere over the rainbow - Rhythm functions - Emphasize a note: hold note for longer - Convey mood - Flowing: broken chord arpeggios - Dancing: waltz - Jumping around: Alberti base, jump between 1 and 5 - Heavy, excited: bombard blocked chords - Loud drums: forte chords - Harmony functions: - Emphasize a note - Play with 3th below - Play with 5th below - Play with 8ve below - Add a 6th to add some color without affecting much else Stages or phases of a piece: - Introduce new material - Repeat and reinforce existing material - Transition - Ending ### Toolbox (the techniques) - Flowing LH: Broken chord arpeggio - Alberti bass (low high mid high) - Usually used as a sequence of 4 or 6 notes - Bombard LH: a sequence of blocked chords - Waltz LH (root rest rest), usually used in 3/4 time - Step up/down - Diatonic - Chromatic - Wave (combine step up and down)