Love this. As a visual artist, we learned in school a lot about "negative space" and how it defines what you show on a page as much as what you are actually drawing.
The Lost Art Of Surrender makes me want to hear more of this approach from you. It has a dark vibe and just the right amount of distorsion and industrial edge while you as a composer can be heard through the synthlines, the treatment of the drums and the phrases for the vocals.
On the importance of silence, I feel this quote is somewhat related: "Perfection is achieved when there's nothing left to take away" (attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).
Well said, as always. Sequencers, arpeggiators, looping, and beat-making in general, foster perpetual ostinato structures and, as you suggest, an additive process. We get stuck in the loop and we have to interrupt the continuum to create different forms and narratives. I'm in a constant state of tension with my machines because they do prioritize sequencing and looping. Not that it's a bad thing. It's super fun, and it's a great way to discover new ideas. I can get lost for hours just messing with sound design, knob twisting and automating modulation. But I'm currently trying out a different lens, viewing sequences as episodes or middle ground (like orchestral ostinatos) rather than as foundations or scaffolds. It's liberating.
"Music is rhe space between the notes" - Debussy.. Never heard a clearer example of this than the one illustrated from 3:00 onwards. Lovely to hear the Chopin played on a real piano at the start of this video, too - a contrast from the usual 🙂
Love this. I often improvise long pieces with multiple synths (with added live looping) and the next step is always the question "what else does it need to feel finished?" Well, it often needs less things and I have to constantly remind myself of that. Also, the clip of your upcoming "haven't had time to work on this in two years" project sounds fantastic. Something about the vocal treatment and musical choices in that clip gave me strong Peter Gabriel "Darkness" vibes (and that's a great thing, if you haven't experienced it--the studio version from the 2002 "UP" album, specifically). Well done!
The same concept applies at a micro and macro level. Little rests between small phrases as well as large rests at the end of a Prechorus before chorus section hits.
Although I'm not really a composer, per se... I've used this technique in a lot of situations, most frequently when writing (documents). I have been using mind maps for decades and the idea is to just 'brainstorm' and let the associations run free, no filtering, no selection.. but only for a short time. Then, come back and bring like things together.. start to develop the main points (themes, maybe) and then 'slice'n'dice' to simplify everything down to the basics. You then have a lot of already sorted, 'suitable' ideas to 'enhance' the main points (or 'motifs', themes, etc in music) and so you build the document (music) to the point where it 'perfectly' suits your purpose.
Way back in the day Victor Wooten used to have lessons on his website. He might still, not sure. One that stuck out to me was how he described silence as the most important and impactful note and how learning silence is the key to creating grooves and musical passages. How all scales can be transformed with a simple interesting usage of rest. I just looked up a book review for a recent book, and sure enough the summary is "a key part is how silence in a groove can push your musicianship forward." Just a nice contrast that the bass player that can slap arpeggios at like 250bpm tells people to study silence.
Couldn't agree more. A bit of 'smaller' or 'nothing/rests' is always something people try to use in 'popular music' circles where they call it a 'hook'. Great hooks can literally give tunes that 'magic' to go straight to the top of the charts.
I get so hung up on what I don't know about music that I forget its similarity to visual narrative (film editing and comic books), which for whatever reason feels more native to my brain. So this helps me reach for that lateral connection (if that makes any sense). Thanks!
I bought a Polybrute and then watched your video about how that is wrong. I agree with you about the Prophet 6. Now I use my polybrute as a keyboard controller for my prophet 6 desktop.
This is a segue into transitions which also gets in to giving a listener clues on where your arrangement is going. One of the easiest things to do outside of well, silence is to use a gradually climbing high pass on your build before the main idea comes. Or swells. Lots of stuff. I think you should do a follow up video though, and go further into detail for different times contrast plays a big role in making things work. A great example someone gave me is (for bass music) big drums, more subdued bass, big huge basses, smaller drums. Riddim, although a genre I don’t vibe with is an excellent testament to the latter, where heavy drum n bass with Noisia drums are very meticulous with spacing and phrasing. Contrast really is a gateway to making your arrangements come to life
The art of space is one of the most powerful and tricky elements to master. It is effective*especially* in such a noisy day and age as this one, where everything is fighting for attention, is moving about and making noise. I love the term subtractive arrangement - and I find myself gravitating that way for my own work as well. In some pieces I record 4-5 sequences looping together and then later chop out the structure of the piece: a "break" is formed when I take out all but one of them, things like that. I think I don't explore enough true silences yet and I like the idea of adding an arrangement pass where I pay specific attention to "where do I need to breathe" - where does the classical music inhale happen? I also really loved your synth rock example. Really great textures and sound. Is that work that has been published anywhere?
i feel this can apply to improv on an instrument, always wondered what separates those beautiful improvs vs mindless playing that doesn't offer any kind of meaningful story if that makes sense, id love to hear your thoughts on improv and how create something that makes sense
I first learned about contrasts from good ol’ Ludwig van. Hell, his Fifth starts with a silent downbeat. And the beauty of silence I learned from Arvo Pärt, whom I consider my musical godfather. Other artists I like reinforce the importance of contrast and I wish more could take advantage of silence. I’ve done some of these things in my own work. A really good recent example of this was “Spectre” in You Make Your Future Like You Make Your Music. There are two instances where there is a measure of silence. The funny thing, looking back on it, was I did this in much in the same way you did it in your own livestream composition. It was a small move that made a big difference in the overall feel of it.
This is definitely one of the most useful things I've learned in production. Funnily enough, the thing that got me to realize this was playing in marching band. The biggest impacts are always preceded by a rest for the whole hornline, if not the entire ensemble.
Really got back into guitar and just playing old rock music so I haven’t looked at any of your videos or similar in a while. Just saw this come up and I forget what an absolute gem you are
Papa Haydn next with his attention grabbing opening chord? Excellent illustrative examples. You and Chopin are absolutely right. If we're listening to a lecture or simple instructions, we are much more likely to get it all down when there are spaces which allow time for our brains to process what we just heard before moving on.
I could have sworn i saw you do this a week ago, i realized I have to treat the last three unreleased tracks on my current EP this way to get them done and out, they came out as full walls instead of progressing stories like the other five, I love that side stuff stuff and hope you can get back to it
I’ve been soaking up all of your knowledge for the past two weeks. You’re definitely one of the better (if not the best) music RUclipsr I’ve come across. Really appreciate your no bs approach to everything. Thanks for making this stuff available. Also cool to see a fellow southerner in the music production/composition space 🙌🏼 Can’t wait for your course to drop ☺️
This is fantastic advice and its something i'm trying to incorperate into the songwriting for my band atm. I've been in a bit of a rut for providing actual riffs and parts for the songs but what I have been able to do is supply some sort of idea of how we can make the songs more dynamic and create an impact instead of the whole song being completely full on from beginning to end. Really enjoying the content man and feel very fortunate to have discovered your music (through The Proper People's Channel)
Very nice video. This is something that I needed to inherently learn for my own music (the idea of subtractive arrangement). My style is to create a few sequences and arps and let them run through the entire recording and then remove things and add layers in the daw. I think there is something special about trying to do as much as you can "live" into the daw (lots of reasons for this, not least of which it helps deal with latency). Setting sequences and arps in motion allows the performer to tweak the synths in real time as the song is happening. It might not be the best workflow for everyone, but it really helps me to hear how everything will interact with each other in real time and then extenuate, deconstruct, and add elements after the fact.
Nice one! I really love this idea of Contrast (with capital C xD) bc the coolest thing about it, is how important it is in everything related to human perception - Silence to provide the illusion of loudness is probably one of the most used psycho-acoustic tricks for when you want to sound design some sweet explosions. Puzzles, trading hubs, inventory management between action sequences is the same for games in general, if you want to pull the eye of a viewer to a specific area of your composition in a painting you paint light surrounded by shadow, an impactful moment in a story line can only be impactful if you get to know the characters daily life first, etcetcetc.
I really like your videos. Informative, cogent and pleasant (you have a nice/calm voice). I’m 1yr into production and these tutorials are very helpful to me. Thank you!
A short while ago I looked up whatever there was on Spotify of Lost Art of Surrender. I think there's like 4 tracks on there. I listened to them and was impressed. There's a distinct NIN vibe to it that I really like and I think you should definitely make more of that music if you're ever inspired to do so. It's really good.
Great video. Again. I think it also applies to when you have several instruments/tracks and take away one for a bar or two - that will give the listener a chance to re-discover that instrument/track.
Very impressed with a simple theme while incorporating how it applies a broad spectrum of genres in this vid. Furthermore, this concept is very efficient in sound effects; for instance: the Witch King's beacon at Minas Morgul in TLOTR: TROTK & the seismic charges in SW e2 Kudos mate!
Great video. Such a good technique I feel I've neglected recently and will now be more conscious of implementing. Thanks! Your tracks sound great btw. Punchy with a contemplative edge. I might have to add some to my writing playlist
Very cool. I think I subconsciously do this already at times. But I think I might have to go back to some recent tracks in my current project and (without over-doing it) see if I'm missing some opportunities to apply this where this might be really called for ...but is currently absent. Thank you so much. Always presenting not just cools sounds, but cool ways to look at what we're doing and why we're doing it.
What a great concept, and beautifully explained as well, Nathan. I'll definitely bear this in mind for future projects, especially in my tension tracks where impact is so important at various points in the track. Awesome job, as always 🙂
Thanks for this. I've learnt a lot of little things like this from you, and its added up to a lot, and I feel like it's really helped me on my music journey.
I've decided I'm going to start my own channel of me just faffing about with making music with the goal of making a full song and uploading it to soundcloud as the end goal of each episode. You've inspired me to do that. Except instead of being good at it, my thing will hopefully appeal to people like me who are in the "pit of despair" in the dunning-Kruger curve. About how there is no shortcut, and to embrace sucking at it, and laughing instead of giving up.
Great idea. Just leave something out of your piece to make the climax happen. There is no magic behind the fact that some composer like Chopin or Bach will always have their place. The dudes were perfection in terms of arrangement. Thank you for bringing this to the table.
Your reference to Bach raises an interesting historical perspective. A whole lot of Bach’s music is continuous. In his contrapuntal textures, contrast is made with the coming and going of independent voices, including their shape, register, density with number of voices in play, etc. A big chunk of Bach’s music is set as perpetual motion. The steady stream of notes must have been be a key factor in W. Carlos’s choice of music for Switched On Bach. The perpetual motion pieces, in particular, can be easily mapped onto a sequencer. And it’s famously amenable to a wide variety of instrumental settings. Bach’s independent voices can be mapped to individual synths and synced. And that’s way easier now than it was for Carlos. The Brandenburg must have been a bear! The first thing I did when I got my Moogs was to sequence the C-minor Prelude from the first book of the WTC. I was elated! I had a blast with the EG and the filter creating an amazing variety of ‘instruments.’ I’m guessing there are a few post-grad papers on historical uses of ‘motivic’ silence, and how it becomes more prevalent as the Baroque morphed into Classical, and on to Romanticism. I wonder when the Grand Pause and //became a thing. And now we have The Drop.
Much agree. it is a lot of effort putting in particular rests and empty areas Obviously Chopin was not using a DAW and writing scores for TV and Film Might be inventing and improvising on the fly for theatre and live audiences, which is a lost craft for the most part
I think Ricky Tinez talked about something like this with the techno/EDM stuff he does: create the big climax part of your track first, and then take things out to create the intro, outro, build, etc. Really cool stuff
Love this. So smart and insightful 👏👏🎶. Albeit at times you did sound somewhat like a counsellor on sexual dysfunction “…so, if you are having trouble with a climax….” 😂
What's the scientific name for the fear of "digital 0"? Somethingaphobia... There's something comforting about a noise floor, or a drone, something sustaining always. I know it's good to have space. Weirdly, I hate sleeping to a TV or anything with an aperiodic rhythmic cadence. Steady sounds are okay for that, though. Can't stand it when the house is too sterile, too, like no-one lives there. We should keep more undeveloped musical spaces, though, instead of always backfilling them with drones or ear candy. Can't argue there.
I think that kind of sterile feeling is just another tool in the toolkit. You’re right, it’s a little unsettling, but if that’s the effect you need - perfect. Like anything, it can be overused, but that’s where taste comes in.
@@JamesonNathanJones Knew it! Seriously, though, I do appreciate your videos. I'm hooked ever since, that one about "content" (which really resonated with me). Keep rocking!
Love this. As a visual artist, we learned in school a lot about "negative space" and how it defines what you show on a page as much as what you are actually drawing.
Perhaps some negative space, to render more movement, for juxtaposition in this passage. Ahh....art school.
It's a nice mental reframe, instead of thinking that you are not playing, to thinking I am playing silence or a rest.
This principle is what got me into bonsai
I'm imagining someone trying to tell a story without breathing, and then remembering to be alive in the moment while they tell it
Great stuff. I appreciate your application of classical training to electronic music. Staying tuned for more.
Thanks Dave!
The Lost Art Of Surrender makes me want to hear more of this approach from you. It has a dark vibe and just the right amount of distorsion and industrial edge while you as a composer can be heard through the synthlines, the treatment of the drums and the phrases for the vocals.
On the importance of silence, I feel this quote is somewhat related: "Perfection is achieved when there's nothing left to take away" (attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).
Well said, as always. Sequencers, arpeggiators, looping, and beat-making in general, foster perpetual ostinato structures and, as you suggest, an additive process. We get stuck in the loop and we have to interrupt the continuum to create different forms and narratives. I'm in a constant state of tension with my machines because they do prioritize sequencing and looping. Not that it's a bad thing. It's super fun, and it's a great way to discover new ideas. I can get lost for hours just messing with sound design, knob twisting and automating modulation. But I'm currently trying out a different lens, viewing sequences as episodes or middle ground (like orchestral ostinatos) rather than as foundations or scaffolds. It's liberating.
"Music is rhe space between the notes" - Debussy.. Never heard a clearer example of this than the one illustrated from 3:00 onwards. Lovely to hear the Chopin played on a real piano at the start of this video, too - a contrast from the usual 🙂
Awesome tip. One of the most underrated SynthTube channels out there. Thanks for making these.
I think of the "Lost Art Of Surrender" often, as of something I could do eventually.
Love this. I often improvise long pieces with multiple synths (with added live looping) and the next step is always the question "what else does it need to feel finished?" Well, it often needs less things and I have to constantly remind myself of that. Also, the clip of your upcoming "haven't had time to work on this in two years" project sounds fantastic. Something about the vocal treatment and musical choices in that clip gave me strong Peter Gabriel "Darkness" vibes (and that's a great thing, if you haven't experienced it--the studio version from the 2002 "UP" album, specifically). Well done!
good lesson. Space, contrast, and breathing.
Breathing is super important it turns out 😅
The same concept applies at a micro and macro level. Little rests between small phrases as well as large rests at the end of a Prechorus before chorus section hits.
Although I'm not really a composer, per se... I've used this technique in a lot of situations, most frequently when writing (documents). I have been using mind maps for decades and the idea is to just 'brainstorm' and let the associations run free, no filtering, no selection.. but only for a short time. Then, come back and bring like things together.. start to develop the main points (themes, maybe) and then 'slice'n'dice' to simplify everything down to the basics. You then have a lot of already sorted, 'suitable' ideas to 'enhance' the main points (or 'motifs', themes, etc in music) and so you build the document (music) to the point where it 'perfectly' suits your purpose.
Way back in the day Victor Wooten used to have lessons on his website. He might still, not sure. One that stuck out to me was how he described silence as the most important and impactful note and how learning silence is the key to creating grooves and musical passages. How all scales can be transformed with a simple interesting usage of rest. I just looked up a book review for a recent book, and sure enough the summary is "a key part is how silence in a groove can push your musicianship forward."
Just a nice contrast that the bass player that can slap arpeggios at like 250bpm tells people to study silence.
Dynamics - they're pretty neat.
WOW - Your "Lost Art of Surrender" track "Departure" sounds killa, Jameson! Liked and followed on Spotify, and excited to check out more tracks. 🤘
Couldn't agree more. A bit of 'smaller' or 'nothing/rests' is always something people try to use in 'popular music' circles where they call it a 'hook'. Great hooks can literally give tunes that 'magic' to go straight to the top of the charts.
Oooo, the super top secret bit there sounds awesome!
I get so hung up on what I don't know about music that I forget its similarity to visual narrative (film editing and comic books), which for whatever reason feels more native to my brain. So this helps me reach for that lateral connection (if that makes any sense). Thanks!
I bought a Polybrute and then watched your video about how that is wrong. I agree with you about the Prophet 6. Now I use my polybrute as a keyboard controller for my prophet 6 desktop.
Never Knowingly Undersold, as your reflections are utterly fab!
This is a segue into transitions which also gets in to giving a listener clues on where your arrangement is going. One of the easiest things to do outside of well, silence is to use a gradually climbing high pass on your build before the main idea comes. Or swells. Lots of stuff.
I think you should do a follow up video though, and go further into detail for different times contrast plays a big role in making things work.
A great example someone gave me is (for bass music) big drums, more subdued bass, big huge basses, smaller drums. Riddim, although a genre I don’t vibe with is an excellent testament to the latter, where heavy drum n bass with Noisia drums are very meticulous with spacing and phrasing.
Contrast really is a gateway to making your arrangements come to life
The art of space is one of the most powerful and tricky elements to master. It is effective*especially* in such a noisy day and age as this one, where everything is fighting for attention, is moving about and making noise.
I love the term subtractive arrangement - and I find myself gravitating that way for my own work as well. In some pieces I record 4-5 sequences looping together and then later chop out the structure of the piece: a "break" is formed when I take out all but one of them, things like that. I think I don't explore enough true silences yet and I like the idea of adding an arrangement pass where I pay specific attention to "where do I need to breathe" - where does the classical music inhale happen?
I also really loved your synth rock example. Really great textures and sound. Is that work that has been published anywhere?
Thanks! Yeah I have three singles out on all streaming platforms under the Lost Art of Surrender moniker.
@@JamesonNathanJones awesome!!
i feel this can apply to improv on an instrument, always wondered what separates those beautiful improvs vs mindless playing that doesn't offer any kind of meaningful story if that makes sense, id love to hear your thoughts on improv and how create something that makes sense
I first learned about contrasts from good ol’ Ludwig van. Hell, his Fifth starts with a silent downbeat. And the beauty of silence I learned from Arvo Pärt, whom I consider my musical godfather. Other artists I like reinforce the importance of contrast and I wish more could take advantage of silence.
I’ve done some of these things in my own work. A really good recent example of this was “Spectre” in You Make Your Future Like You Make Your Music. There are two instances where there is a measure of silence. The funny thing, looking back on it, was I did this in much in the same way you did it in your own livestream composition. It was a small move that made a big difference in the overall feel of it.
This is definitely one of the most useful things I've learned in production. Funnily enough, the thing that got me to realize this was playing in marching band. The biggest impacts are always preceded by a rest for the whole hornline, if not the entire ensemble.
(drumline, drumline, drumline) BRAAASSSSS
One of the best to ever do it! Chopin still has much to teach us.
Absolutely!
That might be just what I need in the song I’m working on right now. Thanks!
Really got back into guitar and just playing old rock music so I haven’t looked at any of your videos or similar in a while. Just saw this come up and I forget what an absolute gem you are
Really appreciate that!
Papa Haydn next with his attention grabbing opening chord?
Excellent illustrative examples. You and Chopin are absolutely right.
If we're listening to a lecture or simple instructions, we are much more likely to get it all down when there are spaces which allow time for our brains to process what we just heard before moving on.
Please, please, PLEASE release the 3:20. That was gorgeous.
It will happen eventually :)🙏
WOW!!! YES! Thank you.
I could have sworn i saw you do this a week ago, i realized I have to treat the last three unreleased tracks on my current EP this way to get them done and out, they came out as full walls instead of progressing stories like the other five, I love that side stuff stuff and hope you can get back to it
I wrote a newsletter about it :)
I’ve been soaking up all of your knowledge for the past two weeks. You’re definitely one of the better (if not the best) music RUclipsr I’ve come across. Really appreciate your no bs approach to everything. Thanks for making this stuff available. Also cool to see a fellow southerner in the music production/composition space 🙌🏼
Can’t wait for your course to drop ☺️
Wow thanks so much!
brooooo, 5:50 are you kidding me? Major Massive Attack vibes, that sounds so sick!
Might have been an influence :) Thank you 🙏
You are a star! Thank u so much!
This is fantastic advice and its something i'm trying to incorperate into the songwriting for my band atm. I've been in a bit of a rut for providing actual riffs and parts for the songs but what I have been able to do is supply some sort of idea of how we can make the songs more dynamic and create an impact instead of the whole song being completely full on from beginning to end. Really enjoying the content man and feel very fortunate to have discovered your music (through The Proper People's Channel)
Very nice video. This is something that I needed to inherently learn for my own music (the idea of subtractive arrangement). My style is to create a few sequences and arps and let them run through the entire recording and then remove things and add layers in the daw. I think there is something special about trying to do as much as you can "live" into the daw (lots of reasons for this, not least of which it helps deal with latency). Setting sequences and arps in motion allows the performer to tweak the synths in real time as the song is happening. It might not be the best workflow for everyone, but it really helps me to hear how everything will interact with each other in real time and then extenuate, deconstruct, and add elements after the fact.
I so enjoy your posts Jameson. And that dystopian track. gorgeous
Thank you!
I think you might just be my new favourite RUclipsr
Thank you!
Nice one! I really love this idea of Contrast (with capital C xD) bc the coolest thing about it, is how important it is in everything related to human perception - Silence to provide the illusion of loudness is probably one of the most used psycho-acoustic tricks for when you want to sound design some sweet explosions. Puzzles, trading hubs, inventory management between action sequences is the same for games in general, if you want to pull the eye of a viewer to a specific area of your composition in a painting you paint light surrounded by shadow, an impactful moment in a story line can only be impactful if you get to know the characters daily life first, etcetcetc.
I really like your videos. Informative, cogent and pleasant (you have a nice/calm voice).
I’m 1yr into production and these tutorials are very helpful to me. Thank you!
Thanks so much!
A short while ago I looked up whatever there was on Spotify of Lost Art of Surrender. I think there's like 4 tracks on there. I listened to them and was impressed. There's a distinct NIN vibe to it that I really like and I think you should definitely make more of that music if you're ever inspired to do so. It's really good.
Great video. Again. I think it also applies to when you have several instruments/tracks and take away one for a bar or two - that will give the listener a chance to re-discover that instrument/track.
Absolutely
Very interesting. Cheers
nice. Thank you !
Thank you!
You’re welcome! And thank you for watching 🙏
thank you very much for the masterclass, simple yet brilliant
Very impressed with a simple theme while incorporating how it applies a broad spectrum of genres in this vid.
Furthermore, this concept is very efficient in sound effects; for instance: the Witch King's beacon at Minas Morgul in TLOTR: TROTK & the seismic charges in SW e2 Kudos mate!
Great video. Such a good technique I feel I've neglected recently and will now be more conscious of implementing. Thanks!
Your tracks sound great btw. Punchy with a contemplative edge. I might have to add some to my writing playlist
Thank you Robert!
Musical hang-time! Great video, and love the bits of your music that are peppered throughout. Cheers :)
Thanks!
Very insightful, thank you. And wow that song with the geometric visuals was so damn cool! Reminded me of Flume somewhat
Thank you!
We all gotta admit he's extremely talented and skilled on the keys, almost digusting 😅
❤ Complete your album please 🥹
Very cool. I think I subconsciously do this already at times. But I think I might have to go back to some recent tracks in my current project and (without over-doing it) see if I'm missing some opportunities to apply this where this might be really called for ...but is currently absent. Thank you so much. Always presenting not just cools sounds, but cool ways to look at what we're doing and why we're doing it.
Thank you! Really appreciate that 🙏
What a great concept, and beautifully explained as well, Nathan. I'll definitely bear this in mind for future projects, especially in my tension tracks where impact is so important at various points in the track. Awesome job, as always 🙂
Thanks Nigel!
very instructive, great video. Love your channel
Thank you!
Imagine if Chopin had access to a DAW
Your advice reminds me of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Relax, Don’t do it, when you want to go to it
Thanks for this. I've learnt a lot of little things like this from you, and its added up to a lot, and I feel like it's really helped me on my music journey.
Glad it’s been helpful :) Thank you for watching
I've decided I'm going to start my own channel of me just faffing about with making music with the goal of making a full song and uploading it to soundcloud as the end goal of each episode.
You've inspired me to do that. Except instead of being good at it, my thing will hopefully appeal to people like me who are in the "pit of despair" in the dunning-Kruger curve. About how there is no shortcut, and to embrace sucking at it, and laughing instead of giving up.
we love chopin!!!
Me too!
@@JamesonNathanJonesAnd me.
Hey man, really enjoy your videos! Would you mind sharing what 88key controller you use and why? Cheers!
Thanks for this, friend.
Thanks for watching 🙏
Thanks for the lesson, professor. And there’s no sarcasm in my comment. I actually mean it.
.
Got it coach 😉👍
This guy gets it 🙌
man you remind me so much of venus theory. great video!
Less is more.
Thank you for attending my JNJ talk. Pick up your free shorts on the way out.
But they have to have been featured in a video to be authentic “RUclips Shorts” 🩳
……. right!
🙏
Great idea. Just leave something out of your piece to make the climax happen. There is no magic behind the fact that some composer like Chopin or Bach will always have their place. The dudes were perfection in terms of arrangement. Thank you for bringing this to the table.
Your reference to Bach raises an interesting historical perspective. A whole lot of Bach’s music is continuous. In his contrapuntal textures, contrast is made with the coming and going of independent voices, including their shape, register, density with number of voices in play, etc.
A big chunk of Bach’s music is set as perpetual motion. The steady stream of notes must have been be a key factor in W. Carlos’s choice of music for Switched On Bach. The perpetual motion pieces, in particular, can be easily mapped onto a sequencer. And it’s famously amenable to a wide variety of instrumental settings. Bach’s independent voices can be mapped to individual synths and synced. And that’s way easier now than it was for Carlos. The Brandenburg must have been a bear! The first thing I did when I got my Moogs was to sequence the C-minor Prelude from the first book of the WTC. I was elated! I had a blast with the EG and the filter creating an amazing variety of ‘instruments.’
I’m guessing there are a few post-grad papers on historical uses of ‘motivic’ silence, and how it becomes more prevalent as the Baroque morphed into Classical, and on to Romanticism. I wonder when the Grand Pause and //became a thing. And now we have The Drop.
In France , 70's pop artist Serge Gainsbourg said that " Chopin was is biggest influence " .😉
you're doing the Lord's work.
...er, uh, and Chopin's work. You're doing Chopin's work.
lol thanks for sharing!
less is more , the drop .
Thelonious Monk during a live performance once got up from his piano, walked over to the soloist and said , "Play the rests." 😅
I wonder if he also had a masterclass with Dr. Nagel 🤔😂
+1 making it to a 1000 likes ; )
I'm a total newbie and all these tips are great.
Much agree. it is a lot of effort putting in particular rests and empty areas
Obviously Chopin was not using a DAW and writing scores for TV and Film
Might be inventing and improvising on the fly for theatre and live audiences, which is a lost craft for the most part
I think Ricky Tinez talked about something like this with the techno/EDM stuff he does: create the big climax part of your track first, and then take things out to create the intro, outro, build, etc. Really cool stuff
Ah cool. Love Ricky’s channel 🙌
The simple way to make your music sound HUGE
This guy gets it.
You sly dog, reintroducing people to the old ways!
Thanks
Love this. So smart and insightful 👏👏🎶. Albeit at times you did sound somewhat like a counsellor on sexual dysfunction “…so, if you are having trouble with a climax….” 😂
It couldn’t be helped 😅
What's the scientific name for the fear of "digital 0"? Somethingaphobia...
There's something comforting about a noise floor, or a drone, something sustaining always. I know it's good to have space. Weirdly, I hate sleeping to a TV or anything with an aperiodic rhythmic cadence. Steady sounds are okay for that, though. Can't stand it when the house is too sterile, too, like no-one lives there. We should keep more undeveloped musical spaces, though, instead of always backfilling them with drones or ear candy. Can't argue there.
I think that kind of sterile feeling is just another tool in the toolkit. You’re right, it’s a little unsettling, but if that’s the effect you need - perfect. Like anything, it can be overused, but that’s where taste comes in.
Sedatephobia
After watching this video till the end, I have one important question. Am I really one of your favourite people of all time?
Abso-freakin-lutely. Anyone who can look at my face for that long is automatically inducted.
@@JamesonNathanJones Knew it!
Seriously, though, I do appreciate your videos. I'm hooked ever since, that one about "content" (which really resonated with me). Keep rocking!