Composers only have TWO tools

[@JamesonNathanJones]

Here's that guide on Harmony Concepts I've found most useful in my own music-making career: bit.ly/FreeHarmonyGuide

[@Inhibitd]

guide on ornamentation please ;) where to use it and some examples.

[@kokomanation]

Ears and Brains are the best tools

[@bricelory9534]

My favorite composer, Arvo Pärt, is a master of pulling a massive amount of meaning and composition out of very intentionally simple patterns. Absolutely beautiful pieces. In a synth-filled world and with the busyness of electronic music in general, stripping away layers to expose the pattern and contrasts can make for very striking pieces that will stick with the listener far more than songs overflowing with fancy production techniques (not that having fancy production techniques is bad!).

[@hipskind]

"I am the one who KNOCKS! ....in a repetitive pattern, and adds interesting things around that pattern for contrast!" Really great stuff. Thank you!!

[@andrew6889-p5c]

This is a video about making music. Not the tools or some theory, but something deeper. Do more of this.

[@DrNIx123]

I think we focus on gear too much because for most of us it is easier to get than musical content.

[@Inhibitd]

gear can both limit and enable the crafting of music but it doesnt help you come up with a good and fun idea. It is important, but not unaffordable. Get what you need and no more.

[@stuk180able]

Contrast is the communicative arm of duality, love this.

[@bf0189]

This is exactly the main lesson I learned through listening to a lot of jazz and learning jazz harmony! It's all patterns and contrast no matter how abstract the jazz is. Your ear learns this over time. Learn to transcribe folks. it's such a valuable tool and opens up music like never before even if you are an amateur like me.

[@DerekPower]

More and more and more, I get less interested in things like mixing and mastering. This is not because I think they aren't important at all, but their role has been inflated. The start of all of this is in the composition (or writing if you are in the songwriter tradition) and the arrangement. If you don't have those working for you, the rest of it won't. No amount of "great mixing" or "excellent mastering" will transform a bad composition into a good one. (And yes, I know "good" and "bad" is subjective and that's a whole other topic of conversation.)

[@cybercassette]

I've been having the exact same thoughts! I get the most enjoyment out of creating a fun/satisfying overall composition (and the way to get there) instead of obsessing over mixing and mastering. I know they are important, but I don't find them as fun to do

[@DerekPower]

@@cybercassette And to be clear, I do enjoy that process and it has its own rewards. But I was reacting more to those who think that mixing and mastering is the end all, be all of what makes music music. When looking at the stages of music production, putting a large emphasis on the mixing and mastering stages is exactly like putting the cart before the horse. But yes, first, last and always: the first question you need to ask yourself and answer is "what kind of music are you making?". And the mixing and mastering stages can never answer that one =]

[@floydhopkins7901]

That's why we have engineers

[@wonkyrobot]

Your best mixing tool IS composition and arrangement. Just my 2 cents

[@DerekPower]

@@wonkyrobot Well said 😁

[@OchreFrame]

This is the basis behind Arnold Schoenberg's classic textbook Fundamentals of Musical Composition. It can be a very dry read at times, but it's an incredible insight into finding the balance between repetition and variation.

[@dakotajohnson8625]

Seriously one of my favorite channels I've seen. Been learning a lot more about how to actually apply the concepts I've been learning studying different languages of music. Really hope your harmony book comes out soon, as that's the main thing I seem to struggle with. All the best

[@andycordy5190]

It's easy to recognize that you have an advanced and eclectic taste. Some of your examples here will be outside the experience of a proportion of your listeners, as will expressions like 12 tone serialism. As a learner and as a teacher I applaud that. What the hell does that mean?

[@AlBenChris89]

I took a jazz improv class in college. And one of the most important things our professor tried to teach us was to have what he called a "bug." This was a musical phrase that we could come back to in order to reset ourselves, but also benefitted the audience in giving them something to latch onto. Much like the pattern you're describing here. Thanks for your videos! You're really great at breaking down concepts and providing musical context.

[@JohnZornAscended]

Lol, an ear worm.

[@AlBenChris89]

@@JohnZornAscended lol, yeah. He called it a bug, though, for some reason.

[@Inhibitd]

Not sure that you can ignore the subjective concepts of tension, stability and lack thereof. Yes patterns and contrast are important but what they cause in the listener is far more so. e.g "fresh harmonic change" is harmonic instablilty. What are you contrasting and patterning? Tension and stability. A classic example of this concept is working in odd keys - at first the listener/composer may feel tension. But once the ear adjusts there can be stability in odd harmonies and even in "consonance". Modal (drone/ethnic) music has a great deal of stability so much so that melodic lines can often freely move and change scales - yes again its pattern and contrast but underneath it, is the far less simple storytelling that the melody carries. Hope that makes sense.

[@istvantoth7431]

Great thoughts man. You articulated few of the beginner mistakes I made, ages ago. You are 100% right, some minimal amount of patterns are always needed, regardless how unique you want to sound. Because when you lack all patterns, all coherence... your music becomes simply a self-indulgent noise and people won't be able to connect with you and you will be alone in your room thinking, "nah, it's not me, it's the people who cannot understand and appreciate my experimental 💩. They are the problem, not me."

[@mack_solo]

There is another useful realisation, which is applicable to many of your vids on patterns, sequencing, arps, chords, melodies, etc. It stems from biology and has to do with our brain's interpretation of the world. And I don't know how far it stretches past primates and mammals back in the evolution, so I'll just stick to humans. Intrinsically our brains assume patterns after sequence of events has at least two repeated elements. This is used in drama and story telling (3-act structure) and in particular in comedy where setup consists of: 1st establishing element, 2nd element confirming the pattern, and 3rd element is punch line and a break away from the expectation. Stand up commedians use that a lot and build up larger pattern structures of their performaces, and because our expectations are established in the first 2 -3 jokes, so they may go something like: 1-1-2, 1-1-2, 1-1-1-2, 1-1-1-1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-1-2, and so on. I don't know if this ramble made sense to anyone else, but that's what helps me...

[@michaelkonomos]

I like that idea of reharmonizing around the sequences we create on our gear! good idea!

[@ghfjfghjasdfasdf]

I’ll have to support you at some point because I’m always learning something from your videos. Thank you for your time!

[@calsynth]

This was wonderful. Thanks so much for it

[@gregharwood7849]

Your vids always ground me back in the most important aspects of composition - keep it up! :)

[@thejontao]

I think in terms of (a very loose definition of) repetition… but I think the Venn diagram of your “pattern” and my “repetition” has a very high degree of overlap. Contrast is a lesson I learned too late in life. It’s such a powerful tool, and I never got it until I started writing piano music in ABA form. Now I’m trying to figure out how to take the lessons I’ve learned from “traditional” piano music and apply them to the kind of experimental/drone/ambient stuff that interests me.

[@JamesonNathanJones]

Your last sentence describes my entire existence lol

[@Vallosick]

Great video, Jameson! Really helps to approach this subject the right way

[@arnaudstegle5034]

Always an interesting view/speech ! Greetings from France !

[@DanielDiezCansecoM]

Este vídeo con un poco de conocimiento previo es oro puro! Cada segundo es increible. De ahí puede salir mucha música!

[@StefaanHimpe]

Just thinking out loud here... A related but perhaps slightly more general (?) approach would be to consider "tension" and "release" . And indeed, one way of creating tension is to introduce a pattern to create an expectation (and the tension is the consequence of the listener waiting to hear how it will evolve over time). Contrast is one way of subverting an expected evolution/release, creating more tension, a cadence at the end would be an example of providing some kind of "release". But I suspect there are other (very different) ways of creating tension and release which do not make use of patterns and contrast?

[@samglass2004]

You can teach these things and take away from the magic of making music to much wrongs and rights can make music dull planed just do your best and stay away from the police of music making listening with your hart is the very best thing

[@leadpipejustice9253]

The ultimate music youtuber!!

[@JamesonNathanJones]

The ultimate youtube commenter

[@LouisSerieusement]

thank you

[@shmackydoo]

Hands and Ears

[@rumarey2]

Makes sense, thank you for the insight🙂

[@Hysteric_Subjects]

Your ditty there had an Irish folk vibe

[@denovaire]

yea, nice!!

[@mondostrat]

& here I thought the two tools would be pencil & paper

[@sibbyeskie]

For sure it’s patterns all the way down, it’s just I tend to prefer the patterns coming out of my Moog 😂

[@TommyLoaded]

Composition can feel daunting and overwhelming sometimes, but it can all be boiled down to just two, incredible, boiled eggs.

[@britox.6216]

Video dropped as soon as I finished reading the newsletter 😂🙏🏽 thanks!

[@JamesonNathanJones]

The real mvp

[@bramsanjanssan4908]

I had to unplug my pitch bend wheel on my Impulse61 because it was tripping up my input in Ableton. Luckily it was very easy.

[@racheltyrellcorp9694]

Very interesting !

[@Septeemberpain]

Stellar content on your channel. Thanks for all you do. Can you leave an affiliate link for that novation you are using on to show the various melodic themes you’re playing. I’d like to help support your channel through an affiliate link.

[@Hysteric_Subjects]

Man I need to take some keys lessons.

[@PieterLaroy]

It did make sense ;-)

[@zzhamilton]

You might also add the idea of expectation ... Check out "Emotion and Meaning in music" by Meyer.

[@JamesonNathanJones]

Absolutely

[@igordrm]

The greatest music ever made was done so with pen and paper. The second greatest music ever made was done by improvisation.

[@LFOVCF]

Background in NLP?

[@primewavesmusic]

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

[@flyddw]

ran to google to look up ostinato - they gave Take Five and Bolaro as examples.

[@GizzyDillespee]

Whereas, Alexa told me an Austin auto was a budget British car. ChatGPT either was flirting with me, or thought I was senile, based on its voice tone. I'm still not quite sure. J/K I don't have an Alexa.

[@dreanki]

whats is the name of the electronic song in the video? it sounds wonderful

[@JamesonNathanJones]

It's not out yet, but will be eventually :)

[@dreanki]

@@JamesonNathanJones i'm looking forward to hearing it when its out :)

[@compucorder64]

Is one of those two tools a ... Teenage Engineering EP-1320 Medieval ;)

[@JamesonNathanJones]

Give me those hurdy gurdy samples immediately

[@Harlem-Instrumental]

👍🏾

[@waltersir7306]

I’ll give ya a tool

[@Marklar3]

Great video as usual. I'm actually not familiar with the waltz, even though I've watched a lot of your videos.

[@JamesonNathanJones]

jamesonnathanjones.bandcamp.com/track/waltz-in-g-minor :)

[@Marklar3]

@@JamesonNathanJones Great narrative melody. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[@PiotrstrashcanŚmietnikPiotra]

Rachmaninoff was the best composer ever. Don’t you all dare to argue with me.

[@JamesonNathanJones]

You'll get none from me

[@russ254]

when you learn more about music, you’ll leave Rachmaninoff behind.

[@JamesonNathanJones]

@@russ254 no

[@amazeus1980]

Someone wrote here that mixing and mastering has no meaning. I completely disagree. Let’s leave mastering maybe and focus on mixing for now. Music is about tonality, harmonic content which is directly related to emotion in music. Bad mix is lacking tonality and the right harmonics. If instruments lack “the sound” it’s hard to compose because it won’t have emotion which defines good composition. Mixing impacts also articulation!

[@serjiobazhan3918]

+

[@saxmidiman]

What an ASTUTE observation! I am now going to sell everything I own except my bongos! I am SO glad KZbin has kept me ON COURSE!!!...Oops, I Did It Again...I commented on a video WITHOUT watching it! Oh Well....😬😎