Writing Transitions Is Fun! (no really)

Transitions can be one of the hardest things to write in music, let's make it easier!
👨🔬 WRITE A GREAT MELODY with this Formula | Sentence Form in Music Composition • WRITE A GREAT MELODY w...
Instead of thinking of transitions as being a necessary evil in music composition, if we approach them methodically it can be more like solving a puzzle or even playing a game to see just how smooth we can go from one musical idea to another.
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[@RyanLeach]

👨‍🔬 WRITE A GREAT MELODY with this Formula | Sentence Form in Music Composition kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5SxiJWXrLickK8

[@jjrussell]

If only I had a dollar for every 8 bar idea I have sketched out with no idea what to do next. Transitions are the worst but also the best. This video was great for transitioning to the same theme and I know many of the concepts are the same but it's love to see one where you handle transitions to another melody or theme entirely. Amazing channel. Thank you so much.

[@jjrussell]

Oh I missed the last 20 seconds where you said you'd do that next time. Can't wait!

[@RyanLeach]

Yea I thought it was kind of a weird idea transitioning from a theme to the same theme at first, but I realized while making this that I could do a better job of even that in my own work!

[@Jack_______oh]

Just started making music recently and ran into this. I figured it was a common issue so i just searched "how to make music transitions" lol.

[@Jath2112]

I...no longer feel alone...haha. I have a hard drive with something like 30k little audio clips... mostly little 8 bar ideas... maybe 20 or 30 fleshed out pieces... but...I feel like a nameless King of 8 bar ideas. I usually struggle beyond that. Partially because the first part kinda ...uses up the "inspiration"... so I end up just mechanically trying stuff after spending myself on the first part... it isn't always like that... but very often it is.. it is just...very easy to get started. It is not so easy to finish and polish it.

[@PelleKuipers]

Even though I mainly write rock songs I love these videos because they give me ideas to get all the instruments together. And I can't say it often enough; your style of editing is perfect. Short, succinct, and informative.

[@RyanLeach]

Thanks! Ideally the principles still work no matter what genre we're in

[@prestonrcasey]

And honestly, the transition which already exists in the Mipha training Sidon music is another great example

[@paulmdevenney]

oh yeah. Transitions, transitions, transitions. Bring em. Fast to slow, dark to light, minor to major, slick key changes. I'd love to see them all talked through.

[@casperdewith]

Cool, concise video! As a _Breath of the Wild_ fan, however, I couldn’t help but notice the Mipha from the thumbnail is from _Age of Calamity_ instead. This made me think of the fact that Mipha has a different theme in _Age of Calamity_ based on the original from _Breath of the Wild._ Maybe you can compose a transition between those?

[@simongross3122]

Very good. I've been unconsciously doing some of this but it's good to see the techniques laid out so neatly. Thank you.

[@richardbarcaricchio]

So good. Ryan you are off the charts good. Thank you for your channel, man. Its fantastic.

[@RyanLeach]

I appreciate that!

[@prestonrcasey]

You tickled my fancy by talking about Zelda music

[@mouhiazeck]

For someone who knows zero music theory, this channel is like watching (or rather hearing) magic. Like HOW does it just WORK like that???

[@HowlingUlf]

Keeewl! Composing a crossfade! :D That was smooth!

[@MichaelBarnathan]

I feel like this video is more useful towards extending your music than the one on the REPS method. That one will buy you a few extra seconds. Learning to develop a theme or shift to another will give you minutes more of the listener's engagement

[@twitch.101]

I love how short your videos are, very hyper focused on one topic to get you back to writing and application as fast as possible.

[@ianmcarthur1635]

Hey just found your channel. This is very helpful and nicely laid out. Thank you! :)

[@RyanLeach]

Welcome!

[@frankeisele383]

Super helpful guide Ryan - been struggling a bit with convincing transitions. This will surely help! Looking forward to the next video on transitions

[@santimontali]

Thanks for this video! I like how you treat these topics as a conscious process since personally I used to feel something was off and mess around till it sounded good, without being necessarily aware of the material that I could use. For my surprise, almost everything you did is the same I thought in the beginning and I feel good now haha! Love these :)

[@maskedbandit102]

I just found your channel about a week ago and I've been binging it since. I'm an elementary music teacher IRL and my composing (which I used to love doing before knowing too much about theory) had absolutely stagnated. Your channel has singlehandedly gotten me to write my first bits of music in literal years. I'm so appreciative of your easy approach and watching you go through your explanations both with score study and watching you make the music yourself. Super helpful. So, thank you so much for what you're offering here on KZbin--I really appreciate it.

[@sincostan999]

youtube recommended never fails, subbed!

[@Nicenigel14]

Absolutely more transition videos like this please! Very helpful!!!!! Thank you for the brevity.

[@pericomposer]

So, I've just watched 2 videos from this channel thanks to the algorythm and I think it's the best channel for me in my whole youtube life. Thanks so much for these videos, they have been so helpful that I'll be wathcing em more than twice for sure

[@rickrosfeld2236]

Fantastic. This is probably my greatest weakness. Haven't seen anybody address this problem this succinctly. Can't wait to try these ideas on some of my transitions.

[@quintongordon6024]

I've been going through and binging a lot of your older videos after finding your channel. I was about to go to your channel and look for the continuation to this video but then I realized you released this just yesterday.

[@Unelith]

I've always hated transitions, and I like completely changing the track quite a lot, so I really appreciate this video. I've never thought to list out all changes and categorize them like that. Now I just hope it doesn't turn out there are 63 changes between my sections

[@Musicman995]

i like to think about it as blending a few different colours, you need to increase the amount of the new section at a steady rate until it blends seamlessley

[@audielavalos9619]

Aside from the great explanation of comppsing technique this is also a good intro to what a transition is.

[@bachtothefuture857]

Really great video, Ryan! Been a question of mine so this was a great walkthrough, with explanations and the demonstrations (in both score and MIDI). Would love to see more of this, perhaps with some examples from other scores on different transition ideas. Thanks for all your hard work!

[@Solstici_]

i stumbled on your last video looking up tips on how to write string sections, then today this one showed up in my recommended and after watching some more i really have to say you are amazing at transmitting useful and concise information in an easy to understand manner and with brilliant examples. i really hope your content gets to lots more of people soon as i think you completely deserve it. Congratulations man!

[@RyanLeach]

Thank you!

[@Trombean09]

I just stumbled upon your channel and I think I'm going to go on a binge spree pretty soon. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom! I would like to see another video with more examples of transitions in different contexts. You mentioned doing one that goes from one character to a completely contrasting character and I think that would be super interesting. Also you mentioned that you could add extra measures to make a transition happen and I'm curious to see what that would look like for you. Thanks so much for all you do!

[@nilsfrederking62]

Thanks Ryan! Your videos are so well made, you bring things just down to the essence without beating around the bush and you show how it is done step by step with the thinking behind. It is very helpful.

[@gavinmarcellus2784]

i come back every day watching your channel grow so much. It’s all deserved

[@ivanfaigenbom5300]

Love this video. I just found your channel and inmediately suscribed. Thanks for this wonderful content

[@Cameron_Norby]

I subscribed to you only yesterday on my other account, but had to switch to my main account to say thank you for this video! This helps solve exactly the problems that I have the most often that cause me to shelve so many ideas.

[@AcidMonkie]

Great video! Transitions has slways been one of my greastest composing challenges. Looking forward to more!

[@WaltMusekamp]

Thanks for this, Ryan. I found it very helpful. Looking forward to the next one!

[@ThePianoenergy]

A nice piece of music, thank you!. I wish I could keep it in my ear while you are introducing a new transition rather than having to listen to background music. Don't be afraid of silence!

[@donalddurham7999]

The three pickup eighth notes of the string leading up to the new voice in the higher register is genius. I would not have done that. I would have added something that says "we're going to a new section and I'm setting it up...JK! I was setting you up for one thing and gave you another". I would have used 4 to 8 16th notes in the last beat or two. Just to keep the listener on their toes... their mind(s) won't actually know what the next section will be like until they're there. But once they are there, they'll want to experience another transition.

[@braethebrave1569]

This was really helpful! Can't wait for the next transition video; I think that will be really helpful to what I'm working on right now!

[@myroslavsaratovkin6868]

Big thanks. Looking forward to the next video. Huge amount of benefits to me. One of my favorite channels.

[@RyanLeach]

Thanks, glad to hear it

[@listeningcolors9888]

Great video Ryan!! Looking forward to video on transition between different themes or moods🙌🙌😃

[@RyanLeach]

Thanks!

[@corrinflakes9659]

Dorephan, Mipha, Zora, and Sidon in respective order make the DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo. Just account that in Japan the La is Ra (no L's) and Ti is Si (because Ti becomes Chi, and Shi/Si is closer to its root to tone), and it only takes a diacritic to make So to Zo. And in Mipha and Sidon's respective thenes they feature the appropriate notes in the leading leitmotif.

[@sprinklesta]

Just discovered your channel and really appreciate it. Thank you!

[@mountchoco8174]

This helped out so much!!! Thank you so much! :D

[@alvarezblanco]

thanks for these videos. i am somewhat struggling with my writing at the moment so this just came here to save me!

[@jaredboult]

Just found your channel, loving it so far!

[@RyanLeach]

Welcome aboard!

[@billbusen]

This video helped me solve what seemed like an impossible transition. Happy frolicking of squirrels and birds from tree to tree transitioning to the approach of Death Incarnate (a woodsman who will cut down one of the trees). I put a waystation in the middle (Fall weather music), and then it was clear which elements would change from frolicking to fall, and what to change from fall to death. You rock!

[@bryndayy]

This was great, loved it.

[@glanni]

When you added the pickup it was suddenly on a whole new level. That one really made it emotionally involving, NICE!

[@RemyLuciani]

Very cool vid! :) Looking forward to the next one.

[@YanickFM]

Dude this is exactly what I needed right now

[@martijnvanbeek4387]

Love this one!

[@Winnders]

Can't wait for the next transition vid 🤘

[@mateobezuh2199]

Great one, looking forward to the next more drastic transition video! 🎉thank you

[@michellamontagne]

Thank you Ryan I am glad that I found your channel very well done it is going to help me I’m sure I just subscribed

[@minzungopa]

I really need this.

[@arichalian108]

Incredible video

[@animatorireenie8319]

Thank you for making this video. It's a very helpful explanation.

[@thomaskaasi4225]

Very informative and useful, Ryan! and I just saw you top 70k subscribers in real time haha 🙂

[@ShaharHarshuv]

Amazing!!

[@bressingham6]

Amazing video. Subbed

[@MusicAbsum]

This is great, thank you :)

[@user-ou2zr2oy2q]

Awesome video Ryan! For me, transitions are a pure nightmare lol. I didn't know the binary and gradual technique, looks pretty useful. I really like your transition -You didn't lose momentum, and it was pretty smooth 👏 PS- 2:22 also, for Alan Belkin, contrast are multiple changes at once (not a single change). So, if you make multiple changes too quickly, you are creating contrast. The same idea goes to unity / cohesion (more parameters in common during the entire piece). Incredible book :)

[@jaikumarsivalingam]

Thanks Ryan

[@TK-oi6rv]

You helped me get unstuck with a current project. Can't thank you enough

[@jacksonwaldon]

I love to experiment around with dynamics and time signatures for really interesting transitions

[@joshsanchez9793]

THIS IS SO FUN. WOWW

[@Meatiecheeksboy]

Got a subscriber, great vid

[@jackhollis3903]

This is great! Just found your channel and am about to binge all your videos.

[@RyanLeach]

Thanks, please do!

[@SerpongeDash]

I love sudden changes in songs so to me the transition isn't "better than okay", it is def more sophisticated here, but idk i think both work really well, super nice explanations regardless :)

[@thynature]

Very interesting topic, thank you!

[@RyanLeach]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jeanpierrecarpentier]

So interestingly vital information's that puts everything in the proper order,, all the time keeping it simple. :)

[@EdokLock]

Very great Idea and awesome video

[@RyanLeach]

Thanks!

[@DarthTingleBinks]

I saw your video on the brass in How to Train Your Dragon, and now this. I can say now that I'll subscribe. I'm also looking forward to the next transition video, as I'm currently working on something that will use that kind of transition (multiple times). Each of those transitions will include this kind of transition though, so they're like... transitional transitions... or something. If you're curious what it is I'm making, here it is. Well, I have this idea for a live action Batman show, taking place during the 20 years before Batman v Superman, showing his gradual change to becoming more brutal and violent. And to reflect this, I want a main theme that does the same thing. So go from more heroic, to more violent and angry. So to do THIS, I'm starting of the "suite" with Junke XL (Tom Holkenborg)'s Batman theme from Zack Snyder's Justice League, which will then transition into my own Batman theme, which will hopefully give off a horror feeling (but it will get creepier as it goes along, rathee than starting off super creepy, just to really show the gradual change from hopeful to vengeful), and then will transition to and end in Hanz Zimmer and Junkie XL's Batman theme from Batman v Superman. This is not the first time I've made music, but everything else is pretty sub par beginner stuff. This is the first and only time where I'm really going all in, and I'll also have some of my band friends help out and record their parts for me to stitch together.

[@AlbertKimMusic]

I kinda wanted more of a bar string run but this was also very informative

[@positiveoutlook7029]

I wish I found this channel months ago. All of this is so helpful. Thank you so, so much

[@RyanLeach]

Better late than never, welcome

[@caseyfulton6932]

Great transition techniques. For some reason I imagined a pizzicato bass string transition starting in measure/bar 5 and perhaps some contrary motion in the strings measure/bar 8 perhaps as the violins rise a cello line could descend?

[@blacksmithsforge640]

These videos really are going to improve my music covers on my channel! I’d appreciate you giving them a watch and giving any advise you’d like so I can apply it to my next pieces. Thank you man!

[@johnpcomposer]

Nice video. Very helpful.

[@RyanLeach]

Thanks John!

[@gimbo4025]

as someone who doesnt play an instrument, has never composed anything, knows jack about music theory, but absolutely loves music, this was awesome. so cool

[@DJaycerOfficial]

Somehow I wrote a weird auditory illusion for a transition into the downbeat with four quarter notes that lead into the main part of the song. The illusion is the feeling that those four notes aren’t actually four notes but rapid arpeggios. I’m not sure if that’s because I used the same sound for another arpeggio or what but it’s quite the thing

[@artistwintersong7343]

I feel nerdy to say all this but :)-- {and these videos are quickly becoming my favorite ever}-- Since you said "the winds," I am looking & commenting about at the end of bar two not the top line but looking at lines two & three; these would not breathe well at all. Energy dissipates as air is spent. But I think those breath-commas are awkward as a fix, more of a elementary prompt. And this is your exact theme/emphasis in this topic module, likewise at the end of bar four to me, it, well, is weak breathability (is this really a word, how cool) in the same way. The winds otherwise do not "breathe." The winds flow keyboard-style-esque but not gracefully as breathing. My idea towards breathability would be instead of a half note, a dotted quarter & eighth. The wind player would then, I think, naturally breathe before the eight note that leads into the next bar, right about on beat 4. The and-of-four becomes then part of the next phrase. I digress. These videos of yours are so great and this is my first comment ever to your work here on youtube. I just now discovered your channel. Greatest Ever Channel. Strings!! What program are you using? The midi strings sound nice. Is it Sibelius or another similar? Thank you, sir, for all this. Wow.

[@MarcoLongoMusic]

I like the music excerpt, it reminds me of Dragon Quest

[@odeimaginations5267]

Those samples sound like they're coming from Cinematic Studio Series. I'm not sure though. Regardless, great video! I'm happy I found your channel. Your approach here is wonderful. It's very practical and I feel like the amount of depth you go into is just right.

[@RyanLeach]

Thanks I appreciate it! The sounds are from Noteperformer

[@hi_micama]

So interesting!

[@RyanLeach]

Glad you think so!

[@robbiedaug]

Nice

[@robkunkel8833]

If I had time in a bottle … Jim Croce must have made this old standard (“Time In A Bottle”) starting with this chord sequence. I’m a new subscriber.

[@benlemke9430]

I've learned a few from this video. Thank you sir. I feel the soft strings transition could have started two measures earlier than you introduced them, as it felt like they began at an "odd" time, giving the feeling of being impostors in the wind section. Due to the tempo of the piece, it felt like the strings transition came in at the 3 of a 4-beat bar instead of a one. Just my novice thoughts here.

[@peterm13]

good content

[@ilikemusak]

I'd love to see your take on transitions with a smaller ensemble with everyone playing

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

I honestly think you could get away with introducing the strings a couple bars earlier, just have an understated drone to soften the change in timbre, I feel like that would flow a little better.

[@chilpz]

I love this game’s music so much. One of the best gaming soundtracks of all time

[@RyanLeach]

I feel like the people who trash on it never actually bothered to listen

[@mihirlovekar6896]

Hey! Just stumbled upon your channel and instantly subbed. I have been looking for content on the music theory on video game scores (mainly by Japanese composers for games like Pokemon, Zelda etc.) I have been looking for a book I can read to get deep into this or other youtube channels, any recommendations? Great Video by the way, Mipha's theme is one of my favourites! :D

[@RyanLeach]

I assume you already know it, but 8-Bit Music Theory is a big inspiration

[@xenomorph6599]

Mipha 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 vah rutah looms from age of calamity had GREAT motif incorporation in there

[@Vansud]

I like to think of transitions as body ligaments connecting different bones.

[@jensjensen4038]

Hi Ryan. Would it be cool to look at musical illusions? Like risset beats and shepherd tones? Dunkirk uses shepherd tones. I don’t even know how to make a risset beat. Really liking your channel and i know this might not be your channel focus atm but yea.

[@RyanLeach]

That sounds fascinating, you're right probably not something I'll get too in the near future but I always need content ideas so I will add it to the list!

[@owjekndjw5193]

I clicked on this because of mipha and you. was not disappointed

[@djfull4442]

I think the problem is those two parts work the best without any transition. Check out the beginning of Vivaldi's Sinfonia in C, that's the same situation. But when you have a movie theme with three different ideas, like in Basil Poledouris's Klendathu Drop, there's so little room for transition the third idea is used AS a transition between the other two. Or when you have an ambient soundtrack with several condensed ideas, like Jesper Kyd's Hawking Theme 1, there's even less room so the themes have to be planned so the end of one is a beginning of another. To do that without clashing is a real challenge.

[@mymo_in_Bb]

The instrumentation change can absolutely be a gradual change. It's difficult to describe, but in some of my pieces, the instrumentation gradually develops into a completely different one within the span of a second or two, it's not a binary change, but rather a quick gradient.

[@Chatulhu]

you're gaining subs fast you might be at 10k within the next 20 minutes haha

[@RyanLeach]

Its nuts, two weeks ago I didn't even have 3k

[@pilcaroo]

Very clear and practical, thanks! Looking forward to the next video. I think you put the wrong link at the end of the video, it's to the video about woodwinds, not to the one about sentence form.

[@RyanLeach]

Thank you!

[@juscelino2253]

i love how mipha's theme is just about miipha miifa mi-fa mi ...

[@RyanLeach]

🤯