Month: April 2013

Here’s another blow-by-blow account of the creation of a piece using a jazz composition I wrote about 8 years ago entitled Flameout. This is a term used in aviation circles to signify that a jet engine has stopped working, which is very worrying if the aircraft is airborne at the time. Overview: the piece changes […]

One of the first problems I ran into when I first began to self-publish music was with regard to my own personalization. I began to realize that, if I wrote a lot of easy listening music, because it sells more copies, people would judge me accordingly. They will think ‘He only writes simple, tuneful stuff’. […]

An email asked for help on the subject of writing countermelodies. This subject is part of the wider field of counterpoint and is covered extensively in the book. My reply is reprinted here for the benefit of anyone else having trouble. A countermelody may be subservient to the principal theme or it may be of […]

In a recent blog I referred to symmetry in rhythm. The meaning was clear enough within the context but I decided to think a little more about the notation of rhythm, a subject most of us take for granted due to the conditioning we receive from an early age. Talking about music is always tricky, […]