Vi-Control's Collaborative Learning Projects: Ideas and Project Archive.
- Thread starter Darthmorphling
- Start date
OP
OP
Darthmorphling
Senior Member
Ok so let's plan on starting one this Friday. What would everyone like to do as the theme. I have been thinking that we could make it very general, but we need to include a real instrument or recorded sound. It could be what ever instrument you play, or simply recording your frying pan and tweaking it into a percussive instrument.
I would say something not too general would help get more creative and not get lost in the vast possibilities, which seems to be the purpose of such composing exercises. I checked the 1st "contest" and orchestrating a melody feels a bit too open a suggestion to get things rolling when you lack experience. Just my 2 cents. Recording a live instrument is not easy for me so I'll probably pass this 1st round. The following themes come to mind, but only reflect what I want to learn : motivic development, structure/form, development through harmonic variations.
OP
OP
Darthmorphling
Senior Member
Having a melody that gets orchestrated can be a perfect thing to do if you are starting out. It even fits in with the things you list as wanting to learn.
I just threw out an idea. I have always tried to take into account what the participants would like to do. Give me a specific project idea and we can determine if that is what we will do. I want to make this beneficial for all participants.
Another thing I just found out about is creating a trailer for the game "Just Cause 3". We did something similar for Project 2 and it was really an eye opening experience.
https://mytrailer.justcause.com/
edit: After really looking at the creative kit it involves actually creating the entire thing from scratch including editing the video. This is more than what these projects are about. Would be interesting to try it out at some point for fun though.
Last edited:
David Chappell
Active Member
Personally, the ones I've found most fun and useful have been the "theme" ones. They're specific enough that there's a definite sound to be aimed for but general enough that you can take it from many different approaches. I found it also helped with the collaborative aspect of learning since everyone has a different approach and you can learn from how other people went about it.
OP
OP
Darthmorphling
Senior Member
We never did do the flying theme. Are there any other "themes" we could do? Love and adventure have been done already.
ideas:
danger
suspense
comedy
horror
Flying theme is cool... it still sounds a daunting task, could we consider breaking it into several assignments ? i.e. :
- 1st one = write 2 musical ideas to the theme of flying and harmonize them using different harmonies at each iterations, with a mandatory form/structure that we would all apply (that would make differences stick out clearly because things would be laid out in an uniform fashion). Could be divided in 2 sub-assignements : melody + block chords 1st, then 2 to 4-part writing depending on the density one aims at.
- 2nd one : orchestrate the damn thing, here again with a given structure i.e.: exposition of the main theme, using only 2 orchestral sections, crescendo transition to the secondary theme, a tutti passage then a recapitulation of both themes in a more polyphonic fashion.
The idea behind having an imposed/mandatory structure is so we don't have to worry and be creative about too many parameters.
- 1st one = write 2 musical ideas to the theme of flying and harmonize them using different harmonies at each iterations, with a mandatory form/structure that we would all apply (that would make differences stick out clearly because things would be laid out in an uniform fashion). Could be divided in 2 sub-assignements : melody + block chords 1st, then 2 to 4-part writing depending on the density one aims at.
- 2nd one : orchestrate the damn thing, here again with a given structure i.e.: exposition of the main theme, using only 2 orchestral sections, crescendo transition to the secondary theme, a tutti passage then a recapitulation of both themes in a more polyphonic fashion.
The idea behind having an imposed/mandatory structure is so we don't have to worry and be creative about too many parameters.
David Chappell
Active Member
Flying theme would be cool. Along with the other themes suggested, you could have action, chase, fantasy, winter, Christmas, nostalgic.. pretty much something that you might be composing for a film without having a picture to score it to
Aside from themes, I also think a choral based piece would be pretty interesting to do
Aside from themes, I also think a choral based piece would be pretty interesting to do
OP
OP
Darthmorphling
Senior Member
I sought out some input on another thread and here is the basic format that we will use for this particular piece:
Flying theme
Stage 1 - Melody and variations. Enough to make the piece musically interesting.
Stage 2 - Whatever harmonic structure we impose (block chords, 2, 3, 4 part harmony, etc...)
Stage 3 - Arrangement and orchestration
4 weeks total to complete the Project?
One of the things I really need help with is CC data. I would seriously like us to share our midi files.
What specific technique, if any, would we like to focus on for stage two?
Flying theme
Stage 1 - Melody and variations. Enough to make the piece musically interesting.
Stage 2 - Whatever harmonic structure we impose (block chords, 2, 3, 4 part harmony, etc...)
Stage 3 - Arrangement and orchestration
4 weeks total to complete the Project?
One of the things I really need help with is CC data. I would seriously like us to share our midi files.
What specific technique, if any, would we like to focus on for stage two?
For stage two I'd say an interesting part of the exercise would be to vary between textures, we could decide the piece should showcase at one instance of homo-rhythmic homophonic texture, at least one polyphonic/counterpuntal passage (or at least written in that spirit)... just an example. The idea would be to see at which point in the piece people introduce these, to what effect and later on check what these textures become upon orchestration.
Or it could be regarding the harmony itself : 1st iteration of the theme would use strict diatonic harmony, then chromatic mediant relationships, maybe one instance of quartal harmony... and other things I yet don't know about !
Or it could be regarding the harmony itself : 1st iteration of the theme would use strict diatonic harmony, then chromatic mediant relationships, maybe one instance of quartal harmony... and other things I yet don't know about !
David Chappell
Active Member
Afraid I don't have much clue what many of these words mean when it comes to harmony - does that mean the first part is like say a piano sketch of the piece, with the second part breaking it down into more parts before orchestration in the final part?
OP
OP
Darthmorphling
Senior Member
Here are some links to help explain as I wasn't sure either:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homorhythm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpoint
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_mediant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartal_and_quintal_harmony
Sorry I have been away from here. I am currently tucked away in our district's office creating our new math curriculum.
I would like to suggest that we make the first one a little less daunting for us beginners. Reading through the above links I uderstand maybe 30%. Diatonic mediants just escape me
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homorhythm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpoint
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_mediant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartal_and_quintal_harmony
Sorry I have been away from here. I am currently tucked away in our district's office creating our new math curriculum.
I would like to suggest that we make the first one a little less daunting for us beginners. Reading through the above links I uderstand maybe 30%. Diatonic mediants just escape me
I'm trying to unclutter the stickies. There are a lot on this subforum, a couple of which I already un-stickied. This particular thread seems inactive enough to also unsticky, but if there's something still going on that I don't about, let me know.
justmjulie
New Member
It is possible to check the past project? the links seem not working
JesseDempster
New Member
wow, very interesting, what I was looking for
Minsky
Active Member
Unfortunately these links don’t work
