AUM162: Week 2

This week's lecture was about rhythm and structure, which is Project 1 Milestone 1's topic.

One of the first things we talking about was instrumentation and how it can perform one or more functions within a track. Examples of these functions include: keeping a beat, padding, providing texture, harmony, or a lead. I never really thought that these were called "functions of instrumentation". When I compose, I just pick up a bass or guitar and record stuff, then add things like a harmony or chords/pads to fill the mix, and make sure that my bass lines provide a melody as well as having a slightly different rhythm to the original beat so that it adds something extra to the main rhythm. I didn't really realise that I'm using all these different "functions" to make the track fit well and isn't empty/thin. So it was a really good thing to know.

In structure, we had a brief look at arrangement and how it's important for a producer to be able to visualise how the completed song will sound. This is laying out the song's form and sections, instrumentation, dynamics, and adding other things to give the songs an extra something such as repetition, variation, and contrast. I've never really mapped out any of my compositions (which I should start doing) as I normally go straight into recording and just plan along the way. I want to start composing full-length tracks (that go for more than 2 mins ha) and I think by starting to have some sort of visual of my arrangement, it will help me see what I need to make the track longer. I twill also challenge me to start adding more instruments, different sections, and also different characteristics such as contrast and variation.

There were also a few terms and definitions that were taught that I wasn't familiar with, but I was using in my compositions already, so it was good to learn.

I learnt a new term: "contra melody" which is when something goes opposite to the motion of the original melody. This is where for example, a melody would go up (in motion), and the bass would have a descending bass line. I really don't know if that made sense but it kinda makes sense to me. It's a function I've heard in some tracks but never really picked it out.

Even though I know what arpeggios are, I finally learnt a simple definition which actually makes sense to me and that I'd be able to explain to someone if they asked me, which is "intervals of a harmony".

I'm really bad at explaining things so learning little definitions and terms like these really help me make sense of things which really helps me when trying to explain to someone else.

For the end of the lesson, we were given some sheets that had easy to complex rhythms written on a staff. Our lecturer had a metronome playing in the background and we just had to clap out those rhythms.

Even though I was familiar with the topic in this lecture, I still went home with a few new things that I learnt and I was finally able to make sense of some terms that I kinda knew but really didn't.