I Started Learning Music Theory
A different type of writing
Hello all. I’ve covered a wide array of topics here: philosophy, board games, machine learning, and business. Today I’ll add the most off-the-wall type of writing I’ve ever done: music.
A couple months back, I realized that I had no clue how music worked. To remedy this, I read a bunch of music theory sources online. The best source, without a doubt, was hooktheory.com, which doubles as a songwriting tool. No, by the way, they didn’t pay me. They should though!
Anyway, after a few weeks of theory, I decided to put it to use and write some music. My five songs are uploaded here. I’d appreciate any tips, though I doubt anyone on my subscriber list knows enough to offer useful songwriting feedback. Here’s a brief run-through of the songs:
Basic Piano: Title explains it. For this track, I was mostly testing the software. Its a short and uneventful song, but I think it sounds kinda nice
Electronic: Given that I wrote these songs on a computer software, I thought it would be fitting to write a synth track. To me, this reminds me of a space level of in platforming with annoying gravity mechanics
Corny Rock Song: I usually hate the “I’m doing this ironically” excuse, but, I’m sorry, Hooktheory’s rock implementation just sounds so silly to me. As such, I attempted to write a very silly rock song. I hope you enjoy it ironically.
Minor Orchestral: I wanted to write something in the minor mode, given it more “dramatic” feel. Like the electronic song, it ends up sounding like video game music. I can imagine the end credits rolling to this song.
Repeating Melody: This remains the only song I’ve felt “inspired” to write. I was walking around one day, and I heard a song in my head that involved a single repeating melody changing tempo, length, and pitch throughout the song. It didn’t turn out exactly how it sounded in my head, but I like many parts of it.
Well, there you go. Feel free to skip this one if you only come here for my brilliant philosophy insights and hilarious jokes. I just thought I should share.
I really liked Repeating Melody, especially how you use deceptive cadences and develop the simple do-mi-sol pattern through the rest of the piece. Nice job!