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Skills Focus: Creating original music
Skills Focus: Creating original music
Task 1: 4 Chord Song
Task 1: 4 Chord Song
Create a 4 chord song. This can be in any genre you want but must include your own ideas, demonstrating you can:
Create a 4 chord song. This can be in any genre you want but must include your own ideas, demonstrating you can:
- explore and extend ideas
- use strucutre effectively
- use rhythms and melodic patterns
- develop harmony
Step 1: Chord progression
Step 1: Chord progression
STEP 1: Composing your chord progression
MINIMUM:
As a pair/group, choose your 4 chords. They must be from the C major scale so that as your track and ideas develop, it will sound nice! Sticking to major chords will make your music sound happier, using more minor chords will make it sound sad.
Play them in the order to see what you like the most - you'll need to experiment and try different options
Write down your chosen chord progression
Starting learning to play the chords (keyboard, bass, guitar, ukulele?)
TOP TIP: The most common chord progression used in a four chord song is: I (C) - V (G) – VI (Am) – IV (F). I recommend starting with C major (I)
GOING BEYOND:
Experiment with swapping around the order of the notes from low to high e.g. instead of playing C E G, play E G C. This is called the first inversion.
Can your keyboard player use both hands? Which note from the chord will go in the left hand?
I
I
II
II
III
III
IV
IV
V
V
VI
VI
VII
VII
C D E F G A B C (B A G F E D C)
Step 2: Drum beat/rhythm
Step 2: Drum beat/rhythm
STEP 2: Adding a drum beat
MINIMUM:
Add at least one drum beat to accompany your chord progression
Play your beat in time with your chords
TOP TIP: Your tempo and type of beat will help give a sense of style to your track. If you're stuck, research different genres/beats on YouTube or listen to examples for ideas.
Step 3: Structure
Step 3: Structure
STEP 3: Developing your structure
MINIMUM:
Compose a second chord progression for your chorus - keep to 4 chords (or less)
Your track needs: an intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, outro.
TOP TIP: your chorus only needs to have one chord different to distinguish the different sections
GOING BEYOND:
Can your drummer add some drum fills to separate the sections?
Can you compose a third chord progression to act as a bridge?
Step 4: Hook/Riff
Step 4: Hook/Riff
STEP 4: Composing a hook/riff
MINIMUM:
Compose a 2-4 bar phase that can be repeated and used as your hook
It needs to use only notes from the C major scale
TOP TIP: experiment with ideas and keep it simple.
GOING BEYOND:
Work out when your riff will be played in your structure (developing your texture), and by which instrument(s)
Guitar/Piano
C D E F G A B C (B A G F E D C)
Bass/Piano
C D E F G A B C (B A G F E D C)
Step 5: Lyrics
Step 5: Lyrics
STEP 5: Writing your lyrics
MINIMUM:
Create/write some lyrics for your chorus
TOP TIPS:
pick a topic/theme and list some keywords/phrases as a starting point
say the words out loud to get a feel for the rhythm they create
use rhyming words to help the flow
GOING BEYOND:
Create lyrics for 2 verses
v12044gd0000c9o0v83c77u65r66qki0.mp4
Step 6: Perform
Step 6: Perform
STEP 6: Perform
MINIMUM:
In your groups, perform your song.
Writing up what you did...
Writing up what you did...
Just like with all tasks, you will be expected to write about what you did, how you did it and why you did it....
We'll cover this in more detail when we get there!
Example write up...
Example write up...
Coming up...
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