In this video we're going to talk about how to compose a
phrase that is inherently interesting and musical.
We'll use examples from film and video game scores to learn about what a musical phrase
is, what Alan Belkin considers the three requirements of a good phrase, and then I'll
talk about the extra special sauce you can use to take your phrases to the next level.
A phrase in music is a single complete thought.
We'll use language as a metaphor.
A phrase is usually more than just a single motive, which is like an idea or a word.
But a phrase is a statement about or an expression of that idea.
“Philosophy” might be your motive, which is a word which has potential to be interesting,
but if I just walk up to you and say “philosophy,” I haven't really communicated anything.
But if I said “Hey I heard Jim is majoring in philosophy,” or “Have you read any philosophy
books lately?” then I'm actually using the motive to say something and make a complete thought.
We group music into phrases for the same reasons that we group language into clauses,
sentences, and questions, and so on.
Without any complete thoughts we can't really understand what a person is talking about.
A piece of music without clear phrases is like an essay with no punctuation or no paragraph breaks.
That would be a nightmare to read,
and so listening to something like that is also really hard.
All of the longer forms in music, from periods and sentences
up to rondo and sonata forms, use the phrase as the basic building block.
Atypical phrase is two bars long but it doesn't have to be.
You could have a one bar phrase.
You could have a 31 bar phrase if you really needed to, but
two bars is a pretty good length most of the time.
Later in this video I'll show you a Metroid theme that uses two and one bar phrases for a sentence
form, and a theme from Super Mario 3D World that uses two and four bar phrases for a period form.
In his book musical composition, Alan Belkin outlines three requirements for a good phrase.
Use one or two motives, reach a peak or climax and conclude with punctuation.
Number one, use only one or two motives.
By limiting yourself to only one or two main ideas, you're preventing information overload.
Going off into too many ideas in a short time it's a bit like me starting this
sentence about phrases and then that's why they save the ketchup for the very end.
That doesn't make any sense and that doesn't really mean anything,
and that's what you're doing if your music is just wandering off into new places just too quickly.
Three motives is doable but you're starting to push the limits, and then beyond that it's
really just too much information and too hard for us to keep track of and process.
Number two, reach some sort of peak or climax.
Most of the time this will be the highest pitch,
but I think it's better to think in terms of the “most something.”
So it could be the most high pitch, but it could also be the lowest pitch or the loudest moment.
Let me know in the comments if you can think of another way to hit a local peak beyond just pitch.
In the World 1-1 theme from Super Mario Bros 3,
the peak of all four phrases is actually the lowest note.
And the peak in the fourth phrase is even the lowest note in the whole tune, giving us
this Inception style layering of local peaks and then a regional peak at a more zoomed out level.
About two-thirds or three-quarters of the way into a phrase is a reliable
sweet spot for where to hit that peak, but it's definitely not a requirement.
In the first two phrases of the Vikings theme from How to Train Your Dragon,
the first phrase hits this high G near the end of the phrase,
while the second phrase hits the high G closer to the beginning.
So on a local scale they both hit a peak for a satisfying phrase, but when taken together we
get this concentration of the peaks towards the middle which gives us a nice build and release.
Number three, the phrase concludes with some sort of punctuation.
This is the big one that many beginners miss.
They have these phrases that just ramble on and on and on and on and never stop to breathe.
Sometimes punctuation might be like a literal breath, like you just said
something and you need to breathe in before you can say your next statement.
But if you follow melodic tendencies and expected patterns you could also
get a sense of punctuation just by hitting a conclusive feeling note.
In the first two phrases of that Viking theme we get both types.
The first phrase takes a short breath with this dotted quarter on the E,
while the second phrase doesn't really take any time to breathe.
But because the end of this phrase settles on the A,
and because it's separated from the coming pickup by this wide leap of a fifth,
we feel a break between this phrase and the one that's coming.
So if you've got one or two strong motives,
you hit a peak (usually the highest note but not always), and you have clear punctuation,
you're going to have a phrase that is comprehensible and satisfying.
Let's listen to two examples and then we'll talk
about one more thing you can do to make it extra special.
In his chapter about the phrase, Alan Belkin makes
a passing comment that I think deserves a lot more attention than he gives it.
He says “The peak is usually attained only once within the phrase.”
If we look back through our examples we'll see that he's right.
In almost all of these examples the
highest or lowest pitch is only touched one time in the phrase.
I say this deserves more attention because I think it's this point specifically that
can make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful phrase.
Let's take the first two phrases of that Metroid theme
and change them so we hit the highest note two times.
The altered version doesn't sound wrong, so it would be very easy to write something like this.
But by taking care to not hit those peaks more than a single time,
you're going to give your phrase better contour and inherent interest.
If you feel like your phrases don't go anywhere it might be because you're
hitting your peak more than once and so you're accidentally making it less special.
I've covered motives, phrases, sentences and periods.
It's time to move on towards longer forms so in
the next video about form we'll talk about the small ternary, or ABA form.
Be sure to subscribe so you know when that's ready to go.
By the way I made a video about the two things you need to write a good motive,
so you can check that out here.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.