Module 3 - Patterning

Patterns are all throughout music, in the rhythms, the notes, even the “form,” or the order of the notes. Patterns are also all throughout life, so being able to discern and create patterns is important. Patterning is the ability to not only find patterns, but also to interpret them, make sense of them, use them, and then to create new patterns that are also useful.

Most music that most people are familiar with is written based on triads. That is, the music is based on the interval of a third. An interval is the space between two notes (counting both notes), so a third has one note in between the two. For example, A to C skips one note, B, so is a third. Of course, this isn't always the case. In the middle ages, when music was brand new, it was first used by the church, and all the music was written in fifths (for example, A and E). These are called Gregorian chants. In more recent times, composers have attempted to do new things with music, resulting in some very odd things indeed. Webern was one of the first minimalists. In minimalist music, an instrument may literally have only one or perhaps two notes at a time, with a fair amount of rests in between. The overall combination is music of a sort, but not any like we are used to. Another relatively recent development, in the last hundred years, has been the development of twelve-tone music and serial music. These composers believed that all the combinations of notes using the old patterns (the thirds) had been used. In these types, composers will put apparently random notes on the page, but they cannot use a note a second time until all the notes have been used once. The result is that no one note is played more than any other.

To create a new pattern, I didn't want to go so out on a limb like the minimalists, serialists, or composers writing twelve-tone music. However, I wanted to write something a little different, but still working with intervals. So I wrote a short piece based on the interval of a fourth. A fourth is not so unusual in music (“Here Comes the Bride” starts with a fourth), but you don't often have music based on fourths. My result is a bit different-sounding compared with what we are used to, but not completely strange.

Intervals are a topic that some students struggle with initially, but that is very helpful for musicians to know. Any musician that wants to get at all serious about their music must become very familiar with all intervals and how they interact. By composing a piece based on fourths, it really drove home to me just how dependent I am on thirds. It was actually rather difficult to keep it to fourths; I kept drifting to using thirds. This exercise would be useful to use with my students, to compose songs based on each different interval (seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths). It would really help them get to know each interval, how it sounds (some really don't sound great!), and it would be great practice harmonizing with a melody.

 I'm having a difficult time representing my composition on blogger, but so far the best I have is a link to the file that I uploaded to google documents.  I'm working on getting a recording of it, as it does sound a bit different, but not too different.  So here's what it at least looks like.