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View Full Version : Ask me about music composition/theory/orchestration

skysaw
06-05-2007, 08:39 AM
I've been composing music for over 30 years, have done a bit of commercial work, and have scored two feature-length films. I have written a number of pieces for full orchestra, some of which have been performed live. I will actually have a short piece premiered at the Kennedy Center in July.

You can hear a few samples at http://www.allhands.com

Ask away!
Ynot
06-05-2007, 08:45 AM
your site doesn't work if you open in a new tab
might want to look into that (IIS problem, maybe)

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Connection: close
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 14:39:33 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
Content-type: text/html
Page-Completion-Status: Normal

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<HTML LANG="en-us">
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Jamie Kowalski - All Hands Music</TITLE>

<META NAME="author" CONTENT="Jamie Kowalski">
<META NAME="copyright" CONTENT="&copy; 2005 All Hands Music">
<META NAME="date" content="2005-10-31">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
skysaw
06-05-2007, 08:47 AM
your site doesn't work if you open in a new tab
might want to look into that (IIS problem, maybe)


Hmm... might have been a temporary glitch? Try refreshing.
Ynot
06-05-2007, 09:58 AM
It's intermittent, but you might want to speak to your host

screen capture below (right click, save as)

http://www.snoopy.force9.co.uk/skysaw.avi

- Tony
pj
06-05-2007, 10:11 AM
What is an 'alt' chord? As in Bbalt? How is it spelled out? (Like 1,3,5, etc...)
skysaw
06-05-2007, 12:20 PM
What is an 'alt' chord? As in Bbalt? How is it spelled out? (Like 1,3,5, etc...)
The term "alt chord" is generally used with jazz music. It means chords with tones that are not in the scale usually associated with that chord (i.e., a note has been "altered" from the scale). It usually refers to altering the 5th, 9th, 11th, or 13th of a chord (most usually the 5th or 9th). A Bb-alt would be either Bb, D, F# (augmented chord) or Bb, D, Fb (b5 chord).

Therefore, it's not a specific description of an intended chord, rather a general description of the chord's function. Building on a C9 chord in F major, you could formulate the following:

C, E, G, Bb, D - (C9 - original, unaltered dominate 9th)
C, E, Gb, Bb, D - (C9b5 - suggesting a whole-tone scale)
C, E, G#, Bb, D - (C9#5 - also whole-tone... rarely used)
C, E, G, Bb, Db - (C7b9)
C, E, G, Bb, D# - (C7#9)

Theoretically, you could alter both the 5th and the 9th, but then the chord's root begins to become ambiguous, and it could be interpreted in different ways. For example:

C, E, Gb, Bb, Db sounds like a Gb7 chord with an added raised fourth.
pj
06-05-2007, 12:24 PM
Thank you! That's a lot better description than anything I've found by searching.

I'm working through Real Book standards, so yes - it is a Jazz context. I guess it is a matter of grabbing the basic dominant chord and then seeing if the melody line is leaning in a certain direction and picking an appropriate alteration for it, huh?
skysaw
06-05-2007, 12:33 PM
Thank you! That's a lot better description than anything I've found by searching.

I'm working through Real Book standards, so yes - it is a Jazz context. I guess it is a matter of grabbing the basic dominant chord and then seeing if the melody line is leaning in a certain direction and picking an appropriate alteration for it, huh?
I'm not a jazz musician, so my application of these things is mostly theoretical. The melody sometimes actually creates the alteration while the harmony simply omits the note. In some cases, the melody and harmony may disagree all together... it really depends on what you're doing; jazz is a funny thing.

A typical example is with the 7b5 chord. The harmony might actually be playing a standard dominant 7th chord and the melody might hit the flat fifth. the fifth of a chord is actually the note that least defines its identity, so it can safely be ommitted from the accompaniment, and the melody can flit back and forth between flat and natural as it sees fit. Or you can let the dissonances sit if you want.