We’ve all been there. Our creative reserves run dry and ideas seem to fall flat before they can even come out of your brain. This can make the process of songwriting difficult and frustrating but don’t worry, these creative blocks are only temporary and there are things you can do to kick start your creativity and get back on track to writing your next big hit.
Free Writing Sometimes getting an idea is as easy as sitting down and writing it out. Set aside some quiet time to sit down and write. Write everything that comes to mind. Don’t worry about a story, or plotline, or even a theme. Just write what comes to mind and see what you can come up with. Keep writing until you have nothing else to write then kick back and see if anything you’ve written can inspire your next project. This can be applied to music through vocal improvisation or free play on an instrument. You can sing random lyrics or play various chords and see how things work out. If something catches your ear roll with it and you may just have a new song within a matter of minutes. Set Constraints Vastly different from free writing, setting constraints can be another effective way to get you thinking creatively. Constraints can be as simple as setting a timer when free writing, or as complex as following a prompt. You can ask a friend or colleague for a prompt, or you can do find numerous prompts online with an easy Google search. Another good source for writing prompts is the Reddit community R/WritingPrompts, offering new prompts daily. This is also easily doable musically. Pick a meter you don’t normally work with, try composing a different genre, or play only variations of select chords. Sometimes limiting your choices can help you think of something new and interesting. Change Your Point of View Sometimes all you need is to change your scenery. The mundane day to day activities can sometimes create a fog that we can easily get comfortable in. Thinking of new ideas can be difficult because our brains have been conditioned to expect and experience the same thing every day. The easiest way to step out of this fog is to step into something different. Try visiting a new restaurant or coffee shop that you’ve never been to before. Take a road trip to a different town, or go for a walk in a park you’ve never been to before. On the flip side, you can try going to familiar places and try to look at them differently. What would your neighborhood park look like if you were a child? Would your hometown feel different if you were taller, or shorter? Changing your point of view whether by changing the scenery, or your perspective, can also be a great way to kick start your creative juices. Never miss a thing and join our mailing list today.
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Last week we highlighted five amazing women throughout music history. Well, with National Women’s History Month still in effect, we thought we’d feature yet another five influential women in the music industry. This week’s picks include Pat Benetar, Loretta Lynn, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, and Lady Gaga.
Pat Benatar American singer and songwriter Pat Benatar was a rock icon during the 1980s. With four Grammy Awards under belt, 15 Billboard Top 40 singles, and numerous multiplatinum, and platinum albums, it’s easy to see that Pat was a legendary performer. A former student of the prestigious Julliard School in New York City, Benatar was classically trained, but despite her education her ultimate dream was to perform in a rock band. In her memoir, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Benatar wrote: “My dream was to be the singer in a rockin' band, like Robert Plant was to Led Zeppelin or Lou Gramm to Foreigner…I wanted a partnership, like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had, an unrelenting back-and-forth between talented musicians. The sound I heard in my head was raucous, with hard-driving guitars speeding everything forward. I was a classically trained singer with a great deal of musical knowledge, but I had no idea how to make that visceral, intense sound happen. I had to evolve, but I didn't know how to make that evolution happen.” It was a dream that Benatar refused to give up on, and we’re so glad she didn’t. With chart topping hits like “Heartbreaker,” “I Need a Lover,” and “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” Benatar and her music will be keeping us rocking through the ages. Loretta Lynn
Fearless and headstrong, Loretta Lynn entered the Nashville scene with a point to make and a song to sing. From the beginning Lynn was a force masked by innocence and extreme talent. The daughter of a coal miner, Lynn grew up poor and shielded from the world inside her Appalachian holler. Thanks to the persistence of her husband Oliver”Doolittle” she learned how to play the guitar and wrote music about the life she lived. She says, “I just wrote about things that happened. I was writing things that nobody talked about in public, and I didn’t realize that they didn’t. I was having babies and staying at home. I was writing about life. That’s why I had songs banned.”
She may have gotten some songs banned, but that didn’t stop her from speaking/singing what was on her mind. In her songs Lynn proved her refusal to be anyone’s door mat, such as in “Your Squaw Is on the War Path” and she didn’t leave the women out of her reprimands as in “You Ain’t Woman Enough.” Whitney Houston
A record breaker, Whitney Houston is the only artist to have earned seven consecutive #1 Billboard Hot 100 hits. Known for hit songs like “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and her iconic cover of Dolly’ Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” Houston is known for her strong vocal range and definitive stage presence.
With family history tying the Houstons to music legends such as Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley, it’s no wonder that Whitney would soon carve out her own fame within the industry. Her earliest recordings in New York included big names such as Chaka Khan and the Neville Brothers. Her first album release under Clive Davis released in 1985 sold over 13 million copies in the US and worldwide and resulted in 3 consecutive #1 singles. Aretha Franklin
Civil rights activist and award-winning American singer and songwriter, Aretha Franklin began her vocal career singing gospel at her local church in Detroit, Michigan. The daughter of a minister, the soulful singer eventually went on to perform secular music under Columbia records, then later Atlantic Records. Under Atlantic she garnered national attention with it songs like “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” and “I Say a Little Prayer. As her career continued to flourish in the 1960s Aretha soon earned her nickname as the “Queen of Soul.”
Franklin was inducted as the first female performer in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and later inducted in the UK Music Hall of fame in 2005, and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012. She also received recognition as one of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” by Rolling Stone magazine and in 2019 she was awarded a Pulitzer prize posthumously “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades.” Lady Gaga
Born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, Lady Gaga is known for her avant garde approach to music and visual performance. A former Tisch School of Arts student, Gaga left her academic career for her music. Her big break came in 2007 when she released The Fame resulting in chart topping singles like “Just Dance,” and “Poker Face.” With her music career in full swing Gaga began to expand her career options and tried her hand in acting. Her efforts were successful with the acceptance of a Golden Globe for Best Actress for her performance in the hit mini-series American Horror Story: Hotel. Her role in the critically acclaimed film, A Star is Born, and her contribution to the move’s soundtrack helped her become the first woman to win an Academy Award, a Grammy, BAFTA, and Golden Globe award within a single year.
With over 124 million records sold, Gaga is noted as one of the world’s best-selling artists, and as of 2010 she is ranked as the fourth highest earning female artist in the industry. Her long list of achievements include awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 12 Grammy Awards, and some Guinness World Records. Times noted Gaga as one of the most influential people of the decade in 2011 and VH1 echoed the sentiment in their Greatest Women in music the following year. Never miss a thing and join our mailing list today.
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March is Women’s History Month. So, in honor of the numerous amazing women in history, we at Aschcraft Studios would like to recognize six talented and influential women throughout music history. This week we’re talking about Marian Anderson, Patsy Cline, Diana Ross, Madonna, Dolly Parton, and Ella Fitzgerald. ![]()
Marian Anderson
The first African American woman to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955, Marian Anderson is an American contralto known for her fight for racial equality within the music industry during the mid-twentieth century. She first garnered national attention in 1939 when, with the help of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, she performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an integrated audience of over 75,000 people on Easter Sunday. ![]()
Patsy Cline
Considered one of the most influential country music artists in the 20th century, Patsy Cline was the first to successfully bridge the gap between country and pop music. After a lifetime of dedication to the music industry, Cline is celebrated as a forerunner for women within the country music genre. Because her contributions to the genre Cline became the first woman to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973. ![]()
Diana Ross
Detroit native Diana Ross first gained popularity as the lead for the well known vocal group The Supremes. Having a successful career as both a vocalist and an actress, Ross was recognized as the “Female Entertainer of the Century” in 1976 by Billboard. In 1988 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of The Supremes and holds a spot with the Guiness Book of World Records for being the female artist with the most hits in the music on the music charges. ![]()
Madonna
The “Queen of Pop,” is known worldwide for her talents in singing, songwriting, and acting. Madonna is known for pushing boundaries and taking charge in every aspect of her career. Since her debut in 1983 with her self-titled album, Madonna has taken the world by storm garnering awards and recognition along the way. The Rolling Stone named her as one of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time as well as the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. The Guinness Book of World Records reports her as the best-selling female recording artist of all time. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2012 VH1 named her the greatest woman in music and in 2020 she was ranked as the greatest music video artists of all time by Billboard. ![]()
Dolly Parton
American singer, songwriter, actress, author, and humanitarian, Dolly Parton is a legend in the music industry. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, Parton is an inspiration to many female artists throughout the country. She holds forty-four Top 10 Country albums, ten Grammy Awards, ten Country Music Association Awards, and five Academy of Country music awards. She is also known for her humanitarian efforts such as the Dollywood Foundation to promote literacy throughout the United States. Never miss a thing and join our mailing list today.
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So far we’ve discussed various elements of music including volume, timbre, and pitch and how they all affect the affect, or experience, of a musical piece. Last week during our discussion on pitch we introduced musical notation and sheet music. This week we’ll continue to topic and look into duration, rhythm, and tempo with the help of our friend sheet music.
Last week we saw this example. Highlighted are all things related to pitch, the treble and bass clefs that tell us the range of where our notes are, the key signature that hints at the music’s overall sound, the notes and leger lines where the actual notes are written, and the staff lines on which all these elements reside.
This week I’ll be using the same example of sheet music with all things related to duration, rhythm, and tempo highlighted.
Here we have the notes highlighted in yellow again, but the focus this week will be on the notes themselves and not where they lay. In light blue the time signature is highlighted, tempo is colored in salmon, and a rest is highlighted in pink.
Duration and Writing the Notes Duration is the length of a sound or note. This is not to be confused with the duration of a piece, but it is for each individual not. In this example we see a dominant use of eighth notes on both the treble and bass clefs, however these are not the only kinds of notes you will see in sheet music. Notes can be comprised of three parts, a head, a stem, and a flag. The head may solid, or empty and will rest on either a line or an open space. Stems are lines drawn from the head. They can either go up or down, however if the stem goes up the line will be on the right side of the head. If the stem goes down it will be drawn to the left of the head. The stem’s position has no impact on how the music is played, but is drawn as it is to keep the sheet music clean and readable. The flag is a mark that curves way from the stem. The presence of a flag on a note is an indication of the note’s duration, which we will discuss in just a moment. In regards to duration, every note has a value. That is, the way a note is drawn is an indicator of how long that note is meant to last. A quarter note is shown as a solid head with a stem and is equal to one beat. A half note is an open head with a stem and is equal to two beats. A whole note is an open head with no stem and is equal to four beats. Sometimes notes will be followed by a small dot. The dot signifies a half beat. A small curved line might also appear joining two notes. These ties are a way of extending the duration of a note. Now back to those flags. Flags will be seen on notes whose duration is less than one beat. An eighth note is a half beat and is shown as a solid head with a stem and a single flag. A sixteenth note is one quarter of a beat and is shown as a solid head with a stem and two flags. Eighth and sixteenth notes may also be joined together by bars instead of flags, but eighth notes will still only have one bar and sixteenth notes will have two bars. Now that we talked about notes, let’s talk about rests. Rests have an important role in music composition because sometimes no sound can be just as powerful as sound itself. Rest values are the same as note values, however the symbols are different. The symbols and the note values they correspond with can be seen in the image below.
Time Signature and Tempo
The funny thing about tempo is that it can often be a subjective experience. What may feel fast paced to some could feel completely normal to others. This can be attributed to something as simple as a listener’s preference or simply where they find a beat. With this in mind, composers have found a way to note the exact tempo so a piece can be played the same way at the same speed every time. The time signature is seen as a fraction between the key signature and the notes, is where sheet music tells us meter of the piece. The top number represents how many beats are in a measure, while the bottom number shows the value for a single beat. A common time signature, especially for beginner musicians is 4/4, which means four beats per measure and one beat per quarter note. A 3/4 time signature has three beats per measure with one quarter note per beat. In the above example we see a 9/8 time signature meaning there are 9 beats in each measure with one beat equally one eighth note. Tempo determines how fast or slow a piece is. The tempo is shown as a number and is read as beats per minute. A higher tempo will be a faster piece, and a lower tempo will be slower. Just before the tempo you may also see some wording that will also provide information on the tempo. The word before the numerical value is often definitive of an average beats per minute or range. Common tempo terms include Largo (Broodly 50 BPM), Adagio (At Ease 70 BPM), Moderato (Moderately 110 BPM), Allegro (Fast, Quick, Bright 120-160 BPM), and Presto (Very Fast 170 + BPM). You’ve learned a lot about musical elements and notation over the past few weeks. Has this changed the way you hear music? When you listen to your favorite songs now, do you notice anything new or have found a deeper appreciation of it? I’d love know what you think so leave a message in the comments below! ReferencesMusic Notes. How to Read Sheet Music: Step-by-Step Instructions. n.d. https://www.musicnotes.com/now/tips/how-to-read-sheet-music/#:~:text=Tempo%20tells%20you%20how%20fast,a%20single%20note%20every%20second. Never miss a thing and join our mailing list today.
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Simply put, pitch is how high or how low a sound is. When looking at a soundwave, pitch is determined by the frequency of the wave. A slower wave cycle would create a lower-pitched sound, while a higher frequency would create a high-pitched sound. For those of us who have no use for images of soundwaves, a pitch can also be represented through musical notation, otherwise known as sheet music.
Sheet music exists as a visual representation of how music should sound. Each symbol on the page tells key information in regards to how the music should sound and how it should be played. Let’s take a look at the basic anatomy of sheet music.
As you can see, sheet music can have a lot going on. I’ve gone ahead and highlighted the elements we will be focusing on today. In the red, you’ll see the clefs. In the light blue you’ll see the key signature. The yellow highlights the notes with the green highlights noting leger lines. The dark blue features the staff lines in which serves as the base for all of the notation.
The Clefs The most common clefs are featured here, the treble or G clef (the backward S-looking thing on the top bar) and the bass or F clef (the backward C with the two dots on the bottom bar). There are a few other clefs but that may be the topic of a future post. The treble clef is actually a stylized G, remember it is also known as the G clef. The loop near the bottom of the symbol curls around the second staff line to mark the line as G4 or the G above middle C. There will be more on staff lines and notes later. The bass clef or F clef is written to indicate lower notes with the two dots surrounding F3, or the F below middle C. Staff Lines and the Notes The staff lines serve as the base on which the notation rests. Consisting in sets of five lines, notes are written to establish not only the pitch of the music but also, its duration and rhythm.
As seen in the images above, the notes of the treble clef starts just below the first open space under the staff lines and continue to follow up the lines alternating between open and lined spaces.
The movement from a line to an open space, or from an open space to a line is called a step. The notes begin with C and continue up to A. The bass clef is similar, but starts at E and continues up to C. Each note is a different pitch and a combination of pitches creates a melody. It is important to mention that the notes shown in the images above can be played in varying octaves. Therefore, a single note does not necessarily equate to any single specific pitch. “In Western Music, a note refers to one of 12 named tones that all music is made from – the notes of the chromatic scale.” (Chase) Key Signature Now that we understand what notes are, let’s talk about key signatures. The sharps (the hashtag-looking things) and flats (the smooshed b looking symbol) next to the clef reveals the key of the music piece and that every instance of that note is to be played a half step above (sharp) or below (flat) throughout the piece. The appearance or absence of sharps and flats, also called accidentals, can vastly affect the tone and mood of the piece. C Major, for example, is a bright and bold piece but holds no accidentals. In contrast, C Major’s relative minor key, A Minor has three flats creating a somber sound. This brings us back to the reason why we started this musical exploration. How is the affect of a piece of music affected by musical elements, in this case, pitch? As I previously mentioned, changing the key signature can change a piece from a happy tune to a sorrowful melody. The notes we use in music create tunes that will either uplift or sadden us. If a piece is composed primarily in high-pitched notes, how do you think that would make you feel? What if the piece was written in lower-pitched notes? Would you feel any differently? Or what if the music suddenly switched from low to high, what reaction would you then have? Think about your favorite song. Are there high pitches or low pitches? What feeling do you get when you listen to it and how do you think you would feel if the pitches were changed? Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear from you! References Chase, Samuel. What is Pitch in Music? | Hello Music Theory. n.d. https://hellomusictheory.com/learn/pitch/. Never miss a thing and join our mailing list today.
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