Do you feel unsatisfied with your ability to accurately express ideas in your songs? Wish you could effortlessly write songs that clearly convey your thoughts, feelings and emotions? The truth is, many musicians struggle with musical expression and experience a lot of frustration when they can't write songs the way they want them to sound.
That said, you can seriously cut down the time it takes you to master musical expression and write great songs by avoiding a common mistake made by most songwriters: Overlooking or under-utilizing important songwriting elements. In this article, I am going to discuss one of the songwriting elements that is most frequently overlooked (often causing songs to sound dull and uninspiring). This important songwriting element is "Dynamics."
WARNING: If you read the last sentence and thought to yourself: "Dynamics? I already know what that is... writing music loud and soft. Tell me something I don't know!"... You have already made the same mistake that most songwriters make! So many musicians approach songwriting by trying to come up with new chords, melodies or rhythms and totally 'ignore' dynamics. This is very unfortunate because by ignoring dynamics, you are ignoring one of the most useful elements for expressing yourself in music. Before I begin discussing this element in depth, I'd like you to understand how learning more about it will be beneficial to your songwriting. Here are 3 things that will happen when you learn to creatively use dynamics in your music:
- Make your music much more creative and expressive without even altering a single pitch.
- Gain the power to drastically change the feeling of intensity in a song.
- Create a totally new dimension in your music to emphasize each individual song section or musical part.
A Quick Definition Of Dynamics In Music
When it comes to dynamics most people understand this to describe the general volume level of a song. However, dynamics refers to both overall volume of the music as well as the individual parts that make up the music as a whole. Whenever you read a piece of music, you will see various letters that are used to display the dynamics. These have been developed and changed over a span of centuries until arriving at the letters we have today. Here are a few examples:
p (piano) means "soft."
f (forte) means "loud" or "strong."
mp(mezzo-piano) "moderately soft."
mf (mezzo-forte) "moderately loud."
ff (fortissimo) means "very loud."
pp (pianissimo) means "very soft."
fff (fortississimo) means "very very loud"
ppp (pianississimo) means "very very soft"
How To Use Dynamics To Accent A Single Melody
To make any melody stick out, emphasize it by using varying dynamics. For instance, begin the melody "loud" and gradually reduce the volume until the notes are "soft". This technique is known as a "decrescendo". Additionally, alter the volume level of different notes within a melody to make them contrast with each other and stick out. This is especially useful for adding interest to repeating musical parts in your songs. This will give you the power to express yourself in different ways without altering any of the actual pitches in your melody.
How To Use Dynamics To Surprise Your Listener With Silence
One of the most creative ways to enhance the effect of dynamics in your songs is to use 'silence' as a tool for creating musical tension and getting the listener's attention. To illustrate this, think about a time when you were listening to loud music in your car when all of a sudden your friend in the passenger seat presses pause on the stereo. Most likely, you would immediately think to yourself something like "Hey, what's going on?!" This exact reaction came be recreated when you use silence in your music to catch the listener off guard and 'force' them to concentrate on the music. To do this, take a part for a song that you have already written and replace various notes with silence. You will find that by doing this you alter the feel of the rhythm and (for longer periods of silence) build up a sense of anticipation. However, also note that silence can easily be overused, so do not overwhelm your listeners or the feeling of surprise that they feel will quickly wear off.
How To Utilize Contrasting Dynamics For Musical Expression
By using contrasting dynamics you can quickly grab the attention of anyone listening to your music. For example, think about the common songwriting formula used in rock ballads. For the most part, the song will consist of softly played acoustic guitar and vocal parts. Many times, the introduction (and beginning verse and chorus) will contain no percussion whatsoever. Then, to provide contrast, the drums will begin playing during the second verse. As an even bigger contrast, the songwriter may even include a solo/break section with electric guitar (only to return to the soft, acoustic guitar parts once the section has ended). This approach of contrasting louder and softer dynamic levels is great for emphasizing entire song sections to make the stand out from one another. To hear a perfect example of this type of song, listen to Nothing Else Matters by Metallica.
Examples Of How Dynamics Are Commonly Used In Musical Expression
A very underestimated approach that can help you learn how to better express yourself in music is to study the scores of your favorite movies. I don't mean you need to purchase the actual score itself and read the music... but instead simply observe the way the music is arranged with different scenes throughout the film. This will help you equate the emotions expressed by the actors along with the music and build your ability to express yourself better in your songwriting. Here are some common examples:
Example One: Using dynamics to create a feeling of surprise
Visualize a scene in a movie like this: It's 11:30AM and there is a businessman standing at a packed street corner waiting for the "walk" sign to turn on so he can cross. All around him you can hear the sounds of the big city such as cars honking, the roar of continuous chatter and street vendors yelling out to attract new customers (you can also hear upbeat music playing in the background to set the scene). Suddenly, the sign turns on and the businessman looks up from his watch as everyone starts crossing the street in a big moving mass - bumping into him along the way. He adjusts his coat and quickly makes his way across the street. As he quickly jogs across he suddenly trips and drops his briefcase... papers go flying everywhere. He falls to the ground, scrambles to pick them up and stuff them into his briefcase as quickly as possible while losing focus of his surroundings. Finally he grabs the last one... "Gotcha!" he says as he crams it inside. Then, as he stands up to dust himself off you hear the loud screech of a car slamming on the breaks as it comes to an instant stop in front of him.
At the end of this scene, what is a good way that the music in the score could emphasize the stress of the situation? In many cases for a scene like this, you will hear the music quickly build up to end on a very loud group of notes. This feels very surprising when compared with the previous musical ideas played in the background and is very expressive of the sudden shock the character might feel.
Example Two: Using rests/silence to enhance dynamics and add a sense of mystery.
In this last example, imagine a scene in a horror movie that takes place inside of a large, haunted mansion with a man walking around by himself. At this point in the scene, he believes he saw a ghost and begins slowly walking from one room to the next. Each time he takes a step, you can hear the old wooden floors of the mansion creaking beneath him. "Who's there?" he says out loud (suddenly, you hear the sound of a single cello beginning to build in volume). Out of nowhere, something seems to scurry along the ground behind him. He snaps around to see what is going on (the music stops and there is silence)... nothing there but an old antique rug. The man bends down to inspect the rug, already layered in what seems like a century of dust. "How long has this thing been here?" he wonders out loud. Then his ears perk up as he hears the floor creak behind him. A drop of sweat runs down his forehead and his face turns cold (the cello begins playing again to build up suspense... getting louder and louder). He slowly turns his head around and suddenly everything goes dark. You hear a terrible scream, then... total silence.
Example Three: Expressing a sense of increasing or decreasing emotional intensity with dynamics
Think of a romantic scene where a couple is brought together at the airport. First, there is a lot of doubt on both sides about whether the relationship will work out or not (with very soft music playing in the background). After the couple talks for a little bit, they finally come to the decision that they must go their separate ways. Both the man and woman walk off and the scene cuts to the man walking out of the airport thinking of past memories of his lover. Inside the airport, the woman sits with her face in her hands, wondering what will become of her life without the presence of the man she cared for so much. Suddenly, they both have the realization that they were wrong... they will find a way to make things work. They both get up and start running to find one another (the music begins building in volume). They run frantically through the airport, trying to regain the last spec of hope that the other person hasn't left yet, and is looking for them too (music continues becoming louder and louder). Then across a crowd, they lock eyes, run toward each other and embrace! In response, the music climaxes here and is playing at its loudest...
After reading the many examples in this article, you should now have a good understanding of the role that dynamics play for musical expression. By making dynamics a main focus in your songwriting, you will be able to write music that better expresses specific ideas and emotions while adding more depth to the individual parts of your songs.
by Ryan Buckner
About the author:
Ryan Buckner is a professional musician, guitarist and songwriter. His online songwriting lesson site contains a free musical elements songwriting eBook as well as many other instructional songwriting resources.
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