Category: Free Inquiry

Well, so, the semester has flown by and I have not achieved the high goal I had set early on of completing 3-4 videos in my instructional series. I had initially noted the highness of that goal, and it proved slightly too high in the end.

However, the impetus from this course successfully reawakened my dormant interest in the series and provided some badly needed momentum. With the topic list I generated and these past two videos now up on YouTube, the end of the semester feels as much like a beginning.

The process of preparing for and making these videos continues to be filled with learning at every bend. This latest one was tricky to figure out because it was a continuation of the previous, and yet I wanted it to stand on its own as well. Decisions about which subtopics to in- and exclude were ponderous at first and surprising at last. And, as previously noted, I felt the need to sketch an outline for this one, which helped a lot in boiling things down to a very reasonable video length—as did the editing process (obviously).

So I’m looking forward to learning more through the process of figuring out what I have to say on these topics (I know in advance that I have something, but I never know what exactly). And this winter break is looking like as good a time as any to get going on the next one. That said, my top priority will now shift to getting a long-awaited album of original music done and published, but it would be great (and seems kinda doable) to squeeze another instructional video in as well!

So…I guess I have the rest of the month’s work cut out for me.

OK! After somewhere in the range of 25-35 full takes, most of which were 11-14 minutes in length, I arrived at a surprisingly tight, 8-minute take which dispensed with most of the fluff while hitting all of the most important points. It only took three little edits to cut out minor flubs. Next I combed through the video for stills I could use (this took another good hour or so, actually), uploaded them to Snappa (a similar alternative to Canva), and created a thumbnail I was happy with. Then I got the video and thumbnail up on my YouTube channel, in the appropriate playlist, double-checked everything, and published it. Here it is:

In terms of content covered in the video, I will need to do a follow-up video on the same topic to cover other important and interesting uses of inverted chords as well as more ideas about bass lines, but this is a strong and concise introduction to the subject that I’m pleased about.

I should generate a list of all the other sub-topics I want to cover in my next video to make sure I touch on all of them; I figure that’s my next step. I haven’t decided yet whether to include my little history of Rameau and modern chord theory—I’ll need to think about that…

Yesterday I spent a few hours recording myself. No part of the footage will be used in posted video, but I don’t believe any of it was useless either.

Some people write scripts for themselves. I doubt I will ever do that. Some people write outlines and that is something I might try one day (but no promises). Thus far, the thing that has worked for me is simply to try to make a video—over and over again.

First efforts are largely about discovery: I press record and start talking on a topic and thus find out what I have to say about it. In the process I bump up against limits to my knowledge and this informs me of what I need to research, try out musically, or even just remember. Later my efforts are more about shaping the monologue—figuring out what ideas and points to include and where. And eventually the process becomes more about details and, especially, compressing everything I want to say into the tightest package possible (that still feels personable).

In fact, all parts of this refining process are going on simultaneously from the first time I press the record/stop button through to the last, but the overall emphasis shifts over the course of the iterated attempts. Takes will eventually start to feel usable, and in the end I will settle on a single one, which I may or may not further reduce using editing tools. (I prefer the look of unedited videos, but sometimes an otherwise great take is still just a bit too flabby.)

At this stage I’m still very much in the discovery period of recording for this first video, so I have nothing really to show from hours of work. But I trust the process. Also, I forgot it was Thanksgiving day weekend and failed to make plans for visiting family (shrug emoticon), so tomorrow I’ll be here, back at recording again (thumbs up emoji).

Although I don’t have much to show for it yet, I have actually been working on my free inquiry project. As announced in my previous post, I’m going to be making YouTube videos conveying useful concepts in music theory for songwriting. For one thing I’ve generated the following very-incomplete list of topics that I’d like to cover in future videos:

• Inverted chords (including a brief lesson on Rameau’s chord theory?)
• Bass lines as melodies (including review of diatonic & chromatic movement)
• Intro to vocal harmonies (emphasis on discontinuous harmonies)
• Vocal harmony style study (comparison of the Beach Boys and The Band)
• Surprise in chord repetition
• The sweet spot between weird & normal (weird can be boring)
• Playing with time: intro to messing around in the rhythm department
• Shifting & switching tempos
• Time signatures, simple and complex
• Omitted beats (e.g. ‘Hold On Dear Brother’) & partial beats
• Getting math-y: counting down (or up) with chord repetitions & beats
• Setting words to music: word painting & assigning notes to words
• Accommodating words to music (e.g. ‘Ps 16’)
• Accommodating music to words (e.g. ‘Morrow Thought’)
• Song structures
• Writing from something simple that feels good to play
• Writing from melody rather than from chords
• Thoughts on instrumentation

Realistically, completing just 3 or 4 of these in a single semester would be a feat—and that’s what I’m shooting for. The ideal order in which to make these is still unclear to me, but I know that I’d like to start with an exploration of inverted chords and bass lines, and I trust the path will unfold from there.