• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Art of Composing

Let's learn to compose together.

  • Start Here
  • Courses
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Articles
  • About
    • Contact
    • Listen to My Music
  • Composing Resources
    • Recommended Books
    • Orchestration Resources
    • Forum
    • Archives
You are here: Home / Questions / How does statement response repetition work?

How does statement response repetition work?

March 22, 2017 By

Forum › Category: Courses › How does statement response repetition work?
0 Vote Up Vote Down
Frank B asked 5 years ago

still feeling through exercise 3-3-1. I don’t know what is expected of me in this exercise still, if my basic idea includes chords that prolong the tonic function should I include them? 
so I chose I | vii dim (woulda done full without the tonic at the top so it pulled to the tonic note of vi but alas, chromaticism :/) | vi | vi64  
would you like me to include the harmonic content in a way that is reflective of the chord change (like V/V type stuff, I really doubt it now that I said it but I just wanna make sure) or use the method you showed us in the lesson to convert the melodic content to fit the newly laid out harmonic content?

1 Answers
0 Vote Up Vote Down
Best Answer
Jon Brantingham Staff answered 5 years ago

Generally you want modify the melody to fit the new harmony.

In your case, you could do a progression such as:

I – viiº | vi – vi6/4 | IV – viiº/IV | ii – V | …

This would allow you a little chromaticism, and the ability to take it back to I for the continuation.

If you want to keep things completely diatonic, you could do:

I – V6 | vi – vi6/4 | IV – I6 | ii – V | …

This makes it a purely diatonic progression, but still generally feels the same.

It is important to realize you have a lot of control over things. When there is an exact repetition, it generally means the harmonic material doesn’t change, but obviously you want it to make musical-logical sense, and generally you don’t want to violate expectations of functional harmony. If something doesn’t sound right to your ears and sensibility – then change it.

If you have written a basic idea, and then you transpose it to a new key area (say IV), then you can keep the tonic relationships (the first example) or make it diatonic (the 2nd).

Primary Sidebar

Most Important Topics

  • How to Compose Music
  • My Free Composition Course
  • Full Beginner’s Course on Composition
  • Orchestration Resources
  • Unlocking the Mysteries of Diatonic Harmony
  • Functional Harmony
  • Books on Music Composition: A Composer’s Reading List
  • The Art of Modulation, Part 2: Common Chord Modulation
  • Why V65, V43, V42?

What Do You Want to Learn?

  • Creativity (12)
  • Film Scoring (3)
  • Form (8)
  • Fundamentals (7)
  • Getting Started (3)
  • Harmony (18)
  • Melody (8)
  • Musical Inspiration (13)
  • My Compositions (13)
  • My Journey (7)
  • Orchestration (2)
  • Podcast (13)
  • Process (31)
  • Read (60)
  • Science (6)
  • Songwriting (2)
  • Theory (12)
  • Video (16)
  • Work (5)

Recent Posts

  • The Two Critical Habits of Songwriting
  • How to Become a Songwriter if You’re a Composer
  • Why Art of Composing Exists: To Make Better Composers
  • The Science of Becoming a Better Composer
  • Build Your Craft: Learn the Melody and Chord Progression in Mozart’s Lacrimosa
  • What Are Inversions
  • Composing Without An Instrument
  • Music and Time: Theme Types
  • Music and Time: The Basic Idea
  • Music and Time: What Are Formal Functions?
  • How I Setup My Scoring Template
  • More on Sketching
  • Five Tips for Better Sketching
  • Composing a Chord Progression
  • Hearing Loss and Composers
  • Five Minute Speed Composing Session
  • Dealing with Writer’s Block
  • Feeling Stuck Composing? You’re Probably Not Defining Creative Problems.
  • Defining Creative Problems
  • Do I need to play piano to compose?

Footer CTA

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • FAQs
  • Login
  • Merch
  • Courses

Copyright © 2022 · Art of Composing