Rhythm Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Composer's Toolbox

Gísli Magnússon – Svartifoss

DanLisMusic Posted on May 28, 2017

It seems more and more that Iceland is becoming a haven for new music and new sounds in Hartford, CT. From the influence of Bjork to the Hartt School’s international collaborations, the music of Iceland is seeping deeper into the Hartford area. Gísli Magnússon’s piece Svartifoss depicts a waterfall in his native Iceland, and is […]

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Steven Maheu’s Elements of Creative Force – Part 5

DanLisMusic Posted on April 24, 2017

Hi All, Here is another image from Steven Maheu’s Elements of Creative Force. This explains how different elements can be contrasting or complementary to one another. We use the relationships between each number and another number to define if the two numbers are contrasting, or complementary. This only applies when using the same color. (We […]

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Steven Maheu’s Elements of Creative Force – Part 4

DanLisMusic Posted on April 8, 2017

Before we proceed with this post, it is worth noting that there have been some small changes in Steven Maheu’s main Elements of Creative Force document. The updated document can be found here: Today’s post is going to be short on my end, because Steven has devised an exercise for you to try, using the […]

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Aaron Mencher -“Uncertainly Yours”

DanLisMusic Posted on March 18, 2017

Composer Aaron Mencher‘s work “Uncertainly Yours” is a very cohesive work that relies on intervallic tightness, but is extremely fluid and athematic. Please download his score to follow along with this analysis. Here is the audio: The piece begins with the unifying interval that holds this piece tightly together, despite its arhythmicism and themelessness. The […]

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Steven Maheu – Elements of Creative Force

DanLisMusic Posted on January 31, 2017

Steven Maheu, a composer currently based in my home state, reached out to me about an idea he has, for realizing, documenting, and hearing creative ideas: “I felt you may be interested in a type of toolbox I had created for music and art. It has roots in an old ballet notation that has wide […]

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Sight Reading Exercises for Guitarists – Book

DanLisMusic Posted on January 9, 2017

Book available for purchase here Sight Reading Exercises for Guitarists The goal of this book is to provide a large volume of exercises that guitar teachers can use to help students gain facility with reading music. This book is not intended to teach sight reading. It is only meant to make a guitar teacher’s job […]

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Proportional Notation (Tool #59)

DanLisMusic Posted on December 9, 2016January 19, 2019

One trap that is easy to fall into as a composer is the rigidity of rhythm, meter, and barlines. While these are good tools to use when constructing a piece, sometimes a true sense of line requires that you write music that is free from strict rhythm, meter, and barlines. This allows your music to […]