There’s a Jewish expression, “hock mir ein chink” which translated means “don’t hit me with a tea kettle” which further translated means “don’t rattle on and on about nothing.” Okay, you’re probably wondering what this can possibly do with writing music? Well, sit back and relax and I’m going to attempt to make my point in a colorful way, if possible. I think you’ll find this thought provoking if nothing else.
I always thought that music walked a very fine line between monotony and utter chaos, especially when you’re talking about short pieces and most especially when you’re talking about royalty free tracks and their musical motif.
You only have to go to just about any royalty free music site (yes, mine included) and pick out a track to listen to. What you will probably hear, especially in the dance and electronic genres, is the same motif over and over and over with just slight variations. Of course this is nothing really new.
Remember the 1967 hit “Light My Fire” by The Doors? Do you recall the instrumental section? The whole motif is 6 notes played over and over and over on the organ while the guitar plays a rambling lead that doesn’t seem to go anywhere except in a circle.
Don’t get me wrong. I loved the song. But not for that 4 minutes of rambling. The Jim Morrison vocals were classic on that one. And it did have a catchy melody. I was very glad that AM radio played the 45 version which was about 3 minutes long.
But I digress.
Yes, music can be monotonous. And sometimes there is a fine line between that monotony being “good” and just being plain monotonous.
So the question I’m going to ask is this. How do you know where that line is? How do you know when you’ve crossed it? Everybody has their own level of tolerance. I know some people who think “Hey Jude” is the greatest Beatles song every written while others think it is a piece of monotonous crap. In my early years, it was one of my favorite songs. Now that I’m older, not so much. Four minutes of na-na-na-na-na-na-na…na-na-na-na…Hey Jude is just way too much for me these days.
Thus, you have to know your audience. If you’re writing classical music for orchestra, you can repeat things (lots of classical music does just that) but 4 minutes of the same loop over and over is going to send your audience screaming for their lives.
When I sit down to write, I think about who my audience is and what the piece is meant to accomplish. If I’m scoring for a scenic video where the scene is changing constantly, I’m definitely not going to be doing too much repetition and will probably do one or two key changes depending on how long the video is.
If I’m scoring for an action video or a fight scene then I might want some kind of rock or even heavy metal track. Most rock or metal jams that fit these type of videos are usually very repetitive. So you’re not going to be meandering all over the place and throwing key changes into a 2 or 3 minute piece.
But there still have to be some kind of diversity even in the monotony or the monotony becomes unbearable.
How do I handle this?
Well, without having to put too much thought into it, especially if I’m under the gun and faced with some real time pressure, what I’ll usually do is lay down the initial beat that’s going to carry the track through. After that, I’ll come up with some kind of a bass riff. I might have a verse/chorus structure but nothing more complex than that. Maybe I’ll do 16 bars for the verse and 8 for the chorus. I’ll play this bass riff out throughout the drum track.
After I’ve done that, I’ll then come up with a lead, usually played on a heavy distorted guitar. I’ll come up with a main motif but will vary it slightly every 8 bars or so. This gives the illusion of their being some diversity when you’re really just playing the same thing over and over. Let’s face it, most guitar leads and solos are pretty monotonous.
Finally, I’ll come up with the outro to wrap it all up.
If you’re going to go this route, for any genre that lends itself to the form, you probably don’t want the piece to be more than 3 minutes. After that, things tend to get a little long in the tooth.
Of course if your audience is the progressive rock crowd, this isn’t as big a problem.
If you do need to stretch things out, another trick is to have a different instrument take over the lead part. It can be playing the same exact melody but because of the fact that the sound is different, it makes the piece sound different.
One of the projects I’m working on now involves three minute dance tracks. They’re very similar in structure to what I described above. What I do to break up the monotony is divide the lead up between several synthesizers. I might alternate between them every minute or so into the track.
Another trick is to bring background synths or pads into the mix on the second or third verse. Maybe some sound effects as well. Let the piece build as it goes along. As long as there is movement, even if you’re playing the same basic melody, the piece won’t sound monotonous.
Thank God “Light My Fire” went from the organ solo to the reverberated guitar solo about mid way through that section of the song would have been a total bore. But really, that middle section was just thrown together.
You don’t have to write “Rite Of Spring” which is about as all over the place as you can get, but if your music doesn’t move, if it just goes around and around in a circle, you’re going to drive your audience crazy and ultimately away.
So don’t hock mir ein chinik.
But if you do, make sure you’re serving crackers or something to go with it.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim