Tutorial No.8. Create a piece in ternary form, from computer-generated random tune fragments.
The Tune and Rhythmic Pattern Generator
is a composing tool with which the computer generates random tunes and rhythmic
patterns, within a specified scale and octave span. This may be opened from the Composing
Tools flowchart, by clicking the 2nd green rectangle at the top, or
from the main MENU, Create -> Compositions -> Tune and
rhythmic pattern generator.
You can click the pink button repeatedly, listening to each random tune,
until you hear one you like. Then you may set a rhythmic pattern using the
right-hand section of the screen. Then you can keep it as a fragment for use on
the Composing Board.
In this tutorial, we shall do this twice, to obtain 2 fragments, which
we shall assemble to form a short piece in ternary form
A A B A. There will be no modulation of course, just a simplistic
form.
- Open the Tune and Rhythmic Pattern Generator.
Type in a title and a short file-name at the top of the screen.
- Set the key to Eb from the drop-down box. We shall utilize the
default mode fully random within a one octave
compass, the default scale of major
scale, the default time signature of 4
beats per bar, the default length 2 bars,
the default maximum of 8 notes,
and the default tempo of 120 crotchets per minute.
Any of these can be changed later.
- Click the pink button Generate
Melody a few times, to listen to some typical 2 bar random tunes
in 4/4 time, each note a crotchet in duration. The rhythm is boring! Click
on the first green crotchet in the line of 4 crotchets under Create a
rhythmic pattern on the right of the screen. It should change into
a pair of (red) quavers. Right-click on the next crotchet. It will change
into a (blue) minim. Then click the yellow button Apply Rhythm Patterns.
This should sound a bit more interesting. The rhythm pattern has been
applied to both bars.
- Now keep clicking the pink
button Generate Melody
until you hear a fragment you like. To hear it over again, click the Play
button on the Playbar at the foot of the screen. Then click the purple
button Add fragment to composing
board. Give this the name Theme A for our random composition.
- Now change to a different rhythmic pattern, so that theme B will contrast
in both melody and rhythm from theme A. Each left click on a note in
the rhythm patterns panel changes it to notes of shorter duration, a
right-click make them longer. Experiment to get the feel of it, and to
create a pattern you like.
- Now keep clicking the pink
button Generate Melody
until you hear another fragment you like, then click the purple
button Add fragment to composing
board. Give this fragment the name Theme
B.
- Open the Composing Board, either from the Composing Tools flowchart
by clicking the central pink
rectangle, or from the main MENU Create -> Compositions ->
Composing Board. There should be two icons at the foot of the
screen representing your 2 fragments, labeled A
and B.
Drag icon A up to the first square at the top, then drag icon A
again up to the 2nd square, then drag icon B
onto the 3rd square, finally drag icon A
up to the 4th square.
- Click the orange button Assemble
fragments on the board into a new tune.
- Click the Play button to hear the blended effect. If you wish to
keep this master work so it can be loaded from the database in the future,
go to the main MENU, Edit -> Melody Data and type in, at
least, a title for your composition, and a short file-name. Then save the
new tune by clicking the green
button save to disk (database).
For more detailed instructions on using the Tune and Rhythmic Pattern
Generator, see its help
panel.