This Arrangement Rule Will Change Your Music
Nathan James Larsen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiL3K3ewfuc

Transkript (automatisch erstellt)

0:00 there is an insanely powerful tool and composition that if you use it'll change how you make music probably forever many of you are using it unknowingly and many
0:07 of you don't know it don't use it and as a result your music is generally speaking not where it could be it's called the rule of three and this is not
0:13 something I made up it's something you can analyze the music Across not just the past decade two decades or even several decades this is something that
0:20 you can analyze the music over the course of literally hundreds of years and as producers songwriters and composers you need to know this because
0:26 it's proven to work over and over again now before I share this with you inevitably many of you will find plenty of popular examples of music that breaks
0:33 this rule heck Nine Inch Nails didn't exactly follow traditional musical convention nor did Dream Theater nor did Philip Glass or many other composers
0:40 artists and producers who intentionally break convention so this rule is a guideline one that you can break but if you don't know it then you may be
0:47 breaking it unintentionally or in a way that is not truly on purpose so here it is the rule of three is all about how many times you should repeat musical
0:56 ideas and what to do to prevent over repetition and it actually has a lot to do with our brains and how our brains process information if I say something
1:03 to you once then it's an idea that you've heard one time if I say it a second time it's reinforcing that idea but if I say it a third time this is
1:11 where things get a little bit weird because in some cases it further enforces a concept but in most cases this is where our brain will actually
1:18 begin to tune it out so how does this correlate to music I'm going to demonstrate what I mean so if I play a musical idea a four bar progression with
1:24 a Melody something like this thank you
1:32 now if I play that just one time like I just did you're listening to that as a first time listener you've never heard it before so it's intriguing and you're
1:40 interested it Peaks the interest of your brain which makes it easy to listen to start to finish if I repeat this idea again and instead play it twice back to
1:48 back like this now your brain has reinforced this musical idea internally in other words
2:02 at this point you could probably sing it back to me right pretty simple your mind has remembered how it sounds has caught onto
2:12 the cue that it's a repetition but if I play it three times in a row like this one
2:24 two by the third time your brain is actually automatically making decisions
2:34 potentially without you even knowing about it primarily that you are now losing interest this is why the rule of three is so important when you write or
2:41 produce a musical concept like a four bar phrase like what I just played many amateurs are going to continue looping this idea repeating it way too much
2:49 repeating something Beyond three times is generally speaking over using that idea and actually using it more than two times is overusing it now you may be
2:57 tempted to click off this video and think you get it but hang with me because there's more I want to say very often inside of my program producer
3:03 accelerator and to my students when I give feedback and specifically when it comes to these types of situations when there is excessive repetition it's this
3:10 too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing really think about that too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing now I want you to know something
3:18 did you notice how I just repeated that a second time that phrase that actually reinforced the idea that I'm trying to get across to you too much of a good
3:26 thing is no longer a good thing see what happened again upon me saying that a third time it's pretty likely that you've already internally started to
3:33 feel like yeah you said it out already I get it do you follow but the saying is true if I were to say that line that's saying three times by that third time
3:42 you get it you understand the point okay let's move on to something different right this is also why if I show my wife a new song and I continue showing it to
3:49 her over and over and over and over again because I'm excited guess what after a handful of times listening my wife will essentially no longer like
3:55 that song it gets old it's overused overdone the rule of three is all about how to capture attention and then hold it without abusing it this is the name
4:03 of the game when it comes to creating music that is compelling and I do have to note that if you don't care about holding someone's attention do what you
4:09 want but I think most of us want to create music that others will genuinely enjoy and listen to and want to re-listen to but if you are over
4:17 repeating ideas and breaking this convention the rule of three you are inevitably losing attention and losing interest so you're probably thinking
4:25 what should I do then it's simple there are really two options that I typically am aiming for the first is that you play an idea like the one that we did repeat
4:32 it one time so you're playing it two times in total this is reinforcing the concept because obviously if you only play it once and it's not enough time
4:39 for the brain to truly remember if I were to play that Melody for you you've never heard it before and I only play it one time it's more likely that you'll
4:46 actually not remember it you probably won't be able to sing it back to me but if I play it twice you're more likely to remember it in the third time you have
4:53 the first option which is to Simply go somewhere different musically it could be a new Melody with the same chords or it could be a new progression along with
5:00 a new Melody the second option is to start the concept the same the third time but instead go somewhere different with it maybe halfway through that idea
5:08 or the progression so you're starting the same but going somewhere different so let me actually demonstrate each so here's the first option where I'm going
5:14 to play this through and I'm going to go somewhere completely different so I'm going to play it as if this is the second time I'm playing it
5:21 foreign [Music]
5:31 it sounds related I'm using the same chord progression but musically we've gone somewhere completely different and again this Peaks interest because all of
5:40 a sudden it's like oh this is something different this is something new I don't know where we're going and these are the types of things that tell our brains you
5:46 should keep listening because you don't know where it's going to go if your brain is always knowing where it's going to go then why listen here's the second
5:54 option where I'm going to start at the same but I'm going to go somewhere different foreign
6:05 so we start the same right the same so you're thinking okay we're just going to repeat this again right
6:15 and then it goes somewhere different so it's starting in such a way where it's like oh yeah I've heard this before but you haven't because we're going to go
6:23 somewhere different so these are two really great options and each of these options has a good place in music and it's going to depend on the context what
6:29 you really want to accomplish and this is where we can get really creative something I believe wholeheartedly in is making intentional musical decisions if
6:36 you want to make better music then stop guessing and instead truly think about what you want to do with your music what are your goals with the song What
6:41 response do you want the audience to have by listening to it and use these choices to guide your musical decisions it's all about being intentional when
6:48 you are intentional it means you can more consistently create music that is more meaningful and less random the rule of three is simple but after teaching
6:56 almost a thousand producers in the past year and a half this is one of the biggest mistakes I see I run weekly feedback calls and this is a mistake
7:02 that I correct very regularly and if you fix this mistake it will change how you make music if you think this video was helpful and want help producing music
7:08 better you resonate with the way that I'm explaining things I have an entire Workshop that I create that covers the production roadmap it's a step-by-step
7:14 process I follow to creating music it's already helped thousands of producers worldwide I think it's going to help you too it's basically a summary of how to
7:21 make better choices when making music so you aren't shooting in the dark you can watch that right here I'll see you there