How to Compose 1:1 Counterpoint || Tonal Voice Leading 1

“You have to unlock them, by getting to the next level” Mans made a video game from studying counterpoint 😂😂😂

13:10 “We may not use dissonances in this exercise. You have to unlock them by getting to the next level.” Brilliant. I laughed out loud. Outstanding videos. Thank you, sir!

I remember reading that Beethoven studied with Salieri for a time. He had a lot of influence on the next generation of composers. It's a shame that Amadeus has created a bad view of him within our modern culture.

Thanks! I have no idea why Youtube decided to recommend this to a random Korean student who knows absolutely nothing about composition, but anyways I watched the entire thing and I really enjoyed it as a music lover. I never knew music composition is done this precisely and carefully. I think I'll watch more of your videos and expand my knowledge about music composition! Thanks for giving me a first step!

Edit: Audiation exercise? Wow, thats worth the price of admission alone. At first I thought this was a bit dry, but I was drawn in so deep as it went on. A nice, mellow contrast to the "hyped up" style of most YouTube videos. Its like a meditation mixed with a lesson... beautiful! Thank you so much!

Your speaking style makes it very easy to pay attention to what you're saying. Love it, thank you.

Great video, thanks so much Jacob, for anyone else working through the exercises in the PDF, I wrote out some of the notes for lesson for reference: Given Melody - Cantus Firmus (8 to 12 notes) *************************** The fewest possible notes that still give the impression of complete compossion (that can't be broken into seperate parts) Want to be able to split attention between two melodies Melodic Fluency - Melody takes very little mental effor to keep track of - Mostly Stepwise (Allows prediction of changes) - Leaps are made by Consonant intervals Consonant Leaps: - 3rds - 4ths (Except for F to B) (4 to 7) - 5ths (Except for B to F) (7 to 4) - 6ths - Octaves Dissonant Leaps (Avoid) - 7th - Aug - Dim - >Octave For any large leaps, they should be followed with a 'Recovered' movement in the opposite direction (Larger than a 3rd) and more important for upward movements than downwards (What goes up, must come down) The Cantus Firmus always begins and ends on the root *************************** Intermediary goal of Melodic Motion, which is far away from the root to ensure seperation from the root notes which begin and end the passage (The Highpoint Consonant) When a counterpoint is written above the Cantus, it can begin on scale degrees 1, 3 or 5, if below the cantus it must begin on 1 The secret to an interesting counterpoint comes from the way the two melodic curves interact, not from either melodies on their own Cantus Firmus should not use tone repeatitions, the counterpoint can, but it should be kept to a minimum *************************** Categorization of counterpoint notes in relation to the Cantus Firmus: Perfect Consonances - Unison, 5ths, 8ve (Too Stable, avoid using twice in a row, unison only at the start or end) Imperfect Consonances - 3rd, 6th, 10th (Most useful for this exercise) Disonant Consonances - 2nd, 4th, 7th (Unstable, gives the impression of repelling the other melody line) *************************** Types of Motion: 1. Contrary Motion 2. Direct Motion - Parallel Motion (Same interval in both voices) - Use Sparingly - Simular Motion (Same direction, different interval) 3. Oblique Motion (One voice remains static) *************************** 1:1 Counterpoint Rules: 1. No Dissonant Harmonic intervals 2. No Direct Motion to a Perfect Consonance *************************** Counterpoint BELOW the Cantus - Counterpoint must start on the root note - Instead of aiming for high note as the goal, aim for a low note *************************** Tips for Counterpoint creation - As counterpoint needs to end on root, place this note first - Use contrary motion for the second to last - Avoid starting the counterpoint with either - a 3rd (too close to the first voice) - Anything higher than a 10th - Compose in medium sized chunks as opposed to one note at a time - Don't have the high points in both voices occur at the same spot ***************************

Finding gems like this has saved me thousands on lessons and school 😂

Thank you for this. I graduated with a masters in music from Stony Brook University, and for some reason they skipped over this. I can write Bach Chorales with ease, analyze all sorts of insanely hard pieces, but I always felt incomplete because I never learned this. It may take some time, but I am going to go through all of these videos. Thank you so much!

They don’t teach audiation because they can’t grade it. Same has happened in many fields. And thus did accreditation destroy education. You’re a good man for valuing the real over the measurable.

Did this in music theory class many years ago. It was 5 part counterpoint and our teacher had different students singing each different part…it sounded astounding.

This is god tier content. Thank you so much.

This is an awesome Counterpoint refresher! Thanks a bunch. I’m a Computer Engineer for a living, but waaaay back in the mid-late 1980s, I took the usual Freshman and Sophomore Theory and Ear Training. I’ll be retiring soon, and my #1 goal is to “phoenix” my Music life, including (if not especially!) composition. So, this sort of refresher is perfect! Thanks again!

Is this video recommendation from YouTube like a level unlock reward for surviving 2020? Searched for such instructions and teaching but never found it before today! Thank you, teacher!

where have you been all my life. This is amazing

I am two minutes into your video and I am already about to cry tears of relief because I had only taken one semester of music theory before I decided to try out the contrapuntal techniques course. The only prerequisite was diatonic and chromatic harmony, but “A Practical Approach to 18th Century Counterpoint” is full of words and concepts that I’m not familiar with and there are so many of them that I feel like I have to reach for google every two sentences. I’ll reply to this comment after I’ve watched the full video, but I’d just really, really like to thank you for putting this out here.

You are the best teacher young man I’ve learned alot here in Zimbabwe by your videos

Thank you Dr. Gran for all your lessons, tutorials...!! I'm learning a whole lot... Looking forward to more...

I studied to get into uni to do music and was SO lucky to have a teacher who was able to teach me this stuff; it's optional these days in the UK. It really gave me a firm foundation for all subsequent compositional work.

I've been looking for series about counterpoint on YouTube for a while, and never been stratified until this.