composer who lives in the clouds making music for birds (and games and animation)! šŸ‡µšŸ‡­šŸ³ļøā€āš§ļøšŸ³ļøā€šŸŒˆ


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soundcloud.com/paperaviator

paper aviator - what if we baked treats together haha jk unless
what if we baked treats together haha jk unless
paper aviator
00:00

i don't usually have melodies that just pop up in my head, but this melody did right after reading the prompt, so i went with it! this was like, 1 hour-ish? 1.25 hours? but i had dinner in the middle of it, and also the air conditioning is broken so i was suffering through this TvT

made in musescore, cuz that's kind of mood i was in!

i messed up the last chord, but i thought it was funny, like you failed and burnt your baked goods lol.

i will probably develop this more later hehe. enjoy!



I discovered Miracles of Modern Science maybe like, 9 years ago on some defunct free music website. They're essentially a rock band (though "rock band" feels too reductive...) consisting of only chamber instruments (vioin, cello, double bass, mandolin) and drums. Despite not having any guitar and a very light ensemble, their music goes incredibly hard and is full of innovative songwriting and arranging. They are incredibly underrated. Supremely underrated.

Since MoMS has miraculously come back after 7 years with their song Birthday Cake, here's some song recommendations + notes about their outstanding arranging skills!

licks licks licks (what is this, lick city?)

Despite the mandolin being a potential substitute for rhythm guitar, it's only used as such about 30% of the time (The treble range + very bright tone don't make it a super good fit for that). In lieu of rhythmic chords, MoMs uses these intricate, contrapuntal licks, like in Dear Pressure. I absolutely love how it builds up to a playful hocket-y texture between the mandolin and strings in the chorus, almost akin to a dubstep drop (their cover of Break the Rules by Charli XCX also has a fun drop-like breakdown section). Dubstep was very popular at the time, so that's why I draw that comparison specifically. When the mandolin is playing chords, the violin and cello help create these thick voicings, but still break away to fill the gaps in the vocals with more melodies.

MoMS are masters at underlicks (a term i'm stealing from this tiktok). Underlicks are basically a secondary melody the supports the vocals, providing greater interest than standard accompaniment (arppegios, strummed chords, etc.). I think this is just inherent to the fact that they have mostly melodic instruments, but still admirable none the less.

I could basically put every song here as an example of underlicks, but I love their most recent single, Birthday Cake, where the underlick of the chorus get lyrics at 2:35 and then underscores the mandolin solo (which is cleverly transcribed via cake decorations).

arranging, techniques, and composition!

MoMS also really use their instrumentation to their fullest!

I feel like if you think "rock with strings," you just think of a string orchestra performing cinematic arpeggios and big chugging chords. This can usually feel kinda contrived and cliche, but MoMS's string arranging skills are anything but!

The Chop is full of unique colors, starting with this interesting cello + violin harmonic lick.
The second verse has this playful call-and-response between the vocals and strings with aggressive atonal phrases featuring glissandos, harmonics, and double stops, over some funky palm-muted mandolin.

Don't Feed the Party Animals feels like a surf rock tune mixed with 20th century expressionism and atonality. The song starts with this aggressive ricochet double (triple?) stop on the cello. In the second half of the chorus, there's these really haunting chords that remind me of VerklƤrte Nacht by Schoenburg, and some really sick pizzicato lines in the second verse.

Also like, their covers??? Dang! This arrangement of Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears sounds so full and close to the original, despite not using any of the instruments in the original songs (except, ya know, drums). Love the harmonics before the bridge... so pretty~

really cool lyrics!

Not only does MoMS have killer musicianship, but their lyrics are extremely creative as well!

Eating Me Alive was my first MoMS song, and it talks about the physical pain of internal conflict by having internal organs argue about what's the right choice, playing off the idea of listening to your heart, but letting other organs (namely, the spleen) speak up too.

Follow Your Heart (Or Something) explores the very real feeling of chasing your dreams, but achieving... underwhelming results. I feel like this song kinda foreshadowed their long hiatus ("We can do, we can do what we want, but maybe not for long"). The music is somehow both ironically optimistic, yet earnestly hopeful.

All their lyrics are great and explore such interesting subject matter!!! It's hard to pick more; the ones I've already shown above are great examples of their lyricism as well.

cool very low budget music videos

if you've been watching the videos, you probably noticed how creative every single music video is. Evan, the lead singer and bassist, seems to direct most of their music videos, and I love how simple, yet effective each video's concept is.

I don't really have to explain it, you can just see for yourself lol. Here's another music video that I love!
https://youtu.be/y3mBKr5p2Po?si=0vx-GsaZpMtd2sc-


I love Miracles of Modern Science!!! Please listen to them! That's all! Bye



So! We've solved one problem with loops: how to avoid the inherently blocky nature of loops. Now to solve the second problem: creating interesting large-scale forms with short loops.

I'm sure we've all had this problem: you're in the zone, adding more and more layers to a loop till you've got a killer four measure loop. Maybe you get ahead of yourself and start mixing it. But—uh oh! You've only got four measures! You wanted to make a 4 minute track, but you've only got 4 seconds!

Good news, bud! You can easily turn those 4 seconds into a glorious 4 minute piece of music! But how!?

oh that's easy! i'll just start with one loop, and stack more loops on top one by one…

WAIT!!!!! Before you do that, there might be some more interesting solutions!

Think about it: how many of your favorite songs follow that form? Not a lot! Could you still do that and be successful? Maybe! But give me a chance to change your mind.


This is probably my 5th attempt at writing this; it kept turning into a general discussion about composition, which is fine, but I wanna talk about LOOPS and loop-based music specifically, not traditionally phrase-based music and harmonic/melodic development.

Who better to use as an example of loops than the legendary Hideki Naganuma?

Naganuma is a master of sampling and making long tracks out of a few short ideas! In this post, I will explore Naganuma’s Boarder 70 (Somethin' Jazzy for Your Mind Mix) from the game Ollie King to find out how he develops short loops into a large-scale form in lieu of traditional melodic and harmonic development.

STEP ONE: Choose Good Loops

Before we can build a song, we have to have a good selections of loops, and there are two aspects we should look for: function and cohesiveness.

To start, here’s a list of all the loops/one shots I could find in Boarder 70:

First, let’s talk about function.

Generally in western-style popular music, music is built off a ā€œbandā€ heirarchy:

  • lead instrument(s) or vocalist(s), usually the main focus!
  • chords, to support the lead, whether it’s soft pads or chugging guitar
  • bass, to serve as a rhythmic and harmonic foundation and fill the lower frequencies.
  • drums/percussion, to define the groove/time and color the music (like with cymbals and fills)

Consider how your loops will function in your song. Keep in mind, parts may fill multiple roles. For example, the bass becomes fulfills a lead role at 0:20 in Boarder 70.

There are also smaller sub-categories within these categories: you can have countermelodies playing against your leads, and you can split drums up into kicks, snares, cymbals, and other percussion.

It’s very easy to layer a bunch of loops until you just have a big messy texture, so understanding each loop’s function allows you to create hierarchy and control the listener’s attention. Note how there’s only ever one bass sound playing at once, and how when multiple drum loops are layered, they strengthen what’s there or add a something that isn't already there.

Next, let’s talk about cohesiveness.

If you are composing your own loops, then you probably will end up with cohesive loops naturally. But if you’re using pre-made loops and samples, it’s harder to make them feel like they’re part of the same song! So how does Naganuma choose a bunch of samples from various sources that fit together like they’re one song?

  • Key and Tempo: this one is obvious! You might have to transpose and time stretch your loops to fit, but many DAWs do that automatically.
  • Rhythm/Groove: To avoid clutter, it helps if everything follows a similar groove, or counters it in a pleasing way. Notice the the orchestra/brass stabs, open hi-hats, upright bass, electric piano, acoustic, guitar etc. all follow the accent pattern of ā€œsomething for your MIND, your body, and SOULā€ Other elements, like the claps, snare drum, and organ/guitar lead fill in the gaps between those accents in a pleasing way.
  • Sound Palette/Limited number of loops: While you can definitely blend loops and samples from many sources, notice how Hideki has two main influences here: funky guitars, brass, and drums and samba/bossa guitar, bass, and percussion. A cool juxtaposition of chill and high-energy stuff! Naganuma also only uses 25-ish loops for the whole track, and 13 are just percussion!

You could layer every loop in Boarder 70 on top of each other and it’d still sound good (maybe all the drums loops would sound busy, but you get the idea). Yet, notice that Naganuma practiced restraint and only used certain loops for specific sections. That way, he could create a healthy amount of contrast without going too far off from what’s been established. If he just used every loop at once from the get-go, there’d be no where else to go!

Also notice how almost everything is introduced before we’re even half way through the song! Naganuma teases the secondary ā€œKeep steppinā€™ā€¦ā€ idea (1:20), and the guitar chords actually play quietly behind everything (1:09) super early on, so when they become the main focus around 2:12, it’s not as surprise when we get such a drastic change.

Side note: one thing I love about Naganuma's sampling is how he makes even spoken word match the key of the music! The ā€œSomething for your mindā€ part of the sample sits on an E, which fits in the track's A minor-ish tonality! The orchestra/brass stabs outline the pseudo-melody of the spoken word as well.

Check out how Naganuma uses the natural pitches of the spoken word in The Concept of Love from Jet Set Radio Future.

Now that we have a good selection of loops, how do we develop them into a full-length track?

STEP TWO: Think PHRASES not LOOPS

Okay so this is the point where I would go on a really long talk about compositional structures, but I’m gonna keep it brief!


When it comes to creating large-scale music, it helps to break it into smaller pieces. Just like how this post can be split into words, sentences, and paragraphs, we can break music down into motives, phrases, and ā€œparagraphsā€. So first, here’s a quick explanation of those three things:

A motive is the smallest musical unit that defines a piece of music. For example, think of the ā€œduh-duh-duh-duuuuuuhā€ in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Everything in the first section of that piece is built from that!

We can extend motives into phrases. A phrase does four things: it clearly states its ideas, develops, comes to a peak, and has a clear ending.

Loops tend to fall somewhere between a loop and phrase. in Boarder 70, they tend to act mostly as motives.

Finally, we can group multiple phrases into paragraphs, and those paragraphs can be put together to make a whole FORM.


Got it? Good!

So the first step to making our loops come to life is to create phrases.

Even though Boarder 70 consists mostly of two-measure loops, Naganuma uses these loops to create eight-bar phrases. Here’s an example of how one phrase is constructed:

At 0:10, we start with a clear statement of our idea: the vocals state ā€œSomething for your MIND, your BODY, and SOUL.ā€ The idea develops and comes to a peak, as Naganuma repeats, ā€œSomething for your MIND your MIND your MINDā€ and brings it to a conclusion: ā€œyour body and soul!ā€ Notice how on this final repeat, ā€œsoulā€ is spoken more stately and slowly.

Naganuma uses the repeating your MIND regularly to punctuate phrases. If there’s one thing you take away from this section, it’s to punctuate your phrases! Punctuation is a good way to tell a listener, ā€œhey, that was the idea, and now we’re gonna move on to something else.ā€

There are many ways to create punctuation: cadences, resolving melodies, slowing down, just stopping, etc. Punctuation is also a big topic, but try listen and observe to see what makes a phrase sound like it is ending!

Notice how good punctuation can justify big, sudden changes, like at 2:11, where he changes to half-time drums and the spoken word says "and we're going for auto-sequence start" (a literal end to a phrase + a literal way to say "hey we're moving on now).

Finally, take note of how Naganuma applies spackle and paint: using the ends of drum loops as brief fills, giving the bass and lead some pick-up notes, extending the electric piano loop to end cleanly, etc. The punctuation also serves as a way to break the loop as well!

So yeah! That's phrases! The final step is to combine phrases to create paragraphs and form.

STEP THREE: Creating FORM

FORM is a very big topic in composition. But long story short, form can be anything you want! But let's start with the building blocks of form: paragraphs (aka sections).

Musical paragraphs/sections tend to focus on a single idea/group of ideas, just like text paragraphs! If I have a paragraph about monkeys, I'm not going to suddenly start talking about late-stage capitalism in the same paragraph!

We create new paragraphs/sections by exploring other ideas, or developing the same ideas in a new way. We can label these sections as A, B, C, etc. We can put these in any order we want, really! ABA, ABACABA, AABA, ABCA, ABCDEFGBA, etc., etc., etc. If you put your A idea at the start and end of your form, you're already on your way to create a cohesive listening experience.

So, in Boarder 70, we have two main ideas:

The A idea is defined by:

  • ā€œSomething for you mind body and soul!ā€
  • Orchestra/Brass Stabs
  • Organ/Guitar Melody
  • Electric Piano

The B idea is defined by:

  • Samba/Bossa chords
  • ā€œKeep stepping at your own paceā€
  • Guitar Solo

Thus, you can define the form of Boarder 70 as ABABA. Here's a more detailed break down; note that each section is not the same length:

  • A (0:00–1:08) - Intro, Vox sample comes in. We strip back to bass and build up the layers to a peak.

  • B (1:08–1:30) - A brief introduction to our B idea. The guitar solo becomes the focus and the samba guita plays quietly. We tease ā€œKeep steppin’...ā€ in the pauses in the guitar solo.

  • A (1:30–2:14) - We kinda return to the intro, but we build back up much quicker, and introduce the electric piano. Naganuma also cheekily sneaks in a ā€œKeep steppinā€™ā€¦ā€ and teases the half-time drums right before the acoustic guitar comes in.

  • B (2:14– 3:19)- We strip everything back and bring the guitar to the front, letting out B-idea shine while slowly building back up. Naganuma juxtaposes the electric piano loop and bits of ā€œsomething for your mindā€¦ā€ to help lead us back to the A section!

  • A (3:19–4:30) - We get a lil halftime breakdown with the space launch samples before the A-section hits us at full force and comes to a conclusion.

As stated before, hypothetically, all the loops could fit together, but Naganuma reserves loops for certain sections to create contrast.


Another note about punctuation: usually the strongest punctuation is reserved for the ends of sections/paragraphs, while weaker punctuation defines phrases. Think of it as commas and periods for sentences versus line breaks and chapters for paragraphs/sections!

If you're having trouble exploring form, the best thing to do is to just steal it. After all, that's basically what all the classical composers did (Sonata form, Rondos, Minuet and Trios, etc.). Most pop music follows the same verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus form too!

step 3.5: getting the most out of your loops:

There are a few ways the Hideki Naganuma develops his loops into new ideas:

  • Recombination - exploring different combinations of loops. different drums loops are helpful for defining sections (e.g. fast v. half time drums).
  • Reharmonization (or Un-harmonization?) - Even though the orchestra/brass stabs work over our B-section chords (Am-D7-G-C), without the acoustic guitar chords, they seem to imply a different progression: Em-D-Em-Am! But then, the upright bass comes in and just sits on A minor, and that totally recontextualizing the harmony again! Pretty genius, imo.
  • Fragmentation - Cutting loops down into smaller parts, re-sequencing them, like when he repeats "something for you mind your mind your mind..."
  • Juxtaposition- Pitting ideas from the same or different sections against each other, creating interest as our attention shifts between contrasting sounds, or hearing sounds contextualized in a new way, like how the "something for your mind" sample is cut between the guitar solo at 2:47.
  • Transposition - Naganuma mostly uses this to make loops fit better with other loops, like with the upright bass under the guitar chords; or to create new chords/change the ends of melodies, usually for punctuation

A good piece of advice I hear for building new sections/ideas is to bring something that's been a background element and bring it to the front. And Naganuma does that! The samba guitar has been playing quietly, but comes to the front half way through. The "auto sequence start" vox have mostly been used to signal transitions, but becomes the focus at 3:30.t

Conclusion

So that's how Hideki Naganuma creates a four-minute track out of a bunch of 3-6 second loops! He takes a purposeful selection of loops, creates longer phrases, and explores different combinations to create sections of a larger form. I hope this helps you turn your short loops into something greater!

If you haven't already, check out the rest of Hideki Naganuma's stuff! It's all crazy good! If you want, here's a lil work sheet to guide you through some musical analysis~
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ug_RXYpMdr3WC6gUgV0WxEmWwCxP8J4d7E-tb0btM_U/edit?usp=sharing

This took a couple days to write, so if you made it to the end and found this helpful, maybe you could leave a lil tip or buy some tunes ;)

Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/paperaviator
Bandcamp: https://paperaviator.bandcamp.com

Maybe there'll be a part 2.5 where i create something based on these ideas! Who knows!

Thanks, and happy creating!



Hey! Remember when I talked about the common form of ā€œloop thing, keep adding stuffā€ in the last post and how it’s usually boring? Well actually, I have a good and captivating song for ya that does just that: Reconte-Moi Un Histoire by M83. It’s a very cute song that I bet will make you smile :]

But what makes it work? Well, the things I talked about in part 1! Analysis time baby B)

Here's the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ep4B1LuRnE

Spackle!

  • Some elements fade in, like the soft arpeggio around 0:30, or the synth motif at around 2:35.
  • The bass at 1:06 has a simple one-note pick up to lead the ear, and the higher guitars are strumming a little bit before the downbeat as well!
  • There's a lot of layers, but notice that even when they don't fade in, they don't really punch you in the face! They have a soft attack/aren’t too drastic. Most of the song feels like a warm crescendo. Or in the case of the beginning, the sounds are all short, plucky, mid-high range instruments, so it’s not too dramatic. The drums also do not use the full kit immediately.
  • At the end, there is a big cut off, but notice how we can hear the reverb and the guitars tailing off, and of course the 2-note motif and the kick drum from the start

Paint!

  • 2:06, there's a short little cymbal roll to lead us into the climatic section.
  • Bass line fills! Aw yeah.
  • Lots of reverb helps soften the entries of different elements, like the vocals at the end.
  • The reverb also builds up at the end (and maybe there's a low sweeping sound?) to lead us to the end.

Not really much other than that! While sweeps and other similar sound effects are nice, they can be tiring and predictable when overused. Imagine if they happened constantly in this song. Wouldn’t be very fun!

Break!

Not everything is a 4-bar loop! We grow in scale as the song progresses:

  • We start with just a one-beat loop (or 2 beats, depending on how you feel the tempo... I'm sorta feeling in at like, 90 bpm)

  • The guitar comes in and somewhat establishes a 4-bar structure, with a two chords playing for two bars each. It's not super prominent though; it's not really until the bass comes in that we really feel it.

  • The vocal melody has a length of eight bars, consisting of two four-bar phrases.
    ...

  • While the little motif that appears around 2:35 does loop after 4 measures, it's built on a three-beat idea, so it doesn't neatly fall in the 4/4 grid most of the time, leading to interesting syncopations. This element also seems to fade in and out freely!
    ...

  • The bass and the vocals are probably the only things that aren't a strict loop. The bass feels very improvisatory, changing grooves ever now and then and using fills at the end of loop points. The spoken word is, well, spoken word, and its inherently uneven structure helps guide the song and make it feel more organic.

  • Major changes (additional instruments and parts) are made every 8 measures, which is actually pretty long (about 10 seconds)! With the addition of the spoken word, you can lose track of when changes will happen, unless you're counting along. A perfect balance of predictability/unpredictability!

I love how longer and more intricate elements are slowly introduced, organically leading us from something cute and little to something huge and majestic. Longer elements tend to engage us more; the shorter loops become ostinatos (fancy word for short, unchanging, repeating stuff) and feel more like background elements. Notice that we don't get the long melodies or the more active bassline until the spoken word stops.

Conclusion

So that's a real-world example of how you can build up your loops more effectively! M83 was able to take very very small structures—less than a second at the smallest scale, 10-20 seconds at most—and stretch it out into a 4-minute song! And it does so in a way that is captivating and doesn't get too irritating.

Remember: something that was is ā€œbadā€ music theory-wise in one piece of music is probably perfectly fine, if not praise-worthy, in another piece of music

See ya next time when I talk more about creating form with loop-based music!


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