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.

  1. Open the Tune and Rhythmic Pattern Generator.  Type in a title and a short file-name at the top of the screen.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Click the orange button Assemble fragments on the board into a new tune.
  9. 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.