pattern-engine.io

Lessons

89 lessons

  1. NotesPitch names, accidentals, octaves
  2. MelodiesSequences, rests, combined playback
  3. Stacking notesBraces, chord tokens, and Dia from the scale
  4. DurationStretching, dividing, repeating time
  5. Saying it another wayEquivalent spellings, same sound
  6. One note differentOverrides: a repeat that changes one item

  1. Scales & keysWhole and half steps, degrees, minor
  2. Steps, skips & leapsConjunct and disjunct motion, relative pitch
  3. Motifs & sequencesReusable ideas, sequence, call and answer
  4. The melodic minorA scale that changes with direction

  1. IntervalsDistances, quality, consonance
  2. Triads & chordsThirds stacked, chord symbols, Dia
  3. Progressions & cadencesFunction, tension, coming home
  4. Voicing a chordWhere the notes of a chord are put
  5. Inversions and the bassThe same chord, a different bass
  6. Colour without functionModal harmony
  7. Changing keyThe pivot chord
  8. Sevenths and where they goThe chord that has to resolve

  1. Beat & meterPulse, tempo, measures, bars
  2. Subdivision & syncopationSplitting beats, dots, offbeats
  3. How beaming readsBeat groups, stems, stubs, triplets
  4. Polymeter & polyrhythmParallel fields, 3 against 2, nesting
  5. Drums & groovesThe GM kit, inst aliases, fills
  6. Fives and sevensMeters that do not divide evenly
  7. Three against twoCross-rhythm in one field
  8. The three duration marksDouble, extend, diminish

  1. Tension & releasePassing tones, neighbors, suspensions, appoggiaturas
  2. Voice leadingCommon tones, steps, contrary motion
  3. Harmonizing a tuneOne melody, five settings
  4. Accompaniment patternsBlock, Alberti, oom-pah, wash, ostinato
  5. Ground bassA passacaglia: variations over a repeating floor
  6. Modal colorDorian, Phrygian, Lydian and Mixolydian as inflections
  7. The ornament shelfTrill, mordent, turn, grace and roll, spelled exactly
  8. The shape of a lineOne climax, leaps that recover, arcs that breathe
  9. Call & responseConversation as form: drums, voices, echoes
  10. TextureMonophony to polyphony: how many musics at once
  11. Writing a pieceEverything, put to use

  1. Highlighting & playbackColors, the composite, follow modes
  2. Document workflowBlocks, Ctrl+S, projects, import
  3. Importing scoresReading a decomposed import
  4. Aligning the gridFree grid symbols and columns that line up
  5. Keeping a document honestrules, help, and reusing a name
  6. House styleWhich of two spellings to write, as a four-on-the-floor track

  1. Using grammarsRules, composites, enumeration
  2. Grammar syntax::=, alternatives, grouping, references
  3. Sequences & selectorsDiatonic restatement, filters, the Alberti bass
  4. Pattern spacesAlternatives, bounds, optionals: the divisions of a ground
  5. Rules that generateZero-or-more and the timed optional

  1. Duration marksThe whole mark algebra, padding runs
  2. Transforms~ retrograde, ^ inversion, @ transpose, axis

  1. Canon & counterpointRounds, invertible voices, crab canon
  2. Phasing & minimalismReich-style drift, additive process
  3. Twelve-bar bluesThe changes, a walking bass, shuffle
  4. Absolute pitch and MIDImode midi, m<n>, and imported material

  1. Slice developmentHeads, tails, strides: variation by index
  2. Selector harmonyA space of divisions, picked by number and by pattern
  3. Anchor applicationOne gesture stamped at every anchor
  4. Silent anchors & sequencesA figure counted from a note that never sounds
  5. Bent restatementsThe tonal answer, the sliding pedal: one figure, a slot, a selector
  6. Ornament spacesTimed slots keep their length; substitutes scale to fit
  7. The mirror systemAxes, mirror answers, reflect-before-transpose
  8. Cross-rhythmVoices of different lengths sharing one span
  9. Relative pitch machineryInterval threading, anchors, chords, direction forms
  10. Canon over a groundOne rule entered twice, offset by a rest
  11. Building a formPeriod, sentence, rounded binary: rules as architecture
  12. A variation setEvery machine on one theme: the capstone
  13. Choosing a derivationSelector patterns over items
  14. Stamping a figureStamping a figure through a line
  15. HemiolaSix beats heard as 3+3, then as 2+2+2
  16. A rhythm with holes in itA tango whose rhythm is written three times, and its notes once

  1. Toccata & FugueThe whole of BWV 565 in fifty-six named figures
  2. Sonata facileMozart K 545: Alberti bass, diatonic sequences
  3. SolfeggiettoC. P. E. Bach: one rolling idea
  4. Caprice No. 5Paganini: the sweep and the moto perpetuo
  5. GreensleevesTraditional: relative minor, the two leading tones
  6. March of the Wooden SoldiersTchaikovsky: a toy march, staccato as rests
  7. TräumereiSchumann: one long breath, rising to its dream
  8. ImpertinenceHandel: a two-voice quip, imitation and answer
  9. Invention No. 1Two voices, one subject
  10. Minuet in GBinary form, plainly
  11. Air on the G StringA long melody over a walking bass
  12. SarabandeWeight on the second beat
  13. Dun Dun DunA falling four-note line over a pedal: 288 bars of e harmonic minor
  14. Doot DootTwo knocks and a reply in falling thirds: 76 bars of e harmonic minor, half of them the riff played against itself upside down
  15. Noodlin'A bass riff, a tune doubled in thirds, and a bell that ends it twice
  16. InversionA subject against its own reflection: 31 bars of e harmonic minor, every note a sixteenth, three voices by the end
  17. Slap FinalA four-bar riff, three voices stacked on it one entrance at a time, and two breaks: eighty bars of e harmonic minor in twenty-seven names.
  18. DevelopedA four-bar bass machine under a theme that falls three octaves: 100 bars of e harmonic minor, six beats to the bar
  19. GnomestepFour voices trudging in e harmonic minor: three note-lengths, and no note outside the scale