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comment by temple
temple  ·  4337 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Reformat the Planet (2008): Free documentary about chiptunes

Slightly off-topic question: For people that compose music and/or do chiptune composition, are there any good tutorials for music composition (not the technical details)?

I've been trying to do some chiptune composition in my spare time with Rymtik Retrobits, a tracker off the Nintendo DS store. I know enough about keys (major and minor through instrument playing as a kid), but never had any training in composition or music theory.

Just looking for some pointers to cover basics, mostly.





pfohl  ·  4337 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You will want to look into learning harmonization and more importantly, counterpoint. This has been the text used since Bach for counterpoint. Otherwise, you can start here: http://www.musictheory.net/lessons

Analysis is huge as well. So track down some video game music scores and figure out the chord changes, leading tones, and whatnot.

Chiptune is a weird subset since there are only a few voices (three on a NES) and no polyphony but almost everything will carry over. Feel free to ask questions if there are things I can better explain.

temple  ·  4337 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thanks!