Writing music

[KMilliron]

I've used tarot to help me write music before, but I had this one method to it (assigning notes to cards, then using the next cards are possible intervals, etc etc) and I want to try something new. If it works I'll transcribe my process, and put a link to the song. Just figured I'd throw this out here in case anyone's interested or has done something like this.

Step one; draw a card, decides theme of the song. I'm keeping it instrumental for now, if I want vocals I'll pass the mp3 and the card onto the vocalists and let them do what they please.

 

[punchinella]

--Just noticing this thread now, and have done this a few years ago in a (non-musical) group I was in at the time. I found a list of note associations somewhere (probably somewhere here on AT--??) and used the deck to divine a goddess-theme and a god-theme, which were subsequently chanted by the group . . . my idea was to ultimately overlay them, with one side of the circle chanting one theme and the other the other, but as I recall this step failed miserably, possibly because it was too complex and few of us were musically experienced

ETA: Oh, rereading your post I see that what you are doing is different/looser Let us know how it turns out!

 

[KMilliron]

I get ideas from just about everywhere. I haven't done any tarot based instrumentals though. I have done tarot based lyrics.

In response to your idea, have you tried pulling one card to dictate the note (I have seen a list like that somewhere) and using that as the lower pitch (god based I'd assume?), and then drawing another card to see if the higher pitch would be a major third or minor third above it?

Ex; You draw, oh let's say whatever card dictates c sharp. You'll have the god based chant chant at c sharp. Now you draw the tower, normally a "negative" card, so you'd have the goddess chant a minor third higher, or in this case e? That's how I'd consider doing it.

 

[punchinella]

Mmmn, that way the end product would be a bit more cohesive . . . in retrospect, the dissonance produced by so many random draws was probably counterintuitive for most participants

 

[Manic]

Just wanted to chime in and say that I've totally done this in the past and have thought about integrating the tarot back into my music, lately.

I do the draw-a-card technique pretty much the same way you do, KMilliron, except that I use the minors for chord progressions. Sometimes, I'll draw a "mood" card from the majors and use that as my emotional base for the song, allowing it to colour the melody, chord inversions, etc. I find that doing it this way allows me to be as free as I want with the song while still keeping it structured--and the cards do (most of) the boring structure work for me.

 

[Mojo Twin 2]

I compose ambient music and started a project where I did a different piece of music for each tarot card...

Well, I only got through 10 cards or so but it was a lot of fun. The beautiful thing about composing ambient music is that you're picking up on a feeling - an emotion - that you want to convey to the listener.

I've gotten some pretty good responses from the people that have heard them.

The Moon is posted on my Soundcloud if anyone wants to check it out.

http://soundcloud.com/violetsdyed

alec...