Don't Spoil Your Musical Target

There are several "rules" or guidelines in composition that are strikingly simple, like "a melodic leap in one direction should be follwowed by a step in the opposite direction" or "Melodies are very effective if their peak notes move in a series of ascending or descending stepwise motion".

These are rough guides that are very logical and usually relatively easy to implement with a very pleasant musical effect.

Then, there are rules that are similarly simple and logical, but are incredibly tricky to implement. One of these I want to talk about today:

In music, like in a good story, you should not spoil the experience by revealing your target or conclusion too early.

Let's imagine, you are writing a section that is preparing for a climax or a peak in your music. You clearly know when and how you want to reach that climactic moment but somehow you fail to manage to make it feel like a great conclusion. Many times, you will find the reason for that in the fact that you took away elements of that conclusion already in your build-up.

The general rule of thumb is to try to avoid any musical element for as long as possible before the conclusion so that it actually feels like a musically satisfying shift. This applies particularly for melody notes and chords. If your build-up reaches a certain melody note once or even several times that is the actual conclusion in the climax, it will diminsh the climactic effect greatly. While getting this right is relatively simple, the bigger challenge is to keep clear of the chord of the climax for as long as possible. Especially in diatonic music that doesn't modulate, there are just so many chords that you can use as plausible target for a climax so trying to avoid that one quickly turns into a game of "The floor is Lava". 

Of course, extending the diatonic space or modulating on the climax are great ways to move out of this problem, but there are certain styles that simply don't allow such a harmonic adventure. In these cases, it is desirable to at least try to avoid the target chord for a few chords.

Again, while this seems like a very simple guide to follow, applying it in reality is realtively tricky. Most composers have at least an intuitive feeling for that but very often fail to follow through due to a lack of control over the music.

You can even extend this rule to textures or frequencies. E.g. avoiding the bass register before the climax for a while and then letting it hit with the climax is a great way to create a fulfilling development. Also, consciously placing a new instrumental texture on the climax can also be highly effective.