Diagrammatic Sketches - Part 1

In a previous post I talked about how I was able to organize my musical thoughts by creating a diagrammatic sketch.  For me these sketches can take on a variety of forms.  I have done sketches that focus on shapes, rhythmic and melodic fragments or even colors.  One aspect that makes these sketches different from sketch scores or other types of sketches is that they are done primarily away from staff paper.

I believe that the best way for me to explain these sketches is through examples.  I plan on covering diagrammatic sketches in a series of postings, each one focusing on a different type of sketch.  I do not favor any one style of diagrammatic sketch over another.  When needed, I tend to go with whichever type of sketch I feel best suits my needs.

In this first part I will discuss my most recent sketch.  This sketch falls into the rhythmic category.  I have included a scan of this sketch (see below, click for larger image).  As you can see this sketch was done on binder paper.  Please note that the blue lines from the paper mean nothing.  I would have done the same sketch on a blank sheet of paper, this was just what I had at the time.

Before beginning this sketch I had decided that repetition would play a key role in this section.  This is why I was able to illustrate my ideas by creating a rhythm and then drawing a line extending from it showing the repetition.  In this diagrammatic sketch the first thing I notated was the long tones in the upper woodwinds (top left).  The measured and tied whole notes after the arrows illustrates my thoughts on the rhythm and chord progression for these long tones.

Underneath the long tones I began to add layers of rhythms.  The horizontal space that separates the layers is not proportional.  This is really a quick version of this type of diagrammatic sketch.  If I were to create this sketch in its entirety as a pre-compositional device, then I would have taken steps to indicate relative time.  I have made more "complete" sketches where time and linear space is proportional.  Essentially I was using this sketch as a method of organizing my thoughts.  More often than not, when I do diagrammatic sketches they are done as a pre-compositional device.  I will provide examples of this in a future post.

I like creating these types of sketches because they allow me to easily organize my musical thoughts without putting them into too many words.  I am also able to plot out generally where events start or stop and how events line up without sketching out all of the measures.  These sketches can give me the ability to see the overall shape of the piece before it is finished.