1. Keller VandeBogert
Mrs. Tillery
AP Literature
November 18, 2011
Senior Project Research Paper
Music has been a part of human life for many millennia and has evolved in many ways
into the many genres that are offered now. Composing music is universally viewed as an art,
many times requiring very precise and sometimes mathematical technique, but also needing the
addition of the intuitive feelings of the composer himself. Creating an instrumental may require
some knowledge of musical history and its various composers over the centuries, composing
based off of musical genres, as well as the knowledge of how to actually formulate a meaningful
composition.
The history of musical compositions is fairly predictable, with the earliest pieces being
extremely simple and becoming more and more complex as the ages progressed with the
founding of music theory (Although some modern-day music styles are clearly a regression from
the much more complex styles of earlier times.) “After the collapse of the Roman Empire….the
newly emerging Christian Church came to dominate Europe….It was during this time that Pope
Gregory I is generally believed to have collected and codified the music known as Gregorian
Chant…” (Music History 102) Although not very popular today, most people have heard a
Gregorian chant and would recognize one fairly easily. They consist of chanting and are almost
all some kind of psalm praising God. This is the main reason the church allowed this type of
music. “Gregorian chant is monophonic, that is, music composed with only one melodic line
without accompaniment.” (History of Music) Put simply, the singers of these pieces are all

2. singing the same notes at the same time, giving a powerful effect. Conversely, this shows how
little the composers, who are virtually unknown, knew how to coincide different melodies at the
same time to produce a more harmonized effect. Gregorian chants are perhaps some of the most
simple yet effective compositions made. “Polyphony is music where two or more melodic lines
are heard at the same time in a harmony. Polyphony didn't exist (or it wasn't on record) until the
11th century.” (History of Music) Polyphony during the Middle ages came a bit later than the
Gregorian chants, showing the progression of musical taste during the era. These pieces, similar
to the chants, are sung by choirs and mostly for religious ceremonies in churches. It was later,
during the Renaissance, that polyphony was truly mastered by such composers as Giovanni da
Palestrina. “…the Baroque period saw composers beginning to rebel against the styles that were
prevalent during the High Renaissance.” (Music History 102) The Baroque period was when
entirely instrumental tracks began to become popular. Composers of this music were often
employed to compose their music at courts. Johann Sebastian Bach is an example of this. “The
ability of music to express human emotion and to depict natural phenomena was truly discovered
in the Baroque period.” (History of Music) It is safe to say that music made purely for emotional
effect started during this time period. This is most likely because of the fact that many of the
Baroque composers had to create music for specific occasions for the king. This forced
composers to think about their music and use how they feel to make a piece sound the way they
want it to. “With the rise of purely instrumental music in the Baroque Age, there also arose a
flowering of instrumental forms and virtuoso performers to play them.” (Music History 102)
This rise of extremely skilled players was the spark that lit the fuse for many purely instrumental
virtuosos to come. For every instrument there was a virtuoso, and nothing about that has changed
in the centuries that came along. “As implied by the term 'classical', the music of this period

3. looked to the art and philosophy of Ancient Greece and Rome - to the ideals of balance,
proportion and disciplined expression…Composers of the Classical era deviated from the
evolution of their predecessors - their music had a considerably simpler texture.” (History of
Music) The coming of the classical era was almost ironic because these previous pieces of
immense intricacy and complex polyphony soon became outdated. This new style of music
became simpler and gave rise to huge names such as Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. This style
was still emotional as shown by such pieces as “Moonlight Sonata” by Beethoven, but was much
more restrained, and simpler, many times employing the use of only a single instrument. After
the Classical Era came Romanticism. The irony of this genre was the movement toward
unrestrained emotion and much more intensity. “The Romantic era was a golden age for
virtuoso performers…Because so many of the authors of this period were such virtuosos, the
music that they wrote is also very demanding in its technical execution.” (History of Music) This
shows that music was becoming much more intense and demanding in technical ability. Modern-
day instrumental “shred,” or virtuoso styles, are heavily influenced by this era in music. These
many changes in musical preference and complexity have molded many modern-day players of
many instruments, including the electric guitar.
Modern guitarists range in style greatly and are great influences to many upcoming
musicians. Instrumental and solo guitar playing can range greatly from extreme shred styles like
that of Rusty Cooley and Jeff Loomis, to eccentric and melodic styles like that of Steve Vai or
Daniele Gottardo. There are many styles of guitar playing and a poster-boy guitarist for every
one of these styles. “Shredding is a subjective term, but has more or less come to describe a style
of lead electric guitar playing that is characterized by speed, technical precision, flamboyancy
and aggressive yet creative virtuosity.” (The History of Shredding) Many critics of shred can

4. argue that shred lacks a personal touch or feeling from the artist, but so many styles of guitar can
be put under shred that it is impossible to prove this. Shredding is an art of mixing speed and
melody perfectly. Guitarists like Paul Gilbert, Jeff Loomis, or even Yngwie Malmsteen can
formulate intense pieces that are far from emotionally lacking. There are other guitar styles as
well, such as Classical guitar. Classical guitar is a much older style and its major difference from
other guitar styles is the fact that it does not use a guitar pick. (Classical Guitar Technique)
Classical guitar is extremely different from shred because it is entirely acoustic and often much
slower. This, however, does not make it any easier. “Some experts believe that if you can play
the classical guitar to perfection then you can play any other type of guitar from rhythm to lead.”
(Classical Guitar) Playing classical guitar uses techniques that are entirely different from many
other types of guitar, but it will give the experience needed to play any other style. Examples of
players that have mastered classical guitar are Andres Segovia, Christopher Parkening, and
Fernando Sor. (Classical Guitar Artists 1) Most styles of guitar borrow from each other greatly.
Melodic and shred guitar both use heavily classical elements and styles such as Jazz Fusion use
fundamental shred techniques, so creating a musical piece out of just one style would also be
borrowing from many other styles at the same time.
Musical pieces are made every day, but whether or not they are truly meaningful is a
legitimate question. Making a piece meaningful means taking a bit of everything and putting it
together perfectly – simplicity, intricacy, sadness, darkness, and happiness, all together.
“Modulation enables limitless harmonic and melodic variety while preserving unity. A
successful modulation provides the brain with a new orientation of tones and chords, a leap into
a musical parallel universe.” (Modulation: the soul of the Western Tonal System) Key
modulation is when the key of a song changes. Modulating keys can add lots of variety to a song

5. and keep it from getting redundant. Changing keys gives a listener the feeling that something
important has happened, the song has made a sudden turn, which, in turn, keeps things
interesting. Also, most songs have a basic, set structure. Most songs follow a basic pattern that
consists of a verse and some kind of refrain, with maybe an instrumental solo in between. (Song
Structure 1) An instrumental will not have any lyrics, though, so the instrumental part must feel
like a verse. A refrain is the same thing as a chorus, which is some kind of repeat, something to
go back to that keeps the song in unity, and the solo is some kind of switch in the song, almost
like a key modulation, but not as drastic. Almost every single famous or “meaningful” song
follows this basic structure, so it must have an impact on how well a person enjoys it. For the
solo, basic shred techniques would be utilized. The most common techniques used in shred guitar
are legato, tapping, alternate picking, sweep picking, economy picking, and string skipping.
(Shredding. Pt 1 – Fundamentals) These techniques would give the song larger range of sounds
by using all of these techniques. Incorporating all of these songwriting elements would make the
song become much better just by using correct structure and more advanced techniques for
advancing the song.
All in all, music is an art form, and like pretty much every other art form, it evolves over
the ages into something completely different from what it was when it first started out. Humans
have gone from basic percussion to voice choirs to complex, polyphonic, multi-instrument
orchestras. Music is still a fairly easy thing to create, but it is difficult to make a memorable and
long-lasting masterpiece like composers such as Bach or Beethoven have created. In order to
fully utilize musical potential, though, a perfect mix of musical technique and emotional insight
has to be employed by the composer.