Elements of Music: Repetition
Repetition breeds stability and comfort for the listener. It can help you establish a relationship with the listener. But it can also breed boredom, monotony, and disinterest. So as a musician you want to avoid the latter and encourage building that relationship.
How do we do that?
We use repetition but we also use variation.
When we develop motives and/or phrases to upon which to build a song, we should think in terms of movement and how we can alter or vary those phrases to create movement.
Let’s look at an example.
Here we have the same idea but I just substituted a perfect 5th for a Major 3rd and a Major 3rd for a Major 2nd.
Try just writing a simple phrase. Then another starting and ending the same way but altering a few notes in between.
The listener will get the same idea but you’ll have given them a little twist.