EASY GUIDE Augmentation and diminution explained

This month, Dave explores an inspiring technique for expanding and contracting your rhythms and melodies

In any field, not just music theory, augmentation and diminution are literally just words for making things bigger or smaller – you could just as easily use the terms ‘growth’ and ‘shrinkage’ instead.

The way I’m going to be using the terms this month has nothing to do with augmented or diminished chords – although you could easily be forgiven for thinking that, having read the title of this month’s guide. What I’m talking about here is augmentation and diminution when applied to rhythm and melody.

Rhythmic augmentation – the lengthening of the time values of notes in a melody – can be used to imply a sense of majesty or reaching a high point, useful for an imposing finale.

Rhythmic diminution, on the other hand, is the shortening of the time values of notes, and conveys a sense of building urgency or tension.

Meanwhile, intervallic augmentation or diminution can be a useful way to take a melody in a new direction by extending or reducing the pitch intervals between the notes.

While firmly rooted in classical theory, and of great use to film composers when applying themes and variations to characters in a movie, there’s plenty of scope in the technique for application to computer-based music production. It’s a great tactic to have in your back pocket if you’re suddenly faced with the dreaded writer’s block, so follow the steps below and let’s see how a bit of sonic stretching and contracting could work for you.