Motif Development

A worksheet on the seven changes composers use to develop a short motif — sequence, inversion, retrograde, augmentation, diminution, fragmentation and ornamentation — with a worked example and exercises on a given four-note motif.

What's inside

• The seven changes composers use to develop a motif, named and explained
• A four-note motif in G major worked two ways — sequence and inversion — shown in letter names first
• Three habits worth copying, including changing one thing at a time and how sequences should stop after two or three repeats
• Six exercises applying each change to the given motif, in letter names then on the stave
• A plan-eight-bars exercise naming the changes used bar by bar, with answers to the letter-name section included