Is there some trick for counterpoint beyond 2 voices?

Question

I really suck at chord harmony, so whenever I compose, I tend to use counterpoint a lot.Counterpoint is somewhat easy when you just have two voices. Because I just compose for fun, I generally do something like cheat by having just two voices for a large amount of instruments, and then extremely basic harmony.My problem is that, I tend to compose counterpoint incrementally. I first write one voice, disregarding the fact that I am going to add a second voice. Then I write my second voice, being careful to avoid dissonance, octaves, perfect fifths, and other bad sounds.It feels like solving a system of equations really. When I go to write my third voice, the only "feasible solutions", i.e., the only solutions what don't result in dissonance, are very unconnected and can't form a melody. Even if I manage to snug in this third voice, it would be a terrible contrived melody with occasional huge jumps to "get out of the way" of the other voices. Things like incorporating a theme are totally impossible.Adding a fourth voice is 100% impossible for me; no matter where I put my notes, it's going to clash with some other voice.How to fix this problem? I am far from an experienced composer, but is my approach on counterpoint completely off the mark? Should I be writing the voices all at once? My measly training in composing was all simple accompaniment based on chords, which I honestly don't intuitively get. I can on the other hand easily sit down at a piano and improvise some two-voice counterpoint.

Answer 1

Are you trying to compose music from the Medieval, Baroque, or Classical Era? From your description, it sounds like you are using one of those periods to enhance your composition. What’s inspiring you to write a composition? I can tell you that writing a composition with dissonance cannot be avoided. Well...the less voices you use the more you avoid dissonances. I am trying to get more information from you.