Hello, I'm new to this site. I started to take a songwriting class this year and I got very interested in the whole thing so when I stumbled upon this forum I was quite happy. I do not play the piano (well I can but barely, grade 4 maybe?) I play the flute, and I have for 8 years. So the concept of writing for instruments other than the flute was very foreign to me. The two piece I am posting on here are flute pieces. The first is a side project I worked on for an hour or so for a few weeks. The second piece I did in a few hours today. I don't have the full version of Finale so I can't convert to midi, sorry. Anyone have any tips or programs for mac users to help me out with that? I would like to hear tips and critiques for my music. (once again, please remember I'm no piano player so I'm learning how to write that kind of music) I have other compositions that I would like to put up. I might put up a few that have vocals and lyrics and such if you guys like it. I still have to work with the accompaniment with those songs and such. Thanks for your time everyone. You guys are all really talented.

~Ainsley~

Welcome! I'd like to be the first person to welcome you to Ichigo's! I'm glad you found us for your compositional-type needs and aspirations. :)

Your first piece was pretty good for a beginner, actually. You had a recognizable melody, and a fairly good motif to go along with the piece as well. Since you're starting out I can't really tell you a lot of details since it's such a learning experience. For the piano, try not to have straight triads in the left hand (or lower registers), since it sounds messy, and very undesirable. Try using more "opened" chords when going a little bit lower. Also, try not to use fourths when doubling the melody; the harmonies will then sound (and do in this piece) very shallow.

The second piece had distinct motifs, but were a cross between melodic and rhythmic. It was fine at first, but then it seemed to repeat itself over and over; I enjoyed it, but only as something for background music since there was nothing to really "follow" (in terms of a recognizable melody, or feel).

Despite any comments that come across harsh, take them into consideration, and worm with them; most of the composers on this forum know what they're talking about. People who you should keep in touch with would be Sir_Dotdotdot, clarinetist, Noir7, PorscheIII, deathraider, Al and myself. I know there's other good composers here, but I would recommend them for tips, since we have a little more expierence and training in this sort of thing. :)

Happy composing!

Hi, I am also new to this site and still learning, very nice to meet you. I agree with Mazeppa that it will be best to listen comment from Sir_Dotdotdot, clarinetist, Noir7, PorscheIII, deathraider, Al and Mazeppa.

But from listening to your first composition, The piano has been continuously playing appregio (breaking chords) which over time can become dull (and insignificant). you might consider playing a short passage of appregios and short passage with just chords and vary them around.

Also, the flute is played continuously, in reality, this flute player would suffocate. And since flute is less flexible than strings and piano, it cannot change its expression and emotion easily. Therefore, flute is usually written in a short passages, which is seperated by breaks where the piano can be playing alone (and occationally showing off some solos).

Each short flute passage can signified the different section to the music. First short passage of major, break, second short passage of minor,break,.... to give variation, bring out the significant of both piano and flute.

Also playing flute at high register gives a brillance feeling, which over time become cold (and piecing) so you may want to give a warm feeling to the audience.

Lastly, being a duet, while playing together in short passage, the piano should not play the same note as flute and it gets in each others way, but should be seperated by octave (again, this depends on your intension) and sould not be playing the same rhythm. you might have the flute holding a long note and let the piano give some rhythm (maybe scaling upward and/or downward in this case).

Very good for a beginner.

In Flute Trio, avoid the middle C as much as possible, which I see you have used in the flute 3 part. Anything lower than B (3rd line on the staff) seems to be very weak on the flute. It seemed to repeat a bit much.

Try to end the song with a "perfect cadence".

I'll comment more later... it's 8 AM. x_x

You have a good sense of melody. I think a good think you can work on is harmonizing, I see that you harmonized your melodies with intervals of 3rds, 4ths and etc... So you should study up on harmony and even counterpoint. I also realized that you mention you're a little reserved about composing outside of the flute family, but don't worry! Try it out first!

Okay, so I've been working a lot lately and I haven't had a chance to write anything in a while but yesterday I got my hands on my grandmother's piano, I came up with a melody I am really proud of. The only problem is I'm not sure of how to write stuff for the left hand on the piano. I was wondering if anyone can help me. Currently the only things in the file are the piano melody (I love the first 8 bars) the chords underneath and was is labelled as a flute part but it is really a vocal part. This is piece is meant to be a vocal piece with piano in the background but I'm not sure of how to write accompaniment. Can anyone help me? Oh and I used the flute instead of the voice choice because the voice is just a piano playing the vocal line and it gets messy and hard to hear. So just remember that the vocal line is not always in the right octave (flutes don't go as low as a voice does usually) and every vocalist adds their own flair to melody lines so even though it sounds very repetitive and boring it won't sound that way when actually sung.


Also the mp3 is of my final project for my song writing class. The lyrics were not written by me and in a way this song is very personal to me because I wrote it for the lovely Heiwa-chan. ( http://heiwa-chan.deviantart.com/ ) Just before I handed it in there was a serious problem with my sound files and I lost a lot of flute clips and vocal clips so there is some bad patchwork with other loops as I tried to fix it. Please ignore my lame attempt at singing. I have more vocal melodies sitting around here I just don't have any way of getting accompaniment for them so it sounds odd, one girl singing accapella. I hope someone out there enjoys these.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to listen and help I really appreciate it!

(sorry if my post is kind of hard to understand, it's late so my typing isn't the greatest)

I hope to get more music up soon, I should be getting a better program soon so if anyone is interested..... Can anyone help with writing piano accompaniment?