Hmm, appears I haven't been on this forum in about 3 years, wow.

A lot happens in 3 years, unfortunately I haven't been able to write as much music during that time as I would have hoped to. I did write some new stuff though, so I thought I'd share some of it. I'm always open to constructive criticism, suggestions, or heaven forbid compliments ;)




13496 (Now scream free)

13494

13493 <--- not really finished or anything

Hey, I really enjoyed listening to this piece, it's really good. I expect it to be in a video game someday.

Ok, improvements...the only thing I really didn't like was the change in tempo at around 36 seconds...if you could do this a little smoother and more gracefully, then I think this piece would be flawless....

Suggestions...you start a nice rhythm with the bass hand at about 54 seconds, and then proceed out of it. I'm not sure what notes you start the rhythm with, but at 1:01 you hit those same bass notes again, once. It'd be cool if you started that rhythm part again at 1:01, and continued going in and out of doing that rhythm, unless you feel this would change the piece too much. But this would make it a bit longer.

The only real drag to this piece was the sound quality. Now I know that not everyone lives in a recording studio, and I don't know what your environment is like, but if you could find a way to improve the sound quality, that'd be great. Right now it sounds like the piano is a a somewhat large room and the microphone was placed some distance away.

Overall, A+ piece :D

I really liked it! I really wouldn't change a thing. It looks really fun to play! I'll have fun with it. ^^

Overall, (I couldn't open the .MUS file) I think was great for background, or something of that sort. There wasn't really a melody, but more of a 'misty motif' (as in, there was a motif, but it was intertwined with a few others). If you're looking to write more melodic lines, then write melodic music, instead of pounding out show arpeggios, chords and octaves on the piano. I'm not trying to cut you down (I'm a pianist, and I love improvising that kind of stuff, but [that alone] doesn't make a great piece, let alone an OK piece).

If you truly want to make more a more 'melodous' composition, then try to start from a melody, or make a melody that can be easily followed/remembered from a progression and/or motif. I'll only give to you comments if I see potential, so don't be discouraged if I came across a tad harsh. ;)

Thanks for the kudos and the suggestions, they're really nice to hear.

Mazeppa- You pretty much hit the nail on the head. This piece is truly more of an improv. then anything. The crappy thing is that I've been playing the piano for so long yet have no knowledge of theory or any of that stuff. This makes it hard for me to write simple pieces with real coherent melodies since once I sit down at my keyboard it's hard for me to just plink out a note or two.

Shicoco- I might try expanding on my ideas right there, I'll sleep on it and see if I can dream up anything good.

Darkened Angel- Cool, never had anybody play anything I've made before. It's an honor :)

Anywho, here's a pdf file for those who can't open finale 2008 files.

that looks really hard lol

Mazeppa- You pretty much hit the nail on the head. This piece is truly more of an improv. then anything. The crappy thing is that I've been playing the piano for so long yet have no knowledge of theory or any of that stuff. This makes it hard for me to write simple pieces with real coherent melodies since once I sit down at my keyboard it's hard for me to just plink out a note or two.

I definitely know what you mean about how you (basically) like to go crazy when you improvisation (well, because you have the technique and all to do so). And I completely admit that I like to impress myself sometimes by playing like the Rachmaninoff-Liszt-Chopin that I exude. My best advice would be to concentrate on the music; completely. If you do it correctly, you'd be amazed how technique and "hardness" fades away, and once you don't concentrate on doing "visually fantastic" things (or the like) you seem to broaden your horizons. Now, this doesn't mean your ideas cannot develop (weither it be eventually, or be created as) into a technically demanding piece, or something, but you'll learn to appreciate your musical skills over your technical.

I mentioned how I exude a Rachmaninoff-Liszt-Chopin when I'm at the piano or composing, because I absolutely adore playing to my fullest, but the thing is I enjoy making music more than programming a machine. (Don't get me wrong, I love technique--and strongly encouage a very high and virtuostic technique--but, like I said, I adore musicians over technicians.)

Sorry if this was more "playing" related than "composition," but I think I've explained myself to hit a little of everything-- I hope this helps. :)

Well here's a little quickie where I tried to work a little bit more on melody. The idea for the song came from a poetry class I took last year. One of our assignments was to create phrases to describe feelings. My word was lonely, and I immediately thought of this time I was sitting in a coffee shop with two cups of coffee waiting for someone to meet me, but the person never showed up. Probably one of the loneliest moments of my life, and in my life's soundtrack this would have been playing.....

I like it. But maybe you should occasionally take the bass down an octave to give it more firmness :D

Hmm, yes I agree with Shicoco. And it was Very nice. however, I dont know about you, but I thought some of the triplets sounded a tad out of place(some one could probably fix it, if played), but it seems that if you took some away then the others wouldnt fit. That either means that you need to add more or take more some away. Or they just need to be played with extra emotion.
Im not quite good at pin-pointing little details like that, and convincing anyone... so if it doesnt make sense then dont listen to me.x_x

It seems like you got stuck the chords on Waiting for Company... It would be nice to hear it trail of a bit. But I guess sinc you said it was a "quickie" I bet you mainly improvised over those chords to get the melody out.

It seems like you got stuck the chords on Waiting for Company... It would be nice to hear it trail of a bit. But I guess sinc you said it was a "quickie" I bet you mainly improvised over those chords to get the melody out.

Very true, one of the nexts objectives on my agenda is to update the song (I plan on taking out the repeats, and haveing the music "break loose" at one point). But for now, here is one I've been working on the last 4 days. Special note: I finally have a song longer then 2 minutes!

The sheet music and mp3 are pretty bare bones, I haven't put in any tempo or volume markings yet. I'm doing this because the piano arrangement is only a small part of this piece, my next project is doing an orchestral arrangement.

As always, comments critiques and criticism are accepted and suggested.

The repetitive sixteenths got extremely tedious after a little while, at least give the notes variation, repeating things get very annoying if it's not done carefully. The third staff in the middle of the piece could also be put as the first voice of the treble staff instead of a seperate staff. Ditto to the extra bass staff that appeared later on (but in this case, it goes to the bass staff as second voice).

Overall, I didn't like it much, technically speaking. It seems to imitate those boss battle game music way too much. You should try varying your rhythms and harmony for the next step. Oh, and try to avoid to conform to the rule of 'just melody and harmony'. Try to put a third voice or a countermelody in. You also need to work on your notation.

Hmm, I don't think this piece is that bad at all. Unlike Sirdot, I really like the 'boss battle' feel to it.

Recommendations:
The rhythm of the main melody feels weird at 33 seconds and everywhere else they're repeated, consider lengthening that note a bit...
Tone the volume of the repeating notes down and it should be fine.
That scale thing at ~2:13 I think could be improved if you kept the bass going, because it felt somewhat empty on the higher notes.

Sir_Dotdotdot:

Thanks for the comment (I guess I didn't state that I wanted *constructive* criticism there, so my bad). I agree with your point on counterpoint though, it's something I really need to learn one of these days. I'm guessing I'll have to solidify my music theory though before I can even start that journey :\.

Gotank:

This piece is just another one that I'll have to come back and fix up when my skill level increases, but thanks for the comment as well.

New stuff-

Yet again I've departed from my "normal" style of writing and today I worked on a much heavier and darker piece. It isn't finished but I don't have anybody else who is nearby that could give it a listen, so I need to bounce it off of you guys :). My inspiration came from all the free soundfonts, synths etc. I've been looting off the internet (Darn you student budget!). In case you were wondering, I take no responsibility for bleeding ears.

I like the percussion here, You could do some very little changes in the percussion when is repeating (I mean it with the timpani which was telling when the repetition occurred).

A good bass could have done a good work on this piece or the cello going deep I think, plus having harmonic elements and others for make it sound much better and rich.

The flute don't sound good here with that sound font. Maybe try one different if you wish?

The music it set a very good mood in my opinion and seem it be use to fit a scene in a game or a stage.

Note: Maybe later in the piece you can turn all hot and spicy the music till have an action moment or an encounter? Just a visualization of how the music it could have go if was finished. It can be a good loop too. (Take care of not make it so dull and to make the listener tired of it, bring elements that can make this to be interesting).

Anyway keep working!

(Just right now it remind me to something very old I did that produce the same sense to me, haha).

See first post :)

I like the percussion here, You could do some very little changes in the percussion when is repeating (I mean it with the timpani which was telling when the repetition occurred).

A good bass could have done a good work on this piece or the cello going deep I think, plus having harmonic elements and others for make it sound much better and rich.

The flute don't sound good here with that sound font. Maybe try one different if you wish?

The music it set a very good mood in my opinion and seem it be use to fit a scene in a game or a stage.

Note: Maybe later in the piece you can turn all hot and spicy the music till have an action moment or an encounter? Just a visualization of how the music it could have go if was finished. It can be a good loop too. (Take care of not make it so dull and to make the listener tired of it, bring elements that can make this to be interesting).

Anyway keep working!

(Just right now it remind me to something very old I did that produce the same sense to me, haha).

Dude, your English sucks! @_@

________________________________

Welcome Back Mellowdee!


I took a quick listen to the first track. I enjoyed the atmosphere created by the effects! The piano playing sounded very "natural" and interesting. :D The only complain I would have of this piece is that random synth voice that appeared from no where... I do not understand the point of it. @_@

Ah, good question. Musically it doesn't have a whole lot to do with anything haha.

For the whole story though, the inspiration for this piece came to me when I had a really crap day and nothing went right at all. I searched the net for a clip of a thunderstorm and started from there. Only real reason the voices are there is because I don't have any good vocal libraries to use but I wanted something in there that sounded like a scream because, well, I screamed at the top of my lungs that day. That being said, it would make sense to remove them when I have somebody other then myself listen to it ;) Thanks for the tip.

I like the idea very much. It could definitely enhance a picture and vise versa (that is if the picture is as good as your composition). The piano was very nice, too. You say it's not finished, but I don't see any problem finishing like that. It was a good decision to add the thunderstorm sound. I didn't expect that at all. heh.

Here's my newest piece. The name pretty much tells it all. not trying to reinvent the wheel here, just make a really sexy one. *In the original format it's looped bgm, here I didn't have any of the looping*

13531

Sexy... :yes:

*Disclaimer* This is a dubstepish song, not really what you see around here very often so watch out for bleeding ears.

Story- My friend is having a graduation party tonight and since I had yesterday and today off, I decided to make him this song. He's practically Van Wilder, been in school for 8 years and he was a frat president for a little bit (he's not a d. bag though). So I thought I'd make it a little tongue and cheek.

Anywho, not the best quality but I had a very limited time to work on it so that's that.

13553

Here's my newest piece. The name pretty much tells it all. not trying to reinvent the wheel here, just make a really sexy one. *In the original format it's looped bgm, here I didn't have any of the looping*

13531

Hm I don't really like the mixing of the piano. I feel like it would sound better if the song were transposed up maybe a major third, and you turned down the mids and upped the treble on the piano. At times it feels too...bubbly? Not enough...icyness? Loved everything else though :)

I don't really dig the snare sample...too muddy IMO. Also, this might be a weird suggestion, but I think the vocals at the end could benefit from some autotune. Not that the vocals "needed" pitch correction, but I think the synth-y electronic feel autotune gives would add something. I think, at some point in the song, you should return to the beat you used in the very beginning verbatim. It's really strong - I like the thing on 2 & 4 (is that a clap?), and the thing that's on every other and of a beat (sounds like some sorta ssssscch white noise-ish sound), but you never really implement that same strong beat elsewhere in the tune.

The coherence in this piece is not working well the way you are going from a theme to other. It sounds pretty empty and weak also. Mostly because there are hole in between the timbres and lack of fatness. Think of it like if you were orchestrating a piece.

The theme you are repeating constantly would be better panned to the centre, since it is repeated a lot and it is a melody. I also agree about the snare (Pan it to the centre too, it will sound more punchy, and maybe rise its pitch a bit and blend it with another snare?). Actually, it would be good to re-think all the panning. o.o

By the way I hope my English is less horrible now... lol o_O

graduation reminds me of skrillex's songs

pretty epic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSeNSzJ2-Jw

this one to be precise