Hi.

I'm one of those people who can't seem to finish stuff... So most of my stuff is really short.

So, here's an example. (If the midi sounds bad on your soundcard, I apologise. I noticed the instruments sound a lot different on some sound cards; one made me wish, I'd chosen different instruments.)

Anyway, just to let you see what I'm up to, here's an example:

It's called cG, because that's the scale it's based on... B)

And here's another one (loop this one, if you can, it doesn't really have an ending, and it's really, really short).

And one more to loop...

I like your first one the most, and the last one second. You can't really finish things, can you! :lol: The third one can use a main melody for a continuing part; it sounds as if it's only the 'prelude' to the normal song, itself. Do you get what I mean? The first was nice and basically complete, and it can have more to it, but the second wasn't really to great.

You seem like a beginner composer, so keep practicing and try to think up a part to continue a song. :D (I compose in my head a lot as if I am a music player, myself! But I forget them the next day, unless it's good; that's when I try to put it down on the keyboard. Try it!)

Originally posted by Zucriy Amsuna@May 12 2005, 12:52 AM
You can't really finish things, can you! :lol:

My terminal disease... A bit fuzzybrained, I. ;)


The third one can use a main melody for a continuing part; it sounds as if it's only the 'prelude' to the normal song, itself. Do you get what I mean?

I think I see what you mean. One reason I can't seem to finish anything is that I'm not that good at transitions, endings and dramatic structure in general...


The first was nice and basically complete, and it can have more to it,

"more" as in "longer with twists and turns"

or

"more" as in "richer texture, more instruments and stuff"

or

*gasp* both?


You seem like a beginner composer, so keep practicing and try to think up a part to continue a song. :D

I've never really gotten serious about composing, although I've been "composing" for years. I'm only now beginning to look at arrangements and stuff. Have only recently realised what rhythm is about. (You know, when you've always known the theory, and then one day you suddenly understand.) It's fascinating. This seems like a good place to learn. :)

I think harmony is my strong point, and dramatic structure (the balance between noise and silence, the progression of themes) my weakness (as you've seen).


(I compose in my head a lot as if I am a music player, myself! But I forget them the next day, unless it's good; that's when I try to put it down on the keyboard. Try it!)

Whenever I have the time and don't annoy others with the "noise". The problem is my ideas come in a bursts. A phrase. A chord progression. Things like that. I don't know how to join them; or expand on them (actually, I'm getting better at that I think).

Thanx for your reply. :)

You're welcome!


"more" as in "longer with twists and turns"

or

"more" as in "richer texture, more instruments and stuff"

or

*gasp* both?

Mainly more as in longer; or adding some more with, as you said, twists and turns. ;)

:shifty: First song is sexy, I personally think it fits better for Kefka's theme in FF6 than Nobuo's. It sounds as if it portrays mischief, a clever evil. Great job :D

Wow, thanks. That's quite a compliment.

cG: I love the instruments and rhythm. Drums are well done. As for harmony, I think it's repetitive to end multiple phrases on the same chord. Your short piece and its ending actually works fine for me without the looping!

eF: Kinda military eh? You've got a great style there, but you just have to finish it!

Nother: Perhaps you can make your pieces longer if you had a direction/structure in mind.

Originally posted by Al@May 19 2005, 05:18 PM
cG: I love the instruments and rhythm. Drums are well done. As for harmony, I think it's repetitive to end multiple phrases on the same chord. Your short piece and its ending actually works fine for me without the looping!

Interesting idea about the harmony. I tried a variation for the first two themes: ending on a major chord when the melody moves upwards, and a minor chord, when the melody moves downwards. Does that make a diference? Was it better before? (See attachment)


eF: Kinda military eh? You've got a great style there, but you just have to finish it!

Nother: Perhaps you can make your pieces longer if you had a direction/structure in mind.

How do you guys tackle dramatic movement? That's one thing I've yet to work out.

Thanx for the reply. Got me thinking. :)

I like your cg I wish it was longer.

What do you mean, "dramatic movement"?

cG1 updated: Slight improvement, yeah I heard it. But the chords and the melody still remain relatively the same =T If you break down each phrase and compare them to each other, you'll see what I mean.

Originally posted by Al+May 22 2005, 05:17 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Al &#064; May 22 2005, 05:17 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>What do you mean, "dramatic movement"?[/b]

Mood changes, transitions, beginnings and endings... Anything that gives the impression of a direction, of a development.


cG1 updated: Slight improvement, yeah I heard it. But the chords and the melody still remain relatively the same =T If you break down each phrase and compare them to each other, you&#39;ll see what I mean.

I know what you mean. But trying to get rid of the repetitiveness is hard for me, as - to a certain extent - it&#39;s part of the concept.

Even when posting the piece, I was aware of a repetitiveness I would have liked to get rid of. Your post was very helpful in pointing out that ending a phrase on the same chords can be part of the monotony. It gave me something to think about. I tried a lot of changes, but - apart from the major to minor changes - I found nothing that really worked. For the late part, I found no chord changes that worked.

I&#39;ll have to think about other changes.

Thanx for your input, you&#39;ve been helpful. :)

<!--QuoteBegin-rfree21_82
I like your cg I wish it was longer.[/quote]

Thanx. :)

Do you like the cG or cG1 better?

Tried a piece with what I called "dramatic structure" in the above post.

It's an a/a/b1/b2 structure repeated 3 times in what I hope are sufficiently different moods to be interesting. ;)

It's called Goblin Dance, because I can imagine goblins dancing to that one... :think:

Not bad =) Simple and effective. I don&#39;t know about the percussion though, doesn&#39;t seem to fit, especially with your intended idea. And expand your ending.

I was kind of expecting Goblin Dance to be more fast-paced and obnoxious (like Grieg&#39;s March of the Trolls), but what you have here sorta works too. I have to ask, though, what sequencer do you use to make you music? It seems like every time an instruments completes a phrase, it changes to a new track, and you end up with 50 tracks in all&#33;? Is this some attempt at preventing plagarism, or just some curious fluke in the sequencer?

Not bad =) Simple and effective. I don&#39;t know about the percussion though, doesn&#39;t seem to fit, especially with your intended idea. And expand your ending.

Thanx. I tried muting the percussion track and it did, indeed, sound better.

As for the ending... one of these days I&#39;ll learn how to do them.


I was kind of expecting Goblin Dance to be more fast-paced and obnoxious (like Grieg&#39;s March of the Trolls), but what you have here sorta works too.

Hehe, thanx. Well, the music came first, the title second. Feel free to re-name as you see fit... ;)


I have to ask, though, what sequencer do you use to make you music? It seems like every time an instruments completes a phrase, it changes to a new track, and you end up with 50 tracks in all&#33;? Is this some attempt at preventing plagarism, or just some curious fluke in the sequencer?

emagix logic fun; it came with my sound card.

It&#39;s got the possibility to combine audio and midi tracks (but I don&#39;t use audio). You push tracks (little color coded boxes) around in a "mixing window", so for me, it&#39;s easier to write a sequence I want to repeat or vary at least once into a track of it&#39;s own and then copy that one as often as needed and modify. I can move or copy the sequence anywhere I want to.

It&#39;s purely utility; it&#39;s got nothing to do with plagiarism control on my part; if it&#39;s awkward for you guys to have that many tracks, I can - in future - fuse several smaller ones to one big one before converting to midi.

[QUOTE]Do you like the cG or cG1 better?
Sorry i took so long to reply ..hmmm i dont really know i see the difference but I might go with "cg" :D

Originally posted by rfree21_82@Jun 17 2005, 08:23 PM
[QUOTE]Do you like the cG or cG1 better?
Sorry i took so long to reply ..hmmm i dont really know i see the difference but I might go with "cg" :D
Thanx for the reply.

See, I don&#39;t really know, either... :heh:

The more I listen to the really great compositions on this site, the more embarrassed I feel about my own... :mellow:

But what the hell...

Here's another one, and I think this one actually has an ending that works. Kind of. :heh:

I quite like the rhythm and feel of this piece. But I also liked the variety you threw into the piece, like you didn&#39;t keep anything constant for too long. And yeah, the ending works, sort of, haha . . you took the right step in repeating the first theme, but if you can expand on it just a little more, than you&#39;ve got yourself a complete ending.

bmin This is a good piano song. I like the swing ryhthm it sounds kinda like a hero theme :D I also like when you changed the chord progression to have a little something different.

Thanks for the comments. And one of these days I&#39;ll manage a proper ending. ^_^

Look what I found on an old disk! Sounds like a pleasant little pop song. I don't remember making a midi of this (though I do play it on the piano now and then).

Hehe, and also it displays my inability to do proper endings. :heh:

Hey, I think you can now upload more than one attachment. :)

Let me try...

(There's a reason I haven't submitted those before; the first one's interesting, but has a really lame middle, and is a bit repetitive, I think; the latter was just a five minute improvisation I did when getting a new composition program [which I've lost now]. I just wanted to test the multiple file upload. B) )

***

[Deleted attachments: weren't meant to stay forever; was testing new forum feature. Sorry]

Another reason why vBulletin kicks IPB's butt XD

Another reason why vBulletin kicks IPB's butt XD

Yeah, that and it tells you attachment size, too.

So far I really like the changes. :)

I quite like the idea of this one, but I'm stuck. I've tried a thousand routes (going on with main melody in strings is one example). Nothing works. It's driving me nuts. Grr...

Will I ever finish a piece.

(Well, I did finish a short one, a kind of kiddy melody, but for some strange reason my music program crashes when I try to convert to midi. O.o)

Good job. You're doing good. :)

The quality of the MIDI kinda messed the song up, but hey: What's there to do about that if you can't change it? ^_^

Your latest piece is really good so far. Keep the melody in the oboe. It's the perfect instrument for the piece. =D Also, keep the strings as they are.

I love it when the cello enters, too. It creates a beautiful effect.

For your next step, I recommend going off into a different melody, making a part B (preferably on a different instrument; the violin would be an awesome instrument for this). Build the intensity in this part with increasing dynamics and some percussion instruments. And, then bring it back to the first melody, making a part A', being climatic with the intensity you built up in Part B. Then, you can end the piece at the end of this part if you want.

That's just what I would do. It's just a recommendation.

Hope that helped. ^_^

Thanks for the comments. :)

Marlon: Yeah, midi isn't optimal, but I've got a data transfer limit, so I don't really look into *.mp3. (Neither do I listen to them, sadly.) I use a Yamaha softer synth for playback, so it sounds at least a bit decent.

Apollo: Thanks for the suggestions. I might try that. :) I'm not that good with dynamics, though. It's one thing that looks plausible in theory, and sounds silly when I actually do it... Nothing to it, but keep trying.

I've gotten a bit farther with the I'm_stuck tune, but nothing spectacular so far. Comments have been helpful, thanks. If I ever manage a proper ending, I'll post it.

***

Meanwhile, here's a little kiddy-tune. I called it "Mousepeople", because I imagine mice playing (starts with a single mouse playing, then others join, then we switch to a lonely mouse watching the others play, then they're playing again, and then they go to bed, something like that.)

Mousepeople is very cute! It sounds good! I like it really

I like your style! its so.... "Petit".

Nice, nice, mice...

Thanks for the nice comments. ^_^

(Btw, I haven't listened to any of your stuff yet; that's because they're all MP3-files, and I have only about 400 MB/per month for uploads and downloads [limited funds/best offer + quality]; if, at the end of the month I have some left-over MBs, I'm going to listen to selected MP3s. :) That, or if you'd provide a midi along with the MP3s... ;) )

Don't take this the wrong way but that last song reminded me of Barney!

lol, seriously, you do have a cute style.

Don't take this the wrong way but that last song reminded me of Barney!

:lol:

Thanks for your comments; perhaps, it's time to point out that this isn't normally my style.

...unless... you think all the other songs sound that cute, too. :think: :sweat: ;)

OMG! Mouse People! It's a wonderful name! Seriously. XD And the song's just as good. ;)

eeeeeeekkkkkkkkk. MOUSE PEOPLE !!!!!!! :lol: ***Zee Zee zee zee ***. It sounds amazingly cute ! :lol: Hard to find this kind of cute music on this forum. :lol:

Lol, thanks, guys. Interesting that this song got the most replies so far. ^_^

Ehem... That songs way to cute to be... TO BE!

Hehe...