Aloo everyone.
Second post here (I think?) which means I'm relatively new. Here's a short introduction;

I'm a male, 16 years old. Can currently only play the piano (and four notes on a harmonica <3) which I've done for about a year or so. I mostly make my own melodies or improvise, but I can read sheet music (slowly >_>)
The piano I started playing myself, so I am self-taught, I guess. Except for reading notes, which my grandma taught me. Now I've started taking lessons, once a week. (which however is on summer break now T__T -sob-)

I sometimes compose on the computer. I've mostly used Anvil studio, which I loved because of it's uber-easy graphical interface, but now I've started to get familiar with Finale. I _love_ it's piano sound. Much better than Anvils.
However, I'm not used to entering the notes directly onto a sheet, so it's a bit tricky. I mostly just listen to what sounds right and change notes according to that, without knowing what notes it actually is.

Ahum.. Anyways, this is my first piece in finale. It's not finished, but I thought I might share a bit of it anyways. I'm a bit nervous; the pieces I've heard of the members here are great *o* So.. don't slaughter me too harshly XD I'm very open and glad to receive critiques, as long as they are constructive.

well, enough blabbing..
I'm afraid I only can upload a mus file =/ but if anyone feels for it they can convert it to a midi (if they have finale.. payversion thingy) which would make me very happy X3

Cheers 'o'

Welcome to Ichigos :)

I understand the transition between manual entry and notation can be difficult, but you did an alright job. The idea for a composition you have there isn't bad either, you just need to develop it. My advice for you would be this:

*The flute is a soprano instrument, so don't go too low with it.
*Let the flute play the melody, and try not to interfere with the piano (but rather, use it as an accompany) I know you did that in this composition, but because of the flute's low pitch and the piano's 16th notes it was hard to follow the melody. Why don't you try to transpose the flute an octave, and play those 16th notes with the flute instead of the piano?
*When you continue this piece, make sure to develop the piano left hand. I'd try to arpeggiate (broken chords) the left hand, and moving the block chords to the right hand to give a little rhythm.

Good luck!

Thankyou for a great reply!
Your suggestions make a lot of sense and I'm currently working on improving it.
I only have a two questions.
How do I transpose notes in Finale? and
Is there a way to move notes from the piano to the flute?


Ps. Are you by any chance swedish?

How do I transpose notes in Finale?

In Finale Notepad, it takes a while. If you want to put it an octave higher, click on the note, and hold ALT+ SHIFT/ENTER + UP arrow.


Is there a way to move notes from the piano to the flute?

Click on the tool (Mass Edit tool) that is a dashed square... (sort of :heh: ) and click on the measure that you want to move to the flute staff. Drag the staff to the flute staff.

Clarinetist;
Thanks a ton! Transposing was a pain x3;

To Noir;
I did a quick fix with your suggestions and kindof melted the melodyparts of the piano with the flute (so the flute plays the 1/16s now)
It sounds kind of wonky at the moment because I think I messed some chords up but I like how it brings out the flute. (Which is also transposed by now

Yea, pretty much what Noir said would work perfectly.

Also, as he said about developing the melody, improvise what you have and use the same (or similar) chord progression and improvise a melody and maybe something will come out to your liking, or something you can work on that's a base of a melody.

Good job so far, and good luck for the future.

EDIT - With the improvments :

Ok, so your doing a lot better. Actually, all I would say, is work on the right hand of the piano, and not have it playing the base chords, but maybe giving it a rhythm to it, and have it play the chords every half note, or some sort of pattern.

Mastro;
Thankyou for your reply!
I was thinking of repeating some parts but having them slightly altered, like you said, improvising with what I already have.

What you're saying about the right hand on the piano is right. It's a bit boring and unsuiting to the melodies rhytm, I will work on that tomorrow x3 -tired-

I'm glad you take my advice Gengyo, but a simple 'copy and paste' thing won't do the trick ;) You basically just moved the 16th notes from the piano to the flute. What I meant was that the flute could play them, but not *exactly* as the piano did. You'll need to find a good compromise, so to say. But yeah, it does sound lots better now, and it's much easier for the listener to connect with the melody.

If you don't mind, can I show you an example of what I meant?

Arr, you caught me doing.. copy-pasteing >_> XD;; I think I have an idea of what you mean by compromising, and I will give it a shot (tomorrow XD my brain need meh rest)

But anyways, I'd love to hear what you have in mind, so go ahead and do whatever you wish ^^

Okay, I'll re-do your composition slightly, to show you:

* How to use a more 'liquid' melody, which doesn't sound 'copy-paste'-ish as you did :D
* A simple modulation
* To avoid repetetive accompaniment

Wow o.o I'm waiting anxiously for your alteration x3 thanks for taking the time

Here you go, just a couple of ideas that you might learn a little about.

Noir;
I loved that! You are truly great. I'm both jealous and eager to study and experiment for myself to see what I can do x3
thanks again

Well, this is a rather nice song. The biggest thing that I didn't like was the block chords doing just quarter notes. It was kinda like: Tun, tun, tun, tun, tun, etc. Very good, anyways, I just wanna feel more rhythm in this piece. ;) Good job!

Wow... There's like another huge batch of new composers coming to Ichigos when I was gone for the little while... :heh:

But anyways, as for your piece... For a beginner, I would suggest you to read more about theory (don't get to the hard stuff though, it's going to confuse you and make you feel constricted later on) and then learn how to harmonize simple melodies. As your piece has shown me, you have some sense and knowledge of how to apply a chord progression and harmonize a melody, which is good. But, your melody wasn't that 'outstanding', and from that, I mean you should make your melody more unique and special rather than trying to fit all the requirements of theory and this and that. But you'll learn that through experience, secondly, like Noir suggested, use more vibrant and variant harmony techniques, although, one thing I'd like to add is to keep it structured, if it gets too variated, it will turn out messy. Thirdly, keep a big picture in mind for your composition, try to leave as much spaces to improve or change as possible. Good luck~! ;)