Ahh, I'm sure I've already hooked you with that stunningly original topic title. ;)

Anyway, first post, pardon me while I flail wildly. I've pretty much been going it alone as far as music composition goes, haven't found any related forums up until now so I'm slightly nervous. Here goes?

This is one of my most recent pieces(don't mind the pretentious title), based around the simple premise of a slowly intensifying snowstorm.

Edit: ...buggerall, I uploaded the wrong version. Augh. Switched in the right version.

Hm... Firstly, welcome to Ichigos and the lovely composition forums of it. ;) I assume this is not your first compositions, so therefore my advice/criticisms will be quite critical. When the piece started with the piano solo, it wasn't bad, and as it developed, it didn't move as well as I thought it would, the theme kept on repeating, which was annoying after an amount of time, then you got the glockenspiel/celesta do the rhythmic part and I thought it would go into a more modern style, but oppositely, it stayed in it's semi-movie/game instrument music style. Then when more instruments came it, I thought the textures were going to be developed much more fluent and colourful, but I was disappointed after a while as it lacked depth. The bassoon played a weird note and all that under the piano and then the timpani joins in and drowns out the bass of the piano, making it sounding much more emptier. Then the strings came in, playing the same agitative movements until the oboe comes in, and the timpani continues to drown out the bass. The oboe was used alright, but the melody is not to its texture and tone colour's taste (yes, oboe is harsh sounding, but it's very distinctive, use it very carefully, or it can ruin your piece). The ending wasn't good either, the timpani was too abrupt and didn't give a sense of completeness (or you at least tell us the ending is coming through various tempo changes and etc...). I would suggest you to study more on orchestration and especially each instrument's tone colour and clarify your own style. Good luck. ;)

Thanks Sir_Dotdotdot, that was refreshingly honest. :) I haven't had much in the way of feedback to my music so far so I really appreciate you taking the time to give such a thorough critique. I'll certainly try and keep all of that in mind in the future, I daresay I've picked up some bad habits since I've never really sought enough constructive input in the past.

Edit: I just realised I uploaded a WIP instead of the finished version. Most of your points probably stand but if you could redownload it and have another listen I'd be grateful. :) Sorry for the trouble...I'm just not that bright, apparently.

Yes, Welcome. Always good to have new composers on the forums.

Well, anyway..

This piece, overall, is very nice. I like it a lot. The style is very atmosphereic, or somewhat of a background-type of music; it resembles the OST from Naruto very much I think, which I like that OST especially.

Unfortunately, I disagree with the comment given about the Oboe from Sir, but it's the Basson(s) or lowly registered Oboe(s) that came around 0:51 then developed into, what I thought, was a nice (higher) melodic Oboe part actually. It's range in which it was played was quite pleasing-so don't think you didn't do a good job on that actually.

The only thing I disliked is that the theme was the exact (pretty much) same thing throught the piece, and had no variations on itself (at least variations if not other melodies) at all-though if you did it'd be just a tiny bit actually, but nothing substantial.

Hmm, considering all of the above, this is actually a pretty decent composition for an OST I think.

Nonetheless, Good job.

Unfortunately, I disagree with the comment given about the Oboe from Sir, but it's the Basson(s) or lowly registered Oboe(s) that came around 0:51 then developed into, what I thought, was a nice (higher) melodic Oboe part actually. It's range in which it was played was quite pleasing-so don't think you didn't do a good job on that actually.


Actually, I wasn't quite commenting on the orchestration, sure bassoonists won't mind have a solo or two, but it's the harmonic notes that bugs me, the harmony wasn't in the right place, cos on the piano, you're specifying on a chord, but on the bassoon, you're doing something else. As for your new version, I really liked the turn around 2:18 where the strings build up and suddenly resolves by the flute. Although the bass strings part after that was quite not in place. If you develop this piece more, it would be quite a nice piece, and I would suggest you to start by creating more than one theme and link the themes together. Also, around 2:10, when the bassoon doubles the oboe in octaves, it created a special effect, although it's kind of lacking in middleground elements. The ending was much better though, good job on that. Well, you do seem to have interest and potential to be a good orchestrator from what I heard from the piece, so I would suggest you study deeper into orchestration and harmony as a next step and do some test and trial pieces for more people to comment, so therefore you can learn more about such techniques. I am indeed glad to see that you have stepped out of your comfort zone in music to post your piece here as you can really learn a lot from here. (I started here with practically no experience, but I have learned a lot from this place and people here). So yeah, good luck studying on music, and I look forward to see you post more! Good luck and well done. :) ;)

PS/Off-topic: Lol, I never expect myself to post lengthy comments like this... :heh: Oh well...

Thanks, both of you. This is great feedback.

Mazeppa: I haven't heard much of anything from the Naruto soundtrack, but I guess I'll have to check it out now. :)

Sir_Dotdotdot: I think I'm probably going to try making a mark 2 version of this keeping in mind everything that's been said (especially the lack of melodic variation - it's kind of kicking me in the face with its obviousness now that it's been pointed out). Though I was wondering if you knew of any good resources since I'm a bit at a loss of where to start, since I know from what's been said that I'm missing out on some of the important theory.

Would you have any reading to recommend, or specific composers or pieces you think I would benefit from studying? I'm just a bit wary of starting another composition without patching up a few holes in my knowledge in case I only end up further entrenching my mistakes.


PS/Off-topic: Lol, I never expect myself to post lengthy comments like this... :heh: Oh well...

I think I'll take this as a good sign. :D

Eh..

Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Strauss and possibly Brahms for arrangements.

Their in my interest for studying though, so I wouldn't know what music would appeal to you-but always start with the old masters I say.

Eh..

Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Strauss and possibly Brahms for arrangements.

Their in my interest for studying though, so I wouldn't know what music would appeal to you-but always start with the old masters I say.

What he said, and if you like more modern orchestration stuff, I suggest Rimsky-Korsakov, Mahler, Stravinsky and Ravel. ;)

Ergh, I feel a bit bad about starting this thread and then leaving it to rot, especially after all the good advice. I just haven't made much progress on anything recently. Here's a slightly older piece:

Hm... I don't know how to put it... Well, there are some icky notes here there that is not part of your chord progression, fix those up. At times, the orchestration sound a little grey, maybe you doubled too many instruments on a part (try to let instruments that have different timbres have different part, for example, don't double viola with the flute and etc...), and try to unify parts that are in one timbre, if you get what I mean, like don't make violins do one crazy movement, and viole (violas) do other. Also, the melody isn't quite steady, like nothing got stuck in my head, make your themes memorable, for a starter, unless you want to do atmospheric pieces, but in this piece, from what I heard, you were aiming for the piece to be melodic. And lol, you seem to like the celesta/glockenspiel a lot, but a word of warning, overusing it maybe cause awkwardness in timbre, so you should get use to not using it as much. ;) (Plus, since I saw you like using harp as well, lemme give a tips: doubling celesta and harp in octaves/unison gives a very silvery effect, and it's nice if used appropriately.) Well, good job, I look forward to hear more from you. ;)

Oh, thanks man. :) Great tips, I think I'll try and fix it up right now and post a new version before I go to bed.

Edit: There we go. It probably still needs work, but hopefully that's an improvement.

Your works seems to always give me a quasi-celtic/new age feeling, which is good. Hm... Your edit seemed to have eliminated some of the awkward notes, but at sometimes it's still lacking, but I guess since you structured the piece in such way, you can't really change it. ;) So I guess you should start a new piece or something. My advice for you this time is that you should leave a little space for improvements for every piece. ;) Nice job~! :)

I like your pieces, for your first piece...

I feel that it sounds pretty good but when it comes to playing, you've lost the interest of some of the players. Repetitions may be good to a point but if the listener becomes to feel that repetition, you can be sure the players are sick of it. I'm speaking of the piano of course. This is a farely short piece so I don't think players will care much but for future reference, remember to interest not only the listners but the players as well. I've seen quotes such as "Players will play through pages of boringness for that one part they can shine on." This is NOT true as our school band had to suffer through in playing , "Into the Storm".

Second piece...

I felt the beggining melody was a bit random. Sounded like you had 1 section start on a melody and before it finished, you had another section start on the melody again. Your complete theme wasn't played until the very end of the song. This is my guess to what's depriving your music of a theme that sticks into people's heads. Good luck!

I like your work, I have a question, on what or where do you write your songs? I do mine on finale' notepad but I have the free version so im extremley limited im trying to find somthing new. thanks!