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Hi. When you want to write a piece for orchestra, do you make a sketch first? I mean two issues: 1. A general plan of parts (Form). 2. A version piano-like.

I generally plan it out in a formal sense and sometimes also, as is the case with my first symphony, in a narrative sense, but a piano sketch, I've only done that for when I was stuck on deciding what to do next. I did such a thing for my symphony. But like the actual composing, vast majority of it is straight onto the orchestral score. Here's that bit of sketching I did for the symphony. I ultimately decided on Idea #1.

It so depends on how ideas present themselves. I usually "hear" ideas played by an instrument other than the piano and sketch them out on paper. I may check harmony that comes along with them on the piano or organ. But whenever I practice (lounge-styled) improvisation at the piano I record the sessions just in case anything useful crops up...rare but it's been known. If I do work something at the piano I usually make text notes of what instruments/group(s) come to mind. I've also drawn very rough graphical sketches where I don't want to lose a mood/idea but can't quite think of how to notate it at the outset.

Love story. Love story dedicated for my parents. It took me to write only one day because of so many emotions sleeping in me after my mother passed away and my fathers grief. Hope you will enjoy it.

You know, after about 30 seconds in, I took my composer hat off and just listened to enjoy the music. It's really well done, and you're quite the composer. I loved the cadenza, and even though it was a bit stream-of-note heavy, you really show off what winds are great at. A performance of this is a must at some point, as I felt the clarinet had a distant timbre compared to the piano. I'm glad you updated this one, I somehow missed commenting on it! Really well crafted, I'll be dropping by to listen to this one again and again. Thanks for sharing!

Cool piece! I get an improvisational vibe from this one. I don't mind the repeated chord progressions, but make sure to really vary your melody if that's going to be your MO. I feel like too many times it's repeated or played in octaves a bit much. The embellishments were nice, but those seemed to be repeated as well. I really like your pacing in this, the ritardandos and transitions were well done. Loved the change in tempo at 3 minutes, and the ending was a nice touch in major. One part that struck me as odd was the section with rising chords right before the 2 minute mark. The left hand seems really dry while there's reverb in the right hand. Not sure if it's just me Overall, congrats on completing this one! For the future, always be thinking about the balance in harmony, melody, rhythm, texture, tempo, etc. If your harmony is static on four chords, really explore the melody, or think about changes in rhythm and dynamics. The list is never ending with how you can develop your music, so ultimately it's up to you how you prefer to do it. That's what makes you a composer imo. Anyone can come up with a melody or musical idea, but a composer knows what to do with it. Thanks for sharing, and feel free to comment on other composers' pieces. Most will check out yours in return!

Nice composition. it seems idiomatic. Although you make a great work with the "harmonic ostinato" it seems a bit too much. In the end, it's a fxed movement tonic-dominant from Fm or Ab. I would have considered a different part, but it's your work. Congrats.

Thanks! I do try to give all the guitars a spotlight here and there but I also happened to include the glockenspiel and vibraphone and with the tinny sound of the midi acoustic guitar that gives I think a poor impression. Those are the parts where I feel most dissatisfied with the colors of the rendering but I can't actually be sure if it's a poor instrumental combination or not. Then there's also the part at exactly the halfway point of the piece that is meant to have a more classical approach to it so I kept the guitars out of it. It's actually inspired by and meant to portray Kefka's march across the desert from Final Fantasy III (VI). Big fan of that music. I wrote the whole of the drumset part out on paper this time always glancing back at a notation key to try and make sure that it was playable/possible. From what I read, most drumsets have 2 floor toms and 2 high toms so I wrote it for that kind of setup which from what I understand is considered to be the standard. Thanks - I'm glad you noticed that! Although perhaps this piece is a bad example of how "out there" my ending chords can be considering that it just ends on a tonic minor major 7th chord. I guess its the way I approach it though coming from many rapid modulations that juxtapose F# minor (which is the key that I modulated to earlier in the piece) with the home key of D minor. Yeah - you're right. I think the acoustic guitar was much more audible in "A Brand New Day" owing to the fact that the instrumentation was less than half of this piece. Well - in a way I consider it to be already in it's instrument family seeing as how it replaces the contrabasses. Plus I'm just so used to seeing the lowest voice below the cellos. The strings do have a trill on the last note but surely you're not suggesting that I put a whole bunch of trills into the guitar parts? That would be total overkill in this piece. As far as I know there isn't any way to indicate vibrato in Musescore although I'd be glad if I was wrong. Whatever you say man. I'm almost a total noob with respect to the electric guitar and all the droves of gear in use for it. Totally right again. Yeah - there's actually a few more options for the electric guitar in Musescore besides just distortion and overdrive, one of which is "jazz" but I don't get if that's just a different kind of guitar or another pedal... ? That's a great point and something I hope to explore in future pieces! I've been thinking along the same lines and have been longing for some solo instrument with guitar accompaniment pieces which I might start working on soon when I pick my acoustic guitar back up in the fall. Thanks for your continued dedication and attention to detail! Your reviews always make me hope that when I post a new piece you'll be lurking around LoL. Btw - for my next submission I'm working on an old Andante for Strings. Thanks again! Peter