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Hey everyone, While I've been quite busy with university during the past year, I've started uploading some of my compositions to a YouTube channel, which I think better presents my music as a score-audio combo. They're all still computer renditions, but I hope to begin uploading my own performances these next few months (including of other works, mainly Scriabin). Here's a waltz that I originally wrote for one of those community-organised composition challenges on MuseScore, in which it was required that a note be repeated at least once in every bar of a piece. I ended up bestowing upon it the nickname "Waltz of the B(ee)s" for that reason and gave the score to my music teacher as a gift. Among all of my pieces, I think this is the one I'm closest to recording myself, so I'll update this thread when I'm ready!

I agree, and also I am used to composing melodies that are so different to the ones used it Jazz that I feel I need to practice Jazz piano and soloing a lot until I can actually come up with those types of melodies in my mind. However, it is so much fun to learn it. Thanks for the advice! For now I am trying to focus on the blues scale only adding some approach notes here and there. Still long way to go since my piano skills are also not so good yet 😅 Thank you!!

I like it! I have a soft spot for pieces like this, that are easy to just sit down and play. You mention insecurity with ms. 40, but I heard nothing that seemed "un-smooth" about it. If you find yourself unconvinced by a phrase in your composition, try experimenting with it. Take the phrase, and try looking at it from different harmonic angles. You may or may not be satisfied with the results, and it might be frustrating. But, you're likely to learn something valuable from the experience! I think my biggest criticism of the piece is when you just stop the block chords at the end of each part, at mss. 24 & 56. Don't get me wrong, you definitely have the right idea for the music to come to a rest, but this way of doing it isn't working for me. I think it's because the piece isn't meaty enough for that *long* of a pause. Instead, perhaps a fermata or two at moments you consider "key" would work better, (for example, the 3rd beat of ms. 40?) providing space, without sounding clunky or detached. I really enjoyed listening to this! Thank you for sharing 🙂

Here is a short piece, which I wrote recently. It is in a Chopin-like style. I have not made any pedal indications, because most musicians would probably want to decide on this themselves. But I could add them of course. I would be very interested to learn what you think of the piece.

yes, each genre has it's own difficulties, specific to themselves. Jazz tends to stand out specifically because there's technically no wrong answers. My advice for solo notation in jazz would be to keep your notation, as for right now anyway, pitched within the blues minor scale of the key you're writing in, or, alternatively, pitched in the Pentatonic scale. The notes within those scales for the key being written or played in, you cannot really go wrong with it. And you can move the pentatonic scale key and deviate from the key signature in line with the chord in the measure you're writing solo notation in without it really sounding "wrong". Hopefully that helps you some

These microtones do contribute to the music. But let me go through my thoughts, so you can get a better sense of why. I like how at 10 seconds in, you demonstrate the microtone by gradually increasing its pitch. 14 seconds in, you really are showing how microtones can affect harmony, at least to my ears. Also, I feel like most of the time I wasn't sure if we were in minor or major. Like I could tell, but there were times where the major portions sounded really ominous 😵‍💫. At 1:13 to to 1:20 you have a series of cadences. I think the first 2 cadences resolve to minor, and the final one resolves to major. But again, it's not that easy to tell. The entire piece reminds me of a dream sequence, and this could be in part due to the echo effect. I feel like I am perhaps in a haunted carnival, with evil clowns chasing me. There are some instances of reprieve, but the entire piece is incredibly haunting. This is more than the thought it just sounds out of tune. I think you are starting to learn how to make use of microtones to contribute to mood. When you suggest they don't seem necessary, I think perhaps this type of composition is starting to become second nature to you. But to the listener, I can assure you, the microtones are seriously warping the mood of this piece, in ways that may not be possible with normal music. I really like this piece as a whole, and maybe my ear training is starting to get used to microtonal music since you started posting these exercises 😅.