Irrgarten

Hmm... interesting that you mention my tendency to have the chords on the strong beat of each measure since, really, I have no clue where else they could fall :P If the chords don't "regularly" fall into certain beats then, how is rhythm supposed to be maintained through the piece? Sorry if it looks like I've got not clue of anything, but It's been such a long time since last time I regularly listened to classical music that I forgot all that vocabulary... and I don't think this piece has got much relation to prog rock (what I listen to) as to get inspiration from it )

Lol, that was one of the things that I was in fact considering to do... but a little bit later, not yet ) What about the chords there? Do you think they work?

I've somehow managed to advance in the composition of my piano piece. In bar 27 I slow down the tempo and the left hand changes from arpeggios to chords for every beat. In the context of the piece, do you think this works? Besides arpeggios and chords I don't know what else is usually written for the left hand to do. I would be glad to hear comments and suggestions. Thank you! PS. Sorry if the score is messy. 1105.pdf Output1105.mp3

Haha, I know exactly what you mean... but these are only 13 bars so far! :P

Hello again and thanks for your great answer. You say that I'm limiting myself and probably that it's true, being inexperienced, I may be missing things that for other are crystal clear lol. In part the reason why I speak of repetition is because I'm not trying to compose a classical piece of music, where an idea is chopped and rearranged in infinite changes if rhythm, accents and note progressions. I used to listen to a lot of classical music long time ago, but now I listen mainly to progressive rock, a genre where there are a lot of key changes, motiffs, moods and so on. Also the score shows my own ability, or should I say inability at playing the piano lol. This doesn't bother me right now since I plan to make the structure first and then make the necessary changes to embellish my music and make it a little more complete, for example shift the bass notes between arpeggios and add some grace notes here and there. After listening over and over to what I already have I feel that I need a kind of continuation to the idea stated in the first 13 bars. I feel it's too early for introducing a big change yet ) Once again thanks for your time, and please understand that I'm learning music theory by composing, I'm better at understanding things by doing them and making mistakes )

Hello dscid, and thanks a lot for being the first one to reply! I understand what you say, about playing with the basic melody, introducing little changes, make variations and so on... that is something that I understand and that eventually I plan to do. I say "eventually" mainly because I feel that what I have so far is too little (just the first sentence of a poem, or the introduction chapter of a short novel). In the mp3 I have repeated the first 13 bars and then came the violas making a similar melody line. I feel that at this stage just repeating or making variations will sound, well, repetitive and boring... I need to introduce a second phrase or theme, maybe a third one before ever thinking about returning to the opening melody with the added variations... and this is mainly what my question was about: how to come up with that second theme? I've been experimenting with some changes in the chord progressions (the last idea I like was going from i to vii to i and then something else) and looks like some promising possibilities are opening up. But besides changing the order and kind of chords I'm using, I don't know what else I could try expand my ideas and sounds. As I said, my theory is almost zero and mainly I compose by mixing sounds and seing what fits together ) PS: Here is the score of the first 13 bars of music I have. To help me with my studies and understand all the theory I'm trying to absorbe, somebody please tell me: What is the key of this piece? What scales am I using? From what I know it looks like my chord progressions are based on Cm, but I'm not sure. Any kind of information regarding the structure of this piece would help me a lot to grasp the concepts of musical theory. Thanks!

Hello everybody, this is my first post here! First a little bit about myself: I've got no musical training whatsoever, but I love listening to music. My younger brother studies the piano and I used to sit and play chords, scales and anything that came to mind. Year 2013, my wife bought a synthesizer because wants to learn to play the piano but soon she loses interest and I pick the instrument to continue my old habit of playing what comes to my mind. Owning a Mac and a DAW (logic pro) I decided to actually try to compose real music, so I've been studying music theory. My knowledge is still minimal but I'm not a total noob either, and I have gotten some ideas that, at least to me, sound nice and worth of exploration. Now my problem: I've got a melody and basic arpeggio that goes through 13 bars in 4/4. The progression goes fom Cm and return to Cm at bar 13. After this I'm stuck... I don't know how to continue. Improvising as I always do I've have written some other ideas but they still lack the connection to my main line. So guys, what should I do in order to continue developing my piece of music? Are there rules or guidelines to follow in order to go from A to B and eventually link everything in a coherent way? Thanks a lot for reading! Output 1-2.mp3