Awsumerguy

It's always great to hear from you, @Thatguy v2.0 😄 I've decided to call it 'Subway Funk', as the piano-led ostinatos sounded like a moving train to me. Probably just being pretentious with the naming tho 😛 I really am excited to write more: there's a string quartet, a cello song cycle, and a nocturne on the way, but I've been practically swamped with all of this schoolwork (being a senior in IBDP sucks 🙃) so I haven't been able to compose at all these past few weeks. I've been required to pen a piano transcription of 'See You Again' for school, though; I'll post that here once I'm done, and then I'll work on the other stuff I mentioned earlier. At least, that's what my plan's like. Hope to talk to you soon! 👋

My my, how time flies. It's been a while. Anyway, I've finished the piece, @Thatguy v2.0. Felt like you might be interested 😉

I'm sorry if it seemed that way! I didn't mean to sound unreceptive at all 😓 I understand there were mistakes made in the piece, and I have come to accept them even before its completion; it's just a little disheartening because I had spent a lot of time on it, is all. Then again, I think everyone feels that way when receiving criticism over something they're proud of.

Oh, how you flatter me so! 😆 On a side note, I'm definitely not much else other than a subpar pianist outside of composition. I listen to a lot of music from a bunch of different genres and put them together based on what I've heard and feel sounds 'right-ish' to my (relatively inexperienced) ears. I will say that it's a lot easier to do that with a more amorphous genre like funk or jazz, though, than with a more rigidly structured genre like classical music. I guess that's probably how I managed to put together these 'alright' sounding solos despite having no experience with said instruments. I don't really know about my friend's plans for the piece, honestly: he says he's happy enough with just using the MIDI for now (again, it's only a modestly budgeted student film), though I know Musescore's playback on the saxophone is less than competent for high-speed jazz pieces like this (the 'growl' effect, for example, sounds awfully mechanical, and I myself am not a fan). I intend on lowering the fidelity of the sound to give it a 'grainier' auditory aesthetic: that should make it fit with the 'vibe' of improvisational jazz, if you catch my drift. If my friend does plan on getting this performed by his school band, then I'll write him a fake sheet to help his performers out. It'd be pretty hard to pull off these polyrhythms in-performance, I'd say (lol). I'll post the final edited version later at the top once I'm done with it. Thanks for your kind words, they mean a lot to me 😊

Hey @PeterthePapercomPoser, thanks for replying! I can definitely see that. I rewrote this piece from a much older piano-violin duet: at that point, I hadn't considered structure to be anything significant enough to study or follow (don't worry, I grew out of that phase 😉), so that unfortunately translated into the orchestral transcription. My music teacher also said as much when I showed the piece to her: she said it felt as if I composed linearly instead of harmonically. As an orchestrator, that hurt a little, I'll be honest. That being said, I envisioned the piece as being something more of a evocation of the feeling of a waltz instead of being a waltz itself: it acts more as an homage to the musical form than being of that musical form (if that makes sense). Or maybe I'm just bluffing at this point 🙃 But what do you think? I'd love to hear back from you 😄

I'll get that done once I'm satisfied with it; wouldn't want them thinking I was happy with an incomplete work 😉 Also, comments on this new edit, @Thatguy v2.0? I added the saxophone solo, but I feel like I'm adding a little too much mustard on this one. It'd be great to hear from you.

Hey, @Thatguy v2.0, thanks for replying! It means a lot to me. I'm flattered, frankly 😊: I've experimented with writing rhythmic, harmonically non-reliant pieces only once before, so your approval is a good sign I'm (probably) going in the right direction. Rest assured, I'll definitely post more of this piece once I've gotten enough done with it. I had a feeling my guitar writing would be the rank outlier here: I've only ever written for classically-rooted instruments (if barely), and I've never written for guitar instruments before. I'll also consider adding the chord symbols, although I don't reckon it'll be of much use on this particular sheet music: I'll create a fake sheet once I study up on how to make one of those. On a side note, do you think the guitar was an alright addition? I thought the timbres of the guitar didn't really 'mix' with the rest of the ensemble, so I got rid of it in the end. I've attached the reworked version below: I fixed some things up, and I added a (totally obligatory) bass solo at the beginning for good measure. Would love to hear back from you! 😄

I had a similar issue while writing for orchestra, so I get that feeling. You can select the rit. and go to Properties (either go to View -> Properties or press F8) and change the slowing rate of the rit. to what you need. You can start at a slightly slower tempo if that helps the rit. slow just to your preference. If it's not to your liking (or if you knew that already), hiding them works too.

I've been taking something of a hiatus from classical music recently. I haven't had any big ideas to go off of when it comes to big orchestral works or even smaller chamber ensemble pieces; I've also wanted to compose small songs/do piano covers/write jazz pieces for quite some time now, and I figured it's about as good a time as any to just get on with it while I rest the classical side of my composing output for now. Don't worry (in case you are 😉), I'm sure I'll come back to it eventually. The piece below is one of my first attempts at writing in a distinctly alternative, non-classical musical language since I first started writing music two and a half years ago. I've been asked by a friend to write some pieces for his student film, and he asked specifically for an 'upbeat jazz'... thing to accompany a scene he plans on filming a couple of months from now. I decided to work with a jazz trio that consists of a drumset, piano, and acoustic guitar (since he planned on having the school band play the piece). I've made an effort to focus more on rhythmic drive and the 'groove' of the piece instead of melody or harmony, and I'm curious if anything here could be considered 'jazzy' at all, or if it's just a jumble of discordant sounds that merely assume the semblance of jazz improvisation. I'm quite unsure of this new writing style, so any constructive criticism is welcome. Hoping to hear from everybody! 😁 Note: the .mp3 only goes up to 1:42, since I haven't finished the piece. There should be a couple more minutes of music after that. Addendum: I've finished the piece! It's gone all the way up to nearly 6 minutes, but I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out. I've attached the files here as 'funkalicious' (aptly titled) for easier viewing. Special thanks to @Thatguy v2.0 for sticking along for the journey! I'm very grateful you were there to give me advice on maxing out the funk here 🙌

Just putting this out there: I just finished my piece! It can be found over here: I've just posted a new thread for it. If you've been following this work for some time (for some reason; either way I thank you 😉), you can go check out the finished work there. Thanks for the support, @PeterthePapercomPoser and @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu! Your kind words gave me enough strength to keep going 🙏

'If They May Dance' is quasi-programmatic, depicting a waltz that continually rises and falls until reaching a bombastic conclusion. A main melody is weaved into the piece itself: it constantly changes into slightly different forms to keep the piece cohesive. This work is the summit of my composing career so far. It also marks the longest time I've ever spent on a singular piece (~4 months). I'm pretty happy with it, and I don't really have much else to say about it. My progress throughout is documented in this thread; if you're interested, feel free to check it out. As usual, all feedback is appreciated! Would love to hear from you all 😊

Thanks, @PeterthePapercomPoser! Your kind words mean a lot to me. You're right: this piece is still unfinished. I've taken some time so I don't rush myself trying to make something worthwhile and end up creating a half-baked ending. I'll post once I've gotten everything complete. Hope you'll stay tuned! 😉

I'm a little off from my initial target: it's been a week and a half, but I've gotten in some good progress and I've made some structural changes to the way I handled the thematic material. I've stopped just short of the coda to make sure I give myself some time before I come back to it to finish the piece off strong. In the meantime, here's what I've managed to get done. I'd like to hear some of everybody's thoughts! They're all welcome 😄

Hey, @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu! It's always good to hear from you. It interesting how you've managed to predict what I had had in mind for the piece: I've just finished writing a tenor saxophone solo somewhere around there. I don't suppose that's the same thing as writing a variation for brass, but I'll keep your suggestion in mind. I'm currently scoring that whole sax solo for brass chorale and string accompaniment; I hope you'll let me know if it's worked out at all 😉 I've decided against writing in binary/ternary form, since I hadn't done so in the original solo and hadn't thought it to be particularly necessary in a waltz like this. There's only a month to go and I don't think I really have the time to write a contrasting theme of much substance, but if things turn out differently then I may very well consider it. Again, thank you for your suggestions! I'll be sure to continue to post progress by the next week 👋😊

I've been working on this piece on-and-off for about two months now. This piece is a reworking of an older chamber work (you may remember the Grande Valse I wrote nearly a year ago) into a much larger orchestral setting, since I planned on submitting this piece for a competition I felt like attempting around the end of December of last year. Doing so was apparently much, much harder than I expected with this particular composition: there were a lot of inconsistencies in the written music, orchestrally unsound harmonies, and otherwise confounding structural decisions that made it an extraordinary pain to orchestrate this whole thing in its entirety. To this day, I haven't been able to complete it. This piece also happens to be my first serious attempt at an orchestration from a chamber piece, which is why I find it a more challenging task than others more well-versed in orchestration probably would (a 21st century Ravel, I am not). I've had to rewrite entire sections because of the issues mentioned above, and I've found it alarmingly difficult to write with a reasonably consistent output for some time: there were many weeks where I would suffer from composer's block, and I've only got about a month and a half to go before the submission date is due. I would therefore like to ask the lovely people in this forum for some help regarding what I can do about my piece as it stands and what I can do to combat the composer's block I'm currently suffering from. All feedback is welcome! I hope to hear from you all ☺️