Indiana Threepwood

Ok well thank you for your input. I'm not sure when I'll be making the other movements but probably not that soon.

Well this is what I have to show for a year of taking composition lessons and discovering "classical" music (non-pop-or-rock-music). It was comforting to have set guidelines laid out for the structure (sonata form) so I didn't have to contrive that at least. Anyway, tell me what you think! Sonata No. 1.mid

Here's my latest update on the fight song. I have completed the full arrangement of the first, main theme to my satisfaction. I may change it slightly as time goes by, but here it is for the most part. Freehold Fight full.MUS Freehold Fight full.MID

Ok. I know I've been away from young composers for a while but I've been a little busy. Anyway, I haven't given up my fight song yet even though its well after my intended completion date. I've tried to make a harmonization a few times for full band but its just too overwhelming. I'm figuring out that, at least until I hone my skills better, I really need to make a piano arrangement of my compositions first and then translate it to full band later. So, thats what I did about this. I haven't actually had proper access to a piano yet so I haven't been able to bang out all the chords yet, but it sounds all right to me on the whole. I know I can improve the piano arrangement a little before I make it into a full band. Anyway, here's what I have so far! Freehold_Fight_piano.MUS Freehold_Fight_piano.MID

Hey! Thanks a lot you've really been a big help. I appreciate you taking the time to respond to me. :laugh:

Yes, I have often speculated about the strange similarity between marches and fight songs. Actually, I wrote this song while I was in the middle of trying to write a regular march. I guess it put me in the right "mood". Looking at other popular fight songs for reference (such as On Wisconsin), I see a structure like ABA, or AA'BAA', in which the B theme is often dog-fight-esk. I think I'll probably settle for the structure I've chosen. I think it works fine and I don't have that much time to make major changes. The main problem with making it a full march is that it'd be way too long. As stupid as it sounds, the fight song should probably be around a minute to tend for people's really short attention spans at football games. As for lyrics, I definitely agree they are needed. I was actually planning on organizing a school-wide lyrics contest. I think I'll end up with decent lyrics, however corny they turn out to be. In regards to the stinger, I agree it is not optimal on beat 4 (or the "and" of beat 2 since its cut time), but I kinda don't think making it on the 3rd beat would make it any better. So, I think I may just give up on a stinger, even though it is so characteristic of me to use stingers all the time! :angry: Thank you so much for all of your comments! I'll start harmonizing it soon and I'll keep you posted! :blush:

Wow! Thank you very much for your detailed input. I understand what you are saying and I pretty much agree with your arguments. I think you are confused with what I mean by A and B themes. The structure I chose was AABAA. Theme A is 8 bars long and B is 12 bars. When you were referring to my A theme, I think you meant what I call my first attempt at the B theme of the piece. Like I said above, I think my second attempt is a better one because it sounds a little more natural. I barely think about the theory of what intervals I choose, I mostly just do it by ear. I don't know if that's good or bad. I will submit the finished piece hopefully in a few weeks. Once again, thanks a lot for your valuable input!

I worked on it a little and came up with another possible B theme. Here it is. I think I like it more than the first attempt. Freehold_Fight2_2.MUS Freehold_Fight2_2.MID

My high school marching band (Freehold Township HS, if you care) used to play "On Wisconsin" as their "fight song", which means its what we play when we get a touchdown at football games. Recently though, the stupid administration of my school decided that we didn't want to play a song of a different school as our fight song for whatever reason. Obviously, this doen't make any sense because so many high school bands play On Wisconsin or Ohio State's "Fight the Team" and nobody complains. But of course my school has to be the first to complain. Anyway, I made it my goal to compose a completely original fight song for the school before I leave (which is in like 20 days). I must have tried like 4 or 5 times with different ideas, but nothing would satisfy me. Then, suddenly, as I was just playing around on the piano, I started playing Mary Had a Little Lamb (don't ask!) and for whatever reason I played it in the common style of a fight song, and it sounded really good! I then proceeded to take that and modify slightly so it sounds good without sounding like Mary Had A Little Lamb, and I love it. There's only one thing (melody-wise) that I have to do before I can say the melody is done and I can start on the harmonies. I have that idea as a very good A theme, but the song really calls for a B theme and I think a simple AABAA or something similar. I came up with something for the B theme, but I really don't think its good enough. I tried to do a simple call and answer with the low brass and stuff, but it just doesn't sound good enough to me. Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions for my B theme or anything else? Any comment would be greatly appreciated. Freehold_Fight.MUS Freehold_Fight.MID

I get a "File Not Found" error for the first link and a "Access Denied" for the second. Why don't you just upload them?

Since I don't play trombone at all, I don't know anything about the "slide positions" in relation to the notes. My only question is: If i'm writing a part for trombone that slides a lot between notes, is it possible (and relatively easy) to slide from any one pitch to another? I'm assuming it is at least quite hard, so my question is: What notes can I safely slide between? Thanks! :P

I don't know really how productive that would be. A single thread devoted to newbies' music? I don't know, it seems like a crazy idea to me and maybe not something people would so much enjoy. As people have been saying, newbies tend to be very unpredictable. The possibilty of secluding newbies to only post on one thread seems like a train wreck. Following the same idea though, if newbies had a discussion group that was designed for them, but without excluding them from other groups, then newbies would have a comfortable environment with other newbies but they wouldn't have to just post there. I don't know. Just expanding on her idea a little. (Forgive me if I sound stupid, but I'm reeeaaally tired. :w00t: )Btw, when you refer to me, instead of calling me Indiana, you can just call me by my nickname: Indy. Its just a little more informal and shorter.

Well, I think that before you go and change the rules for newbies (and even if you do!), you should create a brief, welcoming "NEWCOMERS: READ THIS FIRST" thread that welcomes the newbies in a kind manner and also clearly tells them the way things work around here. In addition to chopin's "posting rules" you should make it clear to newbies that in order to have people review their work THEY MUST CONTRIBUTE because of the sheer nature of this forum. Also say how you don't need to be an expert to contribute. Being a newbie myself, I for one didn't realize at all that I'd need to make myself at least a little known and liked in the "community" before people would pay attention to me. It would be helpful to make this thread as visible to newbies as possible, if possible by forcing them to that page the very first time they sign on, but also in an easy "pinned" status. Anyway, these are my thoughts on the subject, coming from a genuine newbie! OOOOOO!! AAAAAAAHH!! :w00t:

I'm assuming you're at least partially talking about me. I'd love to contribute, but my question for you is: "How can I contribute?" If you mean by criticizing others' work, I hesitate to do that because I don't feel like I have enough knowledge and experience to tell people what to do. I don't know, maybe I don't belong here if I have that attitude, but I can't help it. I can't pretend that I know more about music than anyone else. I just can't. :P

I agree with leightwing for the most part. I think adding more piano movement (dare I say fills?) would help a lot. I would do some subtle melody-echoing in the piano to make it kinda sound like its in a round, but only the second time through the phrase. I generally like the melody. The only thing I didn't like about it was it seemed a little repetitive. That's not to say that I could do a better job cause I don't think I could, but that's just the impression that I get. Overall, not bad, but it could use some refinement.