piajo

Hello! Here is a short track I recorded for a chapter of my story about three years ago; I thought I’d share it here once I’ve made the score but that hasn’t happened yet, so it might not happen soon, hehe. Track on YouTube. Any comments are appreciated! Unfortunately, I do not know anyone who plays the oboe, nor can I play it myself, so I used the built-in sound in my piano. Let me know if the oboe sounds playable! Edit: I forgot to add that I am mostly happy with this because my priority is how it sounds with the scene it was composed for. However, I think I will change the oboe part from 1:33 to 1:53, because it doesn't highlight the piano and takes away from it instead.

I see what you mean, the transitions could definitely be smoother! Thank you for your feedback!

Oh wow, thank you so much for this amazing feedback! I appreciate it very much that you took the time to listen and write something so helpful! Ahh I can't tell if you're being nice or genuinely think that, but thank you very much! You are right, I just started trying to write music in scores, and I couldn't do it for a while because of my studies. This piece is something I started writing a while back, and I liked the initial piano melody, so I wanted to put this up in the forum. I resumed it recently and finished it in a rush because I was getting impatient, which is why the strings are so underdeveloped and why this is so short. Someone else here suggested developing the other instruments too on another piece I put up here, so I should definitely try that! It's also easier for me to write sensibly when I have my piano (I don't have access to a piano right now) with me so that I can actually play it and see the placement because I'm not good with sight reading and I've only just started writing, so this is great advice to develop my writing! It only occurred to me today that I should've given some of the bass's parts to the cello when I saw someone play the bass today - I should watch live performances and study these other instruments too when writing for them. Thank you very much, this is highly encouraging!

Braid has a pretty nice soundtrack! I suppose it's style is a little classical, but it sets a great mood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mVKJdgF19k&list=PLE09A650B6C70332A&index=5 Going in another direction, Life is Strange has a nice soundtrack too. You have Jonathan Morali's sweet guitar, and then there's Daughter writing heavy impact music for Before The Storm (song like, but not quite): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td330GWYYFQ

Absolutely any advice is appreciated because I don't know what I did here. I definitely want to revise this because it sounds rushed and I think I can expand this and improve this, but how is this as a first draft? Also, to any drummers, do the rhythms make sense? I tried it out on the drums and it made sense to me, but I don't really play the drums so I don't know.

@maestrowick C# major is sort of symbolic, but I suppose that doesn't really matter! I'll change it to Db major.

Ah I see, that makes sense. I will try something out! That was the intention! I am also not sure of that, perhaps I will change the dynamics to bring out the harp's sound. Essentially, at times I want it to stand out while at the others it's in the background. Thank you very much for your insights!

I am glad you think so! I see. Is that plucking the multiple notes would be too fast? I still have to acquaint myself with how most instruments work, I only play the piano and the guitar. I referred to this (Saint-Saëns's Faintaisie for Harp, Op. 95) which seems very difficult. Would splitting the notes alternatively for the violin and the viola work? I think that might be too fast too. I see. I liked your suggestion and I've changed bar 11 to your version, and slightly modified bar 10 (changed the Viola's A to D). What key signature did you use? While I prefer the sound of the semiquaver version over the quavers, it doesn't make much of a difference when there are many instruments playing, only when the piano's sound is dominant, so that could work! Thank you very much for your suggestions, they're very helpful!

Any feedback is welcome! Hopefully the parts for the Marimba and the Harp are playable; I still have to check how pedals work in Harp, but for now I want to know what this sounds like to everyone and if this is enjoyable!Quintet_1.pdf

I actually did not try that! I'm not sure if it'll help with the modal shift though.

The middle section in this is completely different, but the rest of it is same. Oh okay! That is one of the questions I had previously too, whether or not the notes are playable on the violin. I can't believe I missed those tenths, I must have made some silly error while writing the notes as they are supposed to be tenths. Thank you very much for pointing them out, I'll change that! Also, I did not share the arpeggios with the left hand as the left hand will have its notes later so this way it might be easy to build up momentum, if that makes sense? Edit: But I'll shift some of it to the left hand for b9-20! I will put the violin above! I wanted the piano to have more melodic significance for this though, with the violin only being a support. Initially I considered having the violin have a dominant melody in the middle section but I am still not very sure about that part. Thank you very much for your response!

I have changed the middle section (attached the score and generated mp3 below). There's a scale and modal shift into this, and then back to what it was at the beginning. I want to know if it sounds too abrupt (I've listened to it it so many times and played it so I don't think I can judge it well) and if it's abrupt, do you have any advice on making the transition smooth?Track 14 - V2.pdf Track 14 - V2.mp3

Here is the previous version: I have changed the middle section (attached the score and generated mp3 below). There's a scale and modal shift into this, and then back to what it was at the beginning. I want to know if it sounds too abrupt (I've listened to it it so many times and played it so I don't think I can judge it well) and if it's abrupt, do you have any advice on making the transition smooth? Track 14 - V2.pdf Track 14 - V2.mp3

For those bars I've changed the key to Eb major in the musescore sheet (I could not change the YouTube version yet). I will take a look at those octaves for the cello! Thank you!

I see, how should it be written for the harp? Is it because this manner implies that one hand should play all the notes in a bar while it should actually alternate between both hands?