UncleRed99

oh no, I got that the sounds were muse, but the animated score video is what I was looking to know more about lol

Man, how did I miss this reply!!! What program did you use for the animated score playback? That's awesome!

Here's another update to this piece... Also looking for names... It's not often I begin writing a score without having a preset theme... Sort of just letting my mind do the work for me, then figure I'd name it later, but I'm open to suggestions in that regard as well! 😅 PLEASE be as detailed as you want! Let that music theory mind flow, and don't feel like you need to tiptoe! I'm full of humility 🙂 I can handle criticism

Hello and welcome! id like to add my $0.02 in! the piece feels very imaginative, and the composing… well, without it being an insult (because it isn’t!) I can surely tell that you’re still learning. There’s nothing wrong with that by the way! That being said, I concur, if you have anyone who’s able to mentor you in music theory and composition, it would be beneficial for you! however the sound of the piece’s playback definitely sounds as you intended for it to, despite the actual notation. However, if I had to say anything about it negatively, I’d like to point out that there is such a thing as too much reverb 😅😅😅 When I began using MuseScore, I also had that problem, as a beginner composer. I was still planting my roots in composing with Musescore and in general, right around the time that Musescore 4.0 released, and MuseSounds was introduced. Muse Reverb sounds great when used correctly, however, too much as you have here, can create a “muddiness” in the sound, making it hard to pick up on articulations, intonation from the different parts, and it allows sounds to bleed between chords, which prevents the music from having distinct separations between each chord being played, making it a bit difficult to follow well. So I’d definitely look into improving the mixing/mastering of your playback. Keeping the reverb at its default position on the mixer is usually perfectly fine. The only time I’ve ever increased reverb was specifically for soloist parts, as it helps them to ring out a little more. However, I’ll rarely have that reverb dial turned to more than 50%. And your “Aux 1” channel next to the Master channel is the reverb gain control and pan control. Pan it to 0, and set the gain to ~+2.0, with each instrument’s reverb either at its default 15% position (most instruments are at 15 by default, but some are at 5%, such as Piano and percussion instruments. Those should also be left alone), or a maximum of ~25% but do so selectively. This will help your playback to be more legible in my opinion. It also helps to do this with headphones in, and to avoid adjusting individual instrument gain +/- at all, and solely rely on the panning function for volume control and balancing. (I.e. higher voices should alternate to max ~60% L or R pan, mid voices should alternate to ~25-40% L or R, and bass voices should stay relatively centered. It helps to spread the voices out a bit more so regardless of the gain, all will be heard easily!) that’s about all I got for ya.

Awesome work my friend. id love to see this fleshed out into a suite of some sort to touch on the dynamics question, the skill with delegating dynamics can be quite intimidating especially in pieces like this that demand expressiveness and have a very specific set of dynamic needs that may have to be followed strictly by an ensemble. typically what I do is I go to the voices of a given section that need to be heard over the rest of the group, or, need to stick out more than the rest of the group, and depending on the context of the section, I will never put their markings anywhere below mf. Every other voice, which would be low registers (bass, tuba, cont. bass., bass clar. Etc….) would be at a comfortable mp or p, and the 5ths and 3rds (maybe 7ths depending on your chord structure) would be at p or pp, as each degree of the chord is more than likely doubled, tripled, or quadrupled by other instruments and will naturally ring out loud enough to be heard, while also allowing the melodic line to stick out much further, as higher pitches are caught by the human ear much more clearly than lower or mid register pitches would be. however, I say all that without any contextual examples at this current moment. I’m typing this out on my phone during a little bit of my spare time so can’t get *too* in depth about it, but for a more simplistic answer, just start your playback, and allow your own expertise to tell you what instruments/tones/rhythms are the most important in each given section of the composition. For pieces of this mood, you’ll likely find yourself feeling the need to use decresc. And cresc. Markings very very frequently, and that’s okay! If a player were to read it, they’d be more than capable of performing with a ton of hairpins just fine. As a former trumpeter, I actually loved varied dynamics for more legato pieces, especially while I played as first trumpet, and there was a gorgeous, bold, ringing trumpet solo during a slow moving part of a piece where as the soloist, my part was written out to be in the spotlight. 😂 looooved those moments so much. Even had a piece that was for military remembrance that we played at my local all county clinic band concert. Suggested to the director that I felt that the piece almost NEEDED a trumpet solo in the beginning and boy oh boy, he loved that idea and so did the rest of the band. snare drum came in, playing a very simplistic but military-esc rudimentary line, then came to a halt, and in a silent auditorium, I played what almost sounded reminiscent of the “Taps” Bugle call, except it was just the main Melody of the piece heard throughout. I got a video of that somewhere… lol but there was hairpins from start to finish on that solo part we wrote out for me to play. Without any other instruments in that case, p < mf > pp on the soloist part can be heard all the way in the back of the room, with little effort. the players will know how to handle what you write. Dynamics aren’t a set dB level. They’re an “attitude” is what I like to say. Players will naturally adjust their dynamic volume according to the sound within the concert arch. In notation software they aren’t treated that way, but there are ways to manipulate the program to have playback do what you intend regardless of dynamic markings. Just gotta learn your program. EDIT: I found the recording! lol can’t add video media, so I just converted it to mp3. (Peep the little kid in the audience yelling “is that a trumpet?!” Right as soon as I got done playing 😂😂😂) also, not my best effort here, as we had been rehearsing 5 pieces of music non-stop over the course of 2 days, start to finish, just for that performance. Your boy was pretty pooped. ScreenRecording_03-21-2025 22-30-11_1.mp3

Hey henry!! I added a new video attachment with further progress. This will now show the direction I'm headed. (I didn't know I was gonna end up there, either. Modulating from F Minor to Bb Major 😉 (I think. I'm good at knowing what it's supposed to sound like, but I get my keys mixed up easily, when it comes time to discuss anything 🤣... Curse this ADHD I have. Makes things all squiggly. But You're much more intelligent than I am so I'm sure you'll see the difference better than me even on my own score xD) But either way, I haven't fleshed anything out other than the chords I want to hear for the progression in the next section. Have yet to come up with a melody and counterpoint for it so far...

I love Zach Heyde's videos on orchestration techniques. The caveat is that he uses DAW's only in his content, but It is easy to understand and translate over to notation, for me. Hopefully this helps someone else too. I know I struggle with "muddy" composing often... This helped to clarify some things for me 🙂

Here's the FINAL final draft of this piece. (Let me know if this format is easier to digest than my normal MO of MP3 + PDF!)

incomplete symphony orch. piece... My latest project. any suggestions for improvement? (The currently written notation is also not fully fleshed out so some voicings within the chords are also still missing.)

Well, this was an arrangement of a pre-existing piece of music. It was used as a back track for the final scene in the video game Halo 3 the score was written by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori. there is a melody there, I believe that my balancing in terms of sound may be a bit off-kilter, here. In MS Studio I’m able to hear it clearly. So that may be the mistake. not to mention, I also firmly believe and have the humility to say that I probably went a bit over-board with counter melody and harmony voicing in this one 😅😅😅 Kind of drowns out the melody. When I get to my computer I can better explain it to you. But in essence, I do understand where you’re coming from, and would wholeheartedly agree with you that I need to work on focusing on the melodic lines more often. I find myself, often, even writing original scores, becoming a bit entranced by the harmonic structures of the chords in the progression, and I believe it’s because that’s what my ear takes the most pleasure in listening to. I get a little tunnel vision while structuring my chords sometimes and completely forget that the melody even exists 😅😅 it’s something I’m already actively working on trying to improve upon. thank you for the extensive feedback! And I’ll let you know if my skills take me that direction at some point. Funny enough I used to work a job where I travelled the East Coast working at Lowe’s buildings overnight, doing Corporate Reset Construction (basically tearing down the giant shelving and displays then installing new ones and setting product/labels via Planogram) My last contract location with them was Bristol TN & VA. My home location is Florence SC.

For me, I chose - Not good at analyzing music (because I truly have struggled deeply with this skill since I started with music. I have a hard time even analyzing what it is that I’M writing at times to be clear and honest) - Not enough knowledge of existing repertoire… (Some of you guys can reference music pieces by pulling them from thin air out of your memories lol I’ve listened and attempted to analyze many scores but they always elude me in their name or artist when I need to reference it. I have ADHD so I don’t retain knowledge in terms of specifics unless it’s something I’m actively working on) - Afraid to say something that’s wrong (if it makes any sense, I can *see* what needs to be fixed but have a hard time formulating the correct sentences to *explain* it to someone unless it’s something that I’ve already made a mistake on and corrected, myself.) in addition to these, I’m also a sole proprietor business owner. I run a mobile auto repair service and my phone rings off the hook constantly. (I’m sitting in the Walmart parking lot with my phone on DND since it’s outside of my business hours and, for once, I’m not working over time today.. lol so when I get a lull I do try to participate where possible)

Yes!!! one of the main reasons work is posted here, I think it’s safe to say, is for the purpose of feeling accomplished in the work that was done for the compositions. They take a lot of time to do, no matter the skill level or grammatical correctness of it. it always feels nice to at the bare minimum, be seen / noticed by someone, anyone!

I appreciate the feedback, for sure. I have also noticed that my ability to add variation can be challenged with some pieces of mine. I've recently went back over some old material from when I was in school for Music Theory. This has dug up some of the knowledge I had about effective uses of the circle of fifths, inversions, and modulation that I will be incorporating moving forward to make even the more nuanced pieces of mine have a bit more color in the way the harmonies and progressions work with each other. Feedback of this nature is helpful and I appreciate it from anyone who's willing to take time to give it 🙂

I went through and rearranged this piece to be more solo-worthy on Piano... How'd I do? (Not so versed in Solo piano composition, so trying to improve that here) Remembrance_for_Solo_Piano_-_Kyle_Hilton__UncleRed99.custom_score (1).mp3 Remembrance_for_Solo_Piano_-_Kyle_Hilton__UncleRed99 (1).pdf