Baphomet

That was highly hypnotic and stimulating. :D

On a book I read, chord progressions seem to be kind of like the opposite of melody progression, where melody sounds best when you travel through major and minor 2nds and 3rds.

Very tense, intriguing, and awesome. What is meant by atonal music, anyway? I thought it used to be using tones that aren't in the chromatic scale.

I took a liking to composition since I decided to quit the piano after six months of a meaningless void in my life. Soon after beginning playing around and improvising with the piano again, I strived for more, and have looked for more. I keep finding new things that marvel me and I believe my insatiable drive for learning, combined with a fierce tenacity, will help me become at least a good amateur composer.

To me, improvisation is a skill that is developed over time. It is simply what in literature would be called "free-writing" - writing without a particular idea, just whatever pops into mind. It has several functions: 1. Familiarization with instrument (getting to know the instrument, its limitations and boundaries, ...) 2. Familiarization of yourself through the instrument - improvisation is a way of getting to know yourself, how you express yourself through an aural channel. It may have many more but I may not be aware of it. I usually like to listen to my improvisations and see what I like and don't like. What I like I usually transform it into a proper composition (through several techniques not all too different from creative writing). What I don't like - I take it into account and try to analyze why I don't like it and how I can improve. In a nutshell it is a form of quick thinking that allows you to explore your own expression. Now, a few questions. 1. What other purposes do you think improvisation has? 2. Does improvisation aid in deliberate, and more careful composition? Should one practice more improvisation to build a better musical sense to incorporate in more serious and more conscious compositions*? *My definition of composition is an idea that once materialized, is able to be transformed and subfigured through different techniques to form a piece of a certain duration.