PhilipHowie

I'd say that to make a beat 'heavy' but not crowded, you actually want to put fewer HH notes in. Consider using (open) hats only on crotchet [4th note] beats and snare on 2 and 4 to give a strong pulse, then doing most of the variation in the bass drum - that'll give you quite a heavy, hard rock feel but without crowding the rest of the composition. Unless you have a good drummer in mind (or one with a double pedal!) though, stay away from too many repeated semiquavers [16ths] in the bass - a plea from a percussionist who has played too many composers' good intentions...!

Love the piece - as a flautist I'm very interested in celtic (or at least celtic-sounding!) music, and I've come across few good pieces like this - slow, relaxing and beautiful. If you can, track down some recordings of original compositions by the Christian flautist Simeon Wood, particularly the 'Across the Blue Sea' album for some similar stuff. Is the piece available in sheet music form? I'd be interested in playing it. One comment though - MIDI bagpipes are all very well, but many of the common varieties of real pipes are not tuned to the standard western scale, so you may have difficulties with tuning. Thanks again!

My first post to this forum - a composition entitled 'Melody and Silence': A thoughtful, reflective piece for flute and piano, inspired in part by celtic melodies, particularly the compositions of the flautist Simeon Wood. Sheet music for this composition can be downloaded (for free) in pdf format from my website at http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/prh33. I'd love to hear what people think of it, so please post a reply or email me - contact details on my website. This piece is dedicated to Harriet, a close friend and fellow flautist. Thanks, Philip Howie Melody_and_Silence.mid