Oscarr111111

I added a new post today, thanks very much for checking out the blog! The last two posts were slightly off topic, but I'll be back on Debussy in the very near future!

I'm currently in the early stages of posting a series of articles through my music blog on the process of analysis of the Debussy piece 'Arabesque No. 1'. I'm looking very specifically at the in depth functionality of the music through a variety of analytic methods. I thought there might be some people who post here that would be interested in reading this kind of thing! If anyone feels they would be, please follow the link below. http://melodictraditions.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/harmonic-ingenuity-of-debussy-part-2-harmonic-analysis-for-the-thinking-musician/ Thanks, and all the best! Oscar Ps, If anyone is interested in reading anything in a certain direction or from a specific viewpoint on this topic (or even anything somewhat related), please let me know, and I'll post it up as part of the series!

Cheers for the reply and great feedback. I was thinking of adding high string arrangement (or similar timbrel equivalent) to allow myself to experiment with and tailor the upper range of the sonic spectrum over the course of the track as well as introduce and develop melodic statements. What's your opinion on this course of action in relation to the comments you've made? I've also thought about shortening the opening section by one repeat of progression as it was originally intended to be a vocal track before I went in a different direction, and this length was intended to be hold interest for this time with vocals entering also. I may still add vocals at some point. The closest comparison I can give to the direction I'd take with them would be this track, as these would likely be the two vocalists that I'd have sing: http://soundcloud.com/lespechesmusic/crack-in-the-wall.

This is a Jazz and Minimalist influenced piece piece of instrumental electronic music in which I've attempted to utilise subtle and abrupt timbral and textural shifts to maintain interest throughout. Lazy Bee You can also listen to it on SoundCloud here: http://soundcloud.com/lokimusic/lazybee Hope you enjoy, and any comments or feedback are welcome. Oscar.

I play bass guitar/upright bass as my primary instrument. I agree with a lot of these points, however many of them are just the result of having limited resources when it came to recording, the piano player was extremely pushed for time and we only had the chance to do a 1 take all the way through, also my soundcard glitched and he had no drums and just a click + midi melody to record to, I think he did a really good job for the limited resources. The drums are sequenced midi so I tried to pull them back far enough that they wouldn't drive the feel too much themselves, the guitarist was having a bad day and I had to take 8 or so takes and cut them up to get something workable. The singer was ill and only had a few hours to practice the melody and she also played flute, although she's a classically trained flautist and also out of practice so I just wrote out a melody for her and asked her to play it with some ornamentation then cut the takes up and pieced something together. The bass I just never got round to doing, its still midi lol. Not the ideal situation for recording a Jazz tune, which has definitely factored into the final effect of the track. I do agree with the points on the chords not always connecting smoothly and the melody being hectic, but this is the kind of effect I was looking for with this song, I'd been playing a lot of standards with changes that almost 'play themselves' such as Summertime, Autumn Leaves, Fly Me To The Moon etc. and I wanted to write something that makes the musicians work a little to make sound good. I really like the melody too, not sure why but I'm just fond of it. Thanks for the feedback, I'll definitely take it to heart in future. I'll post the only other 'standard' I've written as well actually (which was about a year and half before this one), it was an arrangement of a folk tune I made previously (you can see it if you look into my attachments or look down in the dadgad guitar thread) so it was never really a serious attempt, just playing around in Sibelius. This one stays in key more due to the having originally been a folk tune, I prefer the B section to the A as I just like its melody better untitled jazz.mid

This is a beautiful piece, the harmony and melody combine perfectly and really carry you away. I'm going to be busy for a couple of days but after that I'll copy it out and analyse it then post some scans for you to see.

This is my attempt at a jazz stardard, its vaguely based on a minor blues. The guest pianist that played on it is an incredibly good player and played an amazing part. http://files.getdropbox.com/u/134504/Take%20a%20Look%20Around.mp3

A little while back I wanted to do a mood piece with samples and ambience, this is my attempt. http://files.getdropbox.com/u/134504/Loch%20Lomond.mp3 Loch Lomond score.pdf

This is a song I wrote a little while ago and recorded with a friend. It was essentially an excersise in my weaker songwriting aspects, playing and arranging for instruments and in a style that I'm not so used to. http://files.getdropbox.com/u/134504/Moments%20Colllide.mp3 I especially like the outro, I love how the harmony goes into flux and the vocal comes in with another countermelody.

I really like this, really nice melody, harmony and arrangement. I liked the last little bit especially. Only thing I'd say is that sometimes at the start the melody felt like it wanted to rest on one note for a bit but it was ornamented; I would bring the ornamentation in more slowly over the course of the tune and start of very simple.

Its one of the Ibanez exotic wood series, its got a shallow body and a cutaway and the back of the neck is shaped slightly closer to an acoustic guitar. Its a bit quiet acoustically but its got a nice pickup and preamp and sounds amazing recorded or amplified live. Heres a little sample of how it sounds. http://files.getdropbox.com/u/134504/fingerpicking%20riffs.mp3

Cheers for the feedback, yeah its definately not traditional irish music, I just wanted to do a tune on an irish style dadgad nylon tuned guitar. I wrote a folk tune a while ago actually of no specific regional style, I'll attach it to this post. The midi and score are definately lacking, I wrote it on guitar and just quickly jotted it out in midi to post here as I don't have a proper recording. When I play it I add more little variations variations and play a little free'er with more melodic emphasis and a more dynamic tempo variation between the sections so I think it'd be a bit more interresting. Its not really going to ever be a really intense and attention demanding piece though, it was always intended to just be a 'nice' tune with some pleasant melodies. I don't thing drop D would work with it, a lot of the melody, harmonics and especially the open cluster chord shapes that give it its nice ambience come from the A and D drone strings, thanks for the suggestion anyway though. untitled folk.mid

I Wrote this piece the other day as I'm going to be spending some time in Ireland and I wanted to write a few pieces in an Irish tuning to play while I'm over there. Structurally its quite simple, essentially just sectioned up like a pop song. I like the use of droning strings and cluster chords though, and I like the melody too. folkguitar.mid folkguitar.pdf

Been working on some songs to perform with my friends, we came up with some decent sounding chords and I put a vocal melody to it later (there are vocals, but they're very rough). Has anyone got any opinions on it? It was a pretty rough draft to midi so it doesn't really sound as good as with 2 of us singing/playing and a drum machine but it gets over the essence. Has anyone got any suggestions how the chorus could go? I envisioned that as the verse and postverse/prechorus but my friend thought it was the verse and chorus, it needs something else to go with it either way though. Hopefully I'll have it finished to play at the open mic night tomorrow night so If I get it done I'll post the finished thing. Thanks. songver1.mid

I like it a lot, excellent rhythm, it was 99% rhythm holding my interest.

Thanks, I may come back to it at a later date but right now my composition is limited by my technical ability and I have a lot on my plate right now anyway. I think I'd start it from scratch though with the same theme and general 'direction'.

Just 16 bars, I wrote this to practice using harmonic minor keys and developing motifs. Its really short and not probably not well designed (after the first 8 bars I threw theory to the wind and started writing by ear), in terms of this kind of thing I only really know the basics of classical harmony and what sounds right/wrong. There is a key change after bar 8 from the diminished chord as well I think (I originally intended to stay in C#m, but I had to add some accidentals after that point to get it to sound how I felt it should and it resolves onto a different tonic, F#m I think? was a few days ago I wrote it). Not really planning to develop it any further, perhaps it'll entertain someone a little though. If you notice anything obvious that could help me in future feel free to point it out. Mid1.mid

Dont use a metronome 100% of the time when learning. Use it at first then when you feel you can maintain a steady beat on your own put it away. Get it out again if you are having trouble keeping time again later. Break up your practice with some basic study of theory, and try to understand what you are playing in terms of theory. This not only will make you a better musician but will make playing more enjoyable. this is a good cheap beginner theory book: Amazon.co.uk: The AB Guide to Music Theory Vol 1: Books: Eric Taylor

Playing slow is harder than playing fast, Playing fast is just a matter of practice.

Thanks, yeah the 'performance' aspect of that is pretty boring, this kind of music is 65% performance really. I don't really know what you mean by 'which library I have'. If you mean Reason 3 sounds, just the default ones and a few free sets I downloaded. If you can export a standard midi file from your program I just import it and apply the correct sounds to the appropriate instrument, add any effects or post processing thats required (I keep this to a minimum since I'm not really a studio wizard), Tweak the EQ a little and export to audio (I generally use 24/48 export quality).

YouSendIt - File Sharing Transfer Delivery - PC FTP Replacement The dynamics obviously sound a bit odd (the samples are multilayered with varying levels of dynamics) because I sequenced it rather than performed it to get the midi file. By the way, if anyone else wants me to run any of their stuff through this program I can, It only takes a minute.

I used Reason 3 to export it as a midi so it isn't in general midi format, I don't know how to get it to play a piano sound when I export it, the xylophone is just what its defaulted to. If you can give me a better place to upload the audio files to I can give you a version played on a high quality sampled grand piano and the original melody on a sampled Stradivarius violin.

Do you mean the Minor/Major seventh chord which occurs as the diatonic 7th chord on the root degree of the harmonic minor scale? Or Major and Minor chords as for example would occur as diatonic 7th chords on the root degree (Major) and sixth degree (Minor) of a major scale? The only one of those I've really used at all is the minor 7th, I find that adding the 7th degree 'dilutes' the 'minorness' of the chord (it creates a major triad between the third, fifth and seventh). So for example if you are working with a chord progression and a minor chord is sounding a little too 'minor', try adding the 7th to dull its edge, or even remove the root completely, leaving you with a diatonic major sounding chord on the third of the original minor triad.

Can you post the sheet music or chord changes? I'm an electric bassist and I have some experience with rock music, I'll see how I'd change it and even record a bass track for you if you like, but I don't have the time to work the changes out myself right now. Its defiantly not playable as is, you should probably arrange it it a simplified format or a 3-4 player rock band format.

Didn't realize you could upload directly into a post. RtLv.mid