The motorist (silent movie)

I wrote this just for fun, and as a training to write music for full-length films. However, synchronization is a hard work, I had to compose playing the movie all the time.

The motorist.pdf

This is very charming and ...  weird . You have used a lot of fifths in the bass. Might I suggest what a jazz teacher once taught me, and although this is not a hard and fast rule, play all chords as seventh chords, major, minor, dominant, altered, whatever. They all require the seventh in the bass (pretty much). So while improvising play the root+ 7th in the left hand at all times. flat 7, major 7, minor 7. You get the idea. Try it as an exercise for trying out ideas. It worked for me. You have bits of Fats Waller here, which I love, and in his stride playing you would see the root+7 or root+8 in  the bass all over the place.

The music as you intended was charming, as I say. Thanks for sharing this, Luis

Yes I know what you are talking about: the guide notes: 3rd and 7th, in general. I'll try another version, just to see the difference.

Right! It's just a way to improvise by eliminating the 3rd and 5th in the bass, leaving those notes for the right hand.

Hey, I really liked this film. I thought it was pretty cool and interesting. what really caught me is the sound of the piano. How did you get it to sound real< is it real and it's someone playing it or is it an amazing soundfont or midi. Just curious!

I listened to it again and it is infectious and delightful. Have you ever considered a polytonal piece where each hand is playing in a different key? I have had no luck with polytonality, but I think it might be up your alley, as we say.

Samtaylor: the virtual piano here is not a special one: it's the garritan piano which comes with Finale. I made some little adjustments, nothing more.

Ken: yes, I've made some attempts with bitonality. Short pieces like mini studies, just to hear how it sounds. I like the result and someday I'll try to write something longer. I have already done things like this: bimodal, etc...

For example:

It didn't sound particularly bitonal to me. But I noticed that you added some extra altered notes into each key, and this may have confused it for me. When I have time, I would like to try this. But I think that I would make a rule not to alter any key, once established. Then the trick will be to choose the right two keys and the right melodies for each.

Really nice and charming as the others have said. I like that you have sort of taken the ragtime style piano that usually accompanied silent movies, and made it suit your own style. Neat choice of film too.

About bitonality: I think the choice of the two tonalities has an important effect. If you use two tonal centers that are close (C and G) the result is almost "consonant". But if you use C and B, the effect is more dramatic.

I have tried many combinations, also with scales. For example: melody (right hand) with Jewish scale (in D) and left hand Hungarian major scale (in C)... it's just an example.

What I'd like to say about this is that the choice of the elements in the combination is not by chance. I usually try combinations until the sound is the one I want.

I had a lot of fun watching the video and the music. I very much admire the way you have managed to synchronize both: it must have been hard work. I liked the rythm and the theme you chose. Thx for sharing.

You really have the talent to compose film music. It's great! At first I thought the YouTube video's music wasn't yours but yours was written as an alternative soundtrack to the film. Then I read your name at the end of the video. I guess writing music for film would be pretty difficult. Bravo.