Nothing More

I wrote a song but I'm really not ready to show anyone the lyrics. So instead, here's a piano arrangement of it that I think still works pretty well. It's very simple in just about every way, but that's quite on purpose. I hope it still holds a listener's interest and has some kind of emotional meaning, even if the specific words are kept private. Eventually I want to record it myself so it doesn't have to be Finale's Garritan playback, but I don't have a way to do that without it sounding really rough and bad. This will have to do for now.

EDIT: Added some details that I think are pretty interesting. Feel free to agree! (or disagree...)

I initially wrote this last September as a very short song. It was only 16 measures of a melody with some lyrics and eerie harmonies. Eventually that part became the middle section of this piece (the one with those lovely Eb-minor-major-seventh chords) only in a different key. I must have played it a dozen different ways. I even tried it out as a string orchestra arrangement (of which you can find a recent but terrible recording here: https://soundcloud.com/kevin-jeremiah-gaona/something-i-made), but I didn't add to it at all.

About 2 months later, I wrote what became the first and last parts of this piece as another separate short song with only 16 measures. I was really stuck on this idea of the major-seventh chord and the half-diminished-seventh chord just one half step up, so I kept with it. For another few months, I just kept toying with both of them separately trying to figure out what I'd do with such short little ideas. It didn't cross my mind to combine them into a single song until about a month ago. Since then I've just been adjusting them to fit together, which was surprisingly hard for me despite them being essentially the same idea taken in two different directions. It wasn't until this past week that I figured out how I wanted to structure it all, and writing transitions between 16 measure phrases that I'd originally meant to just end was actually kind of tricky. I think it's worked out though.

It's not simple, haha. I find your altered tones to be very intriguing. The passing tone figure used in the bass is a little off-putting in the main sort of melody. You also have some places where two clashing tones hit each other because of a held tone from a previous note. Maybe you wanted it that way, but if so, it's not very *simply* anymore. ;)

Looking forward to seeing the final product!

The harmonic language suits the title well and is definitely not simple. To that point, your straightforward presentation of the tune and chords generally works for me since I don't have to also worry about a bunch of rhythmic complexity.

My only comment is that the oom-pah-pah pattern is a little too monotonous once it starts. There were a couple of places where I felt like the tune would have more impact by breaking it up.

Lovely music!

I like the simple melodies and contrasting altered notes. This contrast makes the music more interesting.
I agree with Adrian Quince about the left-hand movements. In my opinion, the patern is too repetitive and variation would benefit the music.

Well done!

Well I'm glad you guys thought it was interesting. I call it simple mainly because of what you noted as the monotonous left hand part. The parts where the left hand plays a quarter-note/half-note rhythm are generally the parts where I intended the melody to be sung. I hoped in those parts that the attention would be drawn away from the piano so as to make the repetitiveness less obvious. Since I don't intend to reveal the lyrics any time soon, I'll go ahead and make the necessary changes to this piano arrangement. Hopefully by the time I'm able to record it myself, it will be much improved.

I did mean to include those clashing tones. Some are more overt than others, but they're all are intentional. I think I'll put a little more of my thought process in the original post, because this took months to write and I only just figured out how to piece it together in the past week or so.

Anyways, thanks for your comments guys! I love my music and I'm super proud of it, but it's also nice to get some external validation every once in a while.

1 hour ago, KJthesleepdeprived said:

Well I'm glad you guys thought it was interesting. I call it simple mainly because of what you noted as the monotonous left hand part. The parts where the left hand plays a quarter-note/half-note rhythm are generally the parts where I intended the melody to be sung.

You know, the quarter/half bars in the left hand really didn't bug me. It was the quarter/quarter/quarter bars that did. Finding a place or two in there to introduce some "hang time" with a quarter/half bar would be a simple but effective way of introducing variation.

Gotcha. I'll see what changes I can make to those waltz-y sections a little more interesting.