Latin Jazz

In this second piece, I have tried less to tell a story and instead to invite the different lines to interact with each other, to share responsibility for the melody, but also to do their own thing. I do not feel like a percussive person, so exploring percussion is a significant feature of the piece. I was determined to push the rhythm to what I felt were its limits. I was also determined to create a firm structure for the piece, with intro, development and obvious finale, as well as using approximately an AAB AAC type of structure. I was conscious of both needing repetition to allow the piece to make music sense, yet at the same time trying hard to avoid the piece becoming boring. Okay: to what extent have I succeeded in my various aims? What have I misjudged or got wrong? I learned much from the feedback offered regarding my preceding piece (May Melody), and I am hoping that feedback regarding this piece will help me in my development.

The melody and counterlines don't seem like they work toward the same goal. Very disparate in nature and not leading the listener. It might have something to do with the very ambiguous rhythmic displacements that are going on but no element goes from tension to release here and pandiatonicism is no excuse. 

I don't know if the woodblock is there to ground me but it's irregularity throws me off more than it serves me.

It feels like the whole thing is thought more than felt. I would suggest you play the melody on a piano and try to sing a bassline to it! Can't do that? Then make it simpler. Next play both bass and melody and sing a countermelody. And don't do it for 3 minutes. Just make ONE thematic statement.

Try to feel where the grounding of those 3 elements are and where the accents generally fall and make a solid percussive groove to enhance that. Not to cleverly hold some kind of mathematically correct clave but something that serves the music. Something that hits the spots that are good or 'misses' certain other spots.

Thanks for sharing!

I rather enjoyed that.  It was a fun combination of instruments, and you wrote something joyful, which did play with rhythm as you intended. 

I also agree with Bryla that it is trying to do a little too much.  In order for rhythmic (or melodic, or harmonic) surprises to have a bold effect, you have to set a strong expectation first, which is then thwarted.  A little more regularity can help your punches land harder.  As you said in your notes about the piece "I was conscious of both needing repetition to allow the piece to make music sense, yet at the same time trying hard to avoid the piece becoming boring."  Nudge the balance back in the direction of more repetition for the next one.  (But don't take the assignment too seriously.  There will be a next one after that, and a next one after that...) But try building towards a very strong expectation, and then counter it with a surprise. 

It might be helpful to sit with a piece of music that you enjoy, one that really has the balance just right to your ear, and carefully pick apart its structure.  How long is the theme?  How many times does it repeat?  How many surprise rhythmic elements, or harmonic, or melodic elements are included, and exactly when are they introduced?  You don't need to have the score in front of you, but if the piece is 3 minutes and 30 seconds, draw a line on a piece of paper, call that 3:30 and divide it into 30 second segments, and then listen and take notes on what happens during each segments.  Try that for a few pieces you like by a single composer and you can start to analyze what it is that you enjoy about their work from a structural point of view, and write yourself a formula for how to organize something similar of your own. 

Another thing that might help is to look at arrangements of well-known songs.  The actual musical material of the song is already something that you are familiar with, so it becomes easier to notice the structural devices the arranger is using to organize the melody into a larger piece of music.  Look on youtube for high school choirs singing Christmas carols and high school bands playing arrangements of Mack the Knife.  Where is there a key change and how is it done?  How many harmony parts are there for the first verse, how many for the second?  

If you eat enough cake, you start to know what you like in a cake, and you can look at the recipes and see what they all have in common, and then come up with cakes of your own that use those characteristics as a starting point.  3 eggs per 2 cups of flour, and 2 sticks of butter, but this one is lemon, what if I made one that was chocolate?  Etc...  The basic structure is what makes it a cake, and not a cookie, but you get to decide what kind of cake, and how to decorate it with sprinkles or frosting or piped rose buds.  

Keep exploring!