Sadness

Here's one I like to imagine that Gilbert O'Sullivan might have tossed in his trash bin.

It's an O'Sullivan type of choppy piano style. I love that uniquely original piano style/technique of his!

The flute-y thing as usual with me is the lead melody for in case I ever add a vocal.

People might not think it sounds sad but to me it is. I actually hopped to my upright piano right after watching the Disney/Pixar movie "Inside Out" and the chords and melody were almost there just waiting for me. It's not often that tunes come to me so effortlessly but this one did. Great movie BTW!

I related to the blue "Sadness" character. It's a story with a universal message that sadness serves a purpose.

It was done in the Sonar 8.5 piano roll.

Enjoy!

-Rick

Hi @epii,

6 hours ago, epii said:

People might not think it sounds sad but to me it is. I actually hopped to my upright piano right after watching the Disney/Pixar movie "Inside Out" and the chords and melody were almost there just waiting for me. It's not often that tunes come to me so effortlessly but this one did. Great movie BTW!

I really don't find this sad at all! The tempo is quick and the rhythm is easy going! I like the parallel fourths you use throughout some passages, for example in 0:35. That sound effect in 1:21 is very beautiful and shining! Adding the guitar in 1:54 makes the music even better by adding some improvisatory touch in it! The saxophone in 2:57 is great as well! Again you use those blue notes and chords well and you really love using the flat-submediant chord! (Again forgive me for being a theory buff!) Very nice music again and thanks for sharing again Rick!

Henry

Henry,

Thanks man!

I'm going to have to learn what that flat-submediant thing is that you speak of. Or maybe I won't because then I might become aware of what I'm doing and start using it consciously... *hehehe*

Music is mysterious to me, that's half the fun!

BTW, not a sax, it's a trumpet, but thanks Henry for pointing that out! Maybe I can find a better solo trumpet sample in my libraries.

I'm also glad the "shiny" sound effect worked. I was kind of worried it would drown out everything.

Thanks so much for all your insightful comments... feel free to tell me about the crappy stuff too.. naaah, strike that! Insecure composers like me live for compliments! haha...

🙂

-Rick

I think I can get how this is sad, it's kind of a nostalgic sadness to me, like if something ended so much time ago and one remembers it with a smile in their face but melancholy in their mind. It's a piece that fits very well in a scene that consisted in, say, "thoughts of the past" maybe.

The melodies/small solos, specially the trumpet one near the end and the guitar (?) one —a score would be very nice to have at hand at this point— are so fresh and satisfying, the harmony doesn't get boring for the time this piece lasts and one gets almost immediately immersed in the atmosphere you create, at least this is what happened to me. I don't think you need vocals at all, or that they will improve the result you got, but I can be very wrong so don't hesitate in experimenting a little.

Very cool, I dunno what else to say, I have listened it thrice already and I still think it is very fresh. It flows, definitely. I am just weirdly shocked cause yeah this was very sad somehow, it made me remind quite a handful of "sad" things.

Hope I get more of you posted here more often!

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

Daniel,

Thanks for your kind and thoughtful words!

It makes me very happy that you sense the melancholy I felt when I wrote it.

If you haven't seen the Disney/Pixar movie "Inside Out", it's really a great and inspiring story especially for sad people... like me.

Like I mentioned in the description, the blue character "Sadness" in the movie was the inspiration for this tune.

About a score, sadly (pun intended), I can't read music.

And thank you for appreciating the guitar and trumpet solo's! I never know where solo's will go until I start plopping in notes.

If you are still interested in hearing some more of my music, my recent posts should be toward the top of the postings here in this group.

You can also search at YC by typing my user name "epii". (it's part of the mysterious and famous Euler equation "e ^ (pi*i) + 1 = 0". I love math)  🙂

Thanks again so much!

-Rick (my real name)

Probably because I haven't seen the movie - unlikely to as things are at the moment, I didn't find it sad. Also possibly things that sadden me may not be the same as yourself or others here. I'm not good with sad because it hits deep when it hits. 

But it's a darned good composition, instrumentation and balance as good as it gets. I'm guessing you take a lot of time with the details of velocity, note duration and so on.  The trumpet solo a 2'57" came over brilliant. And the piano trailing up at the end would make any lounge player proud!

Superb.

Definitely would agree that it's not sad, but it is uplifting and fun to listen to.

Some critiques if I may: the percussion (tambourine?) bit is too loud, not enough round robins on it either; it draws too much attention to itself and could use more variation, wasn't really a fan of the guitar being that far left and there were some other melodic elements at the same passage that were too quiet.

That piano ending was fantastic, and again: It was overall great. Very clean sound, especially in the low-end.

I didn't even mind the trumpet, but

On 3/13/2023 at 11:08 PM, epii said:

a better solo trumpet sample in my libraries.

let me know if you find one.

Good solo trumpets for this kinda music are notoriously rare