Etudes for Piano

As etudes are meant for instruction and practice, I wrote these to help with octaves and finger stretching. 

My favorite out of the bunch is your second etude, but let me go through each one.

Etude 1: Just wondering if this was very loosely inspired by Franz Liszt's sonata in b minor? Maybe not, but the piece will definitely help someone learn how to play Liszt given how that composer loved his parallel octaves! I think that the very loud dynamics of your piano samples does your piece more of an injustice. Even if you mean to play forte, I would tone it down a bit so that the piano samples don't sound jarring.

Etude 2: This one was my favorite, and I will tell you why. Your dynamics here are excellent, and you don't overdo it with the forte. It sounds more like a piano composition here, and I love it. You did a really great job making it sound as realistic as can be with these samples, and the musical expressions you create are fantastic! Great job on this one.

Etude 3: Again, the forte does a huge injustice with your composition. The arpeggios at the beginning of this piece are jarring and sound almost unreal to the ear. But you can fix that very easily by adding articulations, tempo changes etc to simulate something that will sound more realistic. The thing that kills me is that your non forte sections are so good, and I know it has to do with the samples.

Overall, your middle etude here is the winner, because of the excellent expression and dynamics of the piece. I think if you were to rework some of your sections to use mf to p, and only use forte sparingly, it will greatly improve the output and presentation of your music.

Dear @BipolarComposer,

Etude 1: I actually have the same feeling with @chopin: those devilish semiquavers like the one ln b.4 LH and those chords really remind me the Liszt Sonata in B minor. Actually I enjoy the loud fortissimo in the recording as it IS that loud for me in that particular sonata.

Etude 2: It should be "Andante" in b.16 haha! 

Etude 3: Not quite Eb minor for me but it's definitely fine!

Pedagocially these etudes didn't differ much for me as they all teach you how to play the thick chords and octaves, even with the dynamic and mood changes. But the music itself is beautiful: my favourite one is probably the first one since it's the most devilish one!

Maybe the DAW problem can be solved by your playing on them! The pedagogic aim of these pieces will for sure enhance with live recordings!

Thanks for sharing!

Henry

On 3/19/2023 at 12:44 AM, chopin said:

My favorite out of the bunch is your second etude, but let me go through each one.

Etude 1: Just wondering if this was very loosely inspired by Franz Liszt's sonata in b minor? Maybe not, but the piece will definitely help someone learn how to play Liszt given how that composer loved his parallel octaves! I think that the very loud dynamics of your piano samples does your piece more of an injustice. Even if you mean to play forte, I would tone it down a bit so that the piano samples don't sound jarring.

Etude 2: This one was my favorite, and I will tell you why. Your dynamics here are excellent, and you don't overdo it with the forte. It sounds more like a piano composition here, and I love it. You did a really great job making it sound as realistic as can be with these samples, and the musical expressions you create are fantastic! Great job on this one.

Etude 3: Again, the forte does a huge injustice with your composition. The arpeggios at the beginning of this piece are jarring and sound almost unreal to the ear. But you can fix that very easily by adding articulations, tempo changes etc to simulate something that will sound more realistic. The thing that kills me is that your non forte sections are so good, and I know it has to do with the samples.

Overall, your middle etude here is the winner, because of the excellent expression and dynamics of the piece. I think if you were to rework some of your sections to use mf to p, and only use forte sparingly, it will greatly improve the output and presentation of your music.

 

Thanks for the feedback... I went back into the DAW and saw that though it wasn't clipping, the instrument was. I fixed that with new recordings and brought the FF down to a F. It's still loud, but hopefully not as much.
I also shifted the intro runs on the 3rd, as I agree they sounded very artificial. 

19 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Dear @BipolarComposer,

Etude 1: I actually have the same feeling with @chopin: those devilish semiquavers like the one ln b.4 LH and those chords really remind me the Liszt Sonata in B minor. Actually I enjoy the loud fortissimo in the recording as it IS that loud for me in that particular sonata.

Etude 2: It should be "Andante" in b.16 haha! 

Etude 3: Not quite Eb minor for me but it's definitely fine!

Pedagocially these etudes didn't differ much for me as they all teach you how to play the thick chords and octaves, even with the dynamic and mood changes. But the music itself is beautiful: my favourite one is probably the first one since it's the most devilish one!

Maybe the DAW problem can be solved by your playing on them! The pedagogic aim of these pieces will for sure enhance with live recordings!

Thanks for sharing!

Henry

 

Thanks for the feedback... and yes, I misspelled in Italian. 
As for the Etude 3's key... It felt like an Eb minor to me, but my mind works in a very "open tonality" kind of way!

Wow, this is such an improvement. Those runs in your 3rd piece are much better to listen to. It's amazing how a few tweaks can greatly improve the same piece!

Very cool music here. I love your "sound", your compositional voice. I'm always curious when someone writes etudes... are you a proficient piano player? I'd love to hear a recording at some point!

Your overall musical voice is awesome. I love the thick textures and rich chords you employ throughout the entirety of the set. It's hard to pick a favorite, but I liked the 2nd one the most, followed closely by the first. You give us a lovely display of dynamics, and I think that's something that helps drive the musicality and interest in these. 

Keep making these! Do you have a plan with these or are these pieces more a compositional exercise for you? I'm doing a set of preludes, and it's helping me stay motivated writing this type of music. Maybe you're doing the same with your etudes?

Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

I think my favorites were No. 1 and 2.  No. 1 sounded really demented and unhinged, which is a favorite mood of mine in piano music.  LoL  No. 2 was quite pianistic and I can imagine that it could quite easily be played at a virtuosic concert performance.  It was also great to hear the tempo variations in it that gave it a nice human touch of rubato.  No. 3 was quite chaotic in its conception which I liked.  But, it also had many chords in it that were too thick in the lower range of the piano that made it sound muddy.

As a kind of overall critique of these three etudes, I'd say that the sections in which you have these kind of lonely chords - they sound static and lifeless to me sometimes.  Especially in No. 3 I think you spent too much time on sections where you alternate between high and low chords.  Overall they were enjoyable though!  Thanks for sharing.