Used Random Instruments to make This

Hello everyone, 

I'm new here. I stumbled on this amazing website today and I am excited to become a part of it. Normally I write classical music or religious arrangements, but the piece I attached below is a bit different. It is a result of a game I was playing with my sister, who is also a amateur composer, where we spun a wheel with every instrument on musescore. I got the combination of Flute, Violin, Piano, Contrabass, and Drumset. I made a lighthearted catchy piece that has hints of lofi and sounds like some sort of background music. I intentionally made it simple, something that I struggle with my normal compositions. Any feedback is appreciated!

https://musescore.com/user/58186651/scores/13774444

Welcome to the forums, Musical!

That's a very nice idea you had there. And it sounds quite good and fresh. Perhaps it's on my end only, but the bass sounds so dense it makes the piece less light than what the melody and the mood it establishes suggest. Still, you really made things flow, and the ending was so charming. Really glad to have you here and I hope you be around for a long time. 

BTW, we allow posting .pdf and .mp3 files without hard restrictions. Consider it when sharing your piece. It is sometimes easier for us to review and comment pieces without going outside of the forums. That said, I really found your piece very enjoyable and I think others will as well.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

Thank you for the warm welcome and the feedback!

I hadn't noticed that the bass was darkening the mood, but I think I see what you mean. I'll try using a different sound for the bass, something that is a bit cleaner.

Posting with mp3s is a lot easier, thanks for letting me know. I edited the post with an mp3 of the piece, but this time it uses the MS basic acoustic bass sound.

I think it sounds wonderful. I love the melody at the 16-second mark -catchy. 

Hello @Musical,

Welcome to the forum!

I really enjoy this one. It's jazzy and the swing is great! The combination of the instruments is refreshing with the flute's tone colour. For the scoring maybe you can put the violin just under the flute. Also you may add some improvisatory passages for the pianists too!

Thx for sharing your music and joining us!

Henry

This is great!

It sounds like it could be in a Pixar movie or something, as to me it paints a great picture. It's easily digestible, and wonderfully catchy. Nothing wrong with being simple. Is Fur Elise not one of Beethoven's most famous compositions?

Only thing I'd say is watch that flute register; sometimes the notes get drowned out. The flute has a soft low register.

Thanks for sharing!

I love how inspired this is despite the fact that the instruments were chosen randomly.  It sounds like a fun game to play - I'm assuming you used some kind of website app where you can create a wheel to be spun to randomly pick out of a set of choices?  Would you mind sharing that website app or describe more about how you did this?  I'd love to try this myself in a future piece!  I like how you end on the subdominant - that's a favorite device of mine as well!  Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum!

Wow, thanks guys!
 

12 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I really enjoy this one. It's jazzy and the swing is great! The combination of the instruments is refreshing with the flute's tone colour. For the scoring maybe you can put the violin just under the flute. Also you may add some improvisatory passages for the pianists too!

I appreciate the feedback, Henry! I moved the violin part. What do you mean by improvisatory passages? Do I just leave blank measures in the piano part? I am a pianist myself, and the idea tickles my brain. Thanks for the welcome, I am glad to be here!
 

9 hours ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

This is great!

It sounds like it could be in a Pixar movie or something, as to me it paints a great picture. It's easily digestible, and wonderfully catchy. Nothing wrong with being simple. Is Fur Elise not one of Beethoven's most famous compositions?

Only thing I'd say is watch that flute register; sometimes the notes get drowned out. The flute has a soft low register.

Thanks for sharing!

 

Wow. I've always had a respect for movie composers and how much they do to create a mood from a scene. Thank you for the complement! Good point on Fur Elise. I realize that I need to make simpler compositions in general. 

That's a very good observation about the flute part. I will take note of that.

Thank you for your feedback!

10 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I love how inspired this is despite the fact that the instruments were chosen randomly.  It sounds like a fun game to play - I'm assuming you used some kind of website app where you can create a wheel to be spun to randomly pick out of a set of choices?  Would you mind sharing that website app or describe more about how you did this?  I'd love to try this myself in a future piece!  I like how you end on the subdominant - that's a favorite device of mine as well!  Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum!

 

Hey Peter, thanks for reviewing the piece. Yes, its a fun game to play, but I must confess, it doesn't always work out as good as what I've shared. These are the rules:

1. Spin a wheel to determine how many instruments to write for. https://wheelofnames.com/2kq-y9a
2. Spin the wheel of instruments to determine which instruments to write for. Spin once for each instrument until you have as many as you were allocated in step 1. If you get the same instrument twice, you can spin again for another instrument. https://wheelofnames.com/pfa-smc
3. (optional) Spin a wheel to get a time signature. (this wheel is pretty fun) https://wheelofnames.com/v3e-5yt 
4. (optional) Spin a wheel to determine whether to write in major or minor! https://wheelofnames.com/q2s-t7w
5. Go and write the piece (you don't have to finish it if the combination if sounds like Karlheinz Stockhausen (with all due respect to Stockhausen))

This game is quite obviously in a beta stage, but I would be happy to collaborate to polish it up. I think that it might even have potential here as a competition (provided that enough people here use musescore), but I shouldn't get ahead of myself. The most obvious problem is that the wheel of instruments is not weighted, meaning that you are just as likely to get a finger snap sound as a violin. Also the list of instruments isn't extensive, and it should also be refined. Probably the worst combination I have gotten was Clarinet, Tubular bells, Timpani, and Tambourine. To make thing worse, the time signature I got was 16/2. Needless to say, I have since revised the time signature wheel. I turned the whole thing into some sort of sacred, oriental ritual dance. 

If you are interested in playing the game, let me know! I usually play it with my sister, where we take 30 minutes (which usually exaggerate into an hour) and then compare our results at the end.

Thank you for the welcome!

22 hours ago, Atlantis_ said:

I think it sounds wonderful. I love the melody at the 16-second mark -catchy. 

 

Thanks! 😁 l like it too,

7 hours ago, Musical said:

What do you mean by improvisatory passages? Do I just leave blank measures in the piano part? I am a pianist myself, and the idea tickles my brain.

I was thinking of those quasi-jazz passages which sounds improvisatory but still written in the score in a more classical music fashion instead of the jazz fashion when passgaes are really improvisations, like those by Greshwin and Ravel!

6 hours ago, Musical said:

1. Spin a wheel to determine how many instruments to write for. https://wheelofnames.com/2kq-y9a
2. Spin the wheel of instruments to determine which instruments to write for. Spin once for each instrument until you have as many as you were allocated in step 1. If you get the same instrument twice, you can spin again for another instrument. https://wheelofnames.com/pfa-smc
3. (optional) Spin a wheel to get a time signature. (this wheel is pretty fun) https://wheelofnames.com/v3e-5yt 
4. (optional) Spin a wheel to determine whether to write in major or minor! https://wheelofnames.com/q2s-t7w
5. Go and write the piece (you don't have to finish it if the combination if sounds like Karlheinz Stockhausen (with all due respect to Stockhausen))

Peter himself also used this aleatoric method before to write his music!:

Maybe you will be very interested in his method too!

Henry

4 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

I was thinking of those quasi-jazz passages which sounds improvisatory but still written in the score in a more classical music fashion instead of the jazz fashion when passgaes are really improvisations, like those by Greshwin and Ravel!

Peter himself also used this aleatoric method before to write his music!:

Maybe you will be very interested in his method too!

Henry

 

Wow, that's very interesting! Thanks for the idea of adding improv style piano to the piece. I updated the score and mp3. Let me know what you think! I hope that they blend well with the music, because I kinda just inserted them into the middle of it.

Delightful .... reminds me of the movie soundtracks of the late 60's early 70's .... brings back good memories .....

Mark

7 hours ago, Musical said:

Wow, that's very interesting! Thanks for the idea of adding improv style piano to the piece. I updated the score and mp3. Let me know what you think! I hope that they blend well with the music, because I kinda just inserted them into the middle of it.

Just relisten the whole thing and I really love those improvisatory fill ups of the piano!! I think they blend really well! Maybe you can also add a whole new section with the pianist soloing in an improvisatory style too!

Thx for your update!

Henry

13 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Just relisten the whole thing and I really love those improvisatory fill ups of the piano!! I think they blend really well! Maybe you can also add a whole new section with the pianist soloing in an improvisatory style too!

Thx for your update!

Henry

 

Thanks for the idea, but i think that I’m satisfied with the content in the piece. Your feedback definitely helped me refine it! I did make this piece with the intention of simplicity, lol.

Glad you enjoyed it!