Writing a short piano sonata for the first time!

Hi everyone! I'm new to this group. Anyway, I have been writing a short piano sonata but have been having some problems with accidentals and making it sound in the right major key not a modal key.  I started writing in C major and am modulating to G major(dominant). I am adding F sharp but it doesn't sound right. I was wondering what all the accidental rules are for every key and changing key. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could help me. Thank you!

Hello @Rebecca, welcome to the forum.

what chord progression are you using to modulate from c major to g major and over which chords do you have the f sharp? That would help to locate the problem

Yes, it is clear that in order to modulate from C to G you have to introduce the sensitive (F#)...
The most common way is to use Am as a common chord.... Am - D7 - G
But there are many other options, using the Neapolitan of G: C - Ab/C - D - G.
Etc.
But it would be good, as you have commented, to see the context.

Thank you Jqh73o and Luis Hernandez for your help. I am going to have a good look at the two websites.  Are there any websites that are in English? If not do not worry. Thank you!😀

Hello @Rebecca, I can recommend a website that is very useful. It covers harmony in general (along with other topics) in two sections. One for diatonic harmony and another one for chromatic harmony

https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/chapter/extended-tonicization-and-modulation-to-closely-related-keys/ 

This is the section on modulation

There are other interesting websites for harmony, but they are more focused in romantic style, not classical (which, judging by the information given, I think it is style you are composing in)

2 hours ago, Rebecca said:

Are there any websites that are in English?

@Luis Hernández has translations to English in his website. They are under the Spanish text
 

Hi! Thank you very much for all of the information. Hopefully I can share with you what I composed! 

Hi again. I thought I would share it in PDF form and see what you think? It is a work in progress.Piano sonata.pdf. If anyone has time just to look and give a tiny bit of feedback that would be great!😀Thank you for all your help!

If you could share a recording, or create an audio file with your music editor that you can share with us, that will be useful in order to review your work.

Quote

 

Hi! Sorry have not been on here for a while as was on holiday. How do I record on musescore 4?

I don’t use MuseScore, but I’m sure there should be an option to export as mp3. I suppose it is done in a similar way as exporting the pdf, just choosing mp3. But I am not familiar with MuseScore so I don’t know

Thanks! I'll have a go at that and upload on here soon!

Hi! I uploaded my piano sonata mp3 file. It is not completely finished yet and I still need to add lots of things like dynamics, articulations, tempo etc. I thought I would upload it at the moment and see what you think of it so far. Thank you for all your help! Rebecca

Hello @Rebecca and welcome to the forum!

I think this is a nice quaint beginning piano piece!  Regarding your questions about accidentals, usually F#'s and Bb's are in C major are first used as part of dominant 7th chords to make the listener expect the modulation to G major and F major, respectively.  If you're modulating to G major, a D7 chord would be expected with an F# in the middle.  If modulating to F major, a C7 chord would be expected with a Bb as its 7th.  Then, once you've established the change in key, you stay in each respective key by continuing to use the F# or the Bb in the melodies and harmonies.  If at some point you want to return to C major, then a G7 chord would be expected somewhere to bring you back.  That is just a very basic harmonic expectation, and there's other ways to modulate to different keys (besides just using secondary dominants).  And to give you credit, you do in fact use those chords at times to establish the key you're in such as in bar 14.  There are also some harmonically weaker parts of your sonata, such as measure 11 where you have a cross-relation (the previous bar had F#'s in the melody and then you suddenly go straight into an F natural in a different voice which sounds a bit jarring).  The sections with extended up and down scalar motion are also kind of weak.  Not only because there's no accompaniment but because you seem to indiscriminately include different accidentals in the scales.  I'll leave it at that for now.  Overall though, this isn't bad, especially since you use some unusual harmonic progressions in the beginning.  Thanks for sharing!

Thank you soo much for all this advice. I will make the changes and completely finish my piano sonata. 

Hi! I've uploaded my piano sonata. I hope I made all the amendments. Sorry as not the best at music theory. Hope you enjoy!