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TL;DR underneath. When I first learned things about harmony and voice leading, I learned to avoid parallel and direct fifths and octaves, to avoid dissonances, and things like that, because they're against the rules. I reasoned that the rules weren't arbitrary, so they had to be there for a reason; people want their music to be likeable, things that sound bad aren't likeable, therefore, invent rules to keep music from straying into the boundary of bad. But, as everyone knows, one of the first responses to that is, 'But that doesn't sound bad!', and the reply, 'It diminishes the independence of voices'. When I first learned this, I simply thought there was something wrong with my ears, because I often couldn't spot errors except by sight; however, when I recently began studying counterpoint, I listened to my exercises on Finale and/or played them on the piano, and my rate of mistake-spotting went much higher, along with my finding some things that I particularly disliked. This, obviously wasn't anything to do with hearing them, 'cause I'd been doing that all along with pieces; but I took it to be simplification of texture (I hate octaves or any interval but an imperfect one in two voices, on the beat - three, not so much - four, impossible to avoid in a standard chorale setting). And there were numerous 'exceptions' to the 'rules' (e.g., direct fifths okay between inner voices &c.). Often, these were just things that couldn't be avoided, but I figured that, if they were allowable just because they were unavoidable (Mozart fifths, for example), and some people don't notice them from just hearing the piece, but may spot them by sight, then they can't be that bad! In that spirit, I've posted six short phrases, all in common time and ending with a whole note, that increase gradually in complexity, in a couple of tempos and with a few renderings. I'd like people to listen to them, listen out for mistakes, and post any you spot, here, in a spoiler. You can range from saying what the mistake is and between what voices, or simply stating where it occurs without knowing exactly what it is. Of particular interest is if people can only spot the error in a certain rendering (which I doubt) or a different tempo (which I don't). Please do not use any theoretical skills to work out where they are: this isn't a test or somewhere to show off your aural abilities, and you'll just ruin it for me and everyone else involved. This essentially amounts to listening and pointing out things and/or parts you didn't like. I'll post the score as a spoiler when a tolerable amount of people respond. TL;DR As an experiment in observing the practicality of abstract counterpoint; listen to these six phrases and point out what sounds technically crap. 110 BPM Piano VST Harpsichord VST Piano MIDI 55 BPM Piano VST Harpsichord VST Piano MIDI

Hi everyone! Welcome to the revamping of the Masterclass forum. Here's everything you need to know: Masterclasses on YoungComposers are like little mini-lessons focusing on a very specific aspect of musical composition. This can be anything from Ear Training to Score Study. Each lesson will be led by a proficient teacher in that field. Instructors will need to know basic composition skills, with an extended knowledge on the topic they will be teaching. As composition topics for these classes are announced, you can respond here in a separate thread if you'd like to be the proctor of the given class. Instructors are expected to make classes engaging, specific, and dynamic. Simply reading a page on orchestration techniques is not very conducive to learning. Participants for these classes are determined by the signup for each given class. When a new thread for that class is opened, the signups will be open. The instructor can decide how many composers he/she/they will be assisting in a given lesson. A good way to engage your students is to have them write a short 32 bar piece with some basic guidelines, then telling them what they missed and what they can improve upon after the fact. Instructors should mainly focus on the area of teaching relevant to the discussion. For now, I will be deciding what classes will be "official". There will be a thread of compositional topics composers on the forum would like to see covered in the future. The time schedule of these classes will be once every 2 - few weeks. Hit "Follow" on this forum to stay up to date on any new topics you might be able to help the community with!~~ I hope you find these helpful!

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