My pieces are too short!!!

Help!!!

I am fairly new to composing (pretty much started this summer) and I haven't really completed much of anything because this year got REALLY busy for me. Anywho, I have one string quartet that I've been able to work on since I've been on break, and even though I just *finished* the first movement (I plan on doing three), it's on 45 seconds!!! The problem is I begin to run out of ideas or I'm afraid I'll get too repetative. any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

P.S. I also feel very uncreative rthymically. I feel like adding more rthyms would also help my short piece issue, but I'm still stuck.

Used to have the same problem. I've found it's gradually disappeared as I gain more experience composing.

I think what helped the most for me was learning to take longer in the first parts of the piece. Spending more time introducing the idea(s) automatically means there is more to play around with and eventually resolve.

Also, speaking from the point of view of a more-or-less classicist (this may or may not apply to other genres - I don't know), sometimes starting with an established form or structure can help regulate the overall arc of the piece, too. In June I came across a really nifty piece idea in 3/4 and decided to turn it into a piano minuet; this gave me some degree of control. ('Okay, so the idea needs to be eight bars long, followed by a somewhat altered version of the idea for the next eight bars, and then a new idea for the Trio here, and then...')

So yeah. Play around a bit with the idea(s) in the piece and see what new forms of it can still be added on. Above all, I'd say don't worry about it too much. Just stay open to...well, yeah, potential additions, and see how it goes.

Best of luck, and welcome to YC!

agree with Marisa, since u have only 45 seconds, i think that's mostly ideas, not music, music is hardwork, u have to develop a theme, for me a theme is 8 bars, several seconds long, to come up with that for a beginner is the easy part, but to make it into a complete work, that takes skill. That's why i admire Beethoven so much, he can stretch a very tiny mediocre melody into a 20 minute symphonic movement, that's mastery there.
I guess the tip is that first, identify your theme, like writing an essay, u have to write focused on one theme, or your essay/music will suck, and then make variations out of it, decrease the duration of the notes to make it faster/livelier, or slow it down to make it serious, or Transpose it up a 3rd or 5th, sometimes that works, introduce a new theme, and at the end come back to the first theme, and finish, voila, there is a complete work!
hope this helps

In my composition program, we start small. It's true that as you gain more experience, you sort of automatically write longer pieces.

Exactly as Marisa said... instead of just writing out a theme, it's worthwhile to spend a bit of time spinning it out for longer in the exposition, so you have more to develop. Also, it seems to be easier to write long if you plan your form early on. If you have specific variations in mind, go ahead and write them out, even if they're not what's "next" - instead of writing from beginning to end, consider working from more than one place at a time.

I wrote pieces no longer than 5 minutes up until now. Now they are hour long symphonic works and 15 minute movements for some concerti and symphonies.

It's a matter of time in my opinion.

A movement for a string quartet can't be 45 seconds. It's nearly impossible fitting sonata form in there. My pieces at shortest were 2 minutes but 45 seconds? We may have a problem...I say LISTEN to a lot of music.



heheh...I have 69 posts... ...

That too. I would suggest listening to Beethoven and Brahms in particular - they were masters of drawing long movements out of small musical ideas, without losing the listener's interest.

I actually have the opposite problem: I have a hard time writing small. My first piece ran 4 movements and 24 minutes, and my third piece (in progress) is almost certainly going to run over half an hour when it's done.

what do you mean by form (kinda noobish, but I only know basic music theory and I didn't ever learn music theory applied to composition, like chord progressions, cadences...)?
Form like: I want to compose a sonata so the introduction should be like this, then move to this and finish with that.
Or form like: First I'll do a slight introduction with some slow variation of "theme 1" then I'll give a crescendo and try to connect it with "theme 2", and then...?

So, strict form (I assume form is the music plan or design) or form as a plan I develop to guide me in composition.


So many things I don't know....

You need to sit down and spend some time with you :45 piece. You must take a melodic line and expand on it. You can repeat the same phrase over and over with just a little bit of changing. Just look at Beethoven's 5th Symphony. That whole song is mostly that one "dun dun dun dunnnnnnn....dun dun dun dunnnnnnnn" over and over with something changed about it when it repeats.

Also, use some modulations (key changes) along with time changes. Rhythms can also be mess around with. Just expand your idea and add some variety.

That's me advice...hope it helps!

You should take CaltechViolist's advice also and listen to as much classical as you can get your hands on.

I hope my compositions get longer too... right now I'm stuck at about four minutes. My shortest piece is about three, my longest just over four. It'd be nice to be able to write something fifteen minutes long, just to ease my mind!