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Hey all! Not sure where this post should go so I’m putting it here. I’m pretty good (don’t wanna brag) at writing lyrics, and I know exactly what I want it to sound like in my head, but I can’t compose if my life depended on it. So would anyone be interested in a little collaboration? I’ve only got one full song, and just a bunch of fragments swirling in my head, but I’d like to take this a little further The song I’ve finished (for now) is a ska sound, like Reel Big Fish, and the one I’m currently working on is more of a punk vibe. Send me a message if you’re interested Also, if anyone knows of a better sub to post his, please let me know

Hi all, Some of you may remember me as a pretty active member a while ago, glad to see this site is still thriving! Anyways, I have returned to try and fetch some of my old compositions, and am having some difficulties getting more than one page of a few pdfs. Keep in mind this was literally over three years ago, and so it might just be issues with the archives on the old site, but I'd really like the entire scores back as I recently lost my computer and was unable to retrieve them......

I have started writing a piece from multiple directions. Here are the ways I have done it: Melody first: This tends to be my most common way. I will think of a melody or a few melodies for a theme and then add the harmony later. Harmony first: This is my second most common way. Like I might start with for example alberti bass, and then expand from there. Score first: This I only do if I am like doing an orchestration or a reduction. But in either case, I have the original piece as a template. I am doing this currently with the orchestration of the Pathetique sonata that I am working on. I find it very easy with that particular piece because like every line maps to certain instruments. 1 bass line and I typically do it with 3 low instruments in octaves(at least concert pitch octaves, I often find that notation wise, 2 instruments will be in unison).

I am composing a Turkish March but this is one of very few times where the type of piece I am composing is so rare that I can only find a few examples of it. In fact, I can only find 2 just by searching on Youtube(I bet there are more on IMSLP but I haven't looked there yet). There is the one in Bb by Beethoven. And then there is the infamous Rondo Alla Turka by Mozart. This is all I can get on Wikipedia on what a Turkish March is: A march composed in the Turkish style. Yeah, that isn't very helpful when I don't know what the Turkish style is specifically. And these are the conclusions that I can draw just by listening to the 2 Turkish Marches I can find: Basic pulse of 8th notes at quarter note=110 BPM Movement in the left hand that sounds sort of like a chord in footsteps Major key with minor key added for harmony(which seems to be the case with Beethoven) or drama(the case for Mozart) Overall upbeat feeling except in minor key sections(such as the F# minor sections of Rondo Alla Turka) Rondo form That is very little compared to say how much I can draw from a dramatic symphony about why it sounds dramatic. So I don't have much to go on except those 2 pieces as to how to compose a Turkish March(And in both cases, the Turkish March is part of a multi-movement work). I am composing one in C major, which I usually avoid as a composer(C major just feels so uncreative, like if I take a note 1 semitone away from the scale, eveybody will be like "Is this a key change or just an embellishment?" and me wanting to avoid that questioning when possible. If I add Ab to a Bb major piece, it isn't like everybody immediately thinks "You are changing to Eb major/C minor". But with C major, I feel like that is exactly what happens. 1 Eb and it immediately is speculated to change to C minor. 1 Bb and it immediately is speculated to change to F major and so on. So I tend to avoid this key, because it really feels like unless I am modulating, I have to stay within the major scale. But when I am composing something like a Turkish March for the first time, I often start with C major as like a proof I can compose that type of piece and afterwards compose more in other keys. But still, like less than 1 in 10 of my pieces are in C major. I bet even less than 1 in 100 of my pieces will ever be in C major. But yeah, besides what I have concluded from listening to the 2 Turkish Marches I can find, is there anything else that makes it a Turkish March and not some other type of march?

I honestly, am so influenced by earlier classical composers that I don't have like a style individual to me. Most of my style comes from 2 composers. Either the piece is more in the style of Mozart with like alberti bass and complexity within simplicity, or it is more in the style of Beethoven with sudden dynamic changes, lots of drama, and everything else I consider to be characteristic of Beethoven's style(which I think is middle period Beethoven, when he was definitely dramatic and pushing the borders, but not like pushing the borders so much that one of his sonatas is like a Mozart sonata in terms of time but the themes are way shorter than that of Mozart, and another has a fugue within it).