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I don't always write in Classical style, and this Piano rag is proof. My friend Bernie Siben told me he very much enjoyed William Bolcom's "Ghost Rags," especially his "Graceful Ghost," as have I, so I thought I'd write my own somewhat creepy, mysterious ragtime piece, and this was the result, hence its name. It's challenging to be sure, but I have it on good authority from two virtuoso pianists that it's doable. I hope you enjoy! "Enigmatic Slow-Drag" - Ragtime Two-Step for Piano (2020). To my friend Bernie Siben, with gratitude for his kindness and support. - Composed August 17 – 23, 2020 at Austin. - Style: American Ragtime, ca. 1910-1915. - Duration: 05:32 - Electronic Rendering by Finale 26 music notation software’s "Human Playback" with NotePerformer 3 artificial intelligence assisted interpretation.

Greetings. I want to present another composition of mine, which I wrote in February 2023. This short piano piece, written in F-sharp minor, is based on "The Diary of A Forest Girl" by Aeppol, a Korean artist. This collection contains fanciful illustrations that I admire a lot, which later inspired me to write this piano piece. I managed to capture my performance on video, but it took me countless tries to get it right (but still flawed) since this piece was technically challenging to play. Anyway, here is the video recording, and let me know what you think about this piece. Carl Koh Wei Hao

This is the fourth musical piece I have written in my life. And I am entirely unable to understand if it can be called music. Is it perhaps a form of musical graphomania? I need an outside perspective (or someone to listen to it). I want to understand. Score prelude-1.mp3

EtudeinGminorQuinnStMark.mp3 G’day fellas! My interest in writing my own music goes way back, but it’s only been the last year and a bit since I’ve decided to take it more seriously and maybe even publish something later down the line! I’ve also never sought feedback from fellow composers before, so I’m real keen to give it a go! Anyhow, here is my Étude in G minor, which I believe I wrote back in late 2021:

Yet another improv, i worry im boring people with these! I'll stop doing it soon, I.promise! I've started writing down my compositions/improvs again. I have a couple of minuets I'll upload soon, I just get so distracted when I sit at the piano. I've composed, via improv, a piano sonata in C major, I was thinking of the third movement when I improvised this. It reminds me of Haydn, I want the third movement to be light hearted and playful because the second movement I composed is in c minor and I use every trick up my sleeve to pull on the heart strings. I wish I recorded myself playing it, I worry my memory of it could get corrupted because it has more complex counterpoint. The first movement is like a piano concerto and is full of flashy runs in both hands. It has a Mozartian air and I use some of his signature moves but it has enough of me in it so it's not a cringey pastiche. Well I hope not! The improv here is a 'first run' so it's full of hesitation and mistakes but it made me smile when I listened back to it so I thought I'd upload it, I've been quiet for a few days so why not. Cuckoo!

Hey there Wow, this is only your 4th composition? Usually I'd expect to hear something far more tonal, but you jumped into the deep-end of languages vastly more dissonant, eh? Of course it qualifies as music. I like your exploration of tone clusters. But, I'll be honest, it doesn't seem very idiomatic to piano writing. It sounds more like an experiment on the style. For instance, throughout the entire piece the left hand plays nothing but block chords. It sounds like you came up with some sort of progression with your chords, wrote a melody on top, but forgot to flesh out more pianistic textures. I don't mind block chords for parts of your piece, but it was the whole thing. I think you're off to a good start, but if I were you, I would go back and mess around on a piano to figure out how you can make those left hand chords more appealing in their rhythm and texture. I also didn't really care for the B section. It felt very out of place. I know you were going for a change, but a more tonal approach just didn't vibe with the A section imo. So here are some thoughts: -I like how you stretched out the tone clusters for some of the chords, maybe expand upon that? What about low pedal tones for the B sections, and hence creating a bass line we could follow. A dynamic change of texture could be all you need to achieve the contrast of a B section without changing languages, which is always confusing. -the melody/motif was really cool, so what if you developed that a bit more? Maybe that could be your bass line for some other spot in the piece, or experiment with the intervals a bit more. -again, don't neglect rhythm. Sometimes a simple ostinato is all you need to give your piece drive when the harmonic content is more ambiguous and unable to do so with it's lack of function. -you probably already did this, but I'll say it anyway. Don't reinvent the wheel. Listen to what other composers have done with the type of music you're writing. Expand upon their thoughts and ideas, or steal (YES, STEAL) their ideas and embellish them to create your own. And if all else fails, do what I did and listen to everything of a particular style that you're interested in, and when you hate everything about it, tinker and craft that idea in your own way as you see fit to make it pleasing to you. And if only you, then that's okay and all that matters. Since you're here, you might as well get to know some of the other members on our forum. You'd be surprised at their willingness to share thoughts and bounce ideas off of you, all for the low low price of nothing. Thanks for sharing, I'm excited to hear either edits to this piece or brand new works you're eager to share with the composing world. 🙂

Hey welcome to the forums! Very cool work you posted. Maybe you mentioned it, but do you play piano? I'm always curious if the composer plays the instrument they're writing very difficult music for. A few questions came to mind: stuff like this might be really hard to pull off, if not impossible do you want this pedaled? I just don't see how I could pull this off, but then again, I suck lol what does the orange note mean? I think a lot of the "hands together" stuff you do is really cool, but some of it seems VERY hard at that tempo Content-wise, I think this is really cool. It has kind of like a minute waltz type of vibe which I really like, but it's also partly a challenge to keep up that break neck speed for 2:15. Sure it's an etude, but something I always try and think about is what the listener is experiencing. Even a few measures of well placed rests to let the phrasing of the melody breathe, or a gap in one of the hands I think would do this piece justice. Like I said, I'm no expert, but just some thoughts on your music. I'd love to hear feedback, and again, welcome to our forum! You'll find there are loads of great people here to get to know, and many are willing to share their advice on your music. It helps to offer others some feedback as well, you seem to have some talent and a lot to share. More often than not, a few words about someone's music will make their day, as I'm sure it does for you, and the more you mingle with people the more attention you'll get with your own music. Thanks for sharing, I'm excited to hear more from you 🙂

RAGTIME! Your writing amazes me, it makes me feel like a noob. It's interesting to hear your take on the style coming from your classical-drenched style. Phrasing, counterpoint, harmony, form, it's all wonderful to my ears. I also really like your twist of making ragtime mysterious or creepy, as you say. I think you pulled this off well. I wish I had something to offer for feedback, but as you're an experienced composer who has found his niche and style of composition in this world, I'm not surprised I don't have anything critical to say. However, I will say that note performer's piano is very "wet" sounding. I use it too (but with Sibelius), and I have yet to tinker with it to know if you can make mixing adjustments adequate for a more realistic performance. I normally import midi files into a DAW and use other piano samples for my music, and your music is too good to not do the same. Do you have any experience with a DAW? Sure, if you get a performance then who cares about that. But it might be worth your time to check into it if you're interested. I rummaged around on your YT page, you have quite the catalog of fine works. I'm just really impressed with your music, and am very happy you decided to grace the forums once again with your activity. Stick around! We need more outstanding composers such as yourself around here (I've been around off and on for a long time as well, and it seems like the drama/toxicity that once plagued this place is a thing of the past lol, if that was your reason for leaving as it was mine 😄 ). Thanks for sharing, I'll be sure to look out for more posts from you.

Haha if not a particularly slow one 🤑! I'm just racing with myself since I always find my progress is slow. (Wait....why I turn every posts to a random today...) Henry

@Henry Ng Tsz Kiu, you're a very good composer - just maybe not a particularly fast one. Don't worry, it's not a race!

Thank you, glad to see you found that cadence magical haha. This piece will probably played in a concert in Oklahoma later this year. Yes, and I composed most of it in under 5 hours. Imagine what I will be creating this summer once I spend over 100 hours on a piece. I agree, clarinet fits my style quite well. True, some people have told me it felt a bit odd. I wanted to emulate a picardy third from the Baroque and give it a nicer ending. Always here to bring some cool pieces to the table.

Something I think about a lot is how we are nearly a quarter of the way into the 21st century, and thus far, nothing seems to have emerged across technology and art which was not either an overall negative to society OR inferior to the 20th Century thing it replaced. In the 90s, 80s metal band were told they were no longer relevant; grunge and nu-metal and various types of screaming rock music that rejected guitar solos emerged. Emo Rock was big around 2005, but all disappeared and shows no sign of a renewed interest 20 and 30 years later. However, Van Halen and Metallica still sell out concerts to people who weren't even born during those bands' peak, and they still dominate radio station song requests and inspire new guitar players and bands. "Progress" at a certain point involves the destruction of things our ancestors nurtured. Atonalism is the prime example. Guys like the one you all know I hate poo pooed on the craft that had been nurtured for centuries, but whose music is still culturally relevant to anyone outside of academics of questionable wisdom and competence? Well, the guys whose work modernists deemed not so and said modernists are unknown to all but a fringe group of listeners who expect you to believe they really do enjoy Schoenberg's Op.25 for piano. I just feel like this indicates a superiority of the ideas that endured. I dunno. I market myself as a composer of "20th Century Styles". I'm more interested in following the footsteps of Tchaikovsky, John Williams and John Debney than Zimmer where orchestral music is concerned. The music industry and academia at large claims this sort of style is no longer relevant, but what I do know is that composing such music doesn't seem to have done anything bad for me. It was cutting me paychecks when I was still a teenager whilst most of my peers were working fast food jobs they hated; it won me a spot in the Screen Composer's Guild's Apprentice & Mentor program out of 100s of other people vying for the spot in the country, some of my videos on YouTube got nearly 100k views with 99% like rates, and I have had strangers on the internet message me with kind words regarding what I do, at least some people on here seem to have enjoyed my work, and elsewhere I have recently had people reach out asking me to teach them how to compose too. My music is relevant to those people, and I am happy with that.

Hi @Carl Koh Wei Hao, This is very charming music. I don't know why, but the outer sections remind me Chopin's Mazurka especially his first one in the same key, op.6 no.1. The movement of the piece is so fluid and the work is so pianistic with all those decorative notes. The middle section is quite magical for me with the tonic major modulation and featuring high register with those broken chords. I just look at the internet and find the collection which gives you inspiration. Your music for sure suits the collection with the tender and light style! P.S @PeterthePapercomPoser ""Great job performing your own music which is a rarity! " Is this so??😈😈 At least I don't find it rare for me muahahaha! Thanks for sharing! Henry

Absolutely charming! There is an almost waltz-like quality about much of this piece, which I love. The maggiore section has an almost old-time, turn of the 20th Century American air about it, which I also love. Wonderful coda at the end too, which wraps everything up very nicely. Well done, and what a lovely performance!

Hey, Vince I rarely hit play immediately after I finishing listening to a piece but after the final chord, I felt the sadness of the silence. I bet others have too! Smash the heart button on Vince's original post above if you did! This is so beautiful! Especially at 0:29, that surprising chord hit me in the chest. I wanted to rewind and play it over and over but you can't with the built in media player. At 1:37, another hit to the chest. 2:22 is a bit ugly, perhaps purposely so, my immature side wants it removed for daring to contradict the beautify that preceded it but oh my, its so human and perfectly placed that it needs to stay! You tell a story with your music, I get so many pictures in my mind. I think others will agree, it's humbling to hear some of the compositions on here. I'm reminded how little I know but inspired to keep trying because it's proven to me time and again, there's always new music to be written. Fresh as a bakery. I feel so chilled listening to your music like I do when I listen to jazz. You composed this entirely through a midi? If so, it's well hidden because it sounds so natural for a pianist the way you've written it. I envy your grasp of harmony! I wish I had the patience to study 😞

Sup Vince, This is a great piece. It truly is. I love the sort of sombre yet not sombre mood that you've managed to create in this piece. Pink Floyd is my favourite band, and I can definitely hear some mid-Gilmour era stuff in this. I dont really have much else to say other than restating that this is a great piece. Adios, Arjuna

I composed this piece a few months ago but was struggling to play the two faster variations so I asked a friend to play and record the piece. He is a composer and retired professor from Toronto. He added ornamentation to the repeats in the recording and gave me great feedback to help polish the piece.