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This is my 5th minuet and trio from a series of 6. I tried to make each of these minuets unique and not in the style of Mozart or Haydn which is difficult. I set myself the restraint of only one note per hand so that it's suitable for beginners. My playing is a little hurried because I get nervous as soon as I press record and then I make mistakes. I can't get back those wasted 2 minutes! The pressure is intense! The trio is contrasting to the minuet in style and texture which maybe too much variety to be considered balanced. This problem infected my 6th minuet and trio too. For my next set of 6 I will endeavour to compose closer to the style of the late 18th century with greater unity and the use of more common phrase structures of the period. Thank you for listening.

I personally think that this works for the kind of mood that you want to present. BUT, and I've spoken about this before, there is something to be said for exploring more complex relationships between your melody and harmony. You start this piece on what the ear can only assume to be the tonic area and then expand from that. But what if you didn't start on the tonic? In Borodin's Polovtsian Dances he starts on the 2nd and 6th scale degrees with a harmony underneath that is clearly not the tonic area - and he takes his time at arriving at the tonic too! And that already introduces a lot of harmonic interest and complexity without even modulating yet! To practice this you could try to start a melody on the strong beat (not a pick-up) on the dominant chord. Once you master that, you could move to starting on the subdominant or the supertonic, since they're both pre-dominant chords. And no need to remind you that you needn't start the melody on a chord tone in any of those cases either. I really enjoyed this piece though - just thought I'd share some advice! Thanks for sharing.

Hi @olivercomposer, I think the G# Dorian really fits the misty atmosphere of the castle on the mountain. The modulation to F minor in 1:00 is great but I think the preparation can be longer. Here I feel like it's typical trailer music like a cookie cutter when the music is pushed for no reason. That brass melody is very beautiful, the progression to the relative major Ab major and then its flat submediant E major before getting back to f minor is great, and the Picardy 3rd ending is wonderful combined with that harp too, but they all sound typical to me. Maybe you can try to write something for solo music or chamber setting? Here they are all very effective and will make good film and incidental music, but to me not something unique enough to be what's you. In the solo setting and chamber works you can work more on the music materials themselves instead of just orchestral colour and effect. It's not that writing on orchestral works bad though, but sometimes the colour may make the music beautiful even though the content is less convincing. I am quite nitpicky on this one since I feel like you definitely have the talent to write more unique music! Thanks for sharing! Henry

Hi everyone! Here's something I've been working on for a bit here. This work for symphonic band is a musical illustration of six scenes throughout the course of a day on Lake Michigan. I. Sunrise The gentle sounds of woodwinds along with the shushing of the waves signals the beginning of the day. II. Morning and a Brisk Wind Morning has broken, and it's a fine day for sailing. The brass choir introduces the main theme. III. Mid-day, Clouds on the Horizon The woody sounds of the clarinet section and vibraphones illustrate the calm before the storm while the trumpet explores another theme. The approaching storm becomes evident as the band begins to swell. IV. An Afternoon Thunderstorm Suddenly a violent storm whips up with wild rhythms and vicious percussion hits. V. A Gentle Evening Rain The storm is over as quickly as it begins though, leaving a gentle rain illustrated by the snapping of fingers and a calm iteration of the main theme by the clarinets and low brass. VI. Sunset Like the day began, it ends in glorious light before the final exclamation. Fun little thing, the trumpet motif is the sixth, first, and sixth scale degrees. My area code here in Western Michigan is 616. That was the idea that started this whole thing.

Hello Guys, This is my brand new piece of music. What do you think?

an interesting shower thought piece that i came up with while sick with covid last june. this is the only piece i've done in this style, and it's definitely very different than anything else i've done before.

Good evening. Here is an exported version for piano alone (with 4 hands) I initially wanted to adapt it for 2 pianos, but it was far too much work and I was short of time. The writing is not very pianistic and would have deserved to take up a few passages (to adapt, for example, a roll of timpani or outfits that here seem dead spots). But hey, some effects may be interesting to listen to on the piano, to hear things from another angle, without having fun with the timbres of the orchestra. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ymuc04k37f60gj5/Bf piano V3.mp3?dl=0

Hi everyone! I am presenting the fourth movement of my Piano Sonata no.2 in A-flat major. The previous 3 movements are now all sorted in the post of the 1st movement one so if you are interested, go and check them out! This is my favourite movement of the entire sonata. First it's in C sharp minor, my favourite key. Second it really has something personal in it. The structure of it is very simple: 00:03 First Part, melody in right hand and octave accompaniment in LH 04:13 Second Part. original melody to the right with added Lamentoso in RH 07:34 Coda. Is that a dark reply to the first movement? The movement is named a "Lyrics" for me. Chinese poems are known to be lyrics, rather than long epics like those of Homer or Milton or Goethe. I'm trying to adapt the rhythm of Tang Poem, Lüshi here which contains five or seven words in each sentence with standard rhythm to recite it. It also contains many couplets. With reference to it I have a standard rhythm maintaining all over the movement and is having many couplets musically. In the first part the LH keeps having the octave accompaniment which can be boring but for me it helps create an unsettling feeling. In the second part, the original melody in the RH of the first part is transferred to the LH, while a lamentoso is added in the right hand. The coda returns to the first part version of the meldoy, but look at the ending. Is that a dark deeply or quotation to the con delore section of the first movement, b.82-98? The tragedy uncertain there is confirmed here. I myself feel like this movement is quite unrelated thematically to the rest of the sonata. But it's related in a different way. It represents the real hurdle in the subconscious finally emerges in front of you. The unsettling C# minor (Db minor) is hinted all over the first three movements: The con delore section (b.82-98) in first movement, that surprising Db minor cadence near the end of the second movement (which by the way is the answer of why there's agitation there), and the coda of the third movement tainted by Db minor. All prepares for this movement. I find this piece somewhat similar to the second movement of Schubert's D960, which is also in C sharp minor, but only after finishing this sonata. The movement for me is very dark hence very personal. I'm sure I have something dark personally and here it's expressed authentically. I literally get depressed every time after listening to this movement. How do you feel? Do you feel this movement boring or so with so slow a tempo and unchanging things? Let me know! As usual I'm going to attach the PDF and mp3 of the movement: Piano Sonata no.2 4th mov 26-04-2023.pdf Piano Sonata no.2 4th mov.mp3 (Please ignore the first three lines of p.1 as it's from 3rd movement!) And as usual I will attach the youtube video here of the scored version of the movement. There's some delay of the visual here though LoL... Please subscribe my channel! (Self advertising LoL!!!!!!!!!) Hope you all "enjoy" the movement! The fifth movement and the finale of the sonata will be a long way to go, as I don't start practicing it due to busy schedule and other accompanying stuff to do. See you soon! Henry

Hey @olivercomposer, Thx for your review! Yeah the rhythm is too static sometimes, but for me the uninteresting rhythm does have something important personally haha! I'm going for unvarying rhythm in this movement so it can be boring to be honest! The rhythm is for me 1) to portray the rhythm as in Chinese Tang Poem, and 2) provides a suffocating air which is my personal thought. Your advice is of course very reasonable!!! Thank you!! Yeah the device is bad, not even "isn't the best" haha!!! I attempted to use IPad to record for the first time, but looks like the recording quality is not that good. I should buy recording devices, but I hate for my parsimonious attitude for buying things LoL... But thx for your advice! Thx for your appreciation!!! I'm having less confidence to my works (and the World generally) in this week and your reply does help boost me up! Kind Regards, Henry

It's a (sometimes) very sad and lyrical piano piece with an interesting chord progression. I really like it, but sometimes the chord progression may be a little bit weird or strained, and the first part with the chords is too long and static. I would have liked to hear arpeggios or just some kind of movement. The second part is also very good but rhythmically could be a little bit more varied. Overall I like it! 🙂 One piece of advice, your recording isn't the best. Maybe you would consider buying a relatively cheap soundcard and also a relatively cheap condenser mic to record your music pieces. Or there are some very good sound recorder devices that are not too pricey and work well.

I just tried some orchestration techniques with this piece of music that I read earlier. Maybe it's not the most unique piece of music, but it's very far from trailer music. (I hate most of the trailer tracks.) Yes, the modulation part would have been longer, I agree with you! Next time I will compose a very unique music piece which not start on tonic! 😄 Thanks for your comment!

Thank you for your advice! I swear I won't start my next piece of music on tonic! 🙂

Yep, i feel the same, everything is too much legato but playing spiccato/staccato at that speed (or faster) is very hard, furthermore, i think that doing the accents i wrote would benefit the piece (musescore didnt do them)

I like your use of the phrygian dominant scale along with exotic instruments which really lend this piece a very Egyptian atmosphere! Great job with that! I don't think I can really say anything to improve the mood you intended to present/exhibit here. Despite modulating you end the piece in the same key in which you began which shows some craft. Thanks for sharing!

I was not familiar with this piece by Chopin before I listened to your piece, and hence didn't know that it was nicknamed "Impatience". I feel it loses some of that character in this orchestral rendition. Strings can play fast too and I think could, in real life, lend this piece the urgency that it needs to sound the way Chopin intended at a faster tempo. Thanks for sharing your adventures in arranging for string orchestra!

But it’s 2023, counterpoints don’t have to be extremely rigid nowadays unless you are going for a certain style imo

Ohhh okay, yeah that makes sense. The tenor line is moving, while the other parts, alto and bass are staying

It's just the same for me haha! I mean the rhythm are the same in all the parts without some voices moving in different rhythm.

Well if it's for instrumental then I think it will be fine, since I'm tired of singing boring bass notes for poor bass writing sometimes! I used to be a bass II in my choir and usually the bass is funny since the melody keeps moving, and so even we are singing accompaniments it's still interesting while we are supporting the bassline of the choir. Henry

Hi composed this score recently and thought I would share the score. Thanks for listening! Henry

If you have never written in sonata form before, write something that is in sonata form but relatively simple, like Clementi op 36 no 1 first. That probably should not take you too long if you are already familiar with forms like binary and ternary forms. Listening to pieces with sonata form also helps, but it's not just sonatas but also chamber music and symphonies, but you most likely already know that. In fact my obsession with the sonata form really was from my teen years when I start getting into playing sonatas and symphonies. Unfortunately I have no orchestration concepts so I am not of help in that department. I disagree with counterpoint not being fun. I will demonstrate it to you... is what I would say if I don't have skill issue needing to practice my own pieces. stay tuned I guess though. Also why is CAS still a thing in IBDP 😕 ...

I like the harmonies a lot, but I had to strain to hear them. The volume of the entire composition must be increased. But more importantly, the balancing of your bass is very off. You want to balance your left hand so that the bass is much more audible compared to your right hand. As far as the composition, having a fast piece that plays without any pauses can actually work, but since you have just one tempo throughout, it creates this very monotonous tone unfortunately. You do break it up at around 1:05 when you change up the style a bit, and I loved that part. But there are ways to record music to keep your original intent and not sound so monotonous. And this has to do with adding in your tempo changes and articulations. This helps create more of a player-like feel to the piece. If you want to learn more about this, check out my video about another Etude that also had a similar problem. And you can see some of the techniques I used (and listen to the before and after results). Nuancing an Etude (tips and tricks)