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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/24/2021 in all areas

  1. I put some music over a short video that I found on internet, I want to do more of these what do you think ?
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  2. This started out as a discarded variation from a set I've been working on. It followed the theme obliquely but deviates too much to include in the set. It's an idealised rendering. Some of the sustained notes can't be sustained because the hands are moving about elsewhere. But it's reasonably realistic (I hope). Thanks if you can give it a listen and I'm always open to suggestions/criticism - much appreciated. Guitar piece D 191121 320.mp3
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  3. Oh I see like this one for example 😉? I didn't thought about it thanks for the idea at 18:16
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  4. This is a really deep subject. The entire study of the craft of composition would have to be explained to give a truly concise answer. The short answer I believe would be that there isn't a single aspect that makes an entire piece sound good. Rather, there are things that make each individual aspect sound good. Things that make them sound good together. Things that make them sound good as a part of a larger structure. Now here's my personal philosophy that comes from observation of other composers: I believe that most anybody who is able to put their mind to it — not all are able to, and often that's why these types don't even bother trying to become composers — can become a "good" composer if they master the many aspects of the craft. However, there is a difference between "good" and "great" and what I believe separates the two — and although I don't think I am a "great" composer I am flattered to have been told by some that I have at least a bit of this — is that you are also an aesthete. Someone who has a keen eye, ear and imagination for the beautiful and inspiring. Even if you are writing melodic death metal or horror music. This is something that you either have or you don't. Every great composer and artist I have met and through history seem to have been aesthetes in addition to having a strong command of all aspects of the craft on a technical level. All of them. They all had a great sense of style and taste. I've met composers and songwriters where it just doesn't matter how old they get. They ALWAYS know what's cool. They always have these little brilliant ideas that just pile up and pile up in their work because they intuitively know this is going to be great. It's the aesthetic choices of the piece; the choices that are actually irrelevant to whether or not the line sounds good. It's choices that are purely a matter of taste that when combined with good craftsmanship, elevates the work from sounding "good" to sounding "great". For example, a lot of people liked my "Open Road Runaways" and "The Fortress of Your Heart" tracks. In the former, the addition of the slide guitar was a purely aesthetic choice; I had nothing in mind for the slide guitar parts, nothing written, but I just thought it would be cool and so I bought a bottle slide and improvised. Toward the end of the piece, on the last quarter-note bend before the end, I thought "Man, this part would sound sick with a phaser on just this one note". Similarly, in the latter tune, all my choices for instruments were based on what I thought would sound cool together. Wouldn't a rompler playing over a galloping bass with pedal tones be a good way to start it off? That would sound cool. Then, in the break part leading up the guitar solo, what if there was a sub-bass dive and all the other elements drop out, just leaving that reverb'd rompler to play the intro, but then there's a wicked guitar whammy dive into a solo that goes up a fourth? Man, that would sound epic and really breathe new life into it, I'll bet. None of those choices actually impact whether the individual melody, harmony, etc. sounds good. The melody would still be a good melody if it was played on a piano, classical guitar, or a windows General MIDI synth patch — but it is these choices which take the piece to the next level and let people really connect with it. It just wouldn't be the same with something different. Although the melody would still sound good on winds, strings just feel like the choice that gives it that real "soaring" feel in the chorus. It just HAS to be strings. Without that phaser being switched on JUST on that ONE bend at the end, it just wouldn't be right. I could've harmonized ALL of the piano melody in thirds, but I chose only some of them. Because those were the notes that I just thought would sound best harmonized. Etc. This is the aspect of music that cannot be taught and I believe it is a necessary aspect to turn "good" musical ideas into "great" ones.
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  5. I think besides the duality between harmony and melody that has already been mentioned (I call it a duality because I believe the two are closely linked - one implies the other and they generally work in tandem to create a melodic/harmonic adventure), another important thing in music is the balance between variety and unity and the pacing at which new material is presented. I recently started a giant variations project that I didn't have any hope of finishing because I tried too hard to create unity between all the thematic material without enough variety (despite it being a variations piece I felt like the variations weren't different enough from each other to create interest). Anyways - the project went downhill when I kept trying to exhaustively work out each variation I had come up with for a bigger ensemble without really any idea of how I would fit the pieces together. I didn't have a deadline so the piece just kept getting bigger and bigger until it became unmanageable. All great developments strike a balance between unity and variety that creates interest. Or in other words - a balance between novelty and conservatism.
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  6. The harmony definitely plays a role, but for me, the melody is just as important. I find Bruckner 7 first movement to be achingly beautiful because of all the solo lines and harmonic changes. The cellos especially have some beautiful melodies in that movement and the cello is my favorite string instrument. And an almost constant sea of modulations in the movement in some ways make those solos even more beautiful. Pieces which I find to be beautiful mostly from melody include: Chopin's Nocturnes Grieg in general Debussy's First Arabesque and Clair de Lune Liszt's Liebestraum Schumann's Kinderszenen Quite a bit of Brahms Then there are pieces that I find beautiful because of their harmony more so than their melody, such as: A lot of Liszt pieces Mozart's Fantasias Chopin's E minor Prelude And then there are pieces where melody and harmony are equal contributors to the beauty of a piece, such as: A lot of Beethoven's pieces A lot of Mendelssohn's pieces Haydn's pieces Bruckner's pieces
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