Thatguy v2.0

Hey Markus, I haven't seen you in a while, glad to hear you're still writing 🙂 I love these kinds of posts. It's really cool to hear your problem, then for me to try it out and mess around on it. Thanks for posting your thought process, as I can start with yours and see where that takes me. One idea I had was to let the clarinet be a pedal point for the E7. I had F for the "Dm" chord measure, but it didn't sound good to me. I liked the absence of the clarinet here, so maybe keep it simple if this thought leads you somewhere. For me, it helps to see the entire 4 bar phrase as E7. I know that one spot is tricky, but it just seems like a big cadence to Am (Also, this whole transition from Bb to F is wonderful and very smooth. Is it Am - C7 - F? I like the iii - V7 - I movement). If I look at it as E7 with a bunch of chromatics, it's easier to think about the clarinet. I came up with this pretty quick, I'm sure the notes could be tinkered with. I don't remember, but little rhythmic motifs you may have used could go well with the clarinet, I just came up with something simple. Oh, and our music player sucks lol. It's hard to go to a certain spot within a piece, so I think I've heard the first minute or so several times 😄 Hopefully some of these thoughts are useful 🙂 Great stuff, keep us updated! P.S. The bassoon starts on B nat. right?

Lovely! Keep writing, you've got natural talent and cool ideas 🙂 As mentioned, if you use a software that creates a score, post that too! We can help with your writing and analysis more clearly with the orchestration visibly exposed. If not, that's not a worry either, and if you have specific concerns with your music just ask. People here are mostly pretty helpful and responsive. Especially @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu. In fact, he prefers it if you ask him lots of questions, even when he's asleep! Just playing around, welcome!

Thanks! Just classical guitar patch with noteperformer I initially thought I would have to do that, but I started out with just reading the piano sheet music and trying to arrange the larger range of notes within the confines of a fretboard and ran with it. It's the original key, but I'm not completely sold on how I had to go high in measure 13 on the Bb chord. I'd love the Bb to be the lowest note, so maybe my low E. Then it's in C#m which is cool but eh we'll see. Interesting take, I could see that! Check out the original, it's much more somber and just overall better lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R14whYG0k8 ❤️

You know, I kept meaning to comment on this, and then life got busy. Whoops! Thanks for the kind words, buddy. I'm happy to have gotten to know you, and your music has influenced mine as well. 🙂 I've listened to this a few times since you've posted. It's probably not a surprise to know that this is my favorite piece of yours. The sonata as a whole is so addicting to listen to, it kind of checks all my boxes as far as just plain old good enjoyable music. Your playing is outrageously fiery in this too! I love it. You're such a passionate player, and I can hear the grit and wrath, and also the softness and pensive yearning. At first I wasn't sure how all the vastly different themes blended together, but in the end I think it works. I like the sort of confusion in the form too. The transitions seemed iffy in some spots, but when I think about it, it's kind of cool that you smoothly blend some transitions, yet others are sudden complete shifts. To me it actually helps with figuring out how to mix and match your themes, adding to the jaunty diversity of it all. The nihilistically scherzo part is so friggin cool! I love all the bluesy parts, and it's a fresh take to a familiar style for my ears. It sounds like you gave sophistication and elegance to a naturally rough around the edges kind of music. Love it 🙂 This was wonderful, Henry, and I and I'm sure many others love hearing what you present here. I'm continually impressed with your work ethic and motivation to present your music in the best way you can. Your piano playing is admirable, and many others including myself look up to your compositional talent and enormous heart. Thanks for sharing Henry!

Fun thing I arranged today. I've been working on learning new solo guitar pieces, and recently have been learning some of my favorites from the classical/concert realm. This isn't the most popular of Mr. Sibelius' work, as it's a cold funeral march type of thing, but I love it. I couldn't find a guitar version, so I dabbled at my own. I might record this at some point when I can stop screwing up measure 12 😄

Sure, man. Good luck with future music!

Wow, this is amazing! I think this style definitely suits you, and I really like hearing that you had the chance to work with the performers. It's great you got such a nice recording, but the knowledge you've gained is invaluable. Wonderful work, buddy 🙂

This was a lot to digest, but I liked it! I have to admit, it took a few listens to grasp everything going on, but there's no denying your talent with composition. It's wonderful. I feel like I've asked but I can't remember... do you play piano? It seems very difficult in some areas, and although that's not bad, I just wonder if this could be executed how you intend. What I love about your music is how fresh your ideas are. I guess I'm speaking of your music in general instead of just this piece, but it's a pattern I've noticed. Something I would be mindful of is to me you really teeter the balance of too many ideas and developing existing ones. I think your balance works, but sometimes I wish you would strip down the amount of new musical material you write within a piece and develop more. Maybe you do this and I don't always hear it, or maybe it has to do with how complex your music gets. I just get lost sometimes listening, and it might help. It's not necessarily your language, btw. For instance, right before :30 we're hit with a ritard... but I was just getting into the rhythms! Now at :47 or so, there's another change of pace... all that drive we had lost again. You could argue that is the effect you're going for, but it's just an example of what I mean. However, I'm reminded of Debussy pissing off his professors because he didn't develop his music the "right" way. I do like your free flowing jazzy way of writing, I think it's a really vibrant way to approach form. I personally just need my ears to rest a little when listening to your music. It's like, your flavor of cheese is great for nachos, just don't drown them! The score looks amazing to me, bar 92 D# should be Eb was the only thing that caught my eye. I'm excited to hear the other pieces in the suite, hopefully it isn't too long before you continue them!

Dude, this is so great! I'm curious why you didn't want to release this in October, but if I remember right you like a lot of the spooky horror themes in your music regardless so I get it. I'm no film expert, but your shots all looked really good to me, nice camera too. I really loved the lighting at the 2 min. mark! You seem to have a lot of talent with this, and your music fit really well. To me it wasn't so distracting to take away from what was going on, and had tones to give it comedy and cuteness (like the Theremin sound). I think it deserved that 🙂 Nice job, loved it!

Never ❤️ Oh, and cool music!

Symphonic Fantasy... is there a way to add "final" to that somehow? Or would that be cheesy lol Wow, I love this so much. It really felt like a story was being told. Not necessarily the story of the game, but one you wrote with all it's themes. There just seemed to be great care in when and how variations were played out. I'm no orchestrator, but your orchestration seemed spot on and colorful, full of craftsmanship and creativity. I really liked the section of just winds, or the moments of trem strings. Even though you have cadences and breaks in the music, it never felt like it was dragging or boring. Your writing really had a sense of blurriness with collage-type textures when you wanted it too, and then was bold and clear during other times. I just love the diversity with instrumentation, dynamics, range, color, you name it (maybe techniques too?). The bass guitar and synth were really cool additions, and helps set your music apart in it's style and persona. I'm not sure about all the themes, but one thing I thought about was that the themes weren't always introduced in a stately way. Wasn't a big deal, but for instance with as much motivic exploration you did with Terra's theme, I kept waiting for it to be played with the 3rd 16th note in that motif to be played on beat 1. You had such a good lead up for it, but maybe that's just a style-choice-difference we have. Your path gave it more of a fantasy vibe, which I guess is fitting for a Final Fantasy piece, eh? 😛 I didn't see it, but it would be cool if you referenced all the rehearsal marks to we could see what you were going for too! I'm to know how you organized 8 themes into a cohesive quagmire woven so well. Awesome music! I loved the build up to the Kefka moment at the end. I think it's always wise to save one of the coolest moments for the end; it makes me want to listen to the whole piece with a relisten just to get to that part again. Well done Peter, this was great! Are there more movements for the future? I think it stands alone, but you probably have so many options with variations you could keep going haha

Ah interesting. I mentioned the lumatone since their performers might be looking for new music from current composers... it would be cool if someone performed or recorded for you! Couldn't hurt to market it for a wider audience and all

Ah fair enough. I'm nowhere close to a historical composer such as yourself, so it's always interesting to hear the finer points of the styles, of which I'm usually unfamiliar with. I noticed you have more music here, I can't remember if I've checked any of it out but I'll dig around 🙂

Are you happy with the microtonal piano sounds? I wonder if using some sort of E-piano or synth would give your pieces something different to offer, as you could mimic a lumatone or whatever else is out there. I know there are microtonal harpsichords and pianos, but they're so unpractical. I just checked fiverr and no one offers lumatone lol. Dang. I'm just brainstorming because you clearly have so much interest in microtonal music, I'm just trying to think of other outlets available. I've kind of vicariously lived through your microtonal studies, silently judging what I like and dislike about it's uses for my own music, so thank you for that haha 😄 The music overall felt comical and maybe slightly cheesy, but I think that's just the nature of using so many microtones within your harmonic context. That's not to say I didn't like it, it was fun 🙂 Nice job Peter, looking forward to hearing more ...or maybe something big you have brewing in the works...

This music makes me ye olde happy, thanks for sharing! I love when the rest of the instruments come in about halfway through... for me you could shave off a bunch before that and treat it like an intro 🙂