Sonatina for Flute and Guitar

This piece is quite light-hearted. I have attempted to create an interaction between the flute and guitar so it is not just the flute playing the tune with the guitar accompanying.

Flute and Guitar Sonatina-1st Mvt.MUS

I like it. :happytears:

I play the guitar and the flute, and this is a nice little piece that would be easy to play.

I'm not well-educated in music theory so I can't comment on it from that perspective, but it sounds good to me and appears to be easily playable. If I can play it by sight-reading it must be well-written. I can't sight read difficult music.

Well done.

I liked this, there were a lot of nice ideas and melodies, however, I have two technical issues I'd like to bring up:

• The dynamics you are using are too dramatic, rarely, if ever will you see ffff in a piece of music, fff is also rare, and only really used at climaxes. At this stage you shouldn't really need to use anything outside of pp-ff, this still gives you a lot of scope for dynamic variation. You may not be aware of the massive difference there is between mf and fff, between which you go a few times if my memory serves me well. The difference is much greater than what finale plays, I think if you were to have this performed you would be surprised, fff is, to most musicians, as lous as they can physically play.
  
• The second thing I'd like to bring up is the lower range of the flute: You seem to spend quite a bit of time down there (which I like, I love the timbre of the flute's lower register). However, the lower end of the flutes register is extremely quiet, and it would be likely drowned out by the guitar playing chords, however softly the guitar was playing.
  

I hope this doesn't sound too negative, I tend to focus on the things that I think can help you improve rather than just praising. I did enjoy this, and hope I've been of some assistance.

Mark :)

Apart from dynamics issues mentioned already and some minor notation issues this is a very enjoyable piece.

I loved the interaction between the two instruments and the music actually painted a smile on my face!

I'd love a live performance!

Cheers!

Thanks a lot everyone for your encouraging comments.

Mark, I am aware the dynamics are too extreme, I just put them in to improve the expression in the Finale playback. As you rightly say Finale's dynamics are less differentiated than what would sound live.

Also, I have played this piece with a flautest and found that the flute, even in the middle register, was drowning the guitar at the points when the guitar had the tune, so I moved some of the notes down lower. I was very surprised how loud the flute was compared to a real guitar myself.

Manossg, I played this piece in a concert last year, but unfortunately I could not get a recording of it. Pleased to hear you enjoyed it.

Abracadabra, the piece is fairly straight-forward to play, but I think the flute part may be easier, though not being a flautest I don't know for sure. I'd be interested to know if you learn it.

Nota Bene

Also, I have played this piece with a flautest and found that the flute, even in the middle register, was drowning the guitar at the points when the guitar had the tune, so I moved some of the notes down lower. I was very surprised how loud the flute was compared to a real guitar myself.

I agree with Nota Bene about the flute. I've only been playing the flute for less than two months, so I can't be very good at it, yet I can still play quite loudly clear down to the D note just about middle C, dropping down that extra whole tone to middle C and my volume drops off considerable. I imagine this would be different for different players and instruments. Mine flute was only $109 so it's amazing that it does as well as it does.

Moreover, if the guitar is a nylon string classical guitar I don't see any problem at all. I don't think that the volume levels of a flute are going to be an important consideration in a duet with a classical guitar. Certainly not with my classical guitar as it doesn’t produce a lot of volume to begin with.

Abracadabra, the piece is fairly straight-forward to play, but I think the flute part may be easier, though not being a flautest I don't know for sure. I'd be interested to know if you learn it.

The flute part is definitely easier. I haven't played the entire flute part yet, but I see nothing difficult in it, except in measure 84, you have the flute playing the B below middle C. I don’t believe that my flute will play below a middle C. If it does I’m not sure what the fingering would be. There’s no way I can blow a low B note holding the normal fingerings for B. I know that some professional flutes can go below middle C, but I don’t think that’s possible on mind. If it is I’d like to learn how to play it. I actually wish that the flute could play clear down to a G below middle C (same as a violin), but unfortunately they don’t go that low.

The guitar part is a bit more difficult for me. Although, I'm not sure if "difficult" is the right word. I actually did begin to learn it, I can't quite sight-read (at least not up to tempo) especially for the higher positions, so it takes me some time to try to figure out precisely where the notes are on the fingerboard and what's the best way to play them.

However, thus far I haven't run across anything that's actually difficult to play once I've figured out how to play it. So while it may be difficult for me to sight-read it, it's not actually difficult to play once I have it "deciphered" it to actual fingerboard positions.

I have mental problems, so it’s difficult for me to learn quickly. I need to take a single measure and just practice that for a while until it become “muscle memory” then I can play it without using my incapacitated mind.

This piece has also sparked me to write a guitar/flute duet of my own. (I’m just starting it) My piece is entirely differnet from yours musically, but I like the idea of a guitar/flute duet, I think they go together well. I need to find some other musicians in my area so I can play in duets!

I'd like to have a midi file of this if possible so I can load it into Melody Assistant. My finale will read your mus file, but it won't produce a midi from it.

Hi Abracadabra, I checked my instrument book and you're right about it not being practical to go below middle C. It also says some flutes do go lower. I think this was one of the notes that was changed by the flautest I played it with, to stop drowning the guitar - he was an advanced player.

I just looked at the score and the only other note that seems to fit both the chords the flute is accompanying is a D, so maybe you could play that instead, followed by an F so as to keep the movement in the part going.

I attach a MIDI file of the piece as you wanted.

I'd love to hear your piece. I'll look out for it. :D

Flute and Guitar Sonatina-1st Mvt.MID

=) I would use harpsichord instead..

Thanks for the midi file.

I wrote my guitar/flute fantasy and posted it in another thread. I'm not a composer though so it's probably not "proper". I just write what I play. I don't know anything about any rules.

I have to load everything on my web page though because my browser won't let me upload to this site. So if you want you can go straight to it from here. There's both a midi and an mp3, as well as a pdf of the sheet music.

Fantasy