First Attempt for Flute and Guitar

Let's make the distinction more concrete, without carving any semantics in stone, ok? Let's say that

by phrase I mean a melodic 'chunk', a part of a motive.

By phrasing I mean the way an instrument is to be played.

Do you understand the distinction? Phrase refers to melodic composition, phrasing to instrument performance. Maybe it's my english again, but in greek we use these two terms all the time, without problems.

About connecting these measures with an arc...if that's the way it feels the flute has to be handled, by all means! But, aren't there pauses between notes? Are all notes supposed to be played legato? I could try and put slurs on these measures, but I am no flutist.

Instead of that, I'd rather you checked actual flute music and how it feels to you and your playing. You could check my Adagio. I checked with the flutist for the phrasing and it's a very simple piece of music. So I think it would be a good idea! (what a chance to hoe my music :D)

Basket weaving is better than composition, because it's easier to make money out of it! But...composition is way more interesting! :D

Do you understand the distinction? Phrase refers to melodic composition, phrasing to instrument performance.

Ok, I think I’m clear on the distinction. Perhaps I’m just not clear on how I should mark the score.

In my mind measures 6 through 9 are a single “phrase” – a single musical sentence. So because of this I feel a desire to mark them as a single phrase as in example A below.

However, that single phrase does have structure that emerges naturally as marked in B below. But that natural structure is a result of the durations of the pitches and has therefore already been conveyed. There are no rests in this phrase because it’s one entire phrase. The “natural structure” that will emerge as shown in B shouldn’t need to be indicated I don’t believe. To indicated it as shown in B would imply that I want it broken up into three distinct phrases which is not my desire.

So my conclusion then would be to go ahead and mark it as a single phrase as in A. However if I do that, then to be consistent with my phrase marking I should mark all phrases that way throughout the piece. This would be the first “phrase marking” that is not what I consider to be a “slur”.

I might add also, that while B is a lot prettier to look at, that's not really what I want musically. I shouldn't mark it just to make the score look pretty. That would be a bad habit to get into.

Edited to add: The flute is the voice of an angel. It's supposed to have a "ghostly" quality to it. It flows along spiritually. It doesn't need to breath. A good flutist shouldn't need to breath for these four measures either. This phrase is supposed to meld together as a continuum. It's an angel.

I looked at your sheet music for Adagio 'for Eva'. It’s very professional looking. Although I have to say that you use phase markings abundantly similar to Burgm

Edited to add: The flute is the voice of an angel. It's supposed to have a "ghostly" quality to it. It flows along spiritually. It doesn't need to breath. A good flutist shouldn't need to breath for these four measures either. This phrase is supposed to meld together as a continuum. It's an angel.

I looked at your sheet music for Adagio 'for Eva'. It

Btw, the A image (and B) was wrong, because you let the slur drop. Don't! Use a continuous slur.

I can't avoid the arc dropping at m.7-8 because there is a page break in the score there. It's just the way the program works. It won't let me draw it any other way.

Although, now that I think about it I might be able to cheat and use two arcs. One on each side of the page break. Then I might be able to force it too look like a continuous arc.

I'll try that right now.

There, I used two separate arcs to avoid the page break and make it look like one continuous arc. I'm learning about how to beat my software as well as writing score!

Look fine to me! :(

charming and relaxing piece! well shaped and with lovely melody. the harmony is also very effective. both instruments work nicely together. congrats!

Thank you frantz.

That was basically my first composition for all intents and purposes. I'm working on some others but life gets in the way. :(

Well first off, there are no rules of music. There are suggestions, but none of them need to be followed. You just wrote what soundeed good to you and that's all you need to do.

Very lovely. :(

I never thought melody assistant could sound so nice. The guitar arpeggios at bar 18 get repetitive, as does the triplet melody, but still sounds nice. :laugh:

I must agree with manossq about the modulation though.

Actually kind of reminds me of Zelda music.

Very lovely. :happy:

Thank you.

The guitar arpeggios at bar 18 get repetitive, as does the triplet melody, but still sounds nice. :)

Yeah, I agree. I was trying to keep it simple. I might go back and make those places a tad more interesting.

I must agree with manossq about the modulation though.

Everybody wants modulation. That's my weakest point right now. I'm only just now learning about the circle of fifths, and I'm trying to become acquianted with all the keys and their chords. I know that modulation is important and I'm working toward learning how to modulation in interesting ways, but it will take me a while to practice modulating.

I never thought melody assistant could sound so nice.

I'm happy with the program. I think it sounds tons better than Finale Notepad. There are so many adjustments you can make for each channel in addition to the fact that it recognizes and plays most articulations. You can even edit precisely how each note should be played it great detail. Although I didn't do that for this piece, other than putting in the articulation symbols which it recognizes and plays.