Strength from Within

I don't know why but I'm about to be slightly embarrassed once I click the post button. There are so many talented people here and then I come along! :blush: So this was one of my very first attempts at composing something, WITHOUT having a rock solid foundation on music theory AND composing in general. This was just me basically messing around, coming up with whatever sounded nice, and clumping it together into one "song."

And this song was for my friend who had leukemia. :( He's actually doing awesome right now so I'm glad, but he thinks I'm a total virtuoso because of the song I made for him. haha :toothygrin:

Anyways, I thought I would let you guys give a listen, despite the distractions around me as I play since this is a video, and give me TONS of feedback. And yes, this was one of my VERY first compositions...very rough, I know. Be free to criticize each and every part of it, as long as it will help me to become a better composer. :)

MySpaceTV Videos: the strength within-darlene by ??~*~!!??im her dork??!!~*~??

Sorry, no score or midi file, just live (not the best) playing.

Oh btw, I composed this exactly a year ago.

Greetings, HER (If it's okay with you, I'll call you Darlene in the future, but if not, I'll just use your username);

A lot of really good things considering that this is one of your very first pieces. You have a good knack for melody writing and some beautiful harmonies. That's definitely something to keep in mind for your future projects should you keep writing for piano (which I hope you do).

Probably my only complaint is that you had essentially the same chord patterns going through the entire piece. You did add some variety to the melody and the range a little bit, but for the most part the music sounded really repetitive (repetition is good, so much as it is used sparingly). Also, for something like this, considering you have a lot of solid technique down on the instrument, why not try exploring the range a little bit more? The blurb you had at the end in which there were rapidly descending passages - see if you can do more of that earlier on. It was great when you had it, but that's something we would probably like to see/hear sooner.

Hopefully this helps. It's a beautiful piece, and you do have a really good knack for melodic writing.

Oh hey thanks! And what do you mean by range? Like ... expanding into other "areas of the piano" rather than the "central base" I was usually working on? (I really don't know what I just said) haha Please clarify since I'm just a little toddler when it comes to the technical stuff of composong. :)

Yes, that's what I mean. :)

Oh. haha :)

Do you have any suggestions on how to avoid repetition? The reason why I used repetition and variations of certain bits was that I didn't want the music to feel as if it would just keep going and going and going, then bam, it's done. I wanted certain bits to be repeated, kind of like a reflection on the music you've just heard. Like...hmm...lemme think of a better way to explain this. Like let's say you're walking around the mall an hour after it opens. You see the stores you like and you don't see many people and such. Then an hour later, you walk around again. This time there are more people and there seems to be more life in the mall. The stores are the same but they are busier now and....oh man, I hope I'm making sense, but that's kind of the direction I was trying to take. Taking little melodies and reinforcing them into the listener's mind...with a twist! :)