2 crappy pieces

these are my first 2 pieces that are worth showing someone. I know that they really kind of suck but Im proud of myself anyway. please tell me what you think.

crappy piece one is a duet I was going to write in the style of mozart but it didn't really end up that way...I don't really know what instrument is it best on.

the crazy piece is a clarinet quartet that I can't finish because I am totally out of ideas on how to expand it. I think the beginning is actually pretty good but I have no idea how to make it into a whole piece. I was trying to make it so that the bass clarinet was "first clarinet" because bass clarinet usually get really crappy parts.

Tell me what you think. How would you improve these pieces? Thanks.

Musical Essay.MUS

Basis.mid

crappypiece1.mid

crazypiece.mid

While I am at it, I found 3 other fragments of pieces I wrote for clarinet a while ago. these are more atonal and might be different versions of the same piece (I can't remember). If I was going to continue i would probably combine them into one piece since they are similer.

what do you think of these?

Piano Melody Arrangement.mid

svolfy14.mid

Piano Sonata No. 2 in C Minor.mid

bassduet.mid

crappyduet.mid

quintet.mid

you radiate self confidance :)

Im guessing this means I should just give up at composing...Im a failure at everything.

Simon Cowell- If you don't believe in yourself, we wont'.

Bob, I see nothing wrong with these pieces at all - I think they are very good. Don't give up - keep going and keep posting your stuff!

Maybe you should complete these pieces, extending them and the ideas - they have very good potential.

see that's the problem. I have no trouble writting the beginning of a piece but I usually run out of ideas after a few measures. Do you have any tips on how you manage to come up with several minutes of music? Is alot of it just repeating sections and going back to earlier sections? What should I do for the main development?

thanks.

-end of message

I honestly can't tell you how to expand on your ideas... this really is something personal that you have to come up with and as your compose more you'll see that ideas just seem to flow from you. It's a matter of learning your craft and then applying your knowledge to your ideas. Combination of ideas and knowledge make for longer ideas. You could do what Schubert did: come up with a melodic line and then harmonise it. Once you've done that you can perhaps develop it through variations or add new melodic material to a piece.

Bottom line is this: I can't tell you how to expand your pieces, you just have to practice, compose a lot, learn the craft of composition, and then let your knowledge open the door to your ideas!

I hope this helps, but I doubt it will... you're asking a very hard question.

Bob, first off, you sound like you are way too self critical. Go easy on yourself!

Second, some of these short pieces have some decent ideas in them. Just from these I see that you can come up with some pretty good melodies . However, after the first few measures it becomes very random, I think that is where you are starting to run out of ideas. To expand on this, you need to study theory, listen to other people's works, decide what your emphasis will be as far as style...are you going for classical, baroque, contemporary, or have your own style. Of course, this is a process. I am a beginning composer as well, I put many many hours a day in working on music.

As far as repeating to make the piece longer...this is ok in moderation. Do not over do it. The most important thing is to keep your listeners attention. Overly repetitive can be extremely boring!

My advice (to answer your question) - when you come up with a good melody, to make the piece the length you desire, what you need to do is elaborate on it and also make variations of the melody. Following formats in classical style sometimes helps me. I didn't know anything about that before I started coming to this site. Formats...meaning like ABA, ABACAD...things like that (the letters just represent different sections). If you already know about that, sorry :P I have never talked to you before so I don't know what your musical background is.

If you would like, I can post my first composition here for you, so you can see everyone has to start somewhere. My first composition wasn't long at all, just over a minute :(

Keep composing! Never give up, you do have potential.

- Jen