Very simple piano piece...

I wrote this today after I got home from classes. It's very, very simple... I think I wrote most of it in like 20 minutes. It's only 33 seconds... Very simple bassline and melody.

I figured I'd post it and allow you guys to point me in the right direction... My main problem, I believe, is not being able to take a theme and expand on it for more than 3 seconds. Can anyone give me a hint on how to do this or link to a website that explains this in a little detail?

(BTW, I realized I've only used two chords. I really didn't spend too much time on this. I was mainly trying to fool around with notes outside of the scale... I'm a newbie to composing. I'm in my second semester of Musicianship at my college)

minipiano.MID

Hey!

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you, as far as learning how to expand a theme, but I like what you have going here. It already feels like it has a direction, as a whole, and though I can't really offer much advice on how to expand, I can tell that you're obviously headed in the right direction. The piece is simple, yes, but it has a nice melody for something written in 20 mins. I'd revisit this is a while and see if you can think of a way to lengthen the melody perhaps.

If nothing else, you could build a longer chord progression and work from that. Just move the bass on a simple I-IV-V progression, or I-VI-II-V, or whatever, and try to expand the melody from there. I don't know if that'll be a lot of help, but it's something to try.

Thanks for listening. Maybe I will try to expand this... I'll wait for a few more people to comment on it before I go ahead and do that... I'll add other chords in there and I'll expand on the melody as well.

Thanks again.

I know most of your mothers told you "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say nothing." but that doesn't apply here... So comment. :-D

It's pretty neat for a simple piece. It could ptentially turn into a nocturne with more emotion, variation and development.

I think you should try finding a theme you like, original or borrowed from another composer, and write variations for it. Maybe you can learn a lot about development.

My reccommendation, if you are new to composing, is to just write as many things as you possibly can. Negative criticism I don't think can be very useful at that stage. It seems to me it can produce an inhibited attitude towards composing where the budding composer will write some passage or other and think: "this is going to get criticised"

instead, ignore such thoughts and keep writing whatever you feel like writing. Allow your own voice to evolve, gradually, and enjoy everything you write.

It's pretty neat for a simple piece. It could ptentially turn into a nocturne with more emotion, variation and development.

I think you should try finding a theme you like, original or borrowed from another composer, and write variations for it. Maybe you can learn a lot about development.

I actually started with one of Chopin's Nocturnes in mind. His started in a similar manner but then went out there. I don't know how to "go out there" yet...

So how do you go about writing variations? That's one thing that's really stopping me... I wish I had a copy of music for all of the variations Mozart made to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

Once again, anyone know of websites or advice on how to go about this?

hello darrell,

i'm relatively new to writing contemporary, new age piano music so i don't have much advice to give. but here are some advice given by a pianist on a radio awhile ago. sit by a piano and just play. doesn't matter what you're playing or how bad it is, just play. don't worry about form of the music, keep playing and you'll soon learn a lot just by random play or accidentally hitting the wrong keys.

from the lack of dynamics in the midi, i'm going to assume you're not using a midi keyboard? i don't have a midi keyboard either, i'm a sequencer "mouser". the problem with writing piano music by mousing is that dynamics are very hard to set. it won't really make a difference if you're using notation because you barely have control over the dynamics. but the point is, your music sounds very mechanical, (almost like mine if i were to keep them in midi). i would suggest running some piano instrument samples through. just some soundfonts would suffice. and then control the volume dynamics. also, piano pieces often vary in speed. nobody's perfect, nobody can play a single piece at exactly the same tempo throughout. vary the tempo according to your melody line. with the soundfont, i'm sure your music would sound realistic and a whole lot better even with the current arrangements. hope that helps.

oh, and also, if you're really into modern solo piano music. try http://www.live365.com/stations/pianoradio internet radio station, they have great music playing all the time.

hello darrell

...

hope that helps.

Yeah, you're right. I don't have a MIDI keyboard. I don't even really know how to use this program... I just figured out how to add rests yesterday. :)

I'll work on making whatever I do more realistic... I do fiddle around on the piano and get ideas, but I'm not great at taking my ideas and putting them on sheet music. I guess a MIDI keyboard would do the trick... It's not something I can invest in at this moment though...

Thanks for your comment though. Question for you now.... when you write your stuff, do you just play it and allow the program to notate what you play or do you play the melody and then write harmonies underneath it?

i'm not sure what you mean by your question. i dont' have a midi keyboard. i play on the piano and record it down with a cheap computer microphone. i play it back and then sequence it on the computer. often times making changes to what i don't like from the microphone recording.