First Post, First Piece.

Hey everyone! I'm a new composer and was wondering if you could rate one of my first pieces. Thanks a lot. Its a .sib file so not everyone will be able to open it I don't think. Ah well. Ratings would be appreciated.

Bye for now,

Ben.Movie Music.MUS

Here's a bit of background info on my piece in any case.

First of all, its program music. It is meant to simulate the various stages of a Storm.

1. Techniques Used:

Well, quite frankly, my technique is my own, so I will rely on all of you to tell me what you observed.

2. How long it took to compose the piece:

It took me approximately 12 hours, over a period of only 2 days. Shortest time it ever took me to compose something so large, but I was so inspired that night.

3. Structure:

The piece follows the form of: Intro; A part; B part; C part; D part; A1 part; A part.

With a lot of my pieces, I experiment throughout and eventually come back to the main melody at the very end. Its strange I know, but it feels right to me.

4. Obstacles when composing:

I wanted to bring in a Major clash with the minor, but I couldn't get a plagal cadence in the entire piece that fit. So, the key never changed.

5. Overall, the piece depicts a Storm from beginning to end and the instruments represent the sounds present. I thought the effect of the block chords in piano was good.

Keep it real guys.

The_Storm.sib

you should post a MIDI...only like 3 people on here have Sibelius.

Nico it is handy to download scorch.

Some of the instruments sound like some sort of percussion. You also wrote an impossible line for timps. I don't think any orchestra has enough timpianis to deal with your demand.

My biggest problem with this piece is that it was the same through the whole piece. No real changes in mood and rythm. The change in sounds were basically a new instrument added to the same thing being played over and over. I'm sorry but this piece was not interesting and was a drain to listen too. I think having more variation in your piece would aid you greatly.

Ok for the first post. Writing for Midi is pointless. The sounds are completely fake and I don't like them at all. And for the person who really made an effort to "encourage" me, your "constructive" criticism is noted but I certainly don't appreciate it. The advice wasn't specific at all where it mattered, and all you said was "variation". That helps me so much considering there were four melodies in the piece.

However, I have to respect your opinion.

Hahaha you got me there! A very valid point! I'll get right on that! Catch you later man.

No it wasn't sarcasm. Lol but its difficult to tell here ain't it? So I think its edited enough now. So much effort you know. :( Well in any case its a bit of a curse that I don't like MIDI because that way other ppl could listen. Its a deadly, evil curse. Begone I say! Ok nvm

If I play it through Scorch, it's still going to be MIDI...? Why not just render it into audio then? And don't hate on MIDI - it's the MIDI synthesizers which determine the quality of the sound.

The mixer I have on Sibelius does all of that and more. At some stage I will probably have to use Scorch, but I don't. I just post them as .sib files, as they are.

Thanks for the tip!

You want something in depth? Here it goes. First off, your piece is boring. There is nothign worth while. You start holding out E impling a E minor scale. You then grab some half notes and place them in root position E minor adding to the boriness of your piece. You then add onto that even more by decesing by 2nds. You then play around a bit around the e minor never venturing away from the i chord for longer than a note. You then add an impossible timpaini line. If someone knows an orchestra that can play that, please tell me! You bring in a piano, which mostly plays the root of the chord doing nothing but that. On top of that you only use the bass line. In other words, it is a waste of a piano. For the most part when you switch chord, you merely stack a triad. It doesn't add any depth to your music. Then for a while you have the bass piano and the timpi playing together for an even more worthless experience. Then one of your main ideas happen. It was cool and cliche but you repeated it through the piece never really changing it. The rythmical features of this piece were so constant that I stopped and started it at random places and it felt the same. I thought music was suppose to be some sort of ride, but this ride never really took off. Overall, you lacked any real meaning within this piece. Your use of your instruments were terrible and your techinqiue used were below par.

wtf is with the timpani man?

i agree with bitter, "I thought music was suppose to be some sort of ride, but this ride never really took off. ".

i think he gave good enough of criticism the first time round, nobuo. for me, this piece dragged on and on. i'll be frank, i didn't finish listening to it. it didn't go anywhere.

a timpani is http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase...ic/timpani.html

Well what happened to the whole point of this site? To help people out and encourage them. You're not doing that. I've visited seven of your posts where you took apart someone's work. What about yours? Do you ever get negative comments? I'm sure you do. It doesn't feel good if there's no single positive thing to say. Don't bother saying anything at all, if its not something constructive. That was just pointless for me to read.

Well what happened to the whole point of this site? To help people out and encourage them. You're not doing that. I've visited seven of your posts where you took apart someone's work. What about yours? Do you ever get negative comments? I'm sure you do. It doesn't feel good if there's no single positive thing to say. Don't bother saying anything at all, if its not something constructive. That was just pointless for me to read.

I told you exactly what I found wrong with your piece. I did say one thing good, your main theme was good. I didn't just say, this piece is terrible. I pointed out the reasons why. My first post stated your needed more variation. You thought that was useless, so I gave you somethign more indepth. You can become good just need to not freak out about something so trivia as a bad review.

Also, when I do get a bad review, I Can defend my reasons for doing something. I don't take people apart. Nico does. I simply say one thing and move on.

Just because your piece isn't good doesn't mean he's evil.

Nico, the piece is not bad. It is VERY drawn out and repetitive, however.

You should add something to it. Maybe, as bitterduck said, more variations. I thought the timpani part sounded cool, but yeah, it is probably next to impossible for one person to play. Overall, I thought bitterduck wrote you a very good, helpful review! Sure, it isn't the nicest way to put things, but the information he provided would have helped me if I were the one who wrote this piece.

I like you main theme, but you need to expand on the piece some more.

Good work

- Jen