Sakura Sanctuary

This is an original piano composition with an oriental flavor. Sakura means cherry blossom and is a japanese word, despite the fact that the song is meant to symbolize chinese culture. Hope you enjoy =D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJhKJe8TMBo

Sakura Sanctuary

Beautiful! I can't get enough of the pentatonic scale, but it becomes a problem, I think, when you reference it directly a number of times. However, you use scalar figures very tastefully (like 49 to 50). Great job, and welcome to YC!

I thought this piece was very effective, I definitely saw a sanctuary of sakuras! However, i don't LOVE it, i like it, but it could just use a little something...more.

Overall, I like this. I felt though that you could've been a little more varied to provide some more interest to this. The contrast isn't really that great between your ideas - so it makes it harder to really get into this (especially with the repetition.) Thanks for sharing this.

I have to disagree with Jason in this case: I just thought this was... ohhhhhh :sadtears: This is just exceedingly beautiful in my eyes! This is the kind of talent I wish I had, but it seems I'm cursed with a different one...

Your clear, concise simplicity is refreshing: there's a sincere soul and heart here I haven't heard since my first time hearing Yasunori Mitsuda's music...

Thank you so much for sharing this with us...I will give this a 10/10, and favorite it.

Thank you everyone for your comments

I do admit I tried to keep the idea simple and use less variations, this is because the music is distinctly oriental near the middle sections and that is the sort of structure of a piece like that

This reminds me of Yanni. I like it as it has a very serene feel to it. My real problem with it is the sound of the piano as it sounds thin and bright and I feel that with the proper tonality it would sound really good(some more resonance and reverb with better low end). The ending is a little fishy though as it seems you kinda just run out of ideas and quit. Towards the end it seems your trying to coast to make it longer but forcing it. I think overall it is a great idea and expresses a great mood(I like moods like that).

If I were you I would polish it up, remove all the weak parts and you'll probably have a really great piece.

Or, actually another way you could go about it is add some strings. This might help fill the spectrum some, provide some variety, and mask the thin piano sound. There is really nothing wrong with the piece but I just feel you could take it to the next level if you want.

If you like it the way it is you might try to write a variation using the beginning(which I think is the best part) and add some modulations and use a bit more tonal color in a development section just so you can get more out of it.

Anyways, just some ideas

Ok, I went ahead and added some strings and doubling to make give a thicker texture and richer texture. I did not change any of the notes. It isn't as good as I would like it because my computer wasn't setup and I spent the last 2 hours trying to route asio and get cubase to work ;/ (kept crashing when I would try to import the midi and then would crap out when I would load the samples). (still not working the way I want it but at least I was able to get something done)

This is just the first few measures.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ijj3kmkdiqy

While this sorta destroys the personal feeling you get from a solo piano my goal is to show you how much better a decent recording sounds(I'm not sure how your piano sounds live but the recording works against the emotion). I also did not mess to much with the dynamics of the main theme as I let sibelius take care of it(usually sibelius completely ruins it but it sounded good so I didn't worry about it).

Basically I didn't tweak too that much to get the sounds balanced(the strings need a little work).

Anyways, I hope you like it ;) I think it's a great melody and would like to see a really profession rendition of it as it would probably sound awesome(but you'll still need to work on the structure to make it perfect).

:happy: wow thank you so much JonSlaughter

the new version realy does have excellent quality

I am on the way to go buying a weighted-key keyboard and maybe this will help eliminate noise in a recording and produce better sound quality

I really like what you have done with it, may i ask how did u do it?

Cheers =D

I first added the strings which simply play the same harmonies. I just wanted a fuller spectrum to give it more ambiance so the exact harmonies a notes are not too important(I it could be improved).

I then doubled the complete piano part on a harp(at first I was going to do something else but quickly realized that doubling it with the harp gave a nice new tonal sound(that had more of an asian flavor than the piano alone)).

All that was done in sibelius with EWSO and Ivory running for the samples. I then spent the next hour or so trying to get asio setup because I couldn't record it using adobe audition. New computer and haven't really set everything up correctly so it needed to get done but still have issues. So to record it I had to go into cubase.

In cubase I imported the mid file and had some problems for some reason but after that I was able to reproduce the sound I had in sibelius. Just for fun I doubled some of the instruments to get a slightly different tonal character.

The harp/paino now was doubled with a synth harp from a vst called Sakura(and I simply used it because of the name ;) Most of the sounds didn't work(too electronic) but when I used the harp and mixed it properly it sounded much better(gives it the almost bell like quality).

I also added an english horn and bassoon to the strings simply doubling them.

So really I didn't do much but a lot of doublings of sound(that generally is the quickest way to a fuller sound without much real work). The strings are the only thing I really added but it is pretty simple.

Of course I mastered it by adding some compression(wasn't really needed though), reverb, widener, etc.. (just the standard preset stuff)

I think the piece could go a lot of ways. While in your piece you do not build up a tension much you could completely change it's direction if you wanted and I feel that if done right would sound awesome. The theme IMO is very nice(I personally like that kinda mood). So what I imagine is you building up to a climax then release it by playing the theme(maybe solo piano).

Maybe an analogy is that first, everything is serene then a storm seems to be brewing. It starts raining and it feels like it might get really bad(hints of, say tornadoes, etc...) but very quickly the clouds dissipate and the sun comes out(Which is what is represented by the them).

Basically what you have written can probably be used exactly with one exception of repeating the theme after a climax(say around 1:15). By adding some instruments, proper use of dynamics, and some drums, you could build excitement using exactly what you already have. Release the tension built using original theme(or slight variation) then continue doing what your doing with a reduced texture or go for another climax and release.

Of course if you want that personal feel still then a solo instrument is the way to go. The only thing I would do is try to bring in the original theme somewhere in the middle as it is not heard again and this will help make it a bit more coherent. Basically you have a lot of ideas and what seems to be your main theme is never used after the intro(it is played twice early on but never after that). In fact you have several thematic ideas but they are not used as a release for tension.

This is not necessarily bad but generally people need to be reminded of the theme... it actually excites them if it is not redundant because they feel good about hearing it again(for various purposes).

Anyways, these are just some ideas. It's all up to you ;) But I think you have something very nice but just have to polish it.

wow thanks for your time JonSlaughter to do that really in-depth review that was like a whole essay right there haha.

il see what i can do to improve it, thanks for keeping the hopes up

Hi, I'm a big fan of oriental music in general.

This is a good work, which needs improvements to become a very good work, but you did the most difficult part and you are on the right way.

The first thing would be a better recording, this one sounds so empty!

The main melody is nice and you have to know that it is playing in my mind since yesterday, this is very important. Love the atmosphere, I think that harmonizing with extra notes would give a better effect: it sounds thin to my ears because it has only melodies and basses, it is quite minimalist.

Hi everyone heres a much better quality plus multi-instrumental version of this song =D cheers