Winter Without You

This is a piece I wrote because I missed my best friend, who I haven't had the chance to see for a few months now :(

Influenced greatly by an extremely famous work everyone on this forum should have heard before...points if you know which one :P

Edit: Click to view the score

I just realised you can barely hear the melody at the beginning >_> the cello has it...

ahhhh scraggy y'all drop a beat

ungh - yeah - bout to spit some rhymes up in dis scallop - check it - what what

yo when you be uploadin' music you should have a score

cuz you prolly want reviews and this will get you some more

I could listen to da midi, I could give ya some advice

but it's confusing and unhelpful and iz jus not nice

my imagination, undastand, iz only so good

and in my head yo music prolly don't sound like it should

you got ta realize this will help me help you

and then maybe yous can turn around and help me too

so upload dat scraggy! put it on da site

and that will help reviewers all see the light

what what

yeahhh

ahhhh scraggy y'all drop a beat

ungh - yeah - bout to spit some rhymes up in dis scallop - check it - what what

yo when you be uploadin' music you should have a score

cuz you prolly want reviews and this will get you some more

I could listen to da midi, I could give ya some advice

but it's confusing and unhelpful and iz jus not nice

my imagination, undastand, iz only so good

and in my head yo music prolly don't sound like it should

you got ta realize this will help me help you

and then maybe yous can turn around and help me too

so upload dat scraggy! put it on da site

and that will help reviewers all see the light

what what

yeahhh

I'm going to go ahead and file this under "best advice I've ever received ever".

(And also upload the score xD)

-- Emptied response due to construction reasons -- ;)

Edited August 13, 20169 yr by phython

I don't play a stringed instrument, and I'm pretty much a novice at composing - can someone tell me if I've done anything wrong?

A contrabass's lowest note is E2 (the E below the staff) and you have several Eb as well as a D, though you may or may not know the contrabass is a transposing instrument that sounds an octave lower than it is written. To that end, the double stop or divisi you have for the basses in m. 38 will sound very very muddy since it is such a close interval in such a low register. I would re-voice that chord.

mm. 28-36 you have some of those figures marked as sextuplets and some marked as triplets; I would choose one or the other and be consistent with those.

You have very few slurs marked; be advised a slur to a string player means a very specific thing, it is a bowing indication. The simple way to think of it is that two slurred notes will be played with the bow moving in one direction; non-slurred notes will be in two directions. Hopefully that's a clear way to explain it.

I would be more specific with your metric markings, rather than "slowly" give a metronome marking.

You split up the parts within single staves a lot, but I can't tell whether you intend for the players to play double stops or divisi. Generally, you want to mark divisi sections with "div." just above the staff.

m.27 you have only one note with a fermata...this will be confusing to players. My assumption is that all players hold, but you should be more clear. This also applies to the final measure, where you also have only one caesura and one ritardando marking. These are things that affect the tempo of all players, and they need to be treated as such.

You have violin 2 crossing above violin 1 quite a bit, and while this isn't really "against the rules" (whatever that means), there doesn't seem to be much reason for it. Especially in m. 27 where the violin 2 doubles the violin 1 and goes above it. Why?

That's all I got with a cursory glance.

A contrabass's lowest note is E2 (the E below the staff) and you have several Eb as well as a D, though you may or may not know the contrabass is a transposing instrument that sounds an octave lower than it is written. To that end, the double stop or divisi you have for the basses in m. 38 will sound very very muddy since it is such a close interval in such a low register. I would re-voice that chord.

mm. 28-36 you have some of those figures marked as sextuplets and some marked as triplets; I would choose one or the other and be consistent with those.

You have very few slurs marked; be advised a slur to a string player means a very specific thing, it is a bowing indication. The simple way to think of it is that two slurred notes will be played with the bow moving in one direction; non-slurred notes will be in two directions. Hopefully that's a clear way to explain it.

I would be more specific with your metric markings, rather than "slowly" give a metronome marking.

You split up the parts within single staves a lot, but I can't tell whether you intend for the players to play double stops or divisi. Generally, you want to mark divisi sections with "div." just above the staff.

m.27 you have only one note with a fermata...this will be confusing to players. My assumption is that all players hold, but you should be more clear. This also applies to the final measure, where you also have only one caesura and one ritardando marking. These are things that affect the tempo of all players, and they need to be treated as such.

You have violin 2 crossing above violin 1 quite a bit, and while this isn't really "against the rules" (whatever that means), there doesn't seem to be much reason for it. Especially in m. 27 where the violin 2 doubles the violin 1 and goes above it. Why?

That's all I got with a cursory glance.

Thank you!

I knew the contrabass was a transposing instrument, but I wasn't very familiar with it's range...

Everything else you said was just be being dumb xD

thanks again