Sketch No. 1

This is the piece I opened my daily sketches project with a long time ago, and it shows; it's not very good. I think I was trying to mess around with chord progressions using strange inversions, but I don't think it came out as I'd wanted it to. Hopefully you all can still get some sort of kick out of it :P

Hi, your idea of daily projects is nice. In my case, what I do is this: when I study something new (a scale, peculiar chords, whatever...) I like to experiment how it sounds, and I write a very short piece that I call mini-study.

In your sketch nº 1, I don't see very clear the intention. On one hand it is the result itself, that I find good and I like it. Only the personal suggestion of the piano, when it is used in this way (witouth counterpoint with the melody) I find it too percusive.

On the other hand it is the approach. This seems to be between tonality and tonality. In fact, I think the piece is tonal but "afunctional", that is to say, the chord progessions don't belong to a particular tonal center, and the subdominant-dominant-tonic progression is vanished. Sometimes, apparently, there is a cluster here and there, but more than clusters they are expanded chords. For instance, in m. 6 there is a chord formed by A - E - G# - A - B - C# - G# (taking all the voices): that's a Amaj9. Other times, there are very strong dissonances (even for an atonal piece), as in m. 17: C# - B - C - C... Well, this is really a clash. It is also remarkable the chords you use some time, like the las one: Ab - D - C#... Again a strong clash for an ending (ok it is softened because the voices are separated).

In summary, I think the sensation it gives is one of ambiguity, "impressionistic".

What I don't understand well is what you called "strange inversions"... Anyway: nice.

3 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

Only the personal suggestion of the piano, when it is used in this way (witouth counterpoint with the melody) I find it too percusive.

Hm, perhaps that's just a Garritan file sample issue? That really wasn't what I intended necessarily.

3 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

What I don't understand well is what you called "strange inversions"... Anyway: nice.

Thank you; they've gotten a lot better since, haha. I mean that, as viola plays a certain note, I work around that in the piano to have that be a certain note in an inverted chord. For example, if the viola plays E, then F, the piano might play a C major chord (with the 3rd in the viola) then something weird like a F# major chord (with the M7th in the viola).