The Guardian of the 10 Rivers

Hello again! I made this piece about a month or two ago. I had just watched Spirited Away and got hooked on the song "The Dragon Boy". I remade it in GarageBand, and then decided to make my own song inspired by it. I tried to have an Asian feel to it, using the koto and erhu. My favorite part of it is the marimba. (I wish there was a timpani sound in Garageband...)

Here is a link to The Dragon Boy on Youtube

I realize now after posting this that I could've shaved a minute off the end of it...

Hi! Mixed feelings here:

• Nice combination of instruments + "ostinato-like" intro. I think you succeed in creating a certain ambient but after 2 min this seems to be going nowhere which by no means suggests this work is bad at all; what I mean is that I don't clearly see any contrasting sections further than the 20-second section you introduced where the ostinato stops (or at least isn't done by the same instrument), is this what you were seeking for?

That specific section that goes from 1:14 to 1:30 makes me think you wanted some contrast there, and you more or less achieved it in my opinion, but also in my opinion, it is too short. What I see in simple terms is an 1-min long A section, followed by a 20-sec long B section, followed by another 90-sec long A section. Too much A and not enough B in my opinion.

• Another thing I noted is that you might be abusing of the gong a bit and that makes it lose effectiveness.

• I like the "fading away" ending style in this case. I think my favourite parts of this piece are the intro, the ending and the B section.

In summary, a good piece that I enjoyed listening and giving feedback. Thank you for sharing it here man!

Kind regards,

Daniel–Ømicrón.

9 hours ago, Omicronrg9 said:

Hi! Mixed feelings here:

• Nice combination of instruments + "ostinato-like" intro. I think you succeed in creating a certain ambient but after 2 min this seems to be going nowhere which by no means suggests this work is bad at all; what I mean is that I don't clearly see any contrasting sections further than the 20-second section you introduced where the ostinato stops (or at least isn't done by the same instrument), is this what you were seeking for?

That specific section that goes from 1:14 to 1:30 makes me think you wanted some contrast there, and you more or less achieved it in my opinion, but also in my opinion, it is too short. What I see in simple terms is an 1-min long A section, followed by a 20-sec long B section, followed by another 90-sec long A section. Too much A and not enough B in my opinion.

• Another thing I noted is that you might be abusing of the gong a bit and that makes it lose effectiveness.

• I like the "fading away" ending style in this case. I think my favourite parts of this piece are the intro, the ending and the B section.

In summary, a good piece that I enjoyed listening and giving feedback. Thank you for sharing it here man!

Kind regards,

Daniel–Ømicrón.

 

Thank you for your feedback! The repeating parts are due to looping the parts. I can loop the same phrase over and over again in Garageband. I also looped the percussion, which resulted in using the gong every measure.
What I'd love to do is redo the ending (like you said, too much A-section), but keep the fading away effect (I did this because the entire song is meant to loop).

Anyways, thank you for liking the piece!