March 2Mar 2 It's been a long time! I used to frequent this forum in my 20s, now I'm 42 years old, living abroad, haven't really written any music in the last decade, but I never fully gave up on writing music. It's time to fix my writer's block. I'm setting up this topic as a challenge to myself. Writing music in my 20s was something that came very slowly and painfully as I am a massive perfectionist and not terribly disciplined. So this plan is designed to cure me of that. - Only writing fragments for now. No aiming for completed pieces. - Focusing on practicing use of musical elements I like, experimentation over destination. - Loosely tracking my time in order to force something out the door, rather than get stuck on revisions. - Long term learning goal is to build the skills to write hybrid electronic/orchestral music for games. If anyone wants to take on this challenge with me, feel free, and you are welcome to post things here. For my part, the pacing is starting at one small post per week. As I feel able, I may increase that. Music will be hosted on flat.io and eventually Soundcloud, and linked here by Sunday evening USA-Eastern time, which is Monday morning my time. Feedback is welcomed, but I will be trying to take feedback lightly and focus on quantity of music creation, on volume, rather than refining the quality. First entry: https://flat.io/score/69930d12f4b7f4206442ca2c-sus-slash?sharingKey=4f68cd0e43730c91e48416b8978810ab0c63680a3161fb07fbfcbc75e85c135b02a6f15102ff10978621f147508f16a2ade8791783c86664bb7ed9f0e3b671f9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14lZ2g_oCxI For this eight-bar melody, I chose the musical element described in the above youtube video - suspended chords above a slash bass note, essentially sparsely voiced tall chords. I wasn't following any particular progression principles, just whatever sounded good, but trying to follow the structure of the chords described in the video. Couldn't quite nail down the last chord, sorry it's unsatisfying, but according to the rules we are moving on!
March 3Mar 3 I like the idea of logging your progress, it'll help you and probably teach others. Welcome back!
March 3Mar 3 Hello and welcome back @johannhowitzer! I know you're not going to revise these but, in that first fragment, isn't the penultimate chord an Abmaj7/Db? And speaking of which, the chord before that is labelled as an Fsus2/D but I see an Ab and an Eb in the bass. I personally would find a Cmaj/F chord satisfactory for the last chord. Thanks for sharing!
March 3Mar 3 Author Good catches on the wrong bass tones, I think maybe I labeled them and then changed the notes after. Regarding the last chord, what I was hearing was more a dominant, as a kind of deceptive cadence back into a climb. Set up the phrase to resolve and then instead of resolving, go back into tension.
March 8Mar 8 Author https://flat.io/score/69ac2e0ec3fb848b0b1ba22e-rainbow-motif?sharingKey=c41a8a0ae1afde60e4d714077a6c63bf9c03d1373a7f7d3f7897743a5aa00cb69e393452925b590a859c557105db3d587e5a8dd6ced3488277ad205afa53e256 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Ux3ULOuAU Writing a triumphant 8-bar intro in the style of Rainbow Road themes. Tried to vary up the melody and bass rhythms so it doesn't come off as Legally Distinct Rainbow Road. I really like how the descending notes in measure 4 shift to a bit of minor, underlining the return to tonic in measure 5. And the left hand jumps worked out better than I expected. Dunno how much I am a fan of that last flourish on the trumpet, but... on we go!
March 16Mar 16 Author Checking in, writer's block getting the better of me. Have some ideas, and I worked on stuff but barely got past the first few notes. Just have to not give up.
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