New composition: Japanese Doll

It's been more than a month since I composed anything. I finished this new piece in a week. It's supposed to have a japanese traditional + modern feel.

I spent like the first 2 days to get the melody idea, and the rest of the time arranging this piece. I put a lot of emphasis on arranging it.

So tell me what do you think! I would love to listen to your comments, about any part you think is good, or can be better. ;)

Thanks for listening.

DOWNLOAD:

Japanese Doll

0oo quite like this. Out of interest what is the name of the instrument you use for the main melody?

I like how you gradually develop the texture, the strings are a nice addition later on in the piece. Great ending too, nice work! one little niggle is at 3:11 the panflute in the background seems out of sync. that's all I can think of lol.

Thank you so much for listening it, and those comments do help. Yup, I agree with you, the 3:11 part do seem to out of sync after you mentioned it. Thanks for pointing that out. :P

The main instrument is a Japanese traditional instrument called "Shamisen". It's a 3 stringed instrument. I've used a quite wide range of notes on the main melody (I really doubt the real instrument has such wide ranges).

Besides that, the flute sound that you hear starting from 1:09 is also a Japanese flute. I really like the sound of it, it feels so peaceful and soulful.

I always like the strings addition. It feels so warm, I really can't resist the temptation of using strings :D

Btw cool pic. Guessed you're a big fan of Uematsu. I really like him. He inspired me a lot.

Glad to help :P

lol that is quite an impressive range of notes to hit for a three stringed instrument (if indeed it's even possible to hit them all)!

I just had a quick browse on the internet and it seems to be quite a confusing instrument (there are lots of variaties of the Shamisen apparantly!). :(

Anyway, yeah Uematsu is fantastic, I'd already been playing FF for a while and then it suddenly hit me that the music is brilliant haha. I can hear his influence in Japanese doll acually, not so much in the melody but in the accompaniment.

Ya the instrument is confusing to me too hah..

All I know is it has three strings (and a quite limited range of notes too :blush:)

Anyway the sound of shamisen seemed to be quite harsh in the midi. (maybe the impossible high range of notes that I tried to squeeze in). I hope that it doesn't scare off a lot of people..

hmm i'd say the opposite actually, i thought the Shamisen sounded quite nice in the high range! (regardless of whether it can actually be played or not!lol) has a similar sound to a music box

well in midi anyway :)

quite surprised that noone else has commented on this piece, but oh well!

hmmm...

seems like this piece didn get much comments, I think there must be a problem with it.

I've listened to it using headphones, and I found that I do not feel comfortable listening using headphones. So, I've turned down the main melody volume, and now it's much better...

Also, if you don't like this piece when you listen to it, can you please tell me the reason? Is it because of the instrument? or is it because it's midi quality? By listening to your comments, this will help me to improve...

Click this link to download the newer version:

http://voyager.cs.bgsu.edu/cs314/cs314c4/assignment10/music/japanese_doll.mp3

Thank you for listening!

Actually some people just don't have the time to check out new pieces Tang, one of my songs on here never got a comment! :toothygrin: It happens!

Hi Tang, your piece surely gives a japanese feeling. As I heard only a handful of japanese pieces, I find your piece rather interesting. IMO, the beginning can be better, those arpeggios made me think oh no here goes another chord + it's 9th note "formation", it's not BAD, but I used it too often so I find it boring :toothygrin:. I suggest removing the first 4 bars and see how it sounds.. Apart from that, everything is good. Good luck in your future compositions :)

@Thewritingwriter: Yep, I agree.. Seems like the classical works get more attention :(

@Nigel: Thanks Nigel for your comment. Yup, you're right, I need to think of something more interesting instead of adding the 9th. I'll try what I can come up with. :pinch:

@Thewritingwriter: haha.. Thanks for that, I agree with you.

By the way, I've found that the link isn't working now, so I've uploaded it to a temporary server.

Download here:

http://www.geocities.com/wktang83/japanese_doll.mp3