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Commentary on my music...
16 years ago
Dear all,
Yesterday, a professional composer, Erik Ulman, reviewed three of my songs (Bach is Back, Spring Bransle, and Cutesy!). To remind me where I need to go, here are his comments:
- Different instruments can move at different speeds.
- I should move my melody among different instruments.
- My chord changes are too "square", too regular. They need to flow more.
- I occasionally have parallel fifths.
Here are his recommendations:
- Try writing in a sonata form: take two, contrasting themes -- and let them crossbreed.
- Try leaving out instruments in early presentations of material, and as the piece continues, restore instruments.
- Repeat the chord structure from Spring Bransle, but with every repeat, give a new melody.
They're good suggestions, and I'll try them over the next month or so.
Take care, all.
Yesterday, a professional composer, Erik Ulman, reviewed three of my songs (Bach is Back, Spring Bransle, and Cutesy!). To remind me where I need to go, here are his comments:
- Different instruments can move at different speeds.
- I should move my melody among different instruments.
- My chord changes are too "square", too regular. They need to flow more.
- I occasionally have parallel fifths.
Here are his recommendations:
- Try writing in a sonata form: take two, contrasting themes -- and let them crossbreed.
- Try leaving out instruments in early presentations of material, and as the piece continues, restore instruments.
- Repeat the chord structure from Spring Bransle, but with every repeat, give a new melody.
They're good suggestions, and I'll try them over the next month or so.
Take care, all.
BTW, I would comment more, but have to wait till I have some alone time to listen to them.
He gave -excellent- advice. Those ideas will last me for a month or two.
Now make better music!
I'll try to fix that tonight. I may not have much intelligent to say, but I will try to give you some ideas.
(I know I'm no trained composer, but I still like to make music...)
If you play a base note and a fifth above it, then the fifth gets swallowed up in the harmonics of the base note. If you want the notes to remain distinct, it's a weak sound.
As far as I can tell, playing two of them in a row accentuates their weakness.
And rock musicians say:
Whaddaya mean weak? Those are power chords!
(Yep. Different genres. Different rules.)
That's the idea I'm most likely to ignore.
It's not a weakness. It's about emphasizing the bass note.
(And I have GOT to get my bass/base straight. Bass, bass, bass.)
I work for Stanford University. As a perk, we get funds for free classes. Most of us choose classes in their "Continuing Education" series: evening classes with few pre-requisites that are made to be fun (for nerds like me.)
He's teaching a survey of "classical" music from the XVI century to the XX century.
But its nice to see you're taking criticism to heart, I'm sure you'll improve greatly in the future!
Of course, some people would say I'm *very* trying.
But first, I need to finish a surprise commission with a deadline.
(Yes, I will post it, once it's been intro'd.)