Hi! I am a junor in highschool and I am working on a piano piece for a mixed media anthology! I am almost done but I would love to have feedback on what I can do to improve it. To be honest, I don't have any prior knowledge with composing nor music theory, and I don't really know how to play piano, but thats why I am here: to get help and feedback! It is due on febuary 2nd, so I am kinda on a tight deadline. Thanks for reading this!
I will post the audio file, midi file, and a video file showcasing the keys being played electronicly in real time!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GyXhGaN_6grzoIDru9i3tbQc4mHwaZrg?usp=drive_link
Replies
you could start by setting permissions on your file so people could access it.
I am so sorry, I didn't realize that! Thanks for telling me about it!
thanks, I was able to play the file now. I must say that I found your harmony approaching 2" increasingly interesting but I'm not quite sure why the music seems to be divided into several seemingly unrelated sections with a pause between? Also the rhythm is rather relentless and unvaried with the left hand chords being really too loud towards the end. It would help if you explained what your aim with this piece is so we might better understand what you're trying to achieve.
Thanks! My goal with this piece is to invoke emotion. The first part is happy (your everyday situation) then out of nowhere, gets dark (symbolizes how major changes in life can happen instantly) "ends"(the lowest low), then climbs back up (the process of working out said problems) and gets emotionally happy (you finally succeeded!)
ok -- I can now see how initial happiness becomes increasingly disturbed. For me this is the most effective part of the piece and works quite well. Then I see how things slowly start to build up again towards finding the initial equilibrium. My main problem with what you've done is simply that in many bars, the left hand has a single chord on the first beat. First of all there is the problem that these chords often sound too loud, especially towards the end and actually make the music sound less happy than you intended and secondly that it would be much better if you could vary the treatment -- for instance have the chords on different beats and of different durations which in itself would make the music more effective.
I suspect that any improvements possible depend on the other mixed-media components. It follows your story well but more variation could be added through dynamic change. It's the same mezzo-forte throughout (middle loudness). Obviously I don't know what piano/piano samples you're using but is it possible to adjust the velocities?
You achieve increases in volume by increasing the density (e.g. octaves in the bass as it moves on) which is one way of doing it but still worth bearing dynamics of individual notes in mind which will make it sound more pianistic.
So it would be interesting to learn what media it's combined with.
(Sad to say, "learning music/learning about music" is a lifetime pursuit. Like learning a language there's no easy way in. You clearly have a basic idea of harmony, consonance and dissonance. And the piece seems to start in a definite key. It may be worth learning a little theory about scales, keys, voice leading harmony.)
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