Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Check out my new piece.

M

macgeek2005

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 31, 2006
1,098
0
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=356E26CB4E6B7A3B

I made it in garageband, with my 5 octave midi keyboard, and the Orchestral Strings sounds in garageband.

Also interesting to note is the fact that I made it up on the spot, as I was playing. I had never even heard this music in my head at all before I started. In fact, as I was going along, I didn't even know what note would be coming next, I just kept going and going, and then came to a stop after 2 minutes.

I actually don't feel like I even wrote the piece. In fact, after playing it through, I listened to it alot, and began "discovering" things about it, and then I started trying to "learn" it by ear, and play it on the piano. It's as if I just channeled the music from it's original source, wherever that was.......

Enjoy!
 
I got bored with it 15 seconds in, no offense.

I couldn't begin to compose something myself, but there you go. Sounds like funeral music.

In fact, now that it has been playing for 60 seconds I want to rip my ears off. :eek:
 
iGary said:
I got bored with it 15 seconds in, no offense.

I couldn't begin to compose something myself, but there you go. Sounds like funeral music.

In fact, now that it has been playing for 60 seconds I want to rip my ears off. :eek:
Click to expand...

It's aimed more at those who are classicly trained. No offense taken.
 
Meh.

Give me Barber's "Adagio for Strings." That has feeling and power behind it. This piece sounds like it's trying to build up to something, but it never seems to get there.
 
Applespider said:
You're writing music for the classically trained and you've never heard Barber's Adagio for Strings? Probably one of the best known classical pieces in the world :confused:
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't know why I haven't heard it before. But i'm downloading it right now from iTunes, i'm going to hear it momentarily.....

I listen to mostly Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Dvoark, Mendelssohn, etc, etc.
 
Applespider said:
You're writing music for the classically trained and you've never heard Barber's Adagio for Strings? Probably one of the best known classical pieces in the world :confused:
Click to expand...

You took the words right out of my mouth. :D

macgeek2005, it sounds like your list of composers covers pretty much all the major genres--Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary--so I'm surprised Barber has never come into the mix. You might want to check out Berlioz, too, while you're at it.
 
floriflee said:
You took the words right out of my mouth. :D

macgeek2005, it sounds like your list of composers covers pretty much all the major genres--Classical, Romantic, and Contemporary--so I'm surprised Barber has never come into the mix.
Click to expand...

I am too. But i'm always very excited to be introduced to new composers, so thanks.
 
floriflee said:
Meh.

Give me Barber's "Adagio for Strings." That has feeling and power behind it. This piece sounds like it's trying to build up to something, but it never seems to get there.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I'll say again, I don't even feel like I wrote it. I just played it. I also feel like at the end, when the bass finally changes note, it feels like this was an introduction, and that the piece will really take off from there, but then it just ends....:eek:
 
macgeek2005 said:
I'll say again, I don't even feel like I wrote it. I just played it. I also feel like at the end, when the bass finally changes note, it feels like this was an introduction, and that the piece will really take off from there, but then it just ends....:eek:
Click to expand...
A couple of points. First of all, this little bit is problematic because it really is an introduction. I kept waiting for you something to happen, for some tragedy. I'm still waiting. You acknowledge this, but you still treat it like it is a piece. In may be a work in progress, but far far far from meriting anything resembling a "piece." Second, I can tell it is a midi keyboard. It doesn't sound at all natural. It sounds like a piano synthesizing a violin.

I would suggest the next time you do this, either change the channel or watch the whole episode. The first couple of minutes just aren't very good.
 
i agree with some people i got bored, however, that is because it is just not MY particular style. Otherwise i thought it was very a very good composition. and keep making music!:)
 
I'm just curious. What are peoples' criteria for a piece being good? For me, I have to find the piece moving in some way. It has to be able to relay a message/story/emotion clearly. If the piece is trying to be chaotic then it has to make me feel the chaos. If it's trying to be tragic then I have to understand and feel the tragedy. It's almost like I have to be able to taste and visualize what is happening within the music. It's a whole body experience for me. If I'm just hearing the notes, if I know that it's trying to portray something but I don't feel that something, or if there is nothing that I see/feel behind the music then I don't think the piece is good.

With this piece IMO I know it is trying to be tragic, but I don't feel the tragedy. I just hear the notes and it just sounds like it's trying to go through the motions. Kind of like what I would envision a bad actor doing, or much like I would envision the chances of a Paint-by-Numbers kit producing really outstanding, creative art.

So, for those who said they liked the piece or thought it was good (or bad). Why? What reasoning do you have for it? If the OP wants to really get some good criticism then at least make it somewhat constructive. I, for one, always hate it when I get general comments of "it was good" or "it was bad" and that's it.
 
For me, it has to have some emotion behind it that can be sensed whether the key melody is being played by a full orchestra, an unaccompanied piano or a penny whistle. As an example, I own several recordings of Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez where the main theme is carried is carried by, respectively, guitar, vocal, piano. They all have slightly different insights into the music but all get across a similar mood and feel.

To me, this piece sounded fairly disjointed - it sounds like it was just a series of notes held for varying lengths of time and not really building to anything. The only reason it sounded 'tragic' is because of the orchestral strings and the keen they produce. You could change them to triumphal string and produce a Euphoric.mp3 equally easily.

A well created piece in many genres (writing, reporting, music, dance) has a beginning, a middle and an end. This didn't have.
 
I'm a classically trained violinist, pianist and composer. I also co-ran a production company for a short while.

I'd say keep trying, because that sounded like you were just dropping your hands on the keyboard and moving your fingers around.
 
Sesshi said:
I'm a classically trained violinist, pianist and composer. I also co-ran a production company for a short while.

I'd say keep trying, because that sounded like you were just dropping your hands on the keyboard and moving your fingers around.
Click to expand...

I've written a few symphonies and other piano pieces as well. Pieces that weren't just played off the top of my head...
 
macgeek2005 said:
I've written a few symphonies and other piano pieces as well. Pieces that weren't just played off the top of my head...
Click to expand...

I'd be very interested in hearing them in that case. That piece you linked to doesn't, shall we say, point to someone who could knock up a convincing symphony.
 
Sesshi said:
I'd say keep trying, because that sounded like you were just dropping your hands on the keyboard and moving your fingers around.
Click to expand...


I think you have a point, it wasn't terrible but it didn't seem like it had anything to it.. it was random..i'm a a huge fan

However i did enjoy your thread's title "Check out my new piece" i read it and thought straight away of this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/224188/
 
Sesshi said:
I'd be very interested in hearing them in that case. That piece you linked to doesn't, shall we say, point to someone who could knock up a convincing symphony.
Click to expand...

I only have an electronical recording of the symphony.... played by Sibelius 3.

It's better than nothing I suppose, but right now I can't upload a copy of it, cause of the transition between computers and such.....
 
A few points:

1. There was no motive to speak of, and as such, nothing to develop. I think this is essential to a "piece".

2. The pedal tone was irritating.

3. That grating bit of dissonance seemed misplaced in the middle. Although the harmony became a little more interesting after that.

Generally, it seemed to be like a failed part-writing exercise. Do you have anything else? :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back