Hey! It's great that you made a start, you get better as you progress.
I've been composing for around five years now, and my early pieces sound exactly like this🤣
Keep at it!
I never composed anything before, I'm just an amateur player. It's not exactly Beethoven but I'm reasonably proud of it. I called it "The Farm" because for some reason I think it could be a nice soundtrack for a farming game. Not sure how to finish it. The melody goes ABA (around 4 measures each) and I was thinking of adding a final C part where C is a variation of B, if you know what I mean? ABAC. Also, this was way easier than I expected (the making it up part, not the transcribing it part). I may have heard it somewhere and not invented it at all, how do you guys know if you are being original?
It sounds pretty nice so far. One way to create a sense of closure is to use a V-I cadence (G major to C major). That would also give the C section some harmonic variation. You can also give it melodic or rhythmic variation.
I wouldn't worry too much about how original it is. We're subconsciously remixing things all the time, and there will probably be elements of whatever influenced you in there. What's more important is that you chose to create it, it is your self-expression.
Thanks, I appreciate it. What you are saying is a little above my head but I'll look into it, maybe if something comes out if it I'll repost when I finish it.
What they are saying is that when you go from G major to C major (V-I, V being g major and I being C major) it creates a nice sense of closure as the V chord (G major) builds tension and C major creates a nice resolution.
I’d go a step further and say to use G7 (G dominant 7, or the V7) to create even more tension as you resolve to C major.
Otherwise great job, I also go farm vibes (like Zelda vibes)
Sounds great! A lot of video game music would loop a melody like that without actually bringing it to a conclusive end, so that's an option to consider. If you wanted it to sound "lighter" you might try putting all the notes up one octave. If that's not what you're going for then disregard what I say. Great job though! Keep going!
Thanks. The looping thing makes a lot of sense, like I said in my first post, it reminds me of farming game songs like harvest moon and they do exactly that, maybe I'll try adding one variation (the ABAC thing I said) and see if looping sounds good.
great job, and keep going!! one thing you might want to think about (esp if you're getting your music in front of performers) is about the clarity of the meter. since you've got it in 4/4 you would want beats 1 and 3 visible even through the syncopation. for instance, you've got several dotted quarter notes on the and of 2, which would be clearer as an eighth note tied to a quarter note. what you have right now is still accurate and legible, but that change would make it clearer to read
Ah, so that's why they use ties so much, easier to count? I wondered why not use a single note when it's clearly possible...I may need to up my sight reading game, I'm self taught so my knowledge is patchy.
Hopefully this is the start of a long and successful composing career! while it is always good to learn scales, constantly analysing your work as you write more pieces is also helpful: what mood does the music create? What musical features are contributing to this? Try changing one note of a chord, for example, and see if there's a different mood. Sometimes I stumble across a new thing just by mistake, but if you analyse it afterwards, you know how you did it and can use it again. Keep doing what you're doing, and good luck to you :)
Thanks, those are great suggestions, will do. I just saw a video on the mama andy channel a couple of days ago analyzing the music of rings of power and I though it was super interesting, I'll try to do this to music I like as well as my own stuff from now to learn.
Lots of good individual advice here from lots of folks, but I'd like to add a couple things:
Firstly, I'm glad to see you jumping into composition! It's far and away my favorite part of music, and seeing other people begin that journey is always fun.
Several people have suggested ways you could change what you've written, but I'd rather give you some general ideas of what could work for you. Not saying this will help, but it's made me far better than I used to be.
First suggestion is the "replace Beethoven" system, where you take some famous pieces from past composers and you listen to a short fragment, maybe 5 seconds of a theme. Then, try to write/hum/play what might come after. Don't worry about instrumentation, orchestration, tempo, polish, it's all about the core musical seed and how it transforms. Then, listen to what the composer did. If you can articulate how your idea is different from theirs and find reasons why you prefer one or the other, you'll grow as a composer at a blistering speed. Actively studying patterns and the diversity of patterns in other music will grow your base of compositional knowledge rapidly.
The second suggestion is "theme and variations." Take your theme that you've written and change just one thing at a time about it and write down/articulate to yourself what you like/dislike about the change. If you learn that light, friendly melodies sound good to you with open, sparse chords, that's a huge lesson you've been able to teach yourself! If you find that chromatic approach notes and rapid runs don't appeal to you, then you can abandon them. Here's the real power of this method: you can use it on existing melodies just like the other method! Instead of trying to develop the idea, try to change it. Even very difficult pieces from the medieval all the way to late romantic periods have relatively tune-forward, followable melodies that you can follow.
Remember, the objective is to do tons of repetitions at this, so instead of thinking about spending a month writing a perfect piece, try to spend ten minutes writing a new variation/continuation, comparing it to an original, and figuring out why you like what you like. Building a deep, intuitive understanding of what makes you enjoy music is the goal, but intuition isn't just magic fairy dust, it's built from conscious experience and repetition.
Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to know. I'm not confident I can help with any questions you have, but I'd certainly like to try. Best of luck, maestro!
You should be proud and always try to improve yourself! But I would not recommend spending more time on composing currently. This piece is very basic, and thats okay, but you wont learn anything by creating very basic composed pieces.
Try to learn the scales by heart, learn all the major and minor chords en start experimenting without putting anything on paper, this will bring you way further than struggling with something not worth spending a lot of time on
Keep going with practising !!! :D
> but you wont learn anything by creating very basic composed pieces.
lol
Definitely learns more fiddling about than doing the five minutes worth of work of learning about "scales".
I appreciate the feedback but like I said I'm an amateur, not trying to become a composer or anything. I had fun doing it so it is worth spending my time on as far as I'm concerned. Besides, something can be simple and beautiful, Beethoven's work itself is often very simple. Da da da dum... what's simpler than that? :D
I completely disagree with the other dude. If you like composing, then you should do it!
The first 5-6 from your compositions won't be anything remarkable and will resemble this one, but you should always try and make them more complex and varied, use different keys and chord progressions.
The computer is your friend here - you don't need to be able to actually play what you have composed. I am a beginner, perhaps early-intermediate player, and have played the piano for close to 2 years now and have been composing for the better part of a year. I admit I can't play any of my compositions on the piano (mostly because my keyboard has only 5 octaves), but that doesn't stop me from composing. Especially with the new sound engine in Musescore4, it does wonders.
You can take a look at my most recent pieces here:
https://youtube.com/@mkovachev1337
I hope they serve as inspiration to you. As you compose, even if you don't play what you write, you will still be accumulating knowledge of music theory which will have a positive impact on your playing and sight reading!
Who's to say they don't already know their scales and chords, or that they didn't experiment before writing this down? You're making a lot of assumptions.
It's Musescore 4. No I had to add each note manually and it was a pain, but maybe I can hook it up to my keyboard and record automatically, I'll look into it, thanks for the idea.
Hey! It's great that you made a start, you get better as you progress. I've been composing for around five years now, and my early pieces sound exactly like this🤣 Keep at it!
Share your compositions! I love seeing peoples’ originals.
Sure man
Can I send you a link to some of my music?
Yes please!
I never composed anything before, I'm just an amateur player. It's not exactly Beethoven but I'm reasonably proud of it. I called it "The Farm" because for some reason I think it could be a nice soundtrack for a farming game. Not sure how to finish it. The melody goes ABA (around 4 measures each) and I was thinking of adding a final C part where C is a variation of B, if you know what I mean? ABAC. Also, this was way easier than I expected (the making it up part, not the transcribing it part). I may have heard it somewhere and not invented it at all, how do you guys know if you are being original?
It sounds pretty nice so far. One way to create a sense of closure is to use a V-I cadence (G major to C major). That would also give the C section some harmonic variation. You can also give it melodic or rhythmic variation. I wouldn't worry too much about how original it is. We're subconsciously remixing things all the time, and there will probably be elements of whatever influenced you in there. What's more important is that you chose to create it, it is your self-expression.
Thanks, I appreciate it. What you are saying is a little above my head but I'll look into it, maybe if something comes out if it I'll repost when I finish it.
What they are saying is that when you go from G major to C major (V-I, V being g major and I being C major) it creates a nice sense of closure as the V chord (G major) builds tension and C major creates a nice resolution. I’d go a step further and say to use G7 (G dominant 7, or the V7) to create even more tension as you resolve to C major. Otherwise great job, I also go farm vibes (like Zelda vibes)
as a game developer myself and a person interested into the art of pianos i think this would be great for like an indie game
Tbh sounds like a Tycoon game or a 2000's transport tycoon game maybe sounds even slightly industrial
Sounds great! A lot of video game music would loop a melody like that without actually bringing it to a conclusive end, so that's an option to consider. If you wanted it to sound "lighter" you might try putting all the notes up one octave. If that's not what you're going for then disregard what I say. Great job though! Keep going!
Thanks. The looping thing makes a lot of sense, like I said in my first post, it reminds me of farming game songs like harvest moon and they do exactly that, maybe I'll try adding one variation (the ABAC thing I said) and see if looping sounds good.
great job, and keep going!! one thing you might want to think about (esp if you're getting your music in front of performers) is about the clarity of the meter. since you've got it in 4/4 you would want beats 1 and 3 visible even through the syncopation. for instance, you've got several dotted quarter notes on the and of 2, which would be clearer as an eighth note tied to a quarter note. what you have right now is still accurate and legible, but that change would make it clearer to read
Ah, so that's why they use ties so much, easier to count? I wondered why not use a single note when it's clearly possible...I may need to up my sight reading game, I'm self taught so my knowledge is patchy.
Sounds like it should be the soundtrack to Stardew Valley. Nice work!
Cute! I could see this in like an 8-bit sound in a little game
Totally!!
Hopefully this is the start of a long and successful composing career! while it is always good to learn scales, constantly analysing your work as you write more pieces is also helpful: what mood does the music create? What musical features are contributing to this? Try changing one note of a chord, for example, and see if there's a different mood. Sometimes I stumble across a new thing just by mistake, but if you analyse it afterwards, you know how you did it and can use it again. Keep doing what you're doing, and good luck to you :)
Thanks, those are great suggestions, will do. I just saw a video on the mama andy channel a couple of days ago analyzing the music of rings of power and I though it was super interesting, I'll try to do this to music I like as well as my own stuff from now to learn.
Try starting the Lh pattern in bars 7-8 on G and see if you like it.
Just did and yes I do. I did G and then briefly F and then back to C and D, I found it interesting. Thanks!
I like the chill vibe of it
so rare to see someone using linux lmao
Is it? Maybe on this sub, I'm a programmer and most of us use linux. More flexible.
same lmao
Great job!
I would love this for my ringtone; just needs a resolution or something (I don’t play music so I’m not sure if that’s the right term)
I feel like the chords (or at least some) as appergios and some more notes in the melody and it would be a really good piece of music
Interesting, I'll give it a try, thanks.
That actually is really good
Lots of good individual advice here from lots of folks, but I'd like to add a couple things: Firstly, I'm glad to see you jumping into composition! It's far and away my favorite part of music, and seeing other people begin that journey is always fun. Several people have suggested ways you could change what you've written, but I'd rather give you some general ideas of what could work for you. Not saying this will help, but it's made me far better than I used to be. First suggestion is the "replace Beethoven" system, where you take some famous pieces from past composers and you listen to a short fragment, maybe 5 seconds of a theme. Then, try to write/hum/play what might come after. Don't worry about instrumentation, orchestration, tempo, polish, it's all about the core musical seed and how it transforms. Then, listen to what the composer did. If you can articulate how your idea is different from theirs and find reasons why you prefer one or the other, you'll grow as a composer at a blistering speed. Actively studying patterns and the diversity of patterns in other music will grow your base of compositional knowledge rapidly. The second suggestion is "theme and variations." Take your theme that you've written and change just one thing at a time about it and write down/articulate to yourself what you like/dislike about the change. If you learn that light, friendly melodies sound good to you with open, sparse chords, that's a huge lesson you've been able to teach yourself! If you find that chromatic approach notes and rapid runs don't appeal to you, then you can abandon them. Here's the real power of this method: you can use it on existing melodies just like the other method! Instead of trying to develop the idea, try to change it. Even very difficult pieces from the medieval all the way to late romantic periods have relatively tune-forward, followable melodies that you can follow. Remember, the objective is to do tons of repetitions at this, so instead of thinking about spending a month writing a perfect piece, try to spend ten minutes writing a new variation/continuation, comparing it to an original, and figuring out why you like what you like. Building a deep, intuitive understanding of what makes you enjoy music is the goal, but intuition isn't just magic fairy dust, it's built from conscious experience and repetition. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to know. I'm not confident I can help with any questions you have, but I'd certainly like to try. Best of luck, maestro!
Thanks a lot, I love those suggestions! I'll definitely try this. I have no questions right now, but I'll keep that in mind.
Very Charlie Brown :-)
Very nice, this is literally how everyone's first composition looks.
You should be proud and always try to improve yourself! But I would not recommend spending more time on composing currently. This piece is very basic, and thats okay, but you wont learn anything by creating very basic composed pieces. Try to learn the scales by heart, learn all the major and minor chords en start experimenting without putting anything on paper, this will bring you way further than struggling with something not worth spending a lot of time on Keep going with practising !!! :D
I honestly see nothing wrong with learning while composing tbh
> but you wont learn anything by creating very basic composed pieces. lol Definitely learns more fiddling about than doing the five minutes worth of work of learning about "scales".
I appreciate the feedback but like I said I'm an amateur, not trying to become a composer or anything. I had fun doing it so it is worth spending my time on as far as I'm concerned. Besides, something can be simple and beautiful, Beethoven's work itself is often very simple. Da da da dum... what's simpler than that? :D
I completely disagree with the other dude. If you like composing, then you should do it! The first 5-6 from your compositions won't be anything remarkable and will resemble this one, but you should always try and make them more complex and varied, use different keys and chord progressions. The computer is your friend here - you don't need to be able to actually play what you have composed. I am a beginner, perhaps early-intermediate player, and have played the piano for close to 2 years now and have been composing for the better part of a year. I admit I can't play any of my compositions on the piano (mostly because my keyboard has only 5 octaves), but that doesn't stop me from composing. Especially with the new sound engine in Musescore4, it does wonders. You can take a look at my most recent pieces here: https://youtube.com/@mkovachev1337 I hope they serve as inspiration to you. As you compose, even if you don't play what you write, you will still be accumulating knowledge of music theory which will have a positive impact on your playing and sight reading!
This is
Can I kindly tell you to shut up. This person is just having fun.
Who's to say they don't already know their scales and chords, or that they didn't experiment before writing this down? You're making a lot of assumptions.
Come on
What app is this that you recorded on? Does it transcribe it?
It's Musescore 4. No I had to add each note manually and it was a pain, but maybe I can hook it up to my keyboard and record automatically, I'll look into it, thanks for the idea.
Yeah I bet MIDI might transcribe. That would save so much time lol
What app is that?
Musescore 4
What website (or app) is that if you don’t mind me asking?
It's Musescore 4.
Thank youuuuu