Online Compositon Lesson

[marcuslee]

Here's my stab. It's late, and I'm tired, so this probably isn't my best work. In fact, I don't really like it. However, if I don't like it, maybe you won't either and I will learn something from it. So, please make some sense of my butchered mess.

The Midi File: Click Here

The Score PDF: Click Here


Mark

P.S. - I couldn't tell if everyone had switched over to another thread ... that was kind of confusing. IMHO, one long thread is better and easier to follow than several threads.

[stevel]

Originally Posted by marcuslee

Here's my stab. It's late, and I'm tired, so this probably isn't my best work. In fact, I don't really like it. However, if I don't like it, maybe you won't either and I will learn something from it. So, please make some sense of my butchered mess.

Hi Mark,

We haven't done this for a while, but I'll be happy to comment:

Just as a reminder (to other readers), the lesson was investigating consistency and variety in music.

Your first example Mark is pretty consistent. Enough so that I might call it "boring" - especially the beginning. I think two things are at play here though - 1 is it's a "sequential" pattern which sounds very "nursery rhymish", 2 it's repeated, and 3, it reminds me of the Banjo lick from "Duelin' Banjos" !!! The end is nice - the skips (E-G and F-D) are a little unusual, but that also brings a folk-like character to it.

I really like your second example. The two half notes in a row is kind of "confusing" (in a good way) and seems to make it "flow" nicely. It almost seems like it's going to be a three measure phrase or something, but when the two 8th notes come back, it makes sense. Ordinarily, I'd say the two D half notes in the second half is a little repetitive, but because each is approached in a different way, and then the final pattern goes to C, it works nicely. Well done.

Example 3 is the most inconsistent simply because of the registral jumps. It would be interesting to put the high notes down and compare the two versions. Since most melodies don't typically jump around like this, it's hard to make any judgments about it. But I think if you more consistently jumped - such as alternating (so the third measure would be low rather than high, etc.), it would lend an air of predictability to it that would make up for the "incoherence" of the registral jumps.

Your final version's first half is very nice. I think the second half would be better if the first measure of that group (m. 9, or 33 in your score) were up an octave to "go with" the other high stuff.

On the whole Mark, I'd say your examples are either relatively "non-traditional", or have "overly-traditional" patterns. This may have been intentional on your part, but I would say if this is "your style", it has a bit of "inconsistency" built in. It might be nice to try an make the "non-traditional" and "overly-traditional" meet in the middle so to speak, and that would produce a "more traditional" approach. Then you'd have the best of both worlds - you could be traditional when needed, and a little less traditional if you needed.

Best,
Steve