Deprecated: mysql_connect(): The mysql extension is deprecated and will be removed in the future: use mysqli or PDO instead in /storage/content/49/145849/famitracker.com/public_html/forum/classes/dbHandler.php on line 29
FamiTracker
Here are a few little compositions that I am not really sure if they are even worth sharing but what the hey...
I must confess I used someone elses file on this forum with the Rock Drum DPCM tune...I know it is lazy and contemptible...the file was a megaman-esque tune I think named original1...whoever made it, thank you.
I get the feeling that there's plenty of honest effort in this music ... but maybe it could benefit from some Music Theory? What is your composition process like, newbie2nobuo?
[quote=MrFTBN]I get the feeling that there's plenty of honest effort in this music ... but maybe it could benefit from some Music Theory? What is your composition process like, newbie2nobuo?[/quote]
This stuff is pretty lazy...Cut and paste imitation and arbitrary note selection for some parts that I just threw together...
Space cadit is not a real serious composition...its a nostalgic, musical joke. The fugue was written in 5 minutes. The Rock Drum dpcm was a little more crafted but primarily a little project to help learn how to use the program...
Now that I'm through defending this crap, let me address your questions. First, I am trained in music theory, counterpoint and 20th century atonal music. I assume that the fugue was musical blasphemy to you. There are some unresolving dissonances and it is definitely not common practice voice leading...
But generally I will start with a basic idea of a melody, riff, or I would rather use the term "feel"-Something that is moving and has its own identity. Then I try to get a general form in my mind so as to know where to start working on melodic material,establishing elementary stages of thematic development. I am constantly rethinking how long or short a phrase needs to be in order for it to fit best. As the melody shapes up in the first main section and begin thinking how I want to contrast what has already been said in the prior section. After working up new material to contrast the material already used I try to commit to a big picture mindset that does not see mere length of time but substance of the material best developed that could take up as little as a couple frames or could be Beethoven-esque in exhausutiveness...
I confess there is a tendency I have to take a good idea and hurry the process of getting down all the ideas I have before they . I need to use my korg to type in the notes so I am not held back as much...I know it is pitiful to know I am typing this crap in...
These are horrible examples of my composing process. A better is this one:
Hmm. Maybe I need better ears or it's the atonal stuff, but the note placement sounded kind of random to me. Also, I'm still not used to analyzing music when it's in a tracker (as opposed to like, sheet music.)
The castle_wizard piece does sound more deliberate. And that happy_persons_skeleton is pretty funny.
Out of curiosity, where did you study music? I tried writing a counterpoint/fugue piece the other day and quit after the 3rd frame - fugues are hard!
I confess to the randomness. I must be more patient even when goofing off.
analyzing music on the FT is hard.I'm still getting used to it too.
Your general material is ok. However, Contrapuntal music is strange because you dont really have to have interesting material to make great music. Just interesting development Bach's WTC has fugues that are slow and main themes (subjects) that are kind of boring. It is how he developes that material that makes him possibly the greatest composer of all time.
With what is called "common practice"(the common voice leading methods of the 17th/18th centuries) there were basic things regarding dissonance and consonance that were applied 95% of the time. Today we are so used to hearing modern harmony that to purely compose in the old style requires some work. With modern music the development is still their but the system of harmony used is totally different.
I like a combination of old and new styles but going back to bach is probably where I need to go to more firmly plant my feet in reasonable harmony.
You learn tricks though. Sequences to sustain the life of the material. Imitation is always good. Canons to me are a challenge. RPG fugue was a very canonic. To craft a melody so that it can begin again a a time with another instrument and overlap perfectly is an art.
I think we both tend to move on to new material to soon and not develop more of what what we already have.
Well in a fugue you (normally) have to modulate to the dominant after the first iteration of the subject, or at least modulate. Ohterwise, it's not really a fugue, at least not a "classical" fugue.
Doesn't mean it's not good, though.
