BEFORE POSTING:

I am trying to compose a symphony in the style of the classical period, I already made 2 symphonies but they are very very bad. As you can see here, i tried making the closest as possible but i simply can't get the melodies right. I think that is due to the fact that i am a Renaissance composer, so i am not familiarized with complex melodies. Then i discovered a guy called Labelius on Youtube. He make music extremely close to Mozart and Beethoven. When i try compose a melody of that time i stay hours and hours in the computer trying to figure out a good melody, and nothing comes out! it's like a massive creative block. I tried listening to music of that era but still, i cannot understand how they did such things! And when i manage to make a melody i will probably delete it, because it's not good! If anyone can help me with that i would be very very grateful.

Hello, I'm not a very good composer and I'm interested in honing my skills. I've thought up some things that I could do, and I was just wondering if these would be good excersizes.

I haven't really written anything good yet so I thought I would start by writing piano pieces with no more than two notes playing at a time.

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I also thought it could be useful to take all the bach two part inventions and just hide one of of the voices and compose a voice based on the other one. I'm not sure if this exercise would be useful.

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Does anyone have other specific ideas for me to try? I am in addition reading books on form and I have a solid understanding of CPP harmony.

Here is a new home-demo recording of a flute concertino with the solo score in the video.

https://youtu.be/AtKD2oFCCXk?si=1Mx2lRX8GbtJ6gjF

Perusal score here: https://www.williamcopper.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/0666\_concertino\_perusal.pdf

Here's a piece that I originally sketched out for wind quintet last year, finally took the time to expand it into a more full-fledged orchestral piece. Having some fun with modern-jazz inspired harmonies. Hope you enjoy!

video score & pdf score

I arranged the English drinking song Down Among the Dead Men for orchestra a few years back and recently got a proper score done up! It's selectively condensed page-by-page to make it a bit more manageable as opposed to the full instrumentation on every page style. I'm personally more used to the latter but I can see the benefits of this presentation as well. Which style do you guys prefer?

Audio

Score

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After more than a year of writing duos on and off, this little cycle is finally complete! Sadly musescore still doesn't do articulations and dynamics properly, so some bits sound dodgy.

The counterpoint isn't great, and I spent a lot of on the engraving and it still looks a bit childish, but I'm still happy with the pieces.

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Please give me feedback!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiuaHzzwpVA

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https://youtu.be/jb5bUCBA9mI?si=QnVD81TjUJNZr2VM

I use ArrangeMe and find it easy and a (very small) source of extra income. I love arranging, more than any other aspect of music. so it’s not a huge deal to me to make a ton of money off it.

The ArrangeMe site has been pushing this new “Pro” subscription. On the face of it, it doesn’t seem worth it to me. But, I am really curious to hear what other people think, and if you have been using it what you think about it.

Thanks!

I just had a quick question on registering songs once they've been accepted to be run in an advert/commercial. I''m familiar with registering songs with my PRO when it's released as a full record, but I'm not totally clear on how and when this would be done if a 30second piece of music is run as part of a campaign. Do you have to name the song (even though it's only 30 seconds) in the contract with the music production house? I'm presuming that to get royalties, the brand running the commercial with the music has to report the name of the song (just like how radio stations do) and how often it is played otherwise the PRO won't pick it up in their yearly reporting?

Mostly a tool to practise orchestration techniques. Critiques on orchestration welcome. Also maybe some tips on writing more effective Development Sections and Codas as these are the 2 main areas I was unhappy with.

I've had experience writing for chamber music, this was my first time attempting an orchestral piece of work, as well as my first time writing a Type 5 Sonata.

https://youtu.be/tqgX_-LhTFE

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y3kq2H8L9BnyufyfTjC6dWPZqTbtlg8Z/view?usp=sharing

Audio

Score The MIDI conversion added a bunch of rests and put some left hand parts in the treble clef, so hopefully it's still sensical.

Mozart's score, if it's useful to compare

I'm not precisely sure what modeling a piece means, but I took it as meaning featuring similar structure and somewhat similar melody, style, and rhythms, although I may have injected some ideas divergent from classical, particularly certain harmonies in the B section, as well as the syncopation, maybe. If I'm mistaken what modeling a piece means, let me know.

Questions I have:

• What's your overall impression?
• How does it stand on its own? Also how does it stand as a classical era piece? How does it diverge?
• Are there any ideas that are particularly novel, boring, or off sounding?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lCz24Ks6a9zmJKnbfMehVz-rWtg2gD74/view?usp=sharing PDF

https://youtu.be/GLaocrI7_uY?si=R9BihB6NDGM3_IPs audio, (for reference)

I'm looking to fix

1. legibility (mostly glaring mistakes I've probably made without realizing)
2. playability (guitar & bass in particular, I thiiink I've got the drums right)
3. the asterisk next to "SD", that channel is the one creating the shimmering sound heard through the chorus
4. how to continue writing for this piece, if anyone has ideas feel free to share!

So I've already written a piece in the past and I do already have a lot of experience in writing, but I've always struggled with getting started with a piece. I have a concept and idea in mind I just dont know how to start with writing it. Do I write all instruments at once and going from there or do I write a concept on just piano or what. Thanks

Hi everyone,

I am looking for the easiest/best way to put together a score with lyrics in a layout like you might see in a church hymnal (example: https://hymnary.org/hymn/UMH/378). I am actually wanting to use an existing score in MIDI format that is in the public domain, and just add new lyrics that I have written.

I am currently a Linux user, but have access to both Mac and Windows as needed. I thought I could do this in MuseScore but my Googling has given me results that make me think I will never be able to make it look correctly, especially for printing purposes. I know of Finale and used it once upon a time (20+ years ago probably), the cost is a challenge but if it is the easiest way to do this I can try to scrounge up the money. I also just discovered Dorico which from my Googling makes me think it would make what I am trying to accomplish fairly easy, and the cost is less prohibitive.

But before I jump into Dorico or anything else I might stumble upon, I wanted to check in this group because you all probably have WAY more experience with this stuff than I do, and definitely know a great deal more about all of it. I am hoping to find something easy to use that will help me to produce (visually) good quality printables of hymns. Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions. Please let me know if there is other information I need to provide to help in working though this.

LinuxAndCoffee

Audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jtibKmZMN2mZkqT9fMSCz3MnYFwsGZAN/view?usp=sharing

Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16TbuqUqn_VwL2t8IUcRXD3Lzkm90pPZs/view?usp=sharing

I'm self taught and don't have access to formal education. I'm trying to apply what I study, and the feedback from you folks has been valuable. What are your thoughts and critiques of this piece?

I just wrote this Ave Maria for SATB singers in G minor. This is my second piece for singers and having strict lyrics was quite the challenge but it was also great fun overall. It is heavily inspired by baroque music. Advices and feedbacks are welcome !

Music sheet

Video with music sheet

Hi all, I just finished my 2nd piano concerto and I'd love to know what to you think. It took over a year from start to finish, I'm very pleased with it myself but obviously it's hard to be objective about your own babies 😂

The 1st movement is a strong, turbulent and restless piece, it has a subtle dissonance that gives it, if not total darkness, at least a trip through the shadows.

The 2nd movement is a complete contrast. Softer, more lyrical, pastoral. It comes out of the shade and into the sun.

The 1st and 2nd movements explore quite different soundscapes, the 3rd movement brings those worlds together and blends them into something new. It has some of the turbulent dreams still lingering from the 1st movt but also some of the sweeter, more lyrical desires of the 2nd, making them into something more hopeful and ultimately triumphant.

I hope you enjoy it obviously but I'd like to know if you think it is a competent piece, does it hold together as a whole, does it have any merit?

I know it's long at just over 22 minutes so thanks a lot to anyone who listens, I really appreciate it 😊

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8i_zZnecgiwUw31IdNcGLIUcnKFNWHb1&si=UCMPJaDJt-pa68vl

Thank again

Hi,

So title says most of it. I have reached out to BMI and they give a robotic answer every time like "Tell the production to do submit cuesheets". Well, I have. They are not doing it. Too big a company, I just keep calling and there is no accountability.

There has to be a way to raise a ticket for something like this? I read somewhere that people can raise a ticket with their PROs. Can one do that with BMI? If so, then how?

Thanks.

I wrote this set of variations on the familiar "Happy Birthday" tune for a friend's birthday. A few of the variations incorporate things like her initials and her birthdate (translated into scale degrees). It's a bit of a silly composition, I suppose, but I put just as much effort and attention to detail into it as into anything else. Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated!

https://youtu.be/jA6Kw2A79do

Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LWCkuF0Otu-MOsO3mGyzOVNhM7sibh82/view?usp=sharing

Well, two if you count the left hand pattern as well. The idea was to create movement as the texture/register gradually expands, but a slight sense of frustration as the melody constantly repeats itself - like waiting for something to change, and it never really does.

score video

How should I arrange musical pieces for concert band? I am trying to arrange a national anthem for a concert band but I am not sure which parts should be played by which instruments.

I think that piccolo, flute, 1st clarinet, 1st trumpet play the melody strictly, and the other instruments, like oboe, 2nd and 3rd clarinet and trumpet, etc play backing notes, but I'm not sure. Anyone help?

Thanks

Having nothing better to do, I thought of composing a "comical" fugue on the theme of my well-known twinkle twinkle little star for a organ. It's not a student fugue, which means it's very free and I didn't want to follow a lot of rules so I get the best result (in my opinion)• however I used a lot of Bach techniques. I believe that the result was remarkable and I invite you to listen to it - even if you are not a professional or a fan of classical music.

https://youtu.be/9xtXUskrvco?si=mxjuwAWa5D6zzMYn

Waltz in F Sharp Major Op.7 No.3

I want to be able to notate it as shown here but I'm unsure if Dorico has any functions that allow me to do this.

Looking for some scores/songs that are similar to Frozen Worlds - Steven Price

What can you recommend? Any songs/scores that have inspired you that sound similar?

I absolutely love this soundtrack.

[music] - [score]

Full disclosure: I am releasing this commercially and that is the only link I have. This isn't an advertisement, I am legitimately for feedback on this score, you can listen to it for free on the link and you don't need to buy anything. The other releases on kuyin are fantastic and I know some upcoming ones are going to be great, so if you hate my shit at least check out the label and support some contemporary music anyway lol

So, I wrote this piece, recorded it, it came out exactly how I wanted it sound, we all go home happy. That was two years ago. Now I'm putting out that recording and thought "isn't the score for that really ugly?" Opened up the score and... yeah. I need - or at least WANT - to fix this thing.

My first thought was to get rid of the resultant pitches in parenthesis - I feel like that will un-clutter the score.

Get rid of the parenthesis for the bottom pitches and just have them as double-stops. I know that these are almost uniformly natural harmonics and that there are other ways of notating that, but I have been doing this long enough to have had my fair-share of conversations with string players about harmonics (I'm a bassist myself) and I think this clears up the ambiguity as much as possible.

The big thing is how to keep track of stuff. This is a very long sequence of slow pitches and it is easy to get lost - when we recorded it, we had to do it in chucks and the players had to bracket out chunks of ten. I feel like this would be extremely useful. Alternatively: I could put dashed bar lines every ten, or 4 or some number of chords (you can see the spaces from where bar lines should go anyway...

This may sound pedantic, but I really want this all to be on one page. I love that you can see it all there on the page - it's everything all at once.

Like I said, the results of the performance/recording are basically exactly what I wanted, so I'm very happy with the piece... but I feel like this could be presented better.

What do you think? Any input is appreciated.

Hello Everybody!

I just love the string arrangement in this song and my question to you is, do you know the chords and voicings? Is the second chord a sus chord for example? Weird phenomenon but I have a much harder time to identify chords when it's strings playing them, compared to let's say guitar and piano.

Thank you! :)

What do you think is the best way to improve?

I've only been into composing for a short while so with each project I put together I can still hear a lot wrong with it on all sides. I find myself weeding out the imperfections to infinity with each, but especially because I still have much to learn that's a time consuming process which causes me to simply not finish anything, or so it seems.

I wonder if it would be better to be more casual about it and make more instead of trying to 'nail' each one as close as I can? I'd like to think quality before quantity, but it does make me a bit saturated having to constantly return to the same few projects.

I'm kind of already flashing forward to the moment I can bounce them and start fresh.

Hi I have an assignment at school to write a composition in any style and I chose to write a string quartet in a classical style. The problem is, I'm not sure how to begin. I know the first step is to analyse different string quartets, I've looked at some scores and analysed the harmony but I'm really stuck on what specifically to analyse, how to analyse it and how to use what I analyse. Also I know analysing is a great tool, but it doesn't explain the basics of how to start and there isn't much resources that I can find that explain anything. I can write a 4 part chorale, but I don't think that would be any use as a string quartet is much more. If someone has any suggestions that would be greatly appreciated

Hello! Can anyone help me on the placement and formatting of text in scores? I am engraving choral scores and I am confused which type of text falls under which text categories in notation software, like which text is under System Text, Staff Text, or Expression Text.

From I what I've gathered, I think that tempo markings are system text, words such as legato are as expression text, and markings in tempo changes fall under a different category and formatted above the staff and are usually italicized.

But for such instructions, how will you format these?

• no breath
• optional snaps on bar X
• imitate harp plucks

Can anyone lead me to resoruces that discuss how these texts are formatted?