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Difficulty Level
Beginner
For those who have just started composing
Link to Streaming Service
https://soundcloud.com/user-386533039-29744555/the-flow
Description
Had more time to work on this this week didn't have as much time to master it. But any feedback is welcome! As always thanks for listening
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Comments
You captured the atmosphere of a small busy casino well. The staccato trumpets and saxophones fit the casino vibe and their transient nature make me feel like things are moving quite quickly in this casino. The bass and hi-hat keep the momentum going throughout in a soft supporting way. I really love the electric piano you chose - I think it is placed very nicely in the track to offer some variation in the sound that is still consistent with the overall mood. My favorite moment is the trumpet chord at 0:46 transitioning into the keys section.
Constructive feedback: The section unisons of the trumpets and saxophone have nice interplay that are a little repetitive, but I think the rhythmic intricacies hold my interest. I think the repetitive bassline makes me feel like a little variation there would help elevate the stabby horns above it. I think it plays the same 2 bar phrase throughout the song and I think that adding a second variation to this would elevate this track to the next level.
Overall I think you did your homework on this track and youāve captured many elements that give this a casino/gambling vibe, from instrumentation, to articulation, to style, to rhythm. I had fun imagining a tiny casino busy through the night while listening to this. Nice work and thank you for sharing!
glad you like it! What is one thing you think I should look into learning more about. Thanks for taking the to listen and give such a detailed comment
Thatās a great question and I really admire your learner mentality! I will preface my answer by saying I donāt know exactly where you are in your music-making journey and I donāt know what you already know, so I am only making assumptions based on this one track. I would say that based on your selection of the ābeginnerā category, it would be reasonable to suggest some basic concepts. My perspective on music theory is that it is an extremely useful construct to guide and understand choices made when music is written, but there is a reason itās called music THEORY and not music LAW. While no one should ever feel completely confined to the ārulesā that are taught in theory classes (I subscribe to the philosophy that music that sounds good, is good), it is an excellent place to start to guide what to learn next in your composing journey. Because of the constructive feedback I noted, I would say looking into how harmony works at a basic level would be my suggestion for what to learn more about next. Based on your B section, I will also assume that you might already know some about harmony or your intuition is spectacular (or both). So specifically I would focus on how basslines work as they relate to harmony. Often, we are taught that the bassline is the movement between the root note of the different chords of the song. This is a very simplified idea and the bass does not have to function this way all the time (music would sound boring if so), but understanding how the bass connects to the chords you use in your music and how to use the bass to help move from one chord to the next chord is a fundamental building block for composing. You donāt have to have many chords in a song for it to sound interesting - the track āLet It Rideā from this jam at its core only uses two chords, and I think it is a really creative and interesting track. There is lots of variation in how those chords move back and forth from each other and that variation is what keeps the listener from feeling stagnant or bored.
I feel like I may be rambling at this point, but the bottom line is you are doing exactly what you need to do to get better - write music and ask for feedback! When I participate in jams like these, no matter if itās the composerās first song or 300th song, I try to listen very intently and take something away from the choices that they made. By offering what I liked most about the track, I am subconsciously creating a framework in my mind of which elements I want to add to my own palette of composing tools. And conversely, by offering feedback, I am practicing noticing where things can be improved so that I can apply the same degree of perspective to my own writing. I would highly encourage you to listen to every track closely in all jams you participate in! You donāt need to comment all of your thoughts, but having some intentionality behind listening is one way we can grow from each other. I hope this is somewhat helpful and/or at least somewhat the direction your question was oriented. Iām always happy to chat more about music and music education philosophy if you have more questions/thoughts in the future!
Yeah, what Dacelo said :) Try to use more structure in your song, build them up and stuff
Your song is a bit too repetitive and chaotic for my own taste; i think you should also watch some guides about harmony in composing
Sorry if i sounded too rough!
No absolutely you didn't sound too rough I am kinda lost on what I need 2 learn next so this gives me a good idea of what too look into next! I appreciate the time and effort you put into listening and giving feedback. Any suggestions for who has a good video on this?
Some good fundamentals:
1. Write melodies you can hum, not too complicated but catchy
2. Learn song structure
3. At start its better to stick to one key, so use scale highlighting in your daw and go crazy :D
Toby fox guide on making music (google it, its quite easy to find on wayback machine) is a good guide for music i used a plenty when i was starting almost one year ago :D
alright I really appreciate you taking the time to respond and give me some good steps. Thank you so much :)
I saw this comment after I wrote my comment back to you. I agree that these are some good fundamentals. I would probably put charystuj's number 3 at the top of the list. Understanding that not all notes sound good together and learning how to write within a key is a basic building block and this is a good strategy to help keep yourself on track. I really love the first point about melodies and I personally like to start my songs with a melody line. But there are so many ways to write songs: start with rhythm, start with bass line, start with chord progression, start with a catchy lick/hook, etc. Not every song has to have a catchy melody, but many video game songs do. This is a fundamental for listeners to want to keep listening to your music. Song structure is a strange thing that people have different thoughts about that make it tricky to learn early on. Some people will use terminology like intro/verse/chorus/bridge and these folks likely have a pop/rock background in their song structure understanding. Others use "sections" and "transitions" which I think is a simplified version and maybe easier to digest and lends itself much better to short video game looped music. The basic idea is that a specific section has a pattern to it (often based on chord progression) and when you move to a different pattern, you are in a different section. I like to label my sections with letters i.e. A section and B section. So if, for example, these two sections moved back and forth from each other in a loop, my song would have an AB structure. Many classic video game tracks use the structure AAB to state an idea, build on that idea that is now familiar, and then transition to something different to keep the momentum and interest up before going back to the first idea of what is familiar. Many pop songs use the structure ABABCB (translated to A=verse, B=chorus, and C=bridge) and it just shows that there are infinite possibilities for how a song can be structured. I think the reason that structure is being offered to you as something to work on is because of the repetitive nature of some elements of your song. While you do transition which instrument is playing the melody, the bass is the same and implies that the chord structure is not really shifting, so it feels like a long extension of the "A section". So by suggesting to learn song structure, this is an indirect way of a listener asking for a B section. AB music is very valid and is very common in many of the tracks in this jam! I personally don't think it needs to be more complicated than that and I wouldn't spend much time looking for content on structure specifically.
Very charming submission! I like the direction you went with this.
I'd recommend working on writing more interesting melodies as well as treating your song like a story. Use dynamics and changing chords to keep the listeners interest. Experiment and have fun with it!
Nice job š¦āā¬
Alright thanks for the feedback I appreciate taking the time to listen and give some honest feedback! Thanks :)