ooof! Innovative.
Intro sounds like someone hitting the piano/guitar with their hand. are you by chance holding down the strings/fingerings while hitting the guitar? That could be a really cool concept to explore, as a modular artist, i am thinking patch that through a high pass filter to remove some of the low to accentuate the harmonics from the strings reacting/resonating to the percussive hits. This added to fingerings would make for an interesting timbre, with tone/melody/note/chord control. Also would have like to see the rhythm from tapping/knocking the guitar progressively get more complicated, as if it were building into the next section. (what comes to mind as a reference is flamenco rhythms but any rhythms work.)
Flourish and Setup seem a tad interchangeable. Both fit well but i would draw line between the words flourish and the consummation idea. The image associated with consummation seems to reference an the idea of overabundance or having wasteful amount more then what is need. A few steps beyond flourishing. The song absolutely fits the word flourishing and even seems to communicate adversity at some points but not enough to ruin a good day. (hopefully this section makes sense)
"Plan" & "Tear Down" are my personally favorites. "Tear down" reminds me of flamenco guitarist. Personally would have like to see you explore the techniques introduced in "Plan" and "Tear Down". already explained "Plan" so in regards to "Tear Down", the timbre created from the way you aggressive hit the strings giving me the impression that the string is loose. The timbre is a sort of percussive element akin to a snare for the fact that it produce a sort of noise that can be dampened with your hand to function. Love the idea behind it being destruction.
Love the limitation of Guitar and Piano. Would have like to see the piano used in an alternative manner as well, not sure what kind of piano you own but dynamics mixed with the sustain pedal can simulate a really cool swell effect is done correctly. My apologies, if this sounds like i am complaining, not trying to attack you. But these songs were pretty inspiring. Gona try some of these ideas my self.
Anything i didn't mention, had no complaints about, and fit the prompt well. Amazing work!
Viewing post in What Happens on a Stage jam comments
Thanks so much for the detailed feedback, and especially the critique! I really appreciate it!
On the intro track, the piano and guitar are being played kinda weirdly. On the guitar, I'm not fretting anything, just hitting the guitar in various places. I am using an alternate tuning (DADGCD), so it might sound "chord-y". Also, some spots give you more string ring than others. Probably would have been cool to do some more complicated rhythms! I might come back to some of the ideas I used in that opening track, since there are a lot of other ideas I didn't use or didn't explore more deeply. I'm not sure fretting the strings while hitting the guitar had even occurred to me! What a cool idea!
For the piano on the intro track, I'm "fluttering" the half-blow pedal while holding the sustain pedal. It gives you these chaotic bursts of sound that are really fun! I think I only partially understand mechanically what's happening there... Anyway, I did that for about an hour and spliced together the best parts. I was also going to hit the sides of the piano while holding down some notes, but the string ringing is too quiet to record easily. Maybe I'd need to open the back of the piano and close-mic it or something.
Interesting observation on the "flourish vs. consummation" idea. I hadn't thought about it that way, but you're right, "flourishing" seems to legitimize the context of the third painting in a way the might make the story less nuanced.
I think it's awesome that you heard the "flamenco" undertones in Teardown! I completely agree, in fact, that riff is loosely based on a flamenco riff Robert Trujillo wrote on an acoustic guitar, which later turned into a Metallica song! Probably some more stuff I could have explored on that track as well. Thanks for the insight!