Bass Concerto

Nah, that's not what's happening at all. See, what's going on is a modulation to the dominant—that is, the key's changing to C. So, if you look at that chord progression in C, it makes more sense. Instead of II—>vi—>IV—>V, you have V—>ii—>bVII—>I, which, as you said before, the flat VII chord is particularly common here, so, as a modulation to C, the progression makes sense.

Musescore is fantastic. I'm a college student majoring in Music Composition and I've been using Musescore during my entire Undergraduate studies (so far) and I haven't had any problems with it. It's really good as it currently is and it's constantly improving.

Oh, I'm sorry, I was under the assumption that you were the vocalist. Yeah, with that situation, I'm going to ignore the vocals and listen to it one more time. *listens* *or, tries to* It looks like Soundcloud is being weird; it's saying that the track doesn't exist and that I can't listen to it. If I recall correctly, though, I specifically recall piano sounding really nice. *shrugs*

Okay, yeah, I don't really know how to look at that and tell you what would help xD Honestly, though, it feels more like 3/4 than it does 6/8, but that doesn't really matter that much. So, the second paragraph. Words have certain accents to them when you say them. For example, the word "example" has an accent on the second syllable. It's not written; it's just how we say it. Therefore, when we're singing and the word "example" comes up, the second syllable should be emphasized rhythmically, by putting it on a stronger beat than the others. The strong beats in a 3/4 measure (I'm just gonna call it 3/4 since that's easier to talk about and it feels like 3/4 for the majority of the piece) are counts one and three. The upbeat of 2 is also a strong beat. The upbeat of one and three are weak, as is count two. With all this in mind, let's look at how you wrote the measure containing "So sorry..." The word "Sorry" has an emphasis on the first syllable; the second syllable is weak. However, in the measure, you gave sor- beat two—a weak beat— and -ry beat three—a strong beat. Of course, you can't simply reverse it, so you need to play around with it until it feels more natural. Does that make a bit more sense now?

It's a very great piece, and is very fun to listen to! I would keep most of it as is. However, you could be a bit a more creative rhythmically. (That's actually something I'm still trying to get the hang of as a young composer.) For example, you use the three-quarter-note rhythm quite a bit. You can mix it up by putting a dot on that first quarter. BAM! All new rhythm! Same thing for the many measure full of eighth notes. Just stick a dot somewhere and you have a whole new rhythm, and it'll usually sound better. One other thing. At the very beginning of Celestia's verse, you do a weird thing with the accentuation on "So sorry..." What I might do here is either make the second note in the measure a half longer or make the first one half a beat longer, keep the second a whole beat, then catch up to the beat by making the last note an eighth note. More or less, play around with rhythms more. Much of this is based around a really simple rhythm that, while it does sound pretty great as is, can easily be fiddled with some while maintaining the structure and cohesion of the piece as a whole. Does that make sense? I hope it makes sense. I don't know how much music experience you have and I'm a music composition major in college, so hopefully everything makes sense. Anyway, it was really fun to listen to. Can't wait to hear it completed! Also, I forgot to mention this, but you should probably show this to the people who made Lullaby for a Princess. They'll probably appreciate it since you're marketing it as a sequel to it, plus, free publicity! Always a good thing.

That's your biggest problem right there. See, since you're doing an arrangement of a pre-existing song, yes, it needs to be based off of it, but you're free to add your own embellishments. It's kinda like when a band covers your favorite song. If it's exactly the same as the previous version, it's not worth listening to. Really stupid example: Compare to They're obviously the same song, but Steam Powered Girrafe changes their version up in texture, lyrics (slightly) and style to make it their own. Yes, you're making it a brass quartet instead of the woodwind scoring it was designed for, but it needs to change further away from the original to make it your own. As for helping you with key signatures, here are a few tips that can help you. 1: Find the first and/or last chord of the section you're trying to figure out the key of. In this case, it's a Db, but it's open (no 3rd), so we don't know if it's major or minor. 2: Find all the notes you can and see if you can make a scale out of them. In this case, there's A, Db, E, Eb, F#, Ab, C#, and C. Now, that's quite the hodgepodge of notes (and part of that is because you're doing strange things with accidentals, which I mentioned before), so let's combine the enharmonics and organize this a bit, in sharps because why not? Choose one, and if it doesn't work, choose the other. I'm starting with sharps because there's an E natural, so anything with flats is unlikely since E's the second flat. So, there's C, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A. Well, scales usually start with a major second, so we need to play around with the order until we find the right one. So: C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A, C. That's a C# harmonic minor scale. Let's try other things, just so nothing gets left out. D#, E—oops, half step. Moving on. E, F#, G#, A, C, C#, D#. That's almost an E major scale, and since C# minor is the relative minor of E, that reinforces our earlier observation. Next, there's F#, G#, A, C, C#, D#. Almost an F# minor scale, but the C throws it off. Next: G#, A—half step. Next: A, C—minor third, not a second. So, C# minor's the only real possibility here. DISCLAIMER—IN MORE COMPLEX MUSIC, 2 IS NOT A GOOD OPTION. 3: Do you know what a cadence is? If you do, skip this paragraph. If not, read on. Cadences are a huge part of what marks sections of music; they're when the key is most firmly established. There are four types of cadences, with a few subsets. First: Authentic Cadence. It's a V-I motion. For example, a G chord going to a C chord (since G is the fifth note in the scale, the G chord is the V chord in the key of C.). Next: Plagal Cadence. That's a IV-I motion; that is, F to C. Next: Half Cadence: Anything (usually ii or IV)-V motion; that is, any phrase ending on a G chord in the key of C. Finally, Deceptive Cadence: V-vi; that is, G to a minor in the key of C. So why are cadences so helpful? Well, if you look for cadences, you can figure out what key that section of the piece is in. In your example, the last two measures of the piece are an authentic cadence; a V-i motion ending on a Db chord—Ab is the fifth note in the Ab scale. Therefore, the section is in the key of Db. As for whether it's major or minor? Well, the last chord REALLY should have an E somewhere to establish that. But, since we don't have that, we can look through the rest of the piece. There are three notes that change from C# major to C# minor (I'm switching to C# here because Db minor doesn't exist; no one wants to play in 8 flats.): E# to E natural, A# to A natural, and B# to B natural. Note that the B# and A# don't always change, but the E# does. So we can look through the song and look for any Es and see if they're sharp or natural. Or, rather, look for any Fs to see if it's major, or any Es to see if it's minor. There are lots of Es and not a single F, so it's definitely in C# minor. When all else fails, though, use your ear. You can usually figure out if it's major or minor If you wanna keep talking music, feel free to add me as a friend and I'll do my best to guide you via private messaging.

The Trumpet and french horn parts sound great. However, the trumpet part is really high during this whole section; is it that high the whole piece? If so, no one's going to want to play it. Same thing with the trombone, except the opposite; it's all really low. You should take advantage of the higher range of the trombone; after all, you already have the tuba as a bass voice and that doesn't need doubled. There are a few instances where note spelling is an issue. For example, on the last measure of the first page, you have an Eb going to a C#. I would write that as either Eb to Db or as D# to C#. See, the interval is a whole step, but when the player sees a third, they're going to expect it to be a minor or major third, not diminished. I'm not sure if this makes sense to you, but trust me, it needs to be one of the two examples. Also, I don't think you have the right key signature; it seems to be in C# minor, at least this section does. However, since C# minor's not the easiest key to play, I might would transpose it up to D minor, and adjust the accidentals to match. Finally, the tuba part (and trombone for the first section) is really boring. Try to think of a better rhythm for the tuba to play than straight quarter notes; throw some dots in there to mix it up. In conclusion. It sounds cool now and is kinda fun to listen to. However, it could be better, and with a little creativeness on the bass parts, can be made to sound pretty dang cool. EDIT: I just wanted to mention that your french horn writing's not too shabby here. It's got good range, with only a few high notes, and shouldn't tire out the player too much. And I just thought of one more thing to mention. You need to give the players places to breathe so that they don't choose a space to breathe and end up breathing at the wrong time; incorporate breathing spots into what you're writing. You can do this by imagining you're playing the part and trying to figure out where you need to breathe. PROTIP: Tuba takes a LOT more air than the other instruments.

Maaaaan, I can't use finale. I prefer to use my keyboard to input. If you're looking for a free software, Musescore's a nice one. It gets a bit of a bad rep since ANYONE can use it, but if you pay some attention to formatting and stuff, it can look as good as finale, and can do most things finale can as well. I'm a composition major, and I've been using musescore here at college and it's worked well enough so far. musescore.org , if you care to look.

^ That. Listen to BlueBrony about everything. Except the key; looking at the trombone part, it looks like it's in the key of B. But everything else they say is good. Especially the part about choosing either sharps or flats. See, a musician kinda has two "modes" in their brain; sharp mode and flat mode. Which one's easier depends on the musician, but no matter who you ask, reading all sharps or all flats is ALWAYS easier than reading both sharps and flats. i hope this makes sense; I'm not always the best at explaining things. Oh well.

I would have a hard time seeing a french horn playing that successfully—at least, one that's not a professional, and even there I'm not sure as I don't play brass. You can probably make the whole thing staccato eighth notes (with a few places to breathe, of course) and not lose the feel. That, or you could make the line jump around between instruments. It's up to you, really, but here are my suggestions.

Yeah, what ThunderDash says applies here very much. You see, the wonderful thing about the human voice is that it's able to add expression very. Replacing that with a very stale melody voice doesn't work very well, especially with a song like Babs Seed. The melody just sounds really stale compared to what the vocals were like in the original song. Also, with the exception of the bridge, the whole song sounds the same. If the melody didn't change, I couldn't tell the verse apart from the chorus. That is, you use the same exact instrumentation throughout the whole song. To risk sounding like Vinyl, don't be afraid to drop the bass. Or the percussion. Or give the melody to some other instrument for a section. The thing about this genre is that it has potential, but people who write for it feel like every instrument they use needs to be plaything the whole time. I get it. I used to think that. But don't be afraid to drop out a voice for a time. It gets annoying for the listener to always here the same voicing. I like what you're trying to do. The staccato synthesized accompaniment sounds really nice and adds a great effect. You just need to change a few things so it's a bit more interesting throughout. Especially the melody.

Hey, everypony. I'm a music composer, but being the brony that I am who actually wanted to participate in the fandom, I made a Tumblr blog. I know my drawing isn't very good, but I want it to get better so that it's at least passable. Can someone take a look at it and offer some (basic) suggestions? I know I'm a novice (if even), so novice tips here, please. ask-bass-concerto.tumblr.com

I thought I'd go ahead and introduce myself in the music forum since I'll be spending a lot of time here. I'm Bass Concerto. I'm attending college, aiming for a major in Music Composition. As such, I know a lot about music theory and can help you guys with your music. Feel free to add me as a friend and send me any music you want my opinion on; I'd be glad to give my opinion!

First and foremost, you might want to turn the hi-hat down. It's also a bit hard to hear the piano sometimes, and it sounds important, so make sure to adjust the balance so that you can hear all the important part. Also, you're using the same instruments throughout the whole song. It would help immensely if you had a section where, say, the drums drop out, or it's just the piano playing, or it's just the strings. Just through in something to change the texture; it'll keep the audience interested. Otherwise, the chords are nice, the melody's very relaxing and played well. There's nothing wrong with any of the notes or anything, but the presentation could be worked on a bit. The whole song, I just hear drums, strings(synth? I don't do electronic music that much) and piano. And, while that's not a bad thing for the main portion of the song, you want to mix it up a bit so that the audience stays interested. I hope I was helpful Non sequitur, but can someone tell me why I can't add a signature?

That... is a lot of people. That was fast. Very fast. I'm a bit shell-shocked xD Also, it seems I should've read the rules. I made a fail in my very first post. How sad. Oh well. It seems I just need a bit of time to get oriented.

Hey, everypony. I'm new here (obviously) and I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Bass Concerto (or, rather, my OC is), and I write music (me and my OC, in case there's any confusion). It's nice to meet everypony. To be honest, the reason I came here was shameless self-promotion: I started a tumblr! Woo! Being a music composer more than anything, this is going to be a simple hobby, but it's still a commitment, so give it a look-see. ask-bass-concerto.tumblr.com Hopefully you'll help it grow, spread the word and all that. Anyway, all self-promotion aside, it IS nice to talk to bronies; social aspects are one part of brony culture that I've neglected since becoming a brony years ago, so I think now's the time to get started socially, because why not? Anyway. Hi.