Post Your Music

I don't really keep it to myself. My music teacher is not allowing me to do that. I do want to get my music out there, but I feel like posting my music online makes it easier to plagiarize


as well. I do have a poor man's copyright on my songs, but I don't know how well that holds.  

I don't know your teacher and how experienced he/she is, but if you ever want to become a composer for projects such as games or films and all you must have something to show at places like youtube and soundcloud. To my mind one big step in music making is to show your music to people to give opinion on. You really can't avoid it in the long run. That can be hard and nerve breaking at first, but in the long run very helpful.


It's of course good to worry about copyrights. People will always try plagirize you if you get fame. That is the other side of the coin. There are ways to fight against that.


If you weel uncertain about copyright of your music, I suggest to take a look into different options. There are copyright registeration services to help you. If you catalogue your music making very well, in a possible situation when you encounter plagirizing, you have enough proof (the day you made the song, some work in progress files and etc, they are hard to mimic). In other hand having a copyright organization at your side will give you aid in these matters even more.


Or you might even try some very easy tricks should as having an watermark. That is very effective way to show that the song is yours.

Very much so. And to further clarify, I meant that she does not allow me to keep my music to myself. She wants to enter me in a competition to play my own pieces, and I've already played one of my songs at an exam, so that's both an examiner and an adjudicator who can give me feedback on that. All the time she's been teaching me, she's been wanting to get my music out there. I think I'll bring up Soundcloud when I have my next lesson. Thanks for the advice  :)

I mean its tough to even get your work looked at. I don't ever really promote my stuff so I hardly ever get feedback. I mean it also just depends what you post. You KNOW if you spent the right amount of time composing, mixing, etc.. you get a real sense of pride in some works. Other songs or samples you just don't feel as strongly about maybe don't post those. Most people if they don't like it won't say anything because each comment and play is one step closer to you getting bigger.

That's a very poor excuse to not post. Not to burst your bubble here, but unless (anyone of us here) are of John Williams calliber, I'm sure that most people wouldn't even waste their time.


You'll need to toughen up and stop being afraid of what people MIGHT say. Cross that nridge when you get to it. As shiah would say....


JUST..... DO IT!


I expect a link to your music for all of us to listen to in the next 24 hours... ;)   or soon.

Ugh. Fine. A village theme from my game.


View attachment 46004


For now, you have to download it. 

When I can spare the data, I'll check it out.


Not bad. The background notes get a little repetative after awhile though.  That piccolo note at the end, though... Oooof. >_<  Much too loud, IMO.

Yeah, I guess so. My teacher said I can change the background up a bit at some points, but I don't know. I don't really know how to. As for the piccolo, (first of all it isn't a piccolo, it's a clarinet) I know. Too squeaky. Though, not much I can do about that in StaffPad. It does what it wants sometimes. I could have bumped up the volume too much on the whole thing though in Audition. Wait, were you wearing headphones? 

No, I was not.

Hmm. Doesn't really sound that loud to me, but it could have been the change of pitch, because in the actual score, I did not change the volume at the end. All I did was use an 8va sign. I would change the background, but it's already copyrighted  >_>  So, what I may do is find a way to manipulate it at the bridge in StaffPad without doing anything to the score itself. Maybe make the violin quieter and the piano louder so it stands out more. A lot of my songs have backgrounds like that though. This one does change it a bit, though I don't like it as much. Don't know what I was thinking...


View attachment Secret Corner.mp3


It's really short. And small. 


EDIT: Okay, so, I think I kind of see what was causing the problem. Right at the bridge, it was for some reason getting louder as it got higher. So, I just made that part somewhat quieter, and made the violin a bit quieter too. The only way I can describe it is, you can hear something in the background, though you aren't fully aware of it because of the piano and tambourine drowning it out. Which, in my opinion, made the song deeper than it already was XD 

So I really like the feel of your first posted song Mettle, it definitely put me where I was supposed to be. I know this isn't the most technical feedback but I definitely felt like I just took a nap at the town Inn and was ready to start my day haha.


I guess my most constructive criticism would be pay more attention to the background music especially the bass notes. In your song Secret corner it was almost distracting because I could hear two notes going back and forth the majority of the song. Personally though I think your style is perfect for an RPG though. Your choice of instruments and classical style is great. Like everyone with me included, we can only improve with every song!   

Not bad. I still recommend to put them into SoundCloud or Youtube, especially at first to SoundCloud so you can follow the stats of the songs.

The music of a town from a upcoming game ><

I can just see myself walking through a small village, very nice to listen to!


I agree, there should be some variation in my opinion, but it could be worse. I listened to that song about 5 times in a row (which is a good test to know if your song needs variation, if you get a headache then yes ^_^) and it was definitely bearable.


Concerning the piccolo clarinet, it does sound a bit ear-piercing, and since the problem comes from the library you're using (I'm guessing?) what I would do is automate the volume to make it fade in (I don't know if that can be done in StaffPad, maybe with a crescendo symbol?) Another option would be to make it shorter and/or lower the volume? If you have access to an actual piccolo soundfont, maybe the higher note you're trying to make would sound better/more natural/not ear-piercing with something like that.


Yep, if I was playing this song on a piano my left hand would get bored pretty fast. I realize there is a short variation at 1:00 or so but a whole minute of doing/hearing the same thing can be really annoying, which you definitely don't want when writing music.


When it comes to left hand if I'm gonna do something repetitive like this I try to limit myself to 2 measures before slightly changing the notes (if I can do it sooner it's usually better).


Also I wouldn't have that pause at around 0:50, it just sounds weird and breaks the rythm. I think there is another weird pause in the left hand movement that occurs in the middle of a phrase, but I'm not certain so don't quote me on that...


Overall it sounds way better than what I was expecting, considering your aprehension to post your stuff here.


For what you want to do (which I'm guessing is VGM / film music and stuff) it works really well, and in my opinion better than most of my work (which also aims at VGM) because of how discreet it is: I don't mean volume or expression, I'm talking about complexity, the fact that it's not over-the top but still not a first-year piano student's composition if that makes sense (totally not roasting myself here).


"The good soundtracks are the ones that flow with the game and render its feel the most. The best soundtracks are the ones you remember, but don't notice" ~ my uncle (roughly translated from french)


Keep it up, and definitely post more songs in the future!

A lot of my songs are like that. The way I get around that is to play the notes in different styles. So like, at a more animated part, I would make my hand bounce a bit more when playing and during the softer parts I would play it with a slower sound (though still in time). 


Yeah, I lowered the volume somewhat. At the bridge, I actually didn't want it at that volume. StaffPad did that on its own. 


Admittedly, I probably would too. It was based on a song I wrote a while back, but at the time, I was an emotional wreck, and I had just made it as a frustration vent. But then, when I redid it in StaffPad, I made the dumb mistake of not trying it on the keyboard first. But I wanted to keep something from it the same, because even though the original was garbage, I needed a means of expression without talking (asocial ;_; ), so I'm like, meh, why not see where this goes with just the background. But I shortened it from ten minutes to a little less than two. 


It was originally supposed to have been for dramatic effect, but I guess it didn't work so well. 


I will try to! (oh and by the way, I'm playing Mettle for a competition, though piano only.)


And, I just realized how many times I quoted you there. XD   

Hey guys, I'm new to the community and I've been taking a look around, listened to a lot of cool music and decided to make my first post here! :)


I really liked this one, I'm kind of a sucker for calm songs that slowly build.


I'll post something of my own so I can get a little feedback as well, here's one I jokingly named after my favorite deodorant.


I think it sounds decent but I get the feeling it is missing something, a bit too repetitive maybe.


I would appreciate any advice or criticism offered!


View attachment Arctic Refresh.mp3

My reaction:

Overall a pretty good track, that I would definitely use for a game.



Here's my only (nitpicky) criticism:

• The solo violin that repeats the main melody is too dry, especially at the end when it's alone;
  
• There is too much attack on the solo violin, resulting in its melody (which is the song's main theme) to be less memorable;
  
• Make the glockenspiel/xylophone/bell/whatever louder (it should be the main focus in my opinion, considering the title of the song), but be careful not to make it sound ear piercing;
  
• Sardonic said:

  I think it sounds decent but I get the feeling it is missing something, a bit too repetitive maybe.
  I would try adding variation to the chord progression (a short one, just to add a bit of flavor to the song).
  

That's about it. I really enjoyed it, keep it up! :)

Haha thanks!


That was very helpful!  I'll take your advice and do some work on it later, also glad that you like it for the most part.  Thanks for the input!

This the song I made for a new project I'm working on.

View attachment bgm_spacelab.ogg