how to improve my piece?

One very famous example of why very small part-writing movements sound much better than parallel jumps on the left hand is Chopin's Prelude n°4 op.28! If you analyze it, find out the chords that he uses on the left hand, and put them all in the same inversion, the piece sounds awful. But his use of tiny movements (chromatism) makes it extremely expressive.

Thanks Matthieu, Chopin's Prelude n°4 op.28 sounds really nice, the same mood as my piece, and I think I can learn a lot of things from it. I've added a YouTube video of it ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef-4Bv5Ng0w ) to my piano playlist for later.

BTW: Today my piano teacher showed me some interesting minor changes. I think this is the final version of my piece:



(YouTube link of the embedded video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzhxUHFwbAk )

I just realized that the ending is a bit similar to Thomas piece ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSb0x3_JY88 ) , maybe because I played it a lot. I hope the rest is my original and not something I have heard somewhere, but I have no idea how I could verify this.

I definitely like this final version over the first. It sounds more full and interesting while still capturing the same feeling from the first.

Excellent!

just a question:
does it sound better, when you sustain the left hand chords just a little?

aendym wrote:just a question:
does it sound better, when you sustain the left hand chords just a little?

I've tried this, but then I think the melody sounds too soft, which is a bit strange, because I play it already most of the time legato, but sustain pedal is something different. Maybe I just have to learn to play better piano

Another version, this time with my new Omnisphere plugin. Of course it's overdone, but I couldn't resist

http://www.frank-buss.de/tmp/melancholy-strings-and-choir.mp3

frank wrote:

aendym wrote:just a question:
does it sound better, when you sustain the left hand chords just a little?

I've tried this, but then I think the melody sounds too soft, which is a bit strange, because I play it already most of the time legato, but sustain pedal is something different. Maybe I just have to learn to play better piano

The trick is not to use the sustain pedal when the melody forbids it (which is a bit trial and error to find out when it is forbidden). My new try, with pedal and more dynamics, sound created with Pianoteq:

http://www.frank-buss.de/tmp/melancholy-pedal.mp3

Frank, that sounded great! When did you get an acoustic piano?

Circle_of_Fists wrote:Frank, that sounded great! When did you get an acoustic piano?

Thanks! It was a grand modern concert piano, of course only virtual (modified M3 setting with reduced room size to make it sound more chamber music like). I don't have the money for a real one, there is no space in my appartment for it and my neighbours would kill me if I would start playing it at night

Frank I like your version a lot but when I listened to it, I felt that something is missing.... How about arpeggiating chords and see how that goes. Like if you want your piece to sound very smooth and melancholic try to keep your phase the same and try to use a bit of dynamics.. That should be good and try to split your bass... for example instead of playing solid C major in left hand try to arpeggiate it and you will see the difference.

Again it's just my opinion but it's totally up to you.

frank wrote:I don't know much about music theory, but I've tried to compose some music by improvising on the keyboard with my favorite scale F minor, and using what I think sounds good:

http://www.frank-buss.de/tmp/melancholy.mp3
http://www.frank-buss.de/tmp/melancholy.pdf

but it sounds a bit boring and is too short. What do you think about it? Do you have ideas how to make it more interesting and longer?

Are there some good websites about music theory (besides this one ), harmony etc. ?

Hey there, good job on your composition.

In my opinion you need to gradually introduce more left hand notes and rhythm and eventually create a climax in the song.

Good Luck : )

pianohama wrote:
Hey there, good job on your composition.

In my opinion you need to gradually introduce more left hand notes and rhythm and eventually create a climax in the song.

Good Luck : )

Thanks! I don't know, if I can do this, maybe I need some more practice with other pieces until I can do better and longer own pieces.