Le Labryinthe formé dans le Cerveau

Hello all,

As stated in my opening post, I'm trying to create my own song for piano.
I have some loopholes in my music theory knowledge so I had to have a base to work on. I picked the refrain of the song 'Africa' from Toto, because that were four chords I loved. I extrapolated the notes and just started to play some melodies which were greatly inspired by the songs of Yann Tiersen.

I'm half way through the song now I think. I don't know yet, because the song is forming whilst playing, I don't know where it will end yet. I can't play it myself yet, but I'm very curious to know what you lot think of it. The sheet isn't perfect also. I want to add some cre- descendo's, staccato's and other stuff of which I do not know the name of now.

When I started to look around to make sheet music I stumbled upon LilyPond. This is perfect for me, because I also like math and programming (or does that sound too geeky now)? I was amazed with what little effort you could create sheetmusic that looks so good. Well, I let you decide for yourself.
I'm very curious if I put it on sheet correctly, so I would be greatly appreciative if someone would try and play this. I would love to hear their interpretation, so I can edit the sheet to add their better interpretation, or edit to make mine more clear. This is a good way to perfect a song I think. I would be greatly honored if Andrew gave it a go, but please, don't feel obligated, I think you already have a very busy life

Remember please that this is a work in progress, when I look at the sheet now I see some things I still want to change.

The Sheet
The Midi

The Midi file just to give an idea, because it doesn't reflect how I want it to sound.

Background for adding emotion to the music.
The title refers to the maze you've been creating all your life in your head. Mine was very complicated and I was fighting a long time to get out, until I realized you don't need to get out of it, you just need to follow it and experience everything around each corner. Don't try to find a way and you'll find your way.
This first part is intended to reflect the creation of the maze growing up and the growing frustration it gave me through the years...
I hope that makes any sense to you, but it seemed important to mention, because notes are nothing without emotion.

For the people interested: I've updated the piece. Added a melody in the beginning.

I liked it.

Thank you Victor, much appreciated to let me know that

If you are interested, I can play it myself much better now. Still with errors though. I made this into a video on youtube...

Youtube movie

Hello Jeroen,

I downloaded the sheet and the midi. Listened to it a few times, and I like it better every time. I mean, I REALLY like it. I happen to like the simplicity (yet somewhat haunting) of it, much better than another version that you have on YouTube now. so I hope you didn't change it too much

thank you Jytte. As said, it's an honor to me that you liked my first piece enough to put it on your website.

But you are saying you like the midi file more than the recording of me playing? I must say that is an old recording and I can dream the song now and play it without problems. Are you refering to that one (with the pictures) on my YT channel?

Yes, that's the one I was referring to. It seemed to me that the music had changed. I'm not referring to your technical level, but the music itself. At least that's what it sounded like to me.
Anyway, the original score (from listening to the midi) was just perfect to me, and that's the version I have listed (if there are others).
Keep it up, I'll be looking forward to more interesting pieces.

I will record the song as written on the sheet (if I don't forget) and will let you know. That way you can hear the way that I intended it.
The midi is so mechanical that I don't like that at all.

I have a draft recording of my 2nd piece. I will upload it hidden on youtube. I'm curious what you think of that one so far

I'm curious. I'm not using YouTube much, other than just watching that is. How do you upload something "hidden", and if it's hidden, how can I see it then??

EDIT: Oh, I found my PM. And a link on YouTube that tells me about the hidden stuff, so scratch that quiestion.

Oh, I meant to ask (my french is veeeery limited):

"Le Labyrinthe forme dans le Cerveau" means mazes forming in the brain, right?
And the subtitle on your sheet, means as much as "it's not the destination but the road traveled" (that matters), right ??? That's a nice phrase that goes for a lot of things in life.

"The maze created in your brain"
"It's not the destination that matters, but the journey towards it"

So yeah, you got it.

I must admit that I needed an online translator for this, but the title had to be French, because this song started to form from the first second I heard Yann Tiersen.

This piece describes the first years of my life. I intended to expand it in two follow up parts:
"Accepting and exploring of the maze"
"Forming the maze as you want to"

Not came around to it yet. Have some stuff on the shelf to use for that though...See my other video on Youtube called "Things I did with four chords" That's all the stuff I came up with while creating this piece...

Ow, about Youtube. While you upload you can select to upload it hidden. You will get a link that you can share as you see fit, but then it's not out in the open.

I use it at the moment to show my progression and technique for my teacher. It's a great and time efficient way to get tips and tricks along the way in between lessons...

That's great, I never knew that option was there. I some times send videos to my sister, and that's a big chunk for an email. This way is much faster and easier. Great Tip, thanks.

You can also use Dropbox. Than you have a seperate folder on your computer where you can copy files to, which are stored online. If your sister installs Dropbox and you add her emailadres as collaberator to your folder, you can start sharing even faster. The folders are synchronised while changed. I'm just exploring this as an alternative to avoid the all seeing eye of the source of all evil who goes by the name 'Google'...

Youtube is safer as the files are not on your computer, but have to investigate that...

Oh, I'm not so concerned with safety here, I wouldn't dream of putting anything "private" out in "public".

Yesterday I was just pondering on how best to "host" some videos I'd like to put on my webpage. Some I made myself, others downloaded, but I could easily have them on my server, and then I wouldn't risk them "being gone", like what could happen when you link to a YouTube video. A couple of videos that I wouldn't mind having on my own website, I really didn't feel like "publishing" on Youtube as such, some videos earlier caused a barrage of comments and emails, and that grew to be quite annoying (thus I disabled the comment option). I have had websites with my own videos before, but that was mp4's which require the quicktime plugin, and I don't really like to host things that require plugins, plus I actually deleted quicktime from my own PC, as it was screwing up everything else I was doing. Then I was checking on FlowPlayer, but decided that was way too much work and trouble for a few videos, so just uploading to Youtube and linking seemed like the way to go. Geeez, what a long story. Anyway, now that you've enlightened me, I know what I want to do.
Thanks.

I like it. The video you uploaded on youtube was also very nice, images matched the video perfectly, I could actually feel what you wanted to express on your piece watching those images going along. Love the melody. Great job.

Wow, thank you Kelly! That's exactly how I intended it. Reading that I was able to change the way you feel, in a positive way I presume , makes me feel very good in return...

Had a creative day today and I think I have all the things for the 2nd part.

"The exploration and acceptance of the maze" (still need to translate to french

This midi below is the improvisation of all the parts that will be in this song. As I made it up today I need to think here and there, so it doesn't flow yet, but I'm curious to your opinion about this first improv draft. Perhaps I can take that with me when finalizing the song...It's a long midi btw, so thank you in advance for your patience

The MIDI

I just had a listen. Yea, there are some rough spots in there. But, for what it's worth, I think it could be a nice piece. It kept me listening because I liked to, not because I felt I had to, if you know what I mean