Feedback on Music That Didn't Win (Part 1)
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- Опубликовано: 7 июл 2024
- Listening to and critiquing entries from the January 2024 Composing Competition. Part 1 of 2.
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0:00 A Love Song for the Modern Age
5:44 A Lovely Night in Zenith
9:54 A Minor Infatuation
14:25 Augmented Hearts
19:30 Bonds Adrift
25:25 Cyber Love
30:09 Cyberpunk Romance
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“Then it just becomes a game of adding layers and adding another thing and adding another thing…”
Me: *stares guiltily at my April 2024 entry in Musescore*
Very accurate lmao. I felt called out too haha
Thank you for giving some feedback! This will be very helpful for the future :) I actually hadn’t realized that the cutoff happened lmao.
So great that you do these feedback videos. It’s so great to hear your process and your feedback. Thanks for all your work on these competitions. Even just participating is so valuable!
I believe the “looping” technique for composition is much better suited for longer pieces and more modern productions. So probably not the best option for this contest since there’s a 90 second limit.
I simp unapologetically for those hard romantic chord progressions. Hands down my favorite was Augmented Hearts good job 👏
I enjoy these feedback videos. There's always something to learn. I'm kind of surprised that there were a few things that I felt could've been differently within each track, only for your thoughts to be what I was thinking. But with a few tracks of my own, I'm kind of guilty with the looping issue.
The feedback you give is really helpfull. Especially the one were you said, that every track should have multiple memorable and unique moments. I am quite excited for part 2 since my track is going to be a part of it should be the 4th one of part 2.
Thank you to take time for this Ryan! It’s all very helpful and suggestions of improvement, even when given to others, make me think about my music and how to use some of these to improve my own. Great video 😊
Very helpful! Yeah in a short composition looping can take away from opportunities to do more interesting things. When you have room to breathe it's far more effective.
Augmented Hearts was pretty. I too picked up on the callback to Vangelis-like texture. Liked the drama of Bonds Adrift. Liked the John Barry progression in the intro to Cyberpunk Romance. I would have broken up the ascending minimoog arpeggios with a run up the scale.
Yeah that one was really impressive to me. Definitely could be expanded.
A lot of great feedback here, especially so close to the next competition submission due date. Will take some notes, especially on looping. I think my track does a little bit of that at the moment. Hopefully I actually finish the song before the due date this time 😂
Definitely agree with your take on Bonds Adrift, it probably was the musical instrumentation for instance the horns being big and bold, but the ostinato being tense.
Thanks Ryan!
Great feedback and breakdown. Now I'm really hoping mine is picked for part 2 so I can hear the feedback because this all was brilliant😂
Learned a lot by making my own notes and comparing to yours-mostly by what you caught that I missed.
Awesome brother! Where do you find these types of competitions? seems like fun!
I host them!
www.youtube.com/@composingcompetitions
Augmented Hearts intro was straight out of Vangelis' "Love Theme" from the Blade Runner sound track. As well as the instrumentation for the first third being EXTREMELY Blade Runner inspired. Nothing wrong with that of course, as it's one of the greatest sound tracks every made, but it felt a bit too on to the nose.
Awe was hoping to catch a bit of your feedback on mine 😄
Really enjoy these videos 👍
Part two next week!
Could you explain more what you mean by chord loops and an example of something that doesn't use it? Are you saying after every 8 bars the progression should change? I come more from a verse, chorus, bridge, etc structure so it's hard to really understand what you mean by not having a repeating part. Thanks for the video.
Yea I think in styles where either a voice is the main focus, or you have a steady groove like any rock/pop/hip hop/etc track, the harmony is less of an important “storytelling” element. So we don’t really care if it loops, and actually it probably helps us stay in the groove if it does loop. But without those elements the melody and chords are what carry us along, and so a four bar loop becomes noticeably repetitive
Thanks so much to everyone who wrote music, and Ryan for the helpful insights! These feedback/analysis videos are by far the most helpful videos for my (so-very-long-ways-to-go) growing composing skills!
I do have to mention that the last track totally reminded me of Phil Rey Gibbons' "Invictus" ruclips.net/video/m9W3E9PYJsc/видео.html.
Just as you played, "Cyber Love", I thought, ooh, you're playing mine! But it was someone else's with the same title. Oh well. But thank you very much for the input. This sort of videos is definitely very welcome. I think many of would welcome your style of constructive criticism. Again, thanx.
2:05 Funny I was just watching 12tone’s analysis of Bad Guy by Billie Eilish, discussing how it loops the same groove throughout the song and maintains interest through layering, which is typical in hip hop. Pop music has been moving in this direction since the advent of sampling - would be curious to hear your thoughts and how it relates to modern film/VGM composition.
yea harmonic looping is not a big deal for groove based styles
@@RyanLeach thanks and yeah, if I understand what you’re saying, it could work for a groove based score, but in this case it is not appropriate for the style.
@@r0bophonic totally
Hi Ryan is there a judging and winner video for the Jan 2024 competition?
ruclips.net/video/1TkemZ4363A/видео.html
@@RyanLeach
Thank you
Hey Ryan, unrelated question here but when you look at an orchestral score can you hear it in your head. I struggle with this and feel like it’s something a professional composer should be able to do on a whim
yes and no. I can get a general idea but not as if I’m listening to a recording or anything! I’d be careful about anything you worry you “should be able to do” because that can be harmful to progress. “Would like to be able to do” is more motivating and then can help you take the steps to get there.
Augmented Hearts put a smile on my face.
I make pop music and not looping chords can make the song too complex for listeners. I generally have:
- Verse loop
- Prechorus progression
- Chorus loop
- Maybe a postchorus progression
- Bridge progression (Maybe a loop) (Maybe same as Intro)
That's usually 4 progressions, 2 loops. They are generally maximum 8 bars. I.e. if I use 8 chords in the chorus, I might use 4 chords in the verse with halved harmonic rhythm for contrast.
"How can pop songwriters write a song without chord loops?" is an interesting question for me.
Pop music is different for sure. Vocals with lyrics change our focus, but even instrumentally it’s more about the groove and sounds
All of the best pop songwriters didn't simply use chord loops...They would have longer verse structures of varying lengths and varying harmonic speed. Beatles, Queen, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Brian Wilson all come to mind. Start with a melody first, and try making the whole thing last a while with its own distinct shape, made up of little bits of phrases supporting it. Think God Only Knows by the Beach Boys. Yesterday by the Beatles. Then provide support with the chords. Melody very often implies harmony anyway, but if you want to be crafty you can use this to your advantage and provide some chords underneath that turn the melody into accented passing tones, suspensions, extensions, etc. Harmony when done right should be underpinning the lyrics/melody and the emotions felt. Listen to How Deep is Your Love by the Bee Gees. There are very cool harmony moments supporting the weight of the words.
How do you submit your piece for feedback?
I asked for volunteers on our discord server
@@RyanLeach Can I still volunteer? or all the spots taken? Haha
@@epicstra ha sorry I've recorded and need to catch up on a ton of other stuff. next time!
@@RyanLeach aww nooo haha no worries :)
Where is the video on how to write countermelodies? Did you remove it from the channel?
If you mean this one I unlisted it because I had a brain fart while recording, used f natural instead of f#, and felt like it soured the whole thing
ruclips.net/video/DtB9UISGk2w/видео.html
Nice
I will admit to quickly scrapping mine together at work. Not my best, and I'm self taught. But I did like my melody.
Hey! I appreciate the feedback on Bonds Adrift. I will admit, this piece was only created in about two days or so close to the deadline, which prevented me from polishing it further and this prompt took me out of my comfort zone of orchestra.
I can see how certain choices I’d made weren’t working, but I think that’s more of me wanting to shift the story from star-crossed lovers to lovers breaking apart, hence the title. In terms of musical vocabulary, I decided to actively go against it based on my perception, if that makes sense. I’m not a huge fan of some of the samples I’ve used, but it mostly came down to keeping my wallet intact. That being said, I’m trying to upgrade some of my samples. Hope I can make it for April’s.
I'm so glad you didn't this video, this kind of feedback is so incredibly helpful!
A lot of these sound like Kitaro...