Opinion needed... new piece

[SEDstar]

http://www.mediafire.com/?dgymuo03a2x

I thought I pulled this exercise off, but...

I was always at a loss for how in a soundtrack or a classical piece there can be a couple minutes of pure "tension" ?

I thought maybe I "pulled off" 3 minutes of "pure tension", but I cant judge myself really. *shrugs*

eh?

 

[gecko zzed]

As an exercise in creating tension, you've done well.

The piece starts off with that trademark staccato melody line of yours, but with some interesting dissonance generated through the counterpoint. At around 15 seconds, the ominous drone starts, using a D that pits itself against the C#, A# and A notes on the piano. This drone jumps an octave at about 1 minute, relieving, but not releasing the tension. And then at about 1:15, the melodies converge into an almost joyous burst of exuberance, before we are taken backwards and forwards from light to dark until the end.

These pieces of yours I tend to regard as exercises, exploring different melodic structures and experimenting with different scales, and I applaud you for that.

I note that we are beginning to hear an increasing fluidity in them, as some melody lines take on more legato.

I can easily imagine these leading to a major piece that combines the results of these experiements, and the idea that you encapsulated in The Fork could form the hub.

Now I wonder to what extent the use of FL (which I assume you are still using) constrains the gallop of your imagination, by pushing you into assembling these pieces in a particular way. I would be interested to see what would emerge if you used another package.

 

[SEDstar]

Jesus H Christ on a popsicle stick, Geck... did you use a "software pitch meter" like antares, or do you just have perfect pitch? *shudder*. Thats pretty heavy you can "system dump" the piece like that.

Yah, I didnt really intend to make anything substantial at first, noodled in a few scales, then selected a new one "Hungarian" just to play with it. Why Hungarian? Glad you asked, LMAO. A guitar teacher around here was telling me how he thought it was "cute" he was teaching all the rich kids he gave guitar lessons to "HUngarian fifths" that the speed metal band "Kreator" was known for. He thought it was funny their "exercises" for a few weeks to torture their parents was Kreator riffs he said once, LMAO.

I just grabbd the Hungarian scale on a lark. At first blush, I heard a lot of dissonance, which my ears dont particularly like. Remember, I like pentatonic min originally, and only started using harmonic minor to "get a few more notes" to play with so I can ascend and descend on different pitches. Heck, I drop the top tone in Harm Min a half-step because its "sour" to my ear (when you drop the top tone in Harm min, it "contains" my precious Pent min scale then, LMAO)

But, this hungarian was WAY too much dissonance for me. *shrugs* I forcibly kept doing my regular counterpoint thing in it, and slowly started to realize it seemed to be a "auto tension generator" scale, kind of. I am going to "overuse" those drones as you call them, I think for a while anyways, because they make the "heavy" sound I like and have trouble creating otherwise.

PS - is there some dang "semi official list" of what scale is useful for WHAT located somewhere? ANytime I wanna make "tension" I can just grab the hungarian now. Question... can i "flit" from scale to scale within a piece? IE... start in pentatonic min, shift into hungarian when i want tension, then roll back out to harmonic minor to finish up with that "rolling texture" ??

or is that too "jarring" of a thing to do, like changing t-shirts during a party?

also... "what scale do i play with next, sensei ??" LMAO


PPS - is there some particular software you are specifically reccomending? (preferably a setup that wont require 6 grand of investment, me and dongles dont get along too well, LMAO) I'm a FL + edirol kind of guy right now.