*** The Composing Thread***

[Jabonator]

Originally Posted by sj2010

I just gave a couple of senior recitals for my music degree so I can finally graduate college(!). I thought I'd throw up an original tune from my group recital for you guys to check out.

I play piano on the track:
http://soundcloud.com/sj2010/my-oasis

Getting a Sting vibe at a couple minutes in.

[PrettyVacant]

Nice jobs Rythm and sj.

[sj2010]

Originally Posted by Vintage00

Any of you guys/gals happen to be Finale wizards? Here's my dilemma.

Writing a piece in 5/8 and have a measure that is all 16th notes. Finale is grouping the beams in groups of 2 (so that there's 5 groupings of 2 16th notes). What I want to achieve is one grouping of four 16ths and one grouping of six 16ths.

Thanks mucho to whoever can help!

Ik in Sibelius you can click on "beam and rest groups" in the Time Signature dialog to have sibelius set them automatically, or you can do it manually for each passage by using the 3rd pane of the keypad iirc.

Obviously thats of limited help to you since you are using Finale, but maybe there's an analogous options menu on your program that works the same way. sorry gl

Originally Posted by Rythm

Nice work.

I sort of disagree with the guy above regarding the part where the brass kicks in though. It feels like the guitar doesn't have quite enough time in the spotlight before that part, which makes the transition a bit strange to me. Not sure whether it's mostly recording/mixing or songwriting/arrangement, but it also feels like things get a little muddy with the guitar and the piano around 1:10-1:20.

Speaking of the guitar, I obviously don't know what type of constraints you guys had when writing the song but the biggest negative for me is that the guitar doesn't get enough time in the spotlight in the early/middle parts. Having it take the leading role in the part that starts at 2:16 would break things up nicely for example.

It's funny that you single out guitar, because I think hiring him was my biggest mistake of the recital. Not to say I didn't like some of what he did; I really dig how the delayed guitar blends with the piano. But I hired him after not hearing him play in about two years. His chops were worse than I remembered and his reading skills were non-existent. So he's only tenuously following my directions for this song, and its worse in some of the other tunes.

The original idea behind the guitar part from when the band kicks in to when the sax takes the melody is for him to be playing more of a riffy pentatonic figure with an African flair, like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZPaMJtK5dw

And I'd have preferred him to take more of a spotlight in the coda, more like from 9:33 to the end of this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTg5vd4eD8o

There was also a bass clarinet doubling the bass during most of the song that I had to mute because of some note/time issues. It's a shame cause I love the definition the instrument brings to the low end.

All that being said, we didn't have a lot of time to rehearse and the music came out pretty well all things considered. I'm looking forward to getting a gigging band together after school's out and really letting these songs grow.

Thanks everyone!

[sj2010]

oops double posted: mods please delete

[Rythm]

Originally Posted by PrettyVacant

Nice jobs Rythm and sj.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by sj2010

It's funny that you single out guitar, because I think hiring him was my biggest mistake of the recital. Not to say I didn't like some of what he did; I really dig how the delayed guitar blends with the piano. But I hired him after not hearing him play in about two years. His chops were worse than I remembered and his reading skills were non-existent. So he's only tenuously following my directions for this song, and its worse in some of the other tunes.

Yeah given the situation it seemed like it could easily be a matter of him either being there more as backing for you other guys or simply not being good enough. That's gotta be quite frustrating.

The original idea behind the guitar part from when the band kicks in to when the sax takes the melody is for him to be playing more of a riffy pentatonic figure with an African flair, like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZPaMJtK5dw

That seems like it would've worked a lot better with the other elements of the song. Hopefully you'll get a chance to record it again with a better guitar player at some point. The guitar part in that link is deliciously funky.

And I'd have preferred him to take more of a spotlight in the coda, more like from 9:33 to the end of this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTg5vd4eD8o

I have no idea what a coda is but it seems my ideas weren't exactly new to you. The example link was a very nice bonus. I've hardly listened to Jazz at all but have started getting curious about it lately.

[/QUOTE]There was also a bass clarinet doubling the bass during most of the song that I had to mute because of some note/time issues. It's a shame cause I love the definition the instrument brings to the low end.

All that being said, we didn't have a lot of time to rehearse and the music came out pretty well all things considered. I'm looking forward to getting a gigging band together after school's out and really letting these songs grow.

Thanks everyone![/QUOTE]

Good luck finding a band and developing your songs.