Blog #4, 4/14

Hello World,

Back to my standard Helvetica font!  Yayyyyy!!!!!!

Besides that, this week I will begin to work on my video vlog (which I'm pretty sure is like one of these blogs except it's recorded and has specitic things that are supposed to be covered), as well as do more research and do more work on the thing I am making.  Hopefully I can finish the outline of it by the end of the cycle so that I can work on other stuff later.

Oh yeah and earlier I said that I would be making two pieces but that obviously isn't going to work.

Research

(Terraforming Mars is a fun game yet I don't even play the real version but the card game instead)

I have all of spring break of doing nothing to do stuff.  Yay!  Now here I am on the Monday after a definitely very productive spring break. -_-

1. https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2012/01/25/stuck-on-a-song-how-to-finish-that-composition/

Ok this article says "stuck on a song" (which, again, is inaccurate).  Despite the vocabularic inaccuracy, it is exactly where I am right now.  I am stuck at around 2/3 or 3/4 of my piece and I need some ideas to finish it up with.

*reads article*

Ok I have now read the article.  It has some ambiguous and general hints, which I can definitely use, but may not be too helpful.  Maybe I'm just lazy, I'm not sure.  I'll do that later though.

2. https://www.quora.com/How-often-do-you-get-stuck-after-composing-a-few-bars-of-a-new-piece

Ok ok fine I know this isn't a reliable source but I read Quora a lot and I guess it's good to get input from random people on the internet sometimes.  There are some insightful stuff in there, but overall, it does not have much good information; the norm for Quora.

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2k7pZlf_vE

Finally I have a video!  Yayayay

So the guy is using a real classical piece to get his point.  I'm not sure exactly what it is; is it to end quietly, or just to end in the same way as the rest of the piece?  He's saying a lot of things about the pedal, but I feel like it is specific to this piece only, as not all pieces are the same as the one he is using.

4. https://yousician.com/blog/outro-the-ending-of-a-song

Here's another webpage but it seems like it won't work for me as I am not songwriting.  Bleh.  I'm getting a lot of bad sites today.  (Not bad sites but just bad for me)

5. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-melody

Wow I only have one video so far, that's really cool, all my other blogs have had tons upon tons of videos.  It's by Masterclass too, which could be really cool (as people who run masterclasses have coolness) or bad (as the super good people often act like you know what I mean I don't know how to explain it right now my mom is telling me to go upstairs and sleep aaaaahhhh).  Anyways, it's not another outro thing but more on just the melody.  I guess I technically don't need it anymore because I have enough melodies but it could help with coming up with something to finish up with.  And a lot of the stuff actually in there is mostly stuff related to things I have already read, but it could be helpful.

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjQeT16H9LQ

So here's a nice short video about writing harmonies.  There's an interesting part about using high and low notes, which I guess would be helpful except that I don't really have the time nor commitment to work all that into my piece.  It also says that it is more important to focus on where the piece is going than where it is coming from, which is kind of ambiguous but is kind of helpful.  And other than that it's mostly just really basic stuff, but it's for concert band, which has like a million instruments, so it doesn't really apply to what I'm doing on piano.

  vs.   

(I just looked up random pictures but you get the idea, concert band music =/= piano music)

Ok, I'm thinking too much about Terraforming Mars now, let me go get distracted and look up Terraforming Mars for the next half hour.

Also here is a picture of me playing at a piano recital from a year ago or something. Hahahahahahahahahahaha

Real Doing Stuff

Look I have videos! Yayyy!

...actually I was going to use the videos for more of a visual component in the blog post but they are too big, and there's no way I can go re-record again.  So sadly I will just have to give you another bitly link even though I put in all that work to record myself using video...

https://bit.ly/40g0vs4

https://bit.ly/41uQjNl

(two takes I don't remember which is which)

(And yes I am wearing a bible quizzing shirt.  Yes it is cold in the basement and I am too lazy to go get a long sleeved shirt)

(As you can see it's not really that polished yet; I blank at random places, hit wrong notes often, and have extremely inconsistent tempo, but I'll keep working on it, and when I am set with it maybe I will put another post with the completed piece on here but I probably won't)

Anyhow the lack of work this week just means better procrastination.  Or I can just say "I was busy".

Thanks for reading this goodbye see you never probably

Commented on Chace Kim, Shaurya Sinha, Christopher Rowan

Blog #3, 3/28

Hello World,

Ok so I kind of forgot about this blog until today (Saturday), so I will have to do some catching up.  Just like last week I will do some "research" and also some actual composing stuff.  I think I have somewhat of a solid melody down so I will try to come up with some variations of the melody.  But of course I will start with the "research" part.  Also this is a cool new font but I don't like it that much, I'll try to stay consistent with it for the entire blog post though.  Oooh look it's a random image because I want to include a picture.  Gneiss

Research

1. https://www.musictheoryacademy.com/understanding-music/theme-and-variations/

Oh this is interesting, I thought it was only about making variations of a central melody but it is about a whole style of music.  I'm too lazy to go back and start over so I won't follow this exact same style but I can use elements of it to make variations of my melody.

This says that variations are made in four main ways: Melody, Rhythm, Harmony, and Time Signature.  Concerning the first one, melody, well, it kind of says that "you just do stuff", which is true.  It doesn't really tell me how but like can it?  I don't know.  Rhythm and Harmony are both helpful, but Key Signature?  I mean, it would still sound more or less the same with a different key signature.

Rating: 9/10

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3sugzHktc8

I agree with his first statement: It is hard enough for me to make an initial melody but then I just repeat it a lot and it gets boring.  A lot of it is DAW talk; I actually had a yearly subscription to Presonus Sphere but I didn't really know how to do it.  I should learn how to use it better sometime.  Ok so the video mostly talked about moving stuff around which I thought was cool but it was more oriented toward music production and stuff.

Rating: 6/10 (Good but not really good for what I am doing)

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KkDbc7XMa8

So this isn't an instructional video, I'm just watching how these people do variations on Paganini's 24th Caprice.  The first one is the original.  The second one keeps the same chord progression, moves the melody to a lower instrument and changes the meter.  The third one changes the meter again; the chord progression is still the same but it sounds different.  There's also an interesting change to the melody.  I don't know what to call it though.  The fourth one is really slow and doesn't really sound that much like the original.  I got too bored so I stopped paying attention to it so I'm not sure if it has the same chord progression or not.  The fifth one sounds really different from the original, albeit more than the fourth one.  There is like no chord progression.  The sixth one is weird, at this point they all sound nothing like the original.  Wait, the seventh one finally has the same melody and chord progression, it's warped really strangely though, I like this one.  Yeah sorry I don't feel like listening to it anymore.  I also watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcL0IsklM3M on the same thing and it was honestly easier to hear the melody in this one, but in the end it's really just the same thing. It is helpful but I'm not really looking to make something like this.

Rating: 6/10 (I mean the music was good but not that helpful for my purpose)

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gghl3GGsIo

Ok, that's it with variation things now, back just to looking at melodies.  This video seems kind of weird but I'll go ahead and watch it.  Ok it says that using octaves in the left hand is good because of some weird minimalistic thing.  And that's a really long chord progression (or maybe I'm just bad).  Ah now it's talking about melodies, that's good.  Something about using motifs and transposing them, and also with arpeggios and a lot of weird stuff.  I feel like this is more for advanced people.  Yeah I closed the video at the advertisement I don't want advertisements,

Rating: 6/10

As you can see I only have four sources this time... sadly.  Only 830 words too.  So sad.

Real Doing Stuff

This week I didn't actually do that much composing stuff but I did get a little bit in.  I still played it kind of bad but next week is spring break, which means more time to work!  Or more time to procrastinate, I guess.  We'll see what happens.

I couldn't figure how to embed my audio file (there's image and video but no audio), so here's a link: https://bit.ly/lukebraisted1

(If anyone knows how to embed audio please let me know that would be helpful)

And again, any and all suggestions would be super duper helpful.

Why are you down here?  What are you looking at?  Hehehehahaha

Commented on the blogs of: Andrew Nguyen, Kevin Gao, and Brandon Furman

Blog #2, 3/20

Hello World,

In this post I will document my "research" and will also include some ideas I have come up with.

Firstly, I got 2 points off on my timeline and I redid it - I'm not sure if I redid it well enough but here you go:

Research

I am doing a lot of research on melody-producing making. Here are the resources and stuff I used:

1. 

How To Write A Melody On The Piano (For Beginners) - YouTube

I am watching the video as I type.  The person goes through a lot of music theory basics that I know already.  I thought it was really interesting how she played every note of the scale over every single chord.  It definitely would be helpful because you would be able to hear how every note sounds with your chord progression.  However, I don't really know how you just "pick tones that sound good"; I will have to work on that.  I guess I'm not xNxx enough lol

Rating: First step is cool but meh 5/10

2.

How To Write A Song In 5 Minutes On The Piano - YouTube

Obviously this isn't going to be exactly what I am looking for but it will probably give me insights into how a piece is really made.

Too much repetition...

I don't actually like the piece very much.  And like what is it???

Rating: What on earth is this??? 2/10

3.

Another video with a different guy who seems to know what he is doing:

How To Improvise A Beautiful Melody on Piano (PDF Download included) - YouTube

The guy seems to be able to immediately get out a cool melody but I still don't know how he does it.  I haven't reached my goal yet then.  Maybe I have to work on that myself.  And still too repetitive.

Rating: Same as above 2/10

4.

Another video from a different channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj1VC_rfaP4

This seems like a FL Studio tutorial (I do have to learn how to use music production software eventually but not now)

Watching the guy make a melody was cool, I'm not sure if I'm learning anything though.

Rating: It sounded cool and was cool to watch but like didn't do anything sorry 3/10

5.

Another different video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA7gdz56LtY

Seems like what I am looking for.

Use notes from the chords - well duh but only using the notes from the chords won't sound that good, and I don't know how to manipulate notes that well either.

Passing notes - nothing I don't know yet.  Still, I am confused how these people take the notes and put them in the right time and place; I cannot do that.  Also really repetitive.

Yeah I got too lazy to listen to the whole thing

Rating: Interesting 6/10

6.

A website now

https://www.musictheoryacademy.com/composing-music/writing-a-melody/

Darn I have to actually put effort into making up random strings of music???  I thought I could just find the secret rules for thinking better... I am so sad now... 🍄

"Motif writing" seems intelligent.  I did that with the previous piece I made with my friend and am trying to do so now as well.  It also kinda sorta explains how it's done too.

"Writing a melody over a chord progression" also seems intelligent and manageable; I know what chords are and am good at playing around with those.  But then it says to just "improvise a melody".  Again that is my main issue...

Rating: Actually tells me stuff 8/10

7.

The last (for now): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD3VMQpTI48

Ok this seems helpful and also very simple and easy.  However I will not use the exact same chord progression and notes (it does seem kind of restricting).  The repeated chord progression also seems too repetitive.  I'm also not sure if this is the type of thing I should be looking for (improvisation sounds too jazz-y).  It also seems a bit too flexible.  I think it would be easy to mess around like this and sort of make it into a more suitable melody.

Rating: Spends 10+ minutes talking about a single trick 6/10

8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVuZp5gZCgA

Well, I was only going to do seven but I saw this one and it looked interesting enough to record down here.

It seems nice (gneiss) at first glance because I know how to find chords and a chord progression, and it tells you how to just build off of one of those.  It turns out I need a chord progression to make a melody.

Ok it seems super super simple, which has its upsides and downsides.  The simplicity will help with my bad-at-composingness and my laziness, but will also make it harder for me to further develop these simpler ideas.  (And my goodness that is an extremely ugly staff.)

Rating: Too easy?  But doable 7/10

In the end, a lot of these things are just ultra-specific tips and strategies.  They are helpful but there aren't many overall takeaways.

Add to important list: Start with a chord progression, there are no shortcuts (do random things until something sounds good), play around with different chord progressions which will help with improvisation and stuff

Real Stuff

Here is what I have come up with so far.  It is currently really bad and I do have to practice it more but I don't feel like it right now haha.  

https://bit.ly/ooohoogoogoohoogogog0

If you have any sort of suggestion please tell me I don't care how offending or mean it is just tell me so I can make it good

Commented on Evan Bananis, Stefan Preutu, Jack Pickel

Blog #1, 3/7

Post 1: Project pitch, expand on goals for project, begin research on music theory

Hello World,

First of all, this is my first time using any sort of blog thing so I really don't know what I am doing.  I may actually have the capacity to actually put somewhat-bearable content on here, but as I said earlier, I do not know what I am doing and do not know how to use Blogger.  I am sure I will learn about how the website is used more and more though.

Project Pitch

First, here is the required presentation I made for the project pitch: bit.ly/scrobiculatus-gp

I decided to work on my currently nonexistent music composition skills for many reasons:

I enjoy it- "Music composition" is something I enjoy; I have always liked just sitting down at the piano and playing random stuff.  That does not mean I am good at it, simply that it is a hobby.  However, I am sure that I would enjoy it if I could make something and listen to it without continuously cringing at how bad it is.

I have the resources- I believe that I have the resources required to do this.  First of all, I have played the piano since I was 4, took piano lessons for almost 10 years, and currently play the bassoon (look that up if you don't know what it is).  I also have somewhat of an understanding of basic music theory (which is something I would like to expand on in this project).  We also have two pianos and an electric piano at home for some reason.  To actually compose music, most people use some sort of composing software, which I know how to use.

It connects me with one of my friends- I moved from a school near Syracuse, NY.  At that school I actually had friends.  (Wow, a huge shocker.)  One thing I liked to do with one of my friends was compose on the piano.  I am not saying that the stuff we made was good, but it was better than what I can do by myself.  However, it was good enough that we actually kind of liked how it sounded.  It will be harder to compose without my friend doing some of the work too.

I should also have a timeline that maps out what I will do and when I will accomplish it.  However, a lot of my time will be spent on doing some music theory "research" (if you can call it that) and messing around on the piano.  Frankly, I do not really know how long that will take.  I do have somewhat of a timeline in my presentation, but it is very tentative and open-ended.

As for my goal(s), they should be pretty obvious: to make a piano piece that sounds good.  However, that is not all I want to be able to do.  Coming up with one piece that sounds cool is a good thing, but it could easily be the product of dumb luck.  As I stated earlier, I want to learn how to consistently make stuff that sounds good via my (hopefully) increased music theory knowledge over the course of this project.

Research

For my music compositon "research" (if you can really call it research) I read this article: https://www.davidnevue.com/pianoadvice2.htm

DISCLAIMER: This David Nevue guy says "song" instead of "piece" which is wrong because something is only defined as a song if it has words.

1. Start with the Melody- This part is something I really have to apply when I "compose music".  Remember my friend from above?  Well, in the piece we made together, he made the melodies (most of them) and I just added harmony and weird stuff.  I'm actually really bad at making melodies. I guess I have two months to learn.

2. What is your song about?- I don't know, I just press random stuff on the piano.  That may also be related to why I can never name my piece anything.

3. To Intro or Not to Intro?- I feel like I should worry about my intro later

4. The Anti-Melody Song?- These "mood pieces" sound disgusting.  No offense to anyone who may have made one

5. Follow the Muse- I'm not sure this would always lead to better quality material.  Is it worth abandoning all that you have done for one cool idea?  It depends how good it is I guess.

6. Repeat with Style- Yes, this is something I have to work on.  The few number of pieces I have actually made are all super repetitive.

7. Build Slowly, but Build Something- This is one of those weird loopy goopy stuff about "playing more musically" that my piano teacher used to always talk about.  I feel like this can be accomplished with a good harmony part.  I should actually come up with a spine first.

8. Mistakes Count- Well, when I am composing something, it obviously doesn't matter if I make a mistake.  What do you think i am doing, performing for the endless amount of people who just love listening to me play piano???? (I'm working on my sarcasm too.)

9. Change is Good- Similar to #6 about not being too repetitive, except across pieces.  I think it would be better for me to get a good piece first.

10. Keep it Simple- This is a good thing to keep in mind once I already have a song going.  If it has too much "stuff" in it it begins to sound bad.

11. Let Time Have its Way- ...I only have 2 months, OK???? 

12. Get a Digital Recorder- Well, nowadays, no one has to get a digital recorder.  But this is very helpful for me; often times when I come up with something that may actually sound good I forget it. :(

Thank you for helping me out David Nevue, despite saying "song" instead of piece.

Next post I will do some more research about coming up with melodies themselves; that is what I am really bad at.

Also, here is a piece I made with my friend:

https://bit.ly/ibq2022piece1

(If you really care that much, I played the low part and my friend played the high part.  So no, I was not the one who messed up.)

Here is another thing I am currently working on (with the same friend):

bit.ly/yellowboxtailsoup

As you can see this one has barely been worked on.

(Commented on: Evan Bananis, Christopher Rowan, Parth Patel)

Thank you for reading all this. :D

Post 0: Test Post

 Hello World!

I am learning how to use Blogger

>:O

🍄

hOOogohOHOgoHOgoohoogOHOHogohHOohogohg

Wow I am editing a post.

This is so cool and easy

Can I change the font?

Yes I can. :D

Ewww this is a terrible purple though

OK I am done testing (I am just seeing how BlogSpot is used, this will not be used in any official thing of course hehe