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[neon]

do you have a background in any instrument?

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

do you have a background in any instrument?

No.

[neon]

do you have a background in any instrument?

No.

my advice:  take up an instrument.  it's really the only way to become good at composing.

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

my advice:  take up an instrument.  it's really the only way to become good at composing.

I could tell that advice was forthcoming. So there's nothing remotely redeeming about any of the tracks I've made so far and you think that it's a waste of time until I follow the route you recommend? 

I realise that learning more music theory will help me a great deal, and this is something that I'm also working on. However, is what I have made so shit that I should trash it?

Do you have any actual feedback based upon what I have created?

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

Okay, upon further consideration, I think maybe I should keep my music learning to myself for a while. This isn't really the place for it, and it's not anyone's job to teach me basic music theory or to suffer beginner tracks like this.

[Mr. Yes]

Good luck! None of this stuff was horrible by any means though, at least in my opinion.

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

Good luck! None of this stuff was horrible by any means though, at least in my opinion.

Hmm, well thanks. I'm going to keep on producing music, probably trying to create something small every day or so for a while. I probably won't post them up, or I'll try to pick out the ones that are less terrible. I'm also reading more on music theory, and I had been paying attention to theory when making these tracks, but... yeah.

Unfortunately, another person just took the time to tell me that every track I had made was "amazingly bad" and "let's put it like this, you can only improve from here!". I fully expect to be a bit crap starting out, but it's not easy to improve when there's no feedback whatsoever, not even people saying which stuff is the MOST crap. I'm not asking for a pat on the back, but I am surprised that guidance is so hard to come by, especially when it is so easy to come by with regards to illustration.

my advice:  take up an instrument.  it's really the only way to become good at composing.

Coming back to this, could you be more specific as to what in particular was poor in the tracks that you listened to? Did you listen to them, or did you want to check I was a musician first?

[muku]

So there's nothing remotely redeeming about any of the tracks I've made so far and you think that it's a waste of time until I follow the route you recommend?

I actually found the harmonies in your plonky.mp3 quite well constructed; impressive, even, considering you have no musical background. I'll just say that I've been playing an instrument for as far as I can think back, and I still suck at composing music; so don't think that taking up an instrument will magically make a composer out of you. If I were you, I'd continue what you're doing now. You seem to have some talent, and also you have a keyboard, so I guess you'll be picking up some basic chops on that quite naturally as you play around with it. Learning an instrument proper is extremely time-consuming and maybe not worth your time if playing it isn't what you're really interested in. Just learn some theory (which you already seem to be doing).

[increpare]

Just a quick pop on here. in response to plonky, might I suggest you try out syncopating the rhythms a little; here's me humming over the original track a slightly more spacious rhythmic line (ignore the notes though ;P ).

One other strange thing, that you mightn't be aware of, is your use of offbeats in the second section.  It's sort of out of sync with the rest of the piece.  Here I try to clap a constant beat...only I don't think I could...I ended up back in time with the middle section before long, and I was out of time with the original section when it occurred.   I don't think it's a good or a bad thing as such, but I think it's worth keeping in mind.

Sorry I haven't commented more on your stuff; I find it much more laborious a task to listen to peoples music than to play their games.

Actually, Dock/Muku/Others: time for another music challenge, maybe aimed at addressing some concerns ye've been having recently?

[muku]

Actually, Dock/Muku/Others: time for another music challenge, maybe aimed at addressing some concerns ye've been having recently?

Sure. Since we're all having troubles of our own, though, under which heading would you put it to make everyone face their weaknesses?

[increpare]

Actually, Dock/Muku/Others: time for another music challenge, maybe aimed at addressing some concerns ye've been having recently?

Sure. Since we're all having troubles of our own, though, under which heading would you put it to make everyone face their weaknesses?

'face your weaknesses'

How about: each entrant has to post a link to one piece of prior work and I'll hand out an individual, cruelly challenging, brief to each?  I'll grade them depending on how well I think they satisfy these briefs (to this extent it's going to be non-democratic and at the mercy of my subjectivity; however I'm sure there'll be chitchat on the thread, and that individuals will be able to get something from it).  Someone else can do mine.

[muku]

Oooh, that's nasty. I'm up for it though, if other people are in too.

[Mr. Yes]

Oh my.

I just might.

[neon]

oh whoops.

sorry for not replying, dock.  it's not SHIT, but you could certainly do a lot better.  you just don't really have a foundation.. with that foundation, you'll have the basic tools needed to make a good song.

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

Neon, learning an instrument wouldn't necessarily grant me a foundation for composing music though.  I played guitar for a little while as a kid, and I can (or at least could) read sheet music, but I think composition interests me much more than performance.

Increpere, I like that idea. I'm up for it!

[increpare]

Neon, learning an instrument wouldn't necessarily grant me a foundation for composing music though. 

I agree.  IRL instrumental skills have some use, but are certainly not a requisite for the development of composition skills.

[agj]

dock, me and two friends just made an album. One of them had made music before, and he's good at it, though he has no formal training. The other can play a few instruments but had never composed before in his life. Me, I can't really play any instrument, and before the album I had only made about five songs. It was a lot more fun and satisfying than just making music on my own, and I learned lots.