Asmon Rising

Hi Richard

Welcome, and thanks for the introduction.

As far as your piece is concerned: I think you have learned what there is to learn from it. I would add it to your demo reel, and move on to your next piece. Just keep on writing new works and pushing yourself out of a comfort zone.

Just on the practical marketing side for yourself, see if you can find some footage that would go with that music. People simply respond most positively when there is something to watch too.

Hope you stick around and do feel free to post works in progress or ask any questions

Cheers

Doug

 

Welcome to the forum, Richard, and thanks for sharing. I think your piece shows that you've got a good sense of phrasing that's going to serve you well as you continue writing. I'm sure Mike would say to put down the sounds and write on piano. The when, what and how of horizontal harmonic development is my own personal struggle, but it is easier to get to the heart of that work when it's exposed in piano sketching.

Looking forward to hearing more of your work over time as well.

John

 

Welcome, Richard

This is a nice musical creation.
As you note, it's in an epic style and I can understand your trepidation in sharing it cause that would appear to get a lot of flack on here, but I think this forum is more about crafting music well regardless of the style. And whatever it is, It's good to be able to do it.

There's more variation in dynamics, pacing and chord progressions than a lot of epic music, which is more work than most are willing to put in, so good job on that.
As far as what to improve, I think you have good instincts for your own weak points, the intro could probably be reworked for better flow as you say if you decide to keep this as a stand alone piece.

I've been here a bit but am new to commenting on people's work so I'm not sure what else to add except to keep hanging around on this forum, it's really the best place to be if you want to push yourself to grow as a composer.

 

Your track has better pacing and more worthwhile melodic ideas than a great deal of epic tracks. I'm far from a qualified person to give advice, but I'd agree that structure would be a good place to start. Tell a story with your piece.

If you haven't bought Mike's masterclasses, Comp 1, 2 and Structure are great places to start, IMO.

Most importantly, you're posting a piece and are open to critique. That's the most difficult step to take. You're not going to offend anyone with anything you post here -- we're all adults under the collective interest of growing in craft, and there are a lot of people that start influenced by "epic" music, myself included. The biggest risk for offense is the critique you may receive, but know that it is given honestly with a genuine desire to help you better your craft.

Some personal recommendations:
-There's a "Masterworks" thread where people have been collaborating on "essentials" of the symphonic world, found here. If you want to expand yourself into that world, the list can be found here "https://www.redbanned.com/threads/masterworks-a-comprehensive-collaborative-list.502/". If you're not used to this kind of music, take a single piece and listen to it a handful of times. What works for me (and my kids) is listening to a piece once or twice in the background to get familiar, and then listening more closely. After a while you'll be able to pick up patterns and it will make more sense to you.
-Transcription. Great thing to do on the regular. It's really the best way to learn everything from the ground up. I found the Lord of the Rings score a fun place to delve in as it's fairly simple and is probably one of the best examples of properly done "epic" music while still being manageable. Let me know if you'd like me to send you a score/MP3's. Mike has a video on the basics:

-Keep browsing, as you've mentioned. There are incredibly helpful people on here.