# How does this fare as a virtuosic piano piece?



## level82rat (Jun 20, 2019)

I cannot play piano very well so I would like the opinion of those who can.

Is this piece playable? Are there any parts which would be uncomfortable/unnatural to play?

And of course I would also appreciate overall feedback about the composition.

https://musescore.com/user/31543940/scores/6113319


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## Torkelburger (Jan 14, 2014)

Our resident notation expert, Vasks, is going to eat you alive on this. But I’ll make a few comments I guess since I’m first.

The notation in the beginning looks clumsy and confusing. Why not just make them eighth notes and forget the ties? You don’t really want the bottom notes to just last a sixteenth do you? It would sound weird to my ears just to sustain the top note of every chord an eighth duration. The whole chord would be customary.

And why only the right hand? The right hand can’t roll the chords easily because of the number of notes in the chords and the interval span of the chords without clumsily tucking the thumb under. It would sound and play a lot smoother if you divided the rolled chord in between the two hands. And I would notate it on both clefs to make it easier to read.

Measure 9 is fine. I guess you don’t want melody here, which is okay. It seems a melody-less piece. You don’t have to be so conservative with the arpeggios at that tempo. It’s a closed position classical style, but in the Romantic era piano arpeggios of this nature used much wider leaps and are quite easily playable by pros (see Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Liszt, etc.).

The rhythm at measure 20 right hand is goofy and is a “computer rhythm”. Looks like computer dictated it and it is unquantized. You must change it and humanize it. Same for measure 21.


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## level82rat (Jun 20, 2019)

Torkelburger said:


> Why not just make them eighth notes and forget the ties?


I did that at first but what I found was that the top note became muddled under the arpeggio and the melody was hard to hear. The ideal way to notate that section is if I could put an accent only on the top note.



Torkelburger said:


> And why only the right hand?


It's meant to be played with both hands but Musescore does not provide an easy way to write one arpeggio over two staves. What ends up happening is the bottom and top staff start the arpeggio at the same time.

Thanks for the reply and I'll digest the rest of the critiques.


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## Torkelburger (Jan 14, 2014)

Oh, okay there is some melody then. Well, even without hearing it, I still might have further suggestions regarding melody.

The rhythm of the melody in the beginning looks monotonous because it is all eighth notes. Can you make it better with a variety of note values? You can still roll the chords and keep the texture the same.

Bar 9 might be more interesting expanded and with a melody. Also, you may consider getting rid of the blocked chords and keeping the arpeggio going throughout. Usually you don't always want constant notes in constant rhythm incessantly or it sounds like minimalism, but in the case of this style of arpeggios, the style is to keep it going and not break it up as you have here.


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## Torkelburger (Jan 14, 2014)

> I did that at first but what I found was that the top note became muddled under the arpeggio and the melody was hard to hear. The ideal way to notate that section is if I could put an accent only on the top note.


I also wanted to point out that you never want to compose or notate a piece in such a way as to accommodate the whims and capabilities and limitations of a computer or program. A professional would roll the chords correctly with the proper notation and that is all that matters, so you should notate the way a professional, living, breathing musician would prefer to see it, not to get a computer to play it right.


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