# Amateur Composition



## Celloissimo (Mar 29, 2013)

On occasion I compose, even though my knowledge of theory is just barely beyond the basics. I've yet to learn counterpoint, proper voice leading etc. The instrument I've had the most success with is the piano because it allows me to experiment with different chords and harmonies. My school orchestra conductor, to whom I've shown my attempts at composition, says that my music has to many 'paralells'. I believe I understand what he means but I don't know how to work past that. Any thoughts or advice?

This is the particular piece I had shown him. Any thoughts or advice? I am genuinely interested in learning more about music theory and composition so I can create more quality pieces and also enhance my appreciation of music as a whole.

http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/0ddeba90db903a91cdab809527eaf97a1028c2c4


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## Yardrax (Apr 29, 2013)

What your teacher meant by their being too many parallels is that in classical part writing we strive to avoid effects such as two voices moving to the perfect intervals of a fifth or an octave by similar motion, because this destroys the independence of the voices which is a goal of the style. For example, in the last two beats of bar nine and the first one and a half beats of bar ten you have a figure in the right hand with chords in root position going higher and pitch, you should be able to see how this results in successive intervals of a perfect fifth approached by similar motion. The same thing happens in the left hand in bars eleven and twelve. And then again at the final cadence in bars 16 - 17 in both hands. These are just the things that leaped out to me immediately when scanning the music.

You need to work on voice-leading. A decent harmony text like the one by Walter Piston should run you through the basics. Remember though, that what you've done isn't necessarily 'wrong', it just doesn't fit the criteria of a certain style. Parallels are allowed in music outside of the common practice period, in Debussy for example. It's good to be aware of the rules and why you might want to break them so that their existence has a purpose other than unfamiliarity with the idiom though.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

To add to "know the rules and why you might want to break them": 

Parallel fifths have a distinct sound which tends to jump out at the listener. Like singing in organum, or the sound of a string orchestra tuning. It's good to know when you want that and use it on purpose.

Parallel octaves can sometimes be a sign that the composer hasn't yet figured out what to do with multiple lines, so one line is dominating too much, in which case why not make that line a prominent melody and give the other lines some sort of accompanying pattern or obbligato -- just one of many possible solutions. 

As for this particular composition, I see where someone might complain about parallels in that a lot of the chords have the same lowest note in both hands, and the lowest notes move the same way at the same time. For me the larger issue is that this seems more like a piano exercise than a piece of music since it's mostly broken chords and a scale or two. Broken chords and scales can also be musically interesting if handled well, but my suggestion would be to try constructing musical lines either in your head, humming into a recording device, or by playing an instrument that doesn't do chords easily. See what you come up with.


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## ScipioAfricanus (Jan 7, 2010)

After looking at your interlude, let me say you have great ideas and enthusiasm, but your lack of counterpoint knowledge is evident. You have lots of parallels as your teacher pointed out and lots of 4ths. But I will say this, if you apply yourself diligently to counterpoint studies you can improve in as little as 3 months. Get gradus parnassum and use the following worksheets http://www.tc.umn.edu/~ston0235/pdf/fux_workbook_0.1.pdf


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## ScipioAfricanus (Jan 7, 2010)

Ps. I will attempt to clean up your composition tomorrow.


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## ScipioAfricanus (Jan 7, 2010)

I made some adjustments to your score, and tried to limit the parallel fifths and parallel octaves.
http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/1ddaa05cb3379948b20263739ef5c7d9f8a7da3b


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## Celloissimo (Mar 29, 2013)

Thanks for all the enthusiastic feedback! Your responses are very helpful and also quite educate and thorough. Scipio, I appreciate you taking the time to edit my composition. Now that I understand what my flaws I am currently working on learning better foundations of harmony and counterpoint/voice leading. This was awesome and exactly what I was looking for.


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