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Hello, there. This is my first post. I am an amateur composer in Japan. A person who was interested in my composition kindly referred to this forum and suggested to post my music.

Eternal River

Any suggestions or comments will be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Do you also have the sheet music of it?

No. Though I have messy memo for the music even I myself cannot read it now.

Its very suited for film.

snap_apple,

Thank you for your comment. I imagined a story of a reunion of lovers over hundreds of years by a river which runs unchanged.

Very very nice music! Very tranquille and soothing.

If you ever publish this work of yours let me know.

Thank you for your warm comment. When I find time to make sheet music of it, I will certainly post it here.

I'm an 'adult beginner' when it comes to music, so I can't offer any advice - all I will say is I thought that was a fantastic piece of music! I very much enjoy orchestrated 'movie' music, and your piece certainly had me listening hard for the 6 minutes. It was beautiful!

Keep up the great work!!

Euan.

Very pretty, though also a bit sad; I saw it less as a reunion between lovers (which I would've thought would result in a happier melody) but instead as the story of two lovers kept apart by forces beyond their control.

A lot of amazing music is coming out of Japan these days, e.g., anime scores. Your piece sounds like it could also easily fit in that genre.

*chuckles* Now I can't say what I was going to say....

I suppose I'll say this instead: The overall theme sounds almost perfect for a very specific scene in a novel I'm writing. (Actually, it could work very well for two linked scenes.)

However, there are some moments where the orchestration seems a bit 'heavy' and a little overbearing (bad word... "blocky"), given how light and moving the piano part is.

Still, I couldn't help but picture that one scene listening to the piece...so good job! I think you got what you intended out of it....

Euan,

Thank you very much for your kind and warm words. It is very encouraging. Certainly I will be back if I come up with something new.

Sincerely,

Thank you, Monica.

I agree that putting a bit sad music behind even a happy ending is typically Japanese

Some of anime scores are very well written recently so that I am very glad to hear your comment.

Sincerely,

Thank you, Derulux, for your kind comment.

I will once again review the sequence with your comment in mind. I would be much appreciative if you could kindly point out specific or typical "blocky" part of music. Maybe the part where the piano plays big arpeggio? Is the strings too thick?

Sincerely,

I can see why u name the song river because I definitely feel the flow of river at 4:00 of the song. Fantastic technique!
Also, I can hear a second melody on your accompany hand (left), that sounds amazing. (Im learning that technique)

There is one little comment:
At the beginning, dont repeat the theme for more than 2 times.

This song is great and I think some1 will buy your song if you do the music business.

Do you mind teaching me how to make the feeling of river flow. That's one of the techniques I want to learn.

You know, I'd have to listen to it again... but I remember nearly every spot where "all the instruments" came in I felt like it was just too much for what the piece is. It could just be me, though.

(You might want to keep a balance that brings out the piano more in those sections, just so it doesn't "slip away" and disappear...I think that's when you lose the "flowing" sense the most.)

Certainly I notice in some moments the piano is "buried" in other instruments and it might give the sense of losing the "flowing". I have to refine the orchestration.

Thank you very much for your advices.

Sincerely,

4:00 is a combination of arpeggio of piano and melody by strings. Though I am not sure which part you refer to as the "second melody", the strings are playing a quasi-canon. (2nd part chasing the last half of the 1st part melody.)

I have to admit this rather lengthy tune is based on one simple and short melody. So that it is natural to feel it is too repetitive though I tried best to make audience not bored... In the beginning, the idea was repeated twice with the up scale in the end, then a different idea comes in, but it is followed again the idea twice, this second time repetition may be omitted.

Not at all. I think the feeling comes from the arpeggio. The piano plays a fast passage but it is simply repetition of 3 notes, such as a, c, and e. (A moll chord). You can play with both hands, like a, c, e, a, c, e, a, swiftly then you will change your hands position one octave above then repeat the same. I hope it works for you too.

Thank you very much for your comments.

Sincerely,

I'm just an amateur, so you can take this with a grain of salt. It is extrememly pretty and relaxing. Before I read your description of what you were thinking in writing it, I even could imagine standing by a calm, tranquil flowing stream in a forest.
I hear a constant rhythmical arpeggio pattern throughout the piece which is pretty, but have you considered varying that perhaps in the middle of the piece. - Say the arpeggio pattern at the beginning, then something that aids in getting a little more intense in the middle like some harmonic blocked chords in an interesting varied rhythm while in keeping with the smooth flow, and then back to the arppeggio pattern at the end. I kept waiting to here some variation along the way from the arpeggio. I heard a lot of good variety with the other instruments that were brought in. It sounds overall really nice.

I was just curious, what sofware do you use for composing? What did you use for recording? Did you play the piano yourself for the recording? The piano playing sounds wonderful! The recording sounds really good too!

Thank you, sarabande, for your kind words. Yes, some rhythmical variation could be added, I agree. It will give the theme a different expression.

Here is my gear list:

Sequencer: SONAR 2.2 XL
All the sounds were generated by Garritan Personal Orchestra including piano and exported as a .wav file directly from SONAR.
The mp3 encoder was "lame". The recording has been done partially by my playing MIDI keyboard real time and the rest by step note input.

Sincerely,

are u able to do this recording live?

thanks for helping by the way

Do u mean that u compose the song in midi then export it thru a sequencer(is it a hardware or software)?

Not sure how to do this (the ambient feeling)

Hi,
Nice song. It sounded to me YANNISH, Am i correct. Are u influenced by Yanni? but nice sound of strings in the background. Personally I would like to see more variations on the Piano not just repeating same chords as arpeggios but hey for the new Age kinda feeling that u created I guess this is good. Overall good sequencing.

For most part, yes. But some tricky part, I would have to practice intensively

Sincerely,

Yes. All the parts are written in SONAR (i.e. in "midi") and generated by Garritan Personal Orchestra. Used instruments are flute, oboe, clarinet, fagot, french horns, 5 parts of strings and piano. Some reverb were added by a VST plug-in called "Ambience" which comes with Garritan Personal Orchestra.

Sincerely,

Thank you very much, Tonic.

One of my friend said this was "Yannish". At that time I did not know Yanni at all. Actually, Yanni is not popular in Japan. But I think this particular tune of mine has some feeling common with the artist's.

I appreciate your pointing it out about the piano part. I need to more work on more flexible treatment of piano part. The piano part could be more vivid with some more variations and applying different chord implementations.

Thanks again for your kind advice.

Sincerely,

Im somehow trying to get Steinberg grand 2,would that work with sonar?

A friend of mine is using Steinberg Grand 2 on SONAR and he says it works wonderful.

(PS) Another source says when you play MIDI keyboard real time to drive Grand 2 it would be very heavy (longer latency) though the version supports DXi so that SONAR can be a native host to the plug-in.

So that means if i want to have low latency playing grand 2 in real time, i need to get Cakewalk
VST Adapter?

*Note: I will be getting Sonar5
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/VSTAdapter/default.asp

I just want to make sure

KAM, I do not have direct experience with Grand 2 or SONAR 5. I would recommend you to visit Cakewalk Users Forum and ask for further information.

Sincerely,

I think I figured out how to use grand 2 with CubaseSX, but just cant make the audio sound as great as yours (not enough ambient feeling)

Nevermind Jun, I added ambient sound and it's so much better

As far as I hear the demo of "Grand", it seems great sound module. You might want to apply some good reverb. I use Magnus's "Ambience" which comes with Garritan Personal Orchestra. Ambience is a donation ware.
Magnus Plugin

Just for your information.

Sincerely,

Cubase comes with it so im going the native one,
thanks anyway

Im wondering how old are you, u might go to the music business route with such skills.

I was born in late 50's. I cannot write music with deadline so I cannot be in the music business

Sincerely,

Jun:

Your piece of music is beautiful. I LOVE it. What is your musical background? (Assuming your still out there visiting this forum from time to time...)

Jeanne W

Umm.. Wow, that was wonderful.
That was so smooth like.
I really enjoyed that after a long hard day of baseball.

Let me say again, wonderful. Beats the songs I've tried to compose.

Jeanne W,

Sorry to be late in reply.

I started learning classical piano in my childhood and had learned classical composition for two years. I was in a jazz/fusion band as a keyboard player for about 10 years.

Sincerely,

Solo Piano,

Thank you very much for your encouraging words.

Sincerely,

That was a beautiful piece of music. The way the music flowed over you it was really quite amazing.

Jun:

Would you comment on what kinds of things you learned when taking classical composition and which you felt most valuable to you as a composer? How/what you applied to your work in composing music?

Jeanne W

Fledge,

Thank you very much for your kind comment.

Sincerely,

Jeanne,

Harmony (4 voices, realization on bass, realization under soprano), counterpoint (fugue), composition of chamber music such as violin sonata, etc.

Everything I leaned from my classical composition lessons is, has been and will be very valuable in my composing. Anywhere in my composition, if possible, I try to wright all the voices "correctly" in the sense of classical harmony and counterpoint except I break the rule intentionally because of absolute necessity.

Also, lessons trained my ear very much. I can imagine written sounds in mind without piano or other instruments to some extent now.

All the above said, I think most important thing you would learn from classical lessons is how professional composer (musician) is serious on each single note of music. And to know what is music, anyway.

Sincerely,

I can't get it to work - I click on Eternal River and I just get a screen of characters which I can't read.

Simon,

Thank you for your interest.

I think the server is down.

Please try either download.com or acidplanet.com

http://music.download.com/junyamamoto/3600-8501_32-100293553.html?tag=listing_song_artist

http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=445551&T=9741

Sincerely,

That's great! I wish I'd written it. You should write music for films. Amateur composer? I think you could give alot of professional composers a run for their money.

Simon,

Thank you very much for your kind comment.

Sincerely,

Would very much like to ear the piece, but if i click on the link i end up in page writen in japanese that altough i don´t know what it´s writrn there it looks like an error message.

If i right click and save target as i get a message saying that the site can´t be found...

Sorry, outro.

The server seems to be down. I uploaded the tune to the following. Please try this link.

http://jun.music.coocan.jp/music/eternal.mp3

Or you might want to try the following two sites:

http://music.download.com/junyamamoto/3600-8501_32-100293553.html?tag=listing_song_artist

http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=445551&T=9741

Sincerely,

"Also, lessons trained my ear very much. I can imagine written sounds in mind without piano or other instruments to some extent now."


Just heard it, realy nice and well built, definetly with a strong japanese longing, sorrow
like thematic, you honor your great country with the piece.

I´m also what you could call an amateur composer, altough my classical training just started 5 months ago.

What you said (above quote) realy interessted me, music comes from my head, from there i put on the computer or guitar or more recently the piano, altough after 5 months lessons i realize i can note down simple melodies and harmonies directly on paper, as long as they don´t stray too much from c major wich is the beginers key
as i have come to realize it. Of course tha music
i write is most of the times more complex, and i have also realised by analising my pieces in the computer (know that i kind of know how) that i use a lot of acidental notes in any given key signature.

I dream of the day i can just put down on paper all this going on my head, without having to go home and sit in front of the computer.

Has this happend to you? have you found yourself
being able to imagine writen notes, and progressively more complex music along the years? Do you believe i´ll get better at it with time?

outro,

Thank you very much for your kind words and I would like to answer your question.

I also wish if I could write like Mozart, directly from his brain.

Good composers can write without help of any instruments. Actually, I know Mr. Ikebe, a famous composer in Japan, says he can work (write music) anywhere even in a hotel room without any instrument.

But I cannot. I need piano or computer. What I can deal with in my brain is very simple music.

I think the capability to deal with music without instrument can be trained and get better. The better you get in your solfege the better you can "grasp" your music. So I think it is desirable and recommendable to train your "musical brain" by solfege or other methods.

On the other hand, using instruments, including computer, is nothing wrong in music making. What is important is the music you create but not the process you get there.

So that I recommend to both write music (with piano and computer) and do solfege. In that way, I believe we can be better composers day by day.

Sincerely,