Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Composer's Lounge How to attract peoples attention from the first seconds?

For 2 years now, I have been composing music, recording it on my phone, and maybe send it to my sister for feedback, get no reply (I know I will be killed after this post :D) and thats it!! I do nothing with my music afterwards. But latelty I decided to publish my works.

However, there is a problem that I am facing: I don't attract people attention from the first seconds of my piece.

Here is one of my original pieces, I would really appreciate your feedback and comments

[video:youtube]cptn4AI8yhg[/video]

I think the strongest idea came 40 seconds into the piece -

If you think about the way great composers have grabbed our attention and kept it -they use a short idea -which is a bit like call and response -Take the form of a musical sentence -We have an idea -this is repeated -perhaps exactly or transposed (often from a statement in the tonic to the dominant -)Then the idea kind of evaporates -setting up a return -It is one of the most powerful ways of grabbing a listeners attention -

In pop music the simplest way of creating a hook, is to have a rhythmic and melodic idea -which keeps returning - Think of the chorus to Bowies' Rebel Rebel -The Rebel Rebel bit always comes back and its first answer is more or less repeated until the 5th line - The famous riff to Smoke On The Water - begins with three rising notes -then it is answered by four notes -the last two falling in contrast -The first two notes are retained -Then the first idea returns exactly -with the final two falling notes answering - This is so simple -but the impact is undeniable -

Grabbing the attention of a listener -can be achieved by call and response -or idea and contrasting idea -

In your piece you begin with a nice rocking harmony -but nothing really jumps out -get your motives in early, if you want to grab your listeners attention -

Study how composers use repetition and contrast -and you will soon learn how to make your music have greater impact -

Thanks a lot for your comments. Do you recommend any specific composers to listen to?

Your little intro grabbed my attention, then I realized it was just a video introduction and after the fact realized it's the strongest idea in this piece. In this piece you set up the underpinning and gradually build to the first strong idea about :40. I would just start there, but listening to more of it you need to be more selective about your structure. This piece seems to jump from idea to idea and the sudden shifts of mood and texture aren't always convincing. Some might be more convincing if you made the effort to transition from section to section more often and varied your thematic ideas more (as opposed to just repeating them). Sudden changes are most effective when they are rare. BTW, that theme used in the video intro annoys me, but also sticks around (ear worm alert!). That's a good thing, but you should find ways to vary it. I still remember the advice of my composition professor, "Never repeat yourself exactly." The implication being to always make small changes.

Good luck.

You can't go wrong by studying Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven and John Williams -I have books full of analysis -with the motives given letter names -a1, a2 b1 ,b1+ -partial motives are circled - etc The sections are labelled A1 -bridge -B1 etc The B section will sometimes borrow motives from the first theme, but I generally label them afresh -a's and b's and c's etc, belonging to that section --I have my own little system. I am sure you can develop one of your own - Who better to teach you composition, than a genius? Mozart has some amazing phrase structures -
I love the Piano Concerto k488 -it is so inventive -

You have some good ideas, but listeners will not go digging for them, and yours are hidden amidst other stuff.

A lot of times people will keep everything they write, because it helped them get to the really good idea. Often this involves writing from start to the finish - in the order the piece will be performed.

The thing is, the stuff leading to the good stuff isn't very interesting sometimes. Dump whatever isn't great. You can write more that will create a "need" for the great stuff - think of it as setting it up. In this case, you'd actually be writing backwards, but it's better to do things out of order like this.

Do you notate your music at all? If not, it will really help organize your ideas.

The progressions were cliche and the melodies were a bit uninspired. Is your goal to sound "new age"? You clearly have no idea what the piano can do. Are you actually interested in writing better piano music? If you are, study the Chopin, Debussy and Rachmaninoff preludes.

Yes I would agree with Joel.
but not be condescending as in his remark,
'You clearly have no idea what the piano can do'.

Sure, study Chopin, Debussy or whoever ....
listen a great deal.

If you want to compose
with originality
it calls for deep exploration
and being not afraid to be discerning