Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Robbie vs Tonality

Well, time to catch up on some of this blog writing
The last one I attempted ended up getting erased because I kept it open too long and when I went to finally send it it came up for me to sign in again and I couldn't retrieve the majority of it. So I got discouraged! But here I go again..

Upon completing my three pieces for solo piano I realized how dependent I am on tonality. I was somewhat pleased with my compositions, but at the same time I found them to be relatively predictable melodically as well as lacking a sense of direction. I also find it, ironically, to be a lot more difficult to write for solo piano than other compositions I've written for. Possibly to do with the fact that I'm writing in my comfort zone and a lot of the time only writing things that I can play myself.
For the next assignment I tend on stepping completely away from the piano to try and break some bad habits. It's too much of a safety crutch for my writing and it tends to lead me to the same sort of ideas. I'd like to try and be more free with the use of tonality by stepping away from cliche melodies and harmonies and not be afraid to get a bit ugly instead of writing things that seem more naturally pleasing to the ears. My pieces usually contain a lot of passages that can be repeated consecutively over and over (like a chord pattern or 'riff' in popular music) but I would like to focus more on creating transitional sections.

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