Hello newgrounders!
Here is a waltz I've made for the NGAUC's knock out round on the "pro amateur" panel.
A little bit of romantic inspiration went into it. There are two 4/4 bars somewhere. Let's find'em! :)
I used my Yamaha PSR S-500 to play the song, and I used reason 5 to record and edit the result. Hope you enjoy!
Sorry it took a while, but I'm finally here to leave a review!
This is such a beautiful little piece. I love the chord progressions in this <3
The dynamics at play here are quite incredible too. Really nice playing, you've really mastered the use of the grace note ;)
I honestly have nothing bad to say about the piece. Great job, all around :D
Thanks a lot!! Your reviews are always heartwarming. Your opinion is always considered because I know you are a really talented musician. You give me this little confidence boost I'm lacking sometimes. I'm glad you enjoyed the dynamics and chord progression.
I tried a chromatic chord progression in the end, and finished this E minor song in E major. I never did it before, it's always cool to explore new territories. But well, I know that you know it too. Your music always has a unique touch to it.
Thanks again for this lovely review ;)
R4R, but this isn't going to be any normal R4R, no no no; since this is also an NGAUC entry, I'll need to give it a proper review :)
You seem to be pretty good at piano! Better than me, at least, as you can actually pull off rolls and trills and octave runs :/ Was this a freestyle or did you write it first and then go off the music?
The rubato sounds very natural as well! Although there are a couple spots where I get a bit disoriented by the tempo (ex 1:07 and 1:22), in general the accels and ritards are very clear and definitely enhance the piece! Of course, all part of your ability to play piano, right? Oh, and by the way, the 4/4 bars are at 1:19 :)
I'm no expert in waltzes or any of that stuff so I'll just refrain from commenting there
Do I have any criticism for you? I guess maybe... more interesting harmonies? I felt like some of the notes you played were a bit harmonically dull, if you know what I mean :/ Try harmonizing the melody in the right hand or using more major and minor 7ths every now and then. I don't know :/
Overall, very nicely written and played piece! I've written solo piano before, so I'm not exactly new to the sound - but I have never written or really listened to waltzes before, so that's definitely new territory! 9/10, 5/5, good luck!
Thank you very much for this review and your appreciation!
I've been playing piano for 10 years, it's my favorite instrument too :3
This song is the result of 3 freestyle recordings of around 30 minutes each, always keeping the wanted style and theme in mind. I chopped what I think were the best 2:20 of it, then I worked on resulting midi file. This song is around 90% original from the recording. I enhanced some ritard, rubatos, crescendo and decrescendo, corrected some flaws, but it kept 90% of its original essence.
You got disoriented by the tempo right there (1:07-1:10 and 1:19-1:22), where the 4/4 bars are + it slows down. Because the rest of the song is in 3/4, this bar seems to have a very long and slow 3rd beat instead of a 4th beat. I was minding about how people would feel about these bars :)
Harmonies, that's a good point. There are some brieve sus2, sus4, and 7ths, but it's overall mainly on the natural notes. I love this sound, I personally think it makes a classical song sound more like it's coming from the romantic era. But I'm far away from a Chopin level of skills, so I'll work on harmonization for sure! Thanks for the tip! ;)
Welcome in the waltz world, and thanks for this lighting review! Take a look to chopin's waltz if you want to go further in this territory, and good luck in the contest you too!
Please contact me if you would like to use this in a project. We can discuss the details.
sebastien01 
