Fantastic stuff. The transitions were smooth so it never felt jumpy to me.
Reviews for "Misguided Passion"
LucidShadowDreamer responds:
Thanks! You've got some pretty cool stuff yourself ;)
Oooo....it's very graceful and classy-sounding. Makes me think of a ballroom in 18th century England. XD It's very hard for me to determine the structure or even time-signature at times, though. It's very flow-y, as opposed to transitional. In other words, the title fits well, although at times it is a bit...all-over-the-place. Sorry if I'm not expressing this well. Just got back from an 8-hour shift at work. It doesn't seriously detract from my enjoyment from the piece, but I think it would be a good idea to add a little more dynamic contrast or transitional material, just to keep the listener grounded. I think you're a FANTASTIC pianist, btw. Was this improvised? I've always admired your improvisation skills, LSD. Anyway, nice work again! ;) You've been a frequent contributor to the classical playlist on my iPod recently. 0_O
LucidShadowDreamer responds:
Hey, thanks for leaving a review right after working for so long!
I don't even know the time signature myself if I don't think about it XD
I agree with you about the flowiness. Almost everything is connected, with the exception of parts like 1:25 and so on :p
This is all over the place indeed, which brings me to the question of whether this was improvised or not. It's not improvised, but yet, it kind of is, which may explain the lack of the transitional aspect. What I mean is, this piece was created by inventing a part, improvising until I got a good idea, and I just kept playing the piece from start to wherever I was 100+ times (during about 3 days), until I had a finished piece, stuck in my muscle memory. Thus, most parts were initially improvised, even if I play them exactly the same now ;)
Some segments had more thought behind them though.
Btw, I could NEVER improvise this well in one take :D
"just to keep the listener grounded"
=> The good thing about a constant flow is, you will sometimes teach people how to fly ;)
No but seriously... That's actually how some forms of hypnosis works, and you enter a trance-like state while listening to music too :'D
"I think you're a FANTASTIC pianist"
=> Thanks once more! I did edit out some mistakes though >:D
Yay, frequent contribution ftw!!!
I'll probably begin uploading old stuff while I'm away, so this might be the last piece of somewhat high quality for a while. Still, I have like 20 or so songs at least that can still take uploading while I'm gone :p
If your objective was to make something easy to play, you've probably failed. :D This sounds complicated, but shows off your piano talent extremely well. Great work! Is there sheet music for this anywhere? I really want to learn it.
It starts off like a typical classical song, but begins to sound a lot more interesting come 1:07. Once I heard that, the piece transformed from 'this is fun to listen to' to 'wow, I really want to learn how to play this!', probably because of the fun-sounding chromatic variations.
Then at 1:26, the double notes make it sound operatic. I think this part could've used more power behind the notes, but I'm not sure how much you can edit the velocity in your software. If you could, though, it would've sounded awesome to go ALL THE WAY!
Afterwards, we get a section with tons of grace notes. I think it was at that point that I realized that from listening to the song alone, it sounded more like it was written to be fun to play and not necessarily easy to play.
The way your left hand arpeggiates (is that a word?) downwards at 2:17 creates such an awesome effect, although I definitely wouldn't have minded a bit of panning to go along with it. And then at 2:42 we get to another part full of epic-sounding chords. I really think that, similarly to 1:26, you could've made the notes a lot more forceful.
The whole song was fun to listen to because it had tons of variation (save the ending, which felt a little bit drawn out). I don't really agree with your description, though: I couldn't really see quality coposition in this piece. It had beautiful composition, but it was definitely lacking in coposition.
It does sound a lot like your other songs, probably because of similar chord progressions in the more conventional-sounding parts of the song and the way you play your chords note-by-note quickly (I'm sure there's a proper term for this but it's slipped my mind for now). Also similarly to your other songs, it would sound great with orchestral backing. Someone should work on that.
Anyways, great track! I'll be listening to it for a while. If sheet music for it doesn't exist yet, is there any way you could make it happen? :D Good luck in the army!
LucidShadowDreamer responds:
Hahha, thanks a (wait for it) MILLION for the review ;)
Shows off my piano talent? Well, I guess. I didn't cheat a lot, but I DID edit out some minor mistakes in the MIDI file ;)
Which is also what I sent to you, as I'm not that great at (or have the energy to) create sheets for this :p
Yeah, The different parts in this song are a bit random, but sometimes that's a good thing I think XD But that explains why it starts off so different than it becomes :p I think there was definitely some inspiration from Gustavo Santaolalla's Main Theme from "The Last of Us" here and there, especially at 1:07. I like to experiment with new things, and I rarely use that specific chord change (in this key, from E minor [with the perfect fifth in the melody] to C7 with the 7 in the melody). I really suck at explaining chords...
I wasn't sure about wether I should use the double notes or make them singular, for this specific reason. I had a difficulty with getting more power out of that part, as there's a limit to how powerful something can be with most electronic pianos... I really would've wanted to play this one on a real grand piano :D
If I vould've added more velocity with the software, there would be a lot of clipping, which is not okay... I could've brought the entire song volume down and focused more on that part, forcing the listener to heighten the volume, I guess :/
What can I say? I like to play with grace notes every now and then XD
At this point I had definitely began to focus more on making the piece fun to play, through some improvisation and remembering, which indeed did NOT make this song easier to play :D...
Lol, are you asking me? I'm not a native speaker :p If it's not a word, it should be ;)
I usually use this bassline/whatever in much more dramatic places (I love the effect from it), but I could fit it here. ARRRGGGHHHHH you're totally right!
I'm thinking I should've separated the right and left hand in the MIDI file, and re-record them separately :/ That way, panning the left hand would be the easiest thing in the world!
Myabe someday I will become smart, and quit being lazy :)
You're right about 2:42 too :p
But... But... I like the ending D:
It ties so well to the beginning o.O
:(
I like variation, mostly. It's good to have a balance between repetitive and varying. Even if I use the same melody several times, I often play it in a new key, and sometimes with different chords and baselines too :p
This piece though, varies quite a lot (even if 1:26 for instance has the same idea as in the beginning of the song [after the intro], and 2:42 uses the same chords but a different melody and such).
I didn't understand your joke at all until I noticed my typo XD Now I'll have to leave it there in order for the joke to work! Thanks hahha :D
I don't fully agree with your next comment, but mostly. I agree that this sounds a lot like some of my other stuff, but I don't think it has much to do with the chords progressions :)
I use a lot of different chords (as well as progressions) in every piece, so I'm convinced that it's my style of playing and using the chords/melodies that makes this similar, as you also mentioned XD
That note by note playing probably has a name, which seems to have slipped my mind too :)
Yeah, I tend to overuse it... A LOT :'D
I did use some other things too though! Like... Like... at 1:25 for example, and especially at 1:40!
And then I go back to the thingy... It's easy okay D:
I'd love to master the orchestral genre some day when I have the time and motivation (aka. lack of laziness).
Once again, thank you for your long, extensive and helpful review! No sheets, but the MIDI can actually be turned into sheet music by some programs ;)
Yay... The army... I can't wait...
:')
Absolutely stunning. You've won yourself a new fan.
LucidShadowDreamer responds:
Thanks a million! I'm glad you like the composition, and thanks for becoming a fan XD
This is amazing mang ;D!
LucidShadowDreamer responds:
Hey, thanks man!