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Is this a perfectly structured composition?

Discussion in 'Critique & Feedback' started by Abdulrahman Al-Othman, Feb 18, 2019.

  1. Some of you may get his inspiration from John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore or James Horner, but there's only one man that drives me crazy with his extraordinary skills to come up with unforgettable melodies and he is Alan Menken. If I decided to play piano, I want to because of him. To become like him. His great sense of motif is just outstanding. I grew up with Disney golden classics. Their music affect me all the time. Like most of you said, I see a lot of composers who rely on production tools to produce music rather then in a composition level. Most of them now follow the epic/trailer type of music or they hide behind massive choir and percussion. It still amazes me till this day that Howard Shore composed, orchestrated and conducted his own film scores!
     
    Samuel Diaz likes this.
  2. Composers who aren't musicians are in an insanely small minority.

    Doug posted about learning piano and mentioned becoming proficient "enough" in about 5 years. That's not a very long time. It tends to be relatively easy to tell which composers can actually play music. It seems like a strange modern phenomenon to be disconnected. Whatever one's inspiration, it's worth it.

    I was in your shoes a few years ago until I decided to pick it up and go for it. It's certainly benefiting how I approach composing.

    Re: Howard Shore -- he's a pretty fantastic example of a modern composer that "does it all", but composing (at an instrument), orchestrating and conducting all used to be kind of a given with composers. Hisaishi even plays piano while conducting.
     
    Dillon DeRosa likes this.
  3. He plays the violin too. The man is a beast!
     
    Rohann van Rensburg likes this.
  4. I didn't want to mention Joe, because he is not human XD
     
  5. These guys just aren't from a time where all you need to consider yourself a composer is a pulse.

    Part of the point of Redbanned is to create a community of expectations; a bar to hit. We get like the people we're with. These guys came up surrounded by higher expectations and minimum buy-ins. A composer who can read and write and play a few instruments wasn't considered some sort of miraculous genius.

    This is no small part of the reason why the only media we have on in our house is stuff produced by masters; by brilliant people with challenging ideas, philosophies and consummate skill. I've had to artificially construct a world of higher expectations for my son, because the second we step outside, it's Idiocracy, and Brawndo's got electrolytes.
     
  6. Love Alan Menken too! One of my all time heroes and I agree, it's fascinating to watch him perform all his famous and memorable tunes right after another on YouTube. Genius!
     
    Abdulrahman Al-Othman likes this.
  7. I'm realizing how much I'm doing this for my 2 year old daughter, too. As my taste develops and I better understand what made masters "masters", the more I'm emphatic about it. Luckily my wife is on board. I figure it's worth saturating them with masterful works while I'm still in relative control of what media she consumes -- she'll be able to figure it out for herself later.

    It's promising that she almost exclusively requests Hisaishi's, Williams', or Tchaikovsky's music now (and Coltrane, for some reason). Interestingly, despite having heard simpler pop songs and the like too, it's this music that's lasted the longest. She's been obsessed with the Imperial March and Hedwig's Theme for about 5 months already, which is incredibly long for a toddler.
     
  8. Draco hears current stuff at his activities; Tae Kwon Do or whatever. He can enjoy a thing for awhile and then quickly burn out on it, and he understands why. His regular go-to playlist has tons of great stuff on it, and that's the stuff he really likes, sings all the time, and stays with him. A curious mix of hyper-complex film cues, jazz charts, and 80's pop. We get like the people we're with.
     
  9. That is why this song is on my playlist:

     
  10. You know, @Mike Verta I'm enjoying going through your videos with my new brand expensive notebook :)
    You should sell your classes in bundle. You think that's a good idea to tell the buyer what classes he/she should pay together?
     
  11. #31 Rohann van Rensburg, Feb 22, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 22, 2019
    Ditto here. She's only 2, but she's been a consistent fan of a strange blend of Giant Steps, Milestones, Queen, certain guitar virtuosos like Nick Johnston, and greats like Williams and Tchaikovsky. She of course doesn't know why yet, but does burn out on catchy pop songs surprisingly quickly. I find it somewhat tragic that so many people expose their young children only to things they believe those children are capable of grasping. It took time, but she can pick out basic instrument sections in Williams pieces. It completely depends on what they're exposed to.
     

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