MaestroUGC's Compositions *In Progress - Symphony No. 2 in D minor - Mvt. I-IV*

[MaestroUGC]

I'm not worried about compressing draft music for an album release.

In fact I'm more interested in documenting my process and progress on this project at this point.

[FireArrow]

I really like the classical feel your music has, my advice would me to make your melodies catchier and work on thematic development. TBH your songs start to drone after about 20-30 seconds. Another neat idea would be to make the melody livelier, not for this song,but in general,  pick something like a flute and just let it shine through rather than sink into the harmony. Oh, and don't forget to add those orgasmic melody peaks.

My previous comment was semi-serious. It's extremely rare for a video game song to go past 2 or 3 minutes because they're meant to be precise and to the point. Then again, you like to break rules and carve your own path, so... who cares if they finish the level before the songs over. :3

[MaestroUGC]

I'm not a melodist in the slightest, but having a melody does not necessarily make piece better or worse. If you look at my music, most of the lack any real lyrical melody, most of them are mostly motivic-ly driven.

There's a good and bad way to write music for a video game, but it all depends on the game of game you are scoring. If your game is puzzle based, with players to expected to be spending a lot of time in a single room or area, you naturally want something that's not going to grate on your ears. However, in a RPG setting where interruptions will be frequent/expected, you really don't want to spend too much time building a melody where nobody will hear it. That's just a waste of time both in a production and artistic sense.

And yes, you generally want to avoid having music longer than 2-3 minutes before a repeat, outside of cinematic events or boss themes where you can expect the player to be there for longer.

If I had the amount of in-game time to properly develop a piece the way I want to, then I'd do it.

You also mentioned something about highlighting instrumentation and letting particular instruments carry the melody throughout. I would actually love to have a professionally recorded score, but that is very expensive. If that is to be my ultimate goal then I need to keep my orchestrations tight and controlled and save the big stuff for the big moments. That's why all of the music I've crafted thus far primarily feature strings with sparse additional instrumentation. This would keep the cost down in the long run, plus it actually lets me write music much faster. It's a lot easier to write for only 5-10 instruments of about 25 players than a full orchestra of almost 60.

There's also a reason why I have some of these themes droning like they do, especially the dungeon themes. It allows me to vary and develop them later in the game, like in a boss fight. I try to save my melodies for the town themes where the player won't be interrupted as much as in the open world or dungeons, places where the music can breathe a bit more.

But you do have some fair points about trying not to have the listener grow tired of the music after too long. Which is why I've provided samples with the music looping at least 4 times over. It gives me a fair gauge of what the listener is hearing and feeling.

[FireArrow]

I never thought about prices and instrument restrictions, and I definitely agree with you on your points on keeping music easily interrupt-able. I'm assuming, you not being a melodist, are going for more of a SMB3 Air Ship kinda of feel, which you did a really good job of. So, yeah, thanks for explaining that, because it makes a lot more sense to me now. That being said, I still feel you could do more to make the dungeon music stand out a bit more. Even if you are going for a more droning piece, make it pleasurably droning rather than monotonous (obviously my example wouldn't fit a dungeon, but I think it's a good representation of what I'm saying)(no sex jokes either.)

I'm excited to see some of your more melodic work, because, like, holy crap dude, your knowledge of composition really astounding.

[MaestroUGC]

Yes, I will work on the making more enjoyable droning music. But I do have some things I still working on like a sort of fire-type area with a vague Middle-European feel to it.

Also, don't hold you breath for any lyrical melodies from me. I crafted an hour long symphony based on a single four note motif. I've always felt that melodies are more proper for songs and such, whereas motifs are far more flexible in dramatic and extended works.

Keep in mind I'm still trying to figure out the best way to score a video game. All that I know of the subject so far is from studying the great masters of the field and applying what I've learned from the greatest masters of music.

Sometimes I wish to earn a doctorate, if only to teach would be composers the art of video game scoring.

[MaestroUGC]

I've got yet another theme I've been working on. I was sitting on the original piano draft for a while and finally gave it an orchestration today. This was designed to be a town theme, with a kind of sea-side feel to it.

Town Theme A - Draft 1 - I did something a bit different with the harmonic progression this time, to more distinguish from the open world music. The piece is driven by an undercurrent of triplets in the bass line. The melody takes its time comparatively in the A section. The B section moves from A major to F Major and the melody changes from a light and open sound to a more urgent one. As if not everything is quite right in this seaside paradise...

Town Theme A - Draft 2 - Again featuring minimal orchestration; the harp is given the triplet figure throughout the work with harmonic support from the cellos and basses. The Melody is given entirely to a lone flute with the upper stigns filling in the middle voices with stagnant chords; all punctuated by a set of tubular bells.

PDF

[K-NiGhT]

Ooh i wish i would've seen that string quartet nocturne that you posted! I could've gotten people together and done it for Solo/Ensemble contest at school and recorded it for you

[MaestroUGC]

Yeah, I'll probably just pay some people to record this summer.

Money will make all of my dreams come true.

[MaestroUGC]

So I dumped everything all my VG stuff into a SoundCloud, so hopefully you guys'll take a listen now that you don't have to wait a year for them to download.

https://soundcloud.com/maestroz-1/sets/draft-music-for-video-game

[MaestroUGC]

So I've been toying around with the idea of swing music lately. Big band stuff, you know? I've had a couple of tunes rattling around in my head, so I figure I'd jot one of them down into a rough piano version. There's supposed to be a fair amount of improvisation and variation for this, but for now this is more of a thematic template that I'll orchestrate later.

I call it Swing - 200

No, I've never been good at names. I shouldn't have to be when all of my works are titled Form of Piece No. X

Try adjusting the tempo to 220, it adds a bit more zest, I feel.

[Nebbles]

Oooh, nice! I love swing music.

[MaestroUGC]

Yes, but does it still mean a thing?

[K-NiGhT]

not unless it's got that swing

[MaestroUGC]

I don't understand what you are trying to tell me.

[braix]

Catchay. I might wanna try this out on a piano, though from measure 69 I don't think I can really play that quietly. //shot
Lol I like it.