Thinking too much and feeling a bit guilty

I feel like my experience with piano could've been better. Obviously. I mean, for the longest time I've said, "I've been doing piano for close enough to 10 years, yet it only feels like I've been learning it for 5 years". Weird. You wanna know why?

I took piano lessons from 2010 all the way to 2014 and then stopped throughout 2015 and 2016. I didn't start piano lessons again until 2017 to 2019. Now this information's down, let me explain something:

An important thing to note is that the main reason why I got back to piano lessons in 2017 was because it was required for me to take them for my music subject. I had to perform pieces to get assessed in class. Back in the years 2010 to 2014, I didn't have that. It wasn't required. In other words, I was just learning piano for the sake of it; almost none of the pieces I learned were learned so I could perform them for assessment. And because I was learning a lot of my piano pieces for the sake of it, all that time was spent polishing my musicianship. I didn't get that chance when I took piano lessons in high school.

Every piece that I learned in 2017 to 2019 was there for performance. Sure, learning those pieces also helped me develop my musicianship, but it's not only there for practice. Think of it like this: say I'm part of a competetive sports team and the only practice and warmups I'd ever get to do were all my official games. Sounds like crazy talk, if you ask me. I didn't get the opportunity to dedicate lots of time to doing piano warmups and smaller pieces, as well as studying music theory with my tutor.

And guess what? All of that would've been cleared off if I only did piano in the years 2015 and 2016. Yeah, I'm feeling kind of guilty about that. But what can I do now?

Shinyyyy

I heard this for the first time in the film and I immediately loved it. It's honestly about time I decided I'd finally listen to this on loop.

Probably the only classical piano piece that doesn't give me bad performance memories

I find this quite calming, actually.

I guess that's also because it heavily influenced some of my musical ideas.

This one, in particular:

https://idiskeda.tumblr.com/post/182446825862/heres-a-wip-of-a-thing-i-reckon-will-sound-real

Doing some music theory self-study

Doing this for probably the 5th time already. But I'll try to be more focused and consistant this time, really!

My music theory book. Nothing much to say about it
except it's bigger than my usual A5 notebook.

Also, if I actually do get back into piano lessons with a tutor again, I can also use that as an opportunity to learn some music theory, as well. But I've also been suggested to do a music theory course at my university if using a private tutor isn't going to happen. I don't know exactly which direction I want to go right now, but man, I really want to get better at this.

Thinking about taking piano lessons again

Yep, I'm thinking about learning piano again. For a while I haven't been feeling 100% my best since I stopped learning piano right after I graduated high school. Piano used to be this really regular thing for me and it hasn't been in the past year and a bit. I still really want piano to be a significant part of my life again, especially since I'm really into music (and more than just listening to it, obviously). I hope I get to that, soon.

Portfolio: MIDIs of 'Double Doors' and 'Pondering'

Recommending 'Conversations' by Stuart Rynn

 You ever hear something so impressive you go like, "how 'n the hell do you even come up with this stuff?"

Stuart Rynn · Conversations

Experimenting with the dorian mode AND an irregular time signature?!

So this happened kind of on accident. I was just humming one day in a key that wasn't major. Didn't know exactly where it was headed, but just as long as it wasn't in major, I'd be satisfied. And then a short loop came to mind. So, I wrote it down real quick on OpenMPT.

https://idiskeda.tumblr.com/post/659746459464433664/finally-a-new-melody

I feel like I'm also getting some inspiration from the soundtrack that plays in the forest levels in the game Vagante.

Portfolio: Famitracks from mid 2020

When you've got protagonist duties being slapped right across your face

(I heard the orchestral pad and tubular bell MIDIs and immediately went: that's so corny I'm putting it in just this once)

A lot of my experiments with April's theme soundtracks sound so obnoxiously protagonistic/heroic; it's almost as if it's satirical. But at the same time, that does sound like an idea I could work off of...

Portfolio: 2016 Track Revamps 2019 - ???

Idiskeda · 2016 Track Revamps (2019-???)

I just discovered double harmonic major! (Double harmonic major stuff part 1?)

So, as I've mentioned already (on another platform, not on this blog), I've pretty much milked the major scale of its melodies dry. Now, I'm trying to experiment with different scales/modes and just then I was seeing if I could compose a tune in the phrygian mode. 

I was trying to write down a melody and I remembered someone commenting about the phrygian mode with a risen 3rd and tested to see if it was any interesting, which it was! And then I thought, to make it more interesting, I also decided to raise the 7th note as well. 

The result: 1 ♭2 3 4 5 ♭6 7

Didn't know what the scale was called and now I know its name: double harmonic major.

Here's the short loop that I composed:

https://wethuzz-and-friends.tumblr.com/post/659579965641310208/double-harmonic-major-short-loop

I've never made a melody like this before and I really feel like I can work off of this! Dunno the inspiration for the rest of it though (a lot of my soundtracks are inspired by a character, location, situation that I have in mind, just so you know)

But here's the feel I picked up from this experience:

• It's pretty daunting
• As if you're trapped in a seemingly inescapable dark spot
• You can see that there's some means of escape, but it's hard to reach (if not, impossible)
• It just reeks of dispair and false hope (at least, to me)

Heroic chords

You ever heard some soundtracks and wondered why they sounded so heroic? Well at least from a Wewstern perspective, of course. Anyways, I think I cracked the code. In a lot of heroic soundtracks (and others of similar nature) that I've heard, I've noticed a pattern in the chords used.

The most popular cadence: VI♭ → VII♭ → I. At times II♭ is used in those same kinds of soundtracks, too.

With all that out the way, I'll now show how I believe I've cracked the code for making "heroic" soundtracks: you use major chords with root notes under the parallel natural minor scale of the key that the soundtrack is in.

Let me explain: 

So we have, for example, your basic C natural minor scale here.

Now, if you play major triads from C all the way to B♭, then you get these familiar chords. 

Also sorry if this isn't written right. I literally made this in like 5 minutes xD 

Using a popular example, I'll use this tune from Super Smash Bros Brawl at around 00:29 seconds in.

And another example, from a lesser-known franchise, Spectrobes.

Might add some more examples, later...

WIP of Eyn's 'cutscene' theme probably

https://idiskeda.tumblr.com/post/659377627155546112/sorry-the-qualitys-pretty-crap-but-i-kinda-like