Wondering about two beginnings [Alex K's musical outpourings]

[Alex K]

Those who have looked at my own dilettante music thread may have seen that ever since I got meself a stage piano a bit over a year ago and taught myself some basics about harmony, I'm tinkering with a piece I made up which heavily features some 7,9 chords (at least in the first half). Anyways, it's now reached a stage where I think it's as complete as it's going to be considering my present skills, but I have two versions for the beginning, a more "dramatic" one and a laid back swinging one and I wonder whether I can somehow fuse them together.

Here's the calmer one (ignore the playing mistakes in there, it's just for purposes of comparison)



and here's the other



Whaddaya think?

[Alex K]

Here's another fragment that was supposed to be a part of it but was kind of left over



That always happens, I keep inventing bits and pieces, and some fit together to form a song while others simply refuse to integrate.

[Faith No More]

I prefer the alternative one better. It sounds more like an intro, and it makes the song sound like there's more of a progression where comparatively the normal one sounds more like it starts out in the middle. Good stuff, though.

When you say you taught yourself some basics of harmony, what sources were you using? I've been trying to learn more about music theory and am always looking for material to learn from.

[Thumpalumpacus]

That always happens, I keep inventing bits and pieces, and some fit together to form a song while others simply refuse to integrate.

Don't worry about it, that's how it happens. I've had fragments laying around for twenty years before I realize that they would complete another song.

I wouldn't try to jam the two pieces in your OP together. The harmonies in play have different enough moods that they could each be the kernel of a song ... and I'm inclined to think that forcing them together would sound a tad bipolar.

[Alex K]

I prefer the alternative one better. It sounds more like an intro, and it makes the song sound like there's more of a progression where comparatively the normal one sounds more like it starts out in the middle. Good stuff, though.

When you say you taught yourself some basics of harmony, what sources were you using? I've been trying to learn more about music theory and am always looking for material to learn from.

Since I'm such a Bach fan, my first goal was to understand how to write Fugues, so for baroque and classical music, I got two German textbooks, Kontrapunkt by Krämer, and Harmonielehre by Diether de la Motte. The former is very practical including exercises, but mainly for writing counterpoint, only with some overlap with harmony. Here's my best attempt so far at a fugue based on those studies btw.

https://youtu.be/1kEA00pF9II

Yeah...Fugue writing is hard

The latter book by De la Motte focuses on harmony and has a very intriguing historical approach but is focused on analysis and not a direct guide for immediately writing something. I did browse Piotr Tschaikowski's book from which I learned some interesting things.

For Jazz, I went a different pragmatic route. I looked at all the introductory YT vids on building 7th chords, the 251 chord progression and on cocktail piano techniques. My first application I tried was writing 7 chord harmonies for the song Suburbia, the result of which you find on my soundcloud.

[The Industrial Atheist]

Good Stuff! I think I like V3 Normal better because it seems a little louder and more aggressive. I don't know if Tchaikowski is a differently anglicized version of Tchaikovsky, but if it is, when I listened more to classical I had a CD of his music that was one of my favorites.

[Alex K]

That always happens, I keep inventing bits and pieces, and some fit together to form a song while others simply refuse to integrate.

Don't worry about it, that's how it happens. I've had fragments laying around for twenty years before I realize that they would complete another song.

I wouldn't try to jam the two pieces in your OP together. The harmonies in play have different enough moods that they could each be the kernel of a song ... and I'm inclined to think that forcing them together would sound a tad bipolar.

Yeah, maybe that's true... thanks!

[Astreja]

I like the revised intro better. Overall has a more interesting character than the first version.

The leftover fragment needs to be a piece in its own right, IMO. Heard a bit of a Mozart flavour in the middle of it, too.

[Alex K]

I like the revised intro better.  Overall has a more interesting character than the first version.

The leftover fragment needs to be a piece in its own right, IMO.  Heard a bit of a Mozart flavour in the middle of it, too.

There can hardly be any higher praise for such humble efforts!

[Alex K]

Good Stuff! I think I like V3 Normal better because it seems a little louder and more aggressive. I don't know if Tchaikowski is a differently anglicized version of Tchaikovsky, but if it is, when I listened more to classical I had a CD of his music that was one of my favorites.

As far as I can tell, the book is actually by the famous russian composer. I thought that it was strangely fascinating to have someone like that as the author, but then again, why not! Do you remember which pieces of his you liked?