Music More Music!

Two new tracks! Feedback is appreciated. Enjoy!

(Made using WynnPack)

 

I like Sea Shanty! Feels like something on the sea.

Undergrowth sounds like a noteblock track I haven't really heard before. I feel it sounds different from the Wynn stuff. I think at some parts there was maybe a little bit too much notes playing at once, but that's tough to curb with Noteblock music.

Keep it up!!

 

Thanks! I appreciate your support, and more will be on the way!

 

If you want serious feedback then...

I think it is a mess.

Some notes just do not fit together and the rhythm is messed up at parts.

I think you can improve for sure though.

 

Ok, I'll work on that!

 

I actually somewhat like the rhythmic groove of Undergrowth (keep in mind, I still don't think it's good). If you're talking about Sea Shanty (please never ever name a song this), I get what you mean. He starts new phrases at odd moments and yet the themes themselves don't have much rhythmic intrigue.

Now addressing you @PremiumKat, you really need to work on your tonality. Your melodies and harmonies are going nowhere and I suspect this is the result of a lack of knowledge regarding music theory. For instance, Sea Shanty ends on the wrong note and the drums end abruptly, offering no kind of resolution whatsoever and it doesn't work as a loop either, because it seems like an awkward interval (I'm sorry I can't be more specific, but I have a really bad ear) and a complete change in tone.

 

Yeah, Undergrowth is probably the worst song I made. Everything is jumbled up and messy to me. Sea Shanty was just something I made because I bored, so I didn't really spend that time much on it.

Yeah, I'm didn't know that much about music theory. I'm glad you mentioned that, as it would probably make my chords sound a lot better, as all that I based them off was letter instead of major/minor. I'm working on changing the chords on the song I made today currently. Also, the other songs I were making were 20 t/s, probably because I didn't know anything about Noteblock Studio. This made making songs a lot harder, as it would stretch the song out by double, so that would probably cause slip-ups and/or glitches. Thanks!

EDIT: I'll leave that song be and focus on another song.

 

I think it would help a lot if you picked a functional chord progression first and then worked from there (but don't be afraid to experiment, just remember the basic rules!). Basing your melodies off of that will help your phrasing and help you pick the correct tones to end your phrases with. To make a functional harmony, it's really imperative that you learn how it works. You can't just base your chord progression off of just the root notes. Major and minor are very relevant, because otherwise you'll play chords that don't fit within the key you're playing in. If we take the key of G major, you'll see that it has just one sharp. The chords you would generally use in a piece in G major reflect that. So you'll have I (G major) ii (A minor) iii (B minor) IV (C major) V (D major) vi (E minor) and vii (F# diminished). If you change the division of major and minor, your music can sound really weird. In minor the major and minor chords, except the ii chord is diminished too and the V chord stays major, it's like that so the seventh note is only a semitone lower than the first so you can use it as a leading tone. Each chord has its own function, but the three most important (but also not always as exciting) are the I, IV and V chords: the tonic, subdominant and dominant respectively. The way functional harmony generally works is that IV leads to V, V leads to I and I is the resolution. That's why simple chord progressions often end with IV-V-I. It's important to know each chord and its function in the key you're playing in, because it allows you to set your music in motion. There are probably people on these forums who are better at helping you create harmony, because it's not exactly my strong suit.

On the topic of the 20 t/s. I don't know much about NBS, but I assume this means tempo. Tempo is not the problem. It's rhythm and phrasing. Music gets really awkward when you end after a weird amount of measures or on a weird moment in the measure. As I already said, learning to create a functional harmony can also help improve your phrasing. The problem is further amplified because the rhythms you use are very simple and as such you really notice when something is off.

 

Thanks for the tips, helps a lot. Made something in the A major, doesn't have any triads though. Focused a little more on structure, rhythm and staying in my major. It might not be the best, but I would say it's better than the two tracks up there. There aren't as many conflicting notes as before, so that's an improvement. Wouldn't say it's perfect though. Wanted to hear your opinion/feedback.

 

All right that's more like it! I think we can both agree that this is a huge improvement. I think you can also hear it sounds a lot more like Wynncraft music, if that's what you're going for (I personally don't like Wynncraft music, but this is still a huge improvement). My previous post was a lot of "rules" and it's good to see that this piece is a lot more musically sound than your previous work. It's a very "by the book" piece if you get what I mean and it's good composing practice, but I think that if you're comfortable enough you could take it one step further. Right now you use the same harmony over and over again while your melody goes on. It would be great if you could now find a way to put the two together, so to say. A very simple example is putting a V-I progression when you've finished a musical sentence. With your current approach, it doesn't feel like the melody is going anywhere yet. It just kinda moves on. Even using just the IV, V and I will help you create musical motion. Basing your piece on the same harmony all the way through will make it feel like it's staying in the same place and that will make it more difficult to tell a story and convey feeling with your music. So basically, now that you've learned how to keep to the rules, I think you could experiment to make your music more dynamic.

Like I said earlier, this piece is very much by the book. I would love if you used some more of the ambition you had in Undergrowth and use it with your newfound skills. Right now, and I think you'll agree, you could search up most Wynncraft songs or fan songs and they'll sound very much like yours. Structurally, your piece isn't of much interest as the formula of establishing the harmony and melody and having a drum motif much like yours kick in to repeat the same things except with a beat has been done to death. So has the "silent part where only the chords play on repeat for what feels like an eternity" trope. Try to grab the listener's attention with and interesting intro and introduce new themes and chord progressions along the way. I hope you can use this to improve even further.

 

Thanks, I’ll make sure to add some variety to the songs in the future. I’ll make sure to think of something soon. Your support is very appreciated!

 

@Stormarend 's feedback definitely helped, as he said, it sounds like you have more melodic and harmonic structure now.
A few things to note from me:
- If you want to learn more about harmonic structures, there is plenty to see online, however, most of them will cover classical harmony, like @Stormarend . Just keep in mind that wynncraft music, does not use most of the same formulas for creating classical music.
- You also need to improve the percussion quite a bit. The drum lines are very boring, and you need more transitions, and dynamic drum lines. You can look those up too.
- Ten miles too far felt very empty without a consistent bass line. The bass line should include all of your music harmony, so that the listener doesn't get lost when trying to harmonically dissect your piece.
- Like most music, wynncraft pieces include a melodic structure (like different areas where the melody is loud/quiet/etc.). You should definitely learn how to do this (maybe online?), because right now ten miles too far just felt very receptive with little change between every 8/16 measures.

@Stormarend (yep tagging you a third time) - I wouldn't have @PremiumKat make his music using classical music theory, because that is not how wynncraft music is built. Ending a piece with V-I may not sound very good at all here. Ten miles too far is in B minor, and he uses I-VII-I-VI, which is not at all according to classical theory. A lot of fan pieces have the issue of using too much classical theory, and to me, it just doesn't sound like the wynncraft style.
So instead of doing like V-I to end the piece, it would really fit wynncraft music to do something like IV#3-I (for minor scales) or III-VII-I. So using IV, V, I like in classical music does not help.
I actually wrote a piece written in the scale of E mixolidian (major scale #7). This actually really helps show off how different these harmonic cadences are from classical cadences: My piece was written like |I---|bVII---|I---|IV#3--bVII| (I know how wonky that sounds, but I wrote it for the shattered minds so its meant to sound like you are high).

 

My post was definitely not to impose a rule upon @PremiumKat. Also I have to note that my goal was not to make his style more similar to Wynncraft's, because I simply believe that Wynncraft's music "style" sounds like, well, shit. All of my posts were simply to inform him about music theory, so he can at least get a feel for how music works. Guess what? I don't like it when a song goes I-IV-V-I, it makes me puke, but it is the foundation of functional harmony. The main point I was trying to make was that his previous music had no progression whatsoever. V-I is simply an example, not a rule. It has nothing to do with "classical" music theory or Wynncraft's "style".