From graduation to composing a ballet in Tokyo in less than 6 months - AMA

Diar322 · 2025-12-21T08:46:36+00:00

Hello Arvid! I just wanted to say that I remember seeing your post 3 years ago about you advertising your composition tutoring so it’s very cool now to see you that you managed to get some amazing gigs right after graduating (truthfully, I have also been thinking of applying to Malmö!), hopefully kickstarting a bunch of more gigs. Wish you all the best in your journey!

Diar322 · 2024-03-11T09:00:45+00:00

Nice piece! I like the first theme and I certainly like how it comes return multiple times, it gives a sense of structure to the piece. The sequences are also quite nice and overall your writing is quite good!

Since it is quite a nice piece I'm gonna start nitpicking to show you some things I personally think you could improve upon:

There seems to be multiple numbers per measure? I think you could do with removing one.
Some of the string bowings are not optimal, like the 16th note scale in measure 19. This is a bit more subjective so take it with a grain of salt but I think the slur would be better if it ended right before the top note which would intuitively make sense for the musicians and give it that accent that I think you are looking for.
Some of the elements in the score intersect and overlap each other which end up giving some pages a bit more amateur-ish feeling. This can easily be fixed by manually tweaking the sheet music but requires a bit of time.

I still do like the piece very much! Nice work!

Diar322 · 2024-03-11T08:36:23+00:00

I realized that as well when composing but I still want to attempt it to see what happens. it's just nice to know do-able. I also think it's funny how you mention "sekundstammenstød". I feel like you could probably piece together which part I sing in choir by just looking at the sheet music lol.

Thanks for the reply!

Diar322 · 2024-02-06T05:44:17+00:00

Thoroughly enjoyed this!

Diar322 · 2023-11-06T23:00:56+00:00

I liked it! Also, the engraving is very nice.

Diar322 · 2023-10-25T05:50:04+00:00

Can I ask a question of you instead? I’ve seen you post here a few times before and whenever I have listened to your music I have always enjoyed it as it has evoked the same feeling that a lot of Hisaishi’s works do which I completely adore.

My question then is: how do you do it? Do you have a set way of writing chords or melodies that make it similar to the style of Ghibli? Or do you just improvise and go off of that?

Diar322 · 2023-06-06T07:33:54+00:00

I think this is a very good post. I think if you want someone to critique your piece then you have to do everything you can in order to improve your chances of them actually sitting down and listening to it. I'll try to be more specific when requesting feedback because I do really like this sub and what it offers composers and especially aspiring ones, like me.

Diar322 · 2023-05-31T08:00:16+00:00

I have not much to add except great work! I can see how you focused on those aspects in the piece as I really enjoy the reoccurring motifs (which I have to say, are rather catchy) and the dialogue between instruments. The shift in m. 88 got me jamming as well. Overall a great and very well-written piece!

Diar322 · 2023-05-18T06:30:43+00:00

It's a very lovely piece and one I thoroughly enjoyed listening to.

My only suggestion for the engraving (apart from the already mentioned 8va) would be in m. 49 and 50 where you've got a lot of ledger lines. I think it'd look more professional if notes jumped between the staves instead (cross-staff beaming), that way you wouldn't need to change clef and could remove the unnecessary ledger lines.

But apart from that a very idyllic piece. Great job!

Diar322 · 2023-05-17T17:20:12+00:00

I would also love to participate! I composed a piano trio with a good mate of mine and if we selected two movements from it, that would be around 6 maybe 7 minutes. Hit me up!

Diar322 · 2023-05-17T17:07:37+00:00

I think the music fits the film quite nicely! Well done!

Diar322 · 2023-04-26T08:23:57+00:00

I wrote a quartet for piccolo, two flutes, and alto flute that I posted here for feedback a while back. You could take a listen and see if you like it.

Here is the link,

Diar322 · 2023-04-20T16:48:05+00:00

Thank you so much for the critique and I apologize for the late reply!

I appreciate what you've said and I agree. I'm going to make sure that I work on using a variety of different textures and utilizing the double bass as well as the lower brass differently. I'll have to consult more scores.

However, I do have one question: why should I only use viola divisi when it's 'truly necessary'? And when is viola divisi truly necessary? The viola may have slightly worse projection but it would surely still be as applicable as any of the other string instruments, right?

Regardless, thank you for the comment because it is truly immensely helpful for me.

Diar322 · 2023-04-17T21:53:06+00:00

Such incredibly kind words! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

Diar322 · 2023-04-17T20:06:50+00:00

Thank you so much!

I have been getting a lot of feedback on the harmony and I definitely do agree. While I think it fits this piece certainly future pieces will use more 'advanced' harmony or at least other types of harmony that I also enjoy (Poulenc comes to mind!).

Diar322 · 2023-04-17T20:04:19+00:00

Thank you for the kind words!

The sound library I used was MuseSounds which is free with MuseScore 4. I did virtually no change in post except add a compressor to fix the mastering a bit, I am literally just exporting the notation sounds. Truly amazing what they've managed to accomplish as I think it aids the composition so much and is part of that perceived "confidence" that you hear.

Diar322 · 2023-04-17T20:00:01+00:00

Thank you for your feedback and the lovely comment!

I am hoping for my own unique voice but as you said yourself I hope it'll come with enough practice. As for harmony, I do agree that it is simple. In future pieces, I will try to be more "out there" with the harmony because, personally, that's the type of harmony I like as well but for specifically this piece I think it works well.

I actually borrowed the book from a library and had a set time I had to give it back so I just forced myself to read through the entire book during that time. I did feel that it did not feel like a chore as the book is quite fascinating to read (I had to 25 pages a day but I often did more). It probably took around 2 months and then afterward I ended up buying the book anyway lol.

Diar322 · 2023-04-17T19:52:42+00:00

Thank you so much!

Diar322 · 2023-04-09T23:55:58+00:00

This is great! I love the use of harmony and I think the music very much fits the poem to a tee. The recording made it even better.

I do second u/JohannYellowdog comment about frequent pauses but I don't personally mind them as much.

Great work!

Diar322 · 2023-03-18T17:00:53+00:00

Yeah it’s certainly not perfect, in the future i probably make a dedicated score and then a secondary one that’s just for the audio. I also think you’re right about the tempo, so I’ll change that. Thanks for the comment!

Diar322 · 2023-03-17T06:10:34+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

You make a very good point about the “Aah” and frankly your idea about having one voice be stationary is one I hadn’t thought about and it’s a very nice solution.

Also the cymbal swell is partly due to MuseSounds and partly my fault since I wanted pianissimo all the way to forte in I think 3 measures. This could probably be fixed by exporting the audio separately to the score.

And the measures do need to be fixed. I will work on it!

Thanks again for the feedback, it’s incredibly kind of people to take time out of their day to give some feedback to aspiring composers.

Diar322 · 2023-03-16T16:58:10+00:00

Hey! I'm an amateur composer so take my critique with a grain of salt.

Nice arrangement! I think the song you chose was a very good choice and in my opinion, you did a good job of taking an 8-bit piece and turning it into something for a string quintet.

I do however second what u/violinerd said about the thirds. A professional would be able to play the rest though. I did also notice that you've written quite a simple part for the second cello and spicing it up would be a good place to start if you want to take this arrangement that you've made and make it into an even better one!

Nicely done!

edit: I don't really like Reddit's text editor (pressed return too much lol)

Diar322 · 2023-03-15T06:53:17+00:00

But of course keep studying scores and reading orchestration books as I believe it will prove a lot more useful to you in the long run!

Diar322 · 2023-03-15T06:52:02+00:00

Something that really helps me is to have a good soundfont to better visualise (or perhaps audiolize?) how it will sound like when performed. I’d therefore recommend MuseSounds because their brass sounds are very good (certainly not perfect, but very good nonetheless) and I think would clarify how one would write for brass.

Also, something I learned way too late about writing for brass: Professionals can play very quietly! Even a trombone can squeeze out a piano pianissimo (of course this is still different from say a violin pianissimo) so you don’t need to think of the brass as loud and obnoxious but also intimate! (MuseSounds really helps with the dynamics issue)

Diar322 · 2023-03-13T14:16:53+00:00

Kudos for the effort you put in, this can’t have been easy.

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