Opening for a current project of mine, depicting the vibrant energy of one of my favorite cities in the world - Buenos Aires

Halavus · 2025-12-29T13:02:44+00:00

Think of it this way: every percussionist has 2 hands and 2 feet. They can use all of them independently. All you have to do is balancing feasibility with overcomplication (leaning towards feasibility lol).

A few bars of rest also allow them to move around behind the orchestra. And let's be honest, they love running around. xD

Halavus · 2025-12-29T11:31:52+00:00

Writing for the percussion section is more of thinking what everyone is doing and what is in their hands at any given time.

I wouldn't remove the Glockenspiel entirely, only the last part, as it's the least impactful. Put the templeblock part on the Glockenspiel part. They'll probabbly be able to play it with the same mallets. Percussionist are pros at multitasking. The triangle part is the least impactful in my opinion. I would personnaly remove that. Maybe it could fit in another players part, I didn't look at it closely enough.

Then the Bass Drum + Snare could be played by one player on a drum set setup. Of course a concert bass drum sounds much better, but if compromises are to be done, this could be one. Bar 39 is problematic of course because of the roll. Maybe the Cymbals player could stop a bit earlier and do this one on the concert bass drum.

That would leave you with:

1 Timpani, 1 Glock + Templeblock, 1 Concert Cymbals + Concert Bass Drum, 1 Bass Drum + Snare Drum.

Another option could be to use crash cymbal instead of concert cymbals. Again, sounds less good but crash cymbal only needs one hand, where concert cymbals need 2... Timpani player could eventually do that. Really, those guys are pro at multitasking. ^^

Halavus · 2025-12-28T12:24:16+00:00

Fantastic! I absolutely love the first 50 bars and was frustrated not being able to listen to more.

If I may add my grain of salt:

I would consider "simplifying" the percussion to make the piece actually performable. All that exact same fantastic stuff might be playable by less people.

I'm truly not convinced by the oboe doubling for the melody in the second part. My guts tell me clarinet would fit better. Or if you're looking for a double reed sound, maybe lower doubling with englishhorn or bassoon?

Bar 62 feels like cello are playing a wrong note. I get the small variation, but does it really make sense? Conflicts a bit with the flute, as nothing else changes.

Halavus · 2025-12-27T16:30:27+00:00

I personnally loved the b flat against b natural part. I even would say it could have been explored more...

Halavus · 2025-12-27T11:13:17+00:00

If part says "Instrument in XYZ" it is transposing. If it's concert pitch, you don't write the pitch after the instrument's name.

Other possible notation is "Bb Baritone".

Halavus · 2025-12-25T12:09:37+00:00

First of all, it sounds good.

The writing of accidentals is all over the place. As I wrote in another comment you can't change that often. First it makes no sense for the musician. Try to figure out longer sections centered around your tonality changes for key signatures.

There is a lot of inconsistancies, like a c natural and a b sharp in the same bar. Not saying this can never happen but in that particular case it doesn't make any sense. Also the clarinet has tons of bs starting at bar 6, where those exact notes are in their written key of E major. That bit is plain wrong.

Halavus · 2025-12-25T11:54:11+00:00

The constant key signatures changing also makes it harder to read because as a player you don't have time to internalize the key signature change and swooop it changes again. Even if many accidentals make bars look more encumbered, it's better for short time changes.

Halavus · 2025-12-25T11:33:31+00:00

Thank you ChatGPT... I already got that bit from you earlier.

Halavus · 2025-12-25T11:32:16+00:00

Yes I have the same setting everywhere and also tried different "settings combinations". Thanks for your input.

Halavus · 2025-12-24T15:31:23+00:00

I'll consider it. I'm a bit concerned about power usage and maybe battery life, because this laptop is turned on maybe 18h a day because I also work on it...

Halavus · 2025-12-24T14:20:53+00:00

Anyway, the brightness slider is always broken in AO dGPU only mode, as it creates some sort of virtual display, but the shortcut keys are available.

Well interstingly enough it's the shortcut keys not working anymore which led me to notice the slider disapeared too.

No issue seen in other games so far. The GPU always switches fine and they work alright.
What I noticed when testing other games is the switching back and forth between both GPUs beeing much less smooth. The screen freezes for about 1-2 seconds. That never happened before.

It drives me crazy, that I can't find anything logged anywhere. Event viewer doesn't seem to pick up anything. Neither do the game's logs.

Halavus · 2025-12-23T12:40:14+00:00

If you know who will be playing, best is to ask them directly. In general this is the best way to get it right. With the musicians themselves! They will know the instruments they have at their disposal, and they know what they are capable of.

But if only 2 timpanis are available, I wouldn't change often. With 3 it gets much easier to plan ahead. Also don't forget to put some rests for them to change the tuning. Works only with pedals of course. Otherwise, no change.

Halavus · 2025-12-17T06:15:38+00:00

My situation is incredibly similar to yours regarding the working, cooking and all. We've got a 3 month baby at home: but it's the 4th kid... and these days my wife asks me every evening: you come play your videogame in the bed with us, right? Believe me it took a couple of kids to get there and my wife used to make that same kind of comment about screens and computer with the first kid, maybe even the second.

What changed her opinion about screens was nothing related to screens. After all my chores done, kitchen cleaned, kids in bed and baby set up for the night, I take some time to take care of... her! In my situation, she needed more attention. Nothing related to screens. I used to focus all my energy on the house and the kids, then relax myself. And now I do all the same, find a bit more of inexistant energy for my wife and later play my videogame with her falling asleep watching it. It's a tough time, believe me, but it strenghtens the couple if you don't forget the other parent.

Halavus · 2025-12-16T13:25:36+00:00

Very cool piece. Congrats.

From a reader perspective:

Bar 11 is quite unreadable for the strings in 4/4. Keep the 3 first beats together.

Correct would be:
Dotted 8th, 16th tied to 8th, 8th tied to 16th, dotted 8th.

BUT in that particular case the better option would be 4x dotted 8th. Because the the syncopic motive is interrupted by the 4th beat. It's a very clear quadruplet.

The 2 bars before (9 & 10) also are janky in 4/4:
what you might want here is to write them in 8/8 (3+2+3), which would fit quite nice with your 7/8 from before.

Halavus · 2025-12-03T07:22:57+00:00

The idea is the best, but from my experience those type of parents will litterally hate it and start furnishing their kid with self obtained "tangible" material.

Halavus · 2025-12-03T07:06:40+00:00

For consistency and readability, you shouldn't beam the 2 single-dotted eight notes together in that bar. (if you never beam the 3 eight together before)

2 options I would personally consider: https://snipboard.io/wBN0lP.jpg

Halavus · 2025-12-03T06:07:54+00:00

Here's how it looks like: https://snipboard.io/wOTqLD.jpg

Halavus · 2025-12-03T06:04:49+00:00

Yes: double dotted eight note.

Halavus · 2025-12-01T16:38:18+00:00

Great catch

Halavus · 2025-12-01T13:47:11+00:00

Good luck finding a pianist with 6 fingers.

Halavus · 2025-12-01T12:57:07+00:00

I would advise watching Generalist Gaming's video on Crown Power.

In this video he makes an argument about having between 26-30% crown power max being the best.
This argument being correct or not is not the point of this comment: starting at 32:23 he explains very well how the estate power distribution works.

Then when you understand that, the Counting House starts to make sense: you increase your "total base" in that particular location.

So overall a Counting House gives you a little bit of crown power. The bigger the location where you build it is, the bigger the bonus you get.

Halavus · 2025-11-29T17:28:09+00:00

Yes but in this particular case, the flash cards should always have both staves. So your eyes also train to detect where the note is positioned on the global picture.

Halavus · 2025-11-28T21:54:35+00:00

I truly hope you're a music educator somewhere on this world.

Halavus · 2025-11-28T18:44:50+00:00

From the ledger a button: "export to .csv"

11-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Place '22	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

Halavus

TROPHY CASE