is this good for a complete beginner?

[PrestonC]

This is the first song I have ever learned on the piano, other than the first few bars of the all too easy 1st mov. of the Moonlight Sonata. It is called Evenstar from the Lord of the Rings movies. I cannot site read music at all but it is something I am working on. As of now I am learning piano on my own.

By learning the little of this piece that I did, I now believe the piano is an extremely challenging instrument, at least for me. I rendered it with the EWQL Pianos. Though, I use Garritan whenever I want strings, etc. It is just that EW has a great feature called sensitivity control - which helps not sound like I am playing everything fff.

What I am wondering is that is my playing decent for a beginner? Thanks for any input.

This is not the whole piece but around 1:30 seconds of it:
http://www.box.net/shared/z85ryqab6t

Also, are there any fans here of the LOTR's music?

[etLux]

You're off to a good start, Preston.

Please continue!

Best,



David
-----
David Sosnowski
www.DavidSosnowski.com

[PrestonC]

Thank you, David. I have followed your music for quite a time. I like your understanding of music. I believe that your music is heavily syncopated, am I right in saying that?

Either way, I thoroughly enjoy your music.

Personally, I believe that with certain composers, say Beethoven, the orchestra is more like an effect than an instrument to be used.

Your post gives me encouragement. Which, I appreciate! Hopefully, one day I will figure out the software side well enough to make a decent rendering.

It is good to know that I am off to a good start. Thanks.

All The Best,
Preston

[voclizr]

Sounds nice. Keep doing what you're doing!
JB

[sd cisco]

Sure it's good for a beginner! You clearly have a dark and mysterious mood happening; it sounds quite dramatic. There are promising orchestral potentialities in this music I think you should pursue. If you have the GPO kit, you could give it a try.
But even on it's own, the music has a certain appealing emotional logic (oxy) to it.
If there had been more, I would have listened on.

Best regards,
sd cisco

[Michael A. Wiktor]

Preston,

Sounds good to me!
Never get discouraged... keep going.

Would like to hear something original from you too.


M

[PrestonC]

Thanks for the comments! They mean a lot.

sd cisco, yes I have GPO4. The problem is I am completely new to midi editing, and am slowly working on learning more about midi, which for me is quite complex. I think you are right that I maybe could orchestrate it - perhaps that should be my first project. I only had access to one page of the sheet music, so there will be more once I get the all of the sheet music.

Michael, hopefully one day, hopefully. I am not good with writing original pieces. I can never get a good melody, etc. Hopefully, that will change in time.

[DPDAN]

Preston, don't feel bad because you can't read music, I can't either.
When you think about it,...
music as we know it, was almost always in someone's head before
it was ever on paper, or in the form of a score.

A score is not music, music is the sound we hear in our own head,
or audibly through speakers (from recorded music) or real musicians playing.

Music should be fun, and it sounds like you are indeed having fun!

Dan

[PrestonC]

Dan, I find it amazing that you can do what you can do and not be able to read music! You must have quite a good ear. One of my goals is to learn to read music though for several reasons. One is, eventually I would like to sit down and just enjoy playing the piano without having to go through a complex process.

[Michael135]

I was unable to read music last year, but have since taken music classes, and can now sight read something with somewhat near decent proficiency. Don't worry about it. Just make sure to look at the music as you listen to it, and try to follow along with your eyes. Eventually, it should start making sense.

Also, keep messing around on the piano. Get lessons if you can, as it is REALLY good to learn the right way to do it, which is a lot easier. Eventually you'll get better at plunking stuff out. I also just started learning the piano last year, and can now actually (kind of ) sight read stuff, and play fairly complex pieces. I'm always amazed looking at some of the stuff that I'm playing how far I've come in just a year. Trust me, if you really take the time to practice and work on it, you'll be amazed at how far you come in a years time.

One last thing to keep in mind is to start learning how to play what you hear in your head. Just make something up and play it on the spot and let it take you where ever it wants to go. See what happens, and have fun. This is a really great way to learn the various chords, and how melodies tend to play out (no pun intended) across the keys.

Good luck!