DavidOrr's Reviews

[The Amulet]

Great Job!

Hey man,

It's a great feeling to see my music used in such a well-done flash! I'm glad that my music could be used on the title page :).

Keep up the great work!

[Trumpet Vs Violin]

Love the interplay between the two instruments! Fun idea — keep it up!

Tangerine responds:

Thank you!

[Postcard Shuffle]

This is gold -- absolutely love the harmonies and rhythmic displacement caused by all that syncopation. Masterfully done Ben, that subscription to your site is worth every penny (and then some!)

BenTibbetts responds:

Thanks so much, David, I appreciate that!

[Giant by the Cliff]

Thanks for sharing this track, and the shoutout! I really enjoyed the core ideas; the melody throughout is quite memorable. I love your involvement of the full orchestra, as well as your soloistic moments at the beginning and ending. A lot of great intuition and design here!

Onto the points of thought: it felt a bit overly recycled to my ears -- consider exploring some ways to create a sense of progression in the music. Some ideas would be to modulate, change up the chord progressions, change meter, change tempo, or find different combinations of the instruments at your disposal to create new textures. You've got a great sense of overall structural arch, but transitions are a little abrupt (i.e. the ending).

As you continue your orchestral writing, consider ways to move away from chordal writing and explore interweaving melodies and countermelodies to create a more flowing and seamless texture. This is something I have personally struggled with, as it does contrast the writing principles of many other genres. Some exercises to work on this would be to try to write melodies and chord progressions that aren't even bar lengths (3, 5, 7, etc.), or try taking a melody and harmonizing it several different ways. These aren't necessarily principles to follow when writing music, but they're great exercises to expand your thinking and musical vocabulary.

Tangerine responds:

Will do! Thank you so much for the feedback. I'll work on what you said. Thank you.