# 12 Scores of Christmas



## Spitfire Team

​
The season to be jolly is almost upon us and this year we wanted to spread a little extra cheer by giving away not one, but 12 AMAZING PRIZES! ✨

How do you participate? Very simple:
🎄Share a festive composition of one minute maximum on your social channels using the hashtag #12ScoresOfChristmas. This could be a popular song, an original composition or the score to your favourite Christmas movie, the more creative the better!
🎄 All entries must use at least one Spitfire Audio library. If you don’t own any fear not, LABS are allowed!
🎄 Send the link to your post to [email protected] by Tuesday 14th of December, and don’t forget to mention your username, and any Spitfire Audio libraries you used! (Only one entry per person)

Once we have chosen our 12 favourite entries, they will be entered into a randomised prize tombola, and we will announce one winner, alongside their prize every day!

For the full details and to see the list of drool-worthy prizes, https://www.spitfireaudio.com/12-scores-of-christmas-terms-and-conditions-2021/ (check the link.)


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## Markrs

*Prizes*

Monday the 20th of December - Abbey Road One: Orchestral Foundations
Tuesday the 21st of December - Albion Tundra
Wednesday the 22nd of December - Olafur Arnalds Stratus
Thursday the 23rd of December - Albion Solstice
Friday the 24th of December - £250 Spitfire Audio Gift Card
Saturday the 25th of December - £500 Spitfire Audio Gift Card
Sunday the 26th of December - Albion One
Monday the 27th of December - Spitfire Solo Strings
Tuesday the 28th of December - Hammers
Wednesday the 29th of December - Albion Neo
Thursday the 30th of December - ORBIS
Friday the 31st of December - BBC Symphony Orchestra Professional
**If you are a winner on one of these dates and have the library already, we will give you the option to swap to another library of your choice up to the same value.*


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## tritonely

Fun competition with great prices! Is Youtube itself counted as social media? So is sending a youtube link to your emailadress enough @Spitfire Team ?


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## blaggins

Is anyone else taking a crack at this? I was meaning to do something fun for the holidays anyway, and this provided the perfect excuse. Just submitted my original composition "Krampustanz" to the competition.






tritonely said:


> Fun competition with great prices! Is Youtube itself counted as social media? So is sending a youtube link to your emailadress enough @Spitfire Team ?


I'd have to guess so since Spitfire uses YT quite a bit? If you don't get an answer here you might reach out to them on their own forum, they are more active there. I submitted to both YT and Instagram regardless.


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## Baronvonheadless

Took some public domain footage and made a very short film. Santa vs Krampus 
Scored this conceptual Christmas piece to picture!


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## Germain B

I tried to get in the head of a little child in the middle of a toy store.


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## blaggins

Baronvonheadless said:


> Took some public domain footage and made a very short film. Santa vs Krampus
> Scored this conceptual Christmas piece to picture!



Omg that took quite a turn 🤣 I loved it @Baronvonheadless, so dark! Can I ask where you went to look for public domain footage? The devil stuff reminded me of Haxan.


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## blaggins

Germain B said:


> I tried to get in the head of a little child in the middle of a toy store.



I liked the shifts in mood you did. They were quite fluid and definitely effective at capturing the wonder and bit of the hesitation of a young child surrounded by strange new toys.


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## Germain B

tpoots said:


> I liked the shifts in mood you did. They were quite fluid and definitely effective at capturing the wonder and bit of the hesitation of a young child surrounded by strange new toys.


Oh, thanks ! That was the idea plus the anxiety that a child could feel if his parents don't want to buy anything..


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## Baronvonheadless

tpoots said:


> Omg that took quite a turn 🤣 I loved it @Baronvonheadless, so dark! Can I ask where you went to look for public domain footage? The devil stuff reminded me of Haxan.


yeah just ripped it off YouTube. It is def Haxan. I cut up different footage from it and spliced it together to taste


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## pbobcat

Here's mine. Still relatively new to this but I thought I'd have a go.


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## NateVH

tritonely said:


> Fun competition with great prices! Is Youtube itself counted as social media? So is sending a youtube link to your emailadress enough @Spitfire Team ?


Yes! If you read the full contest rules page it states YouTube is a valid social media platform to submit.


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## NateVH

Also here is my entry. Its more traditional but I enjoyed writing it.


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## DSorah

Hey folks! Brilliant work so far, everyone! Wow! Such creativity! I’m excited to share my shortened arrangement of “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” for solo violin and string orchestra. This piece uses Spitfire Audio libraries exclusively, including Solo Strings, Studio Strings, and Harp. Thanks in advance for taking a moment to listen!


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## Taron

I really still can't believe, I almost missed this. Not like I'm not on here almost every day, but somehow... ah well. In a last second, mad dash I've composed my first ever deliberate attempt at a Christmas song. I had to overcome the tremendous fear of letting it get painfully cheesy, but then sort of dove into the memory of what Christmas felt like, combined with half a century of having been bombarded with this cheerful stuff  ... Hurray! 


Hope you like it and MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!


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## BlackDorito

Here's another traditional one.




Great entries so far. 

A _Cool Yule_ to one and all !

-Chris


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## brandowalk

I love seeing all the entries posted thus far! 

_*Present Drop* _was a joy to write, envisioning Santa "making the rounds". 

The video below is my contest entry, however, the 90-second conductor score video is on YT here. Happy Holidays!



-Brandon


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## blaggins

I really enjoyed that @brandowalk! Congratulations, that's a fun score to a very cool video!


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## Foxcall

Here's my rather last-minute entry! I'm just grateful that I was able to get the hang of scoring to video, and managed to hit the timing I was aiming for. Found some fun soaring/racing drone footage to go with a score that hopefully conveys the tranquility but thrill of dashing through that first big snowfall of the season.


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## Stardog24

I just had my first kid, so I've been very distracted with a newborn in the house and I almost missed this one. However, found time this afternoon to pump something out. 

Since it was so last minute, I thought I'd be inspired by imagining Santas Elves in their last minute crunch to get everything packed for Christmas eve.



As always, loving all of your entries.


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## pranic

In the spirit of sharing -- I pulled together some video, opened up Davinci Resolve for the first time in a while and cut a 59 second set of clips to go with my composition. Looking forward to seeing and hearing more of everyone else's entries as the day draws to a close.

Here's mine:


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## Wedge

The entries I've seen have been amazing. Thank you all. This on the other hand... I call this the Kids of Krampus.


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## Hat_Tricky

Man, there are some great ones in here, (santa) hats off to you all!

Here's my last minute entry. A little Christmas swing! Had a blast with this one!!! Would really love some feedback, haven't done much with orchestra swing but I do love the sound!


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## Tusker

These are brilliant entries which I am enjoying very much. Love the depth of talent.

Here is my rather rushed submission. It's my first use of orchestral libraries so I am as pleased as Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in their Silver Linings dance. This was so much fun.


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## MusicalG

here is my entry, i have also sang a baritone version which one do you prefer please??
link to baritone version here :-


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## Adam Takacs

Amazing works, congratulations to everyone!

This is my entry:


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## blaggins

It's been a real fun and festive experience following along with all the entries to this competition! (well not ALL of them... there's almost 400 on Instagram alone...🎅 ). I believe they begin announcing the winners tomorrow so good luck to everyone, especially to the vi-control folks who entered!


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## Taron

Yeah, jeeez, I thought, "hey... let's go through the clips on youtube" and with 400+ there it was just another reminder of how insane it is to even offer such events. I don't know how many I watched thus far, but it may have been less than 20, haha. Well, I commented on them, too, as best I could and there are some stunning, stunning entries. Again, I feel like I've lost my mind to even try and dive into there with my stuff, but then... you can't learn to swim in the dry, right?! 

Super inspiring, not to mention some genuine laughs- in the best of ways- with genius videos! Have you watched Kristján Martinsson's video?! Flipping fantastic! Tidied up a little more, this could become a little classic in my books!


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## cedricm

MusicalG said:


> here is my entry, i have also sang a baritone version which one do you prefer please??
> link to baritone version here :-



Baritone!


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## Germain B

Yep, baritone too !


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## cedricm

Foxcall said:


> Here's my rather last-minute entry! I'm just grateful that I was able to get the hang of scoring to video, and managed to hit the timing I was aiming for. Found some fun soaring/racing drone footage to go with a score that hopefully conveys the tranquility but thrill of dashing through that first big snowfall of the season.



Not sure I'm thinking of Christmas while listening to you composition, but it's beautiful, I'd very much like to hear the bonus extended version


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## Foxcall

cedricm said:


> Not sure I'm thinking of Christmas while listening to you composition, but it's beautiful, I'd very much like to hear the bonus extended version


Thanks! I'll have to work on it a bit more when I've got more free time. I think if I could do the contest over, I would have tried to record myself playing the fiddle tune mentioned in 'A Christmas Carol', but it's rather tricky to find any accompaniment VSTs in 9/8 time, so I pretty much just finished up what I'd started.


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## MusicalG

cedricm said:


> Baritone!


Thank you


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## MusicalG

Germain B said:


> Yep, baritone too !


Thank you


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## dunamisstudio

Here's my entry. Go easy  It's one of my first.


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## nolotrippen

Hat_Tricky said:


> Man, there are some great ones in here, (santa) hats off to you all!
> 
> Here's my last minute entry. A little Christmas swing! Had a blast with this one!!! Would really love some feedback, haven't done much with orchestra swing but I do love the sound!



love it


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## ScarletJerry

Hat_Tricky said:


> Man, there are some great ones in here, (santa) hats off to you all!
> 
> Here's my last minute entry. A little Christmas swing! Had a blast with this one!!! Would really love some feedback, haven't done much with orchestra swing but I do love the sound!



Awesome job! What brass library did you use? The trumpets sounded great.

Scarlet Jerry


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## Baronvonheadless

I'm probably fucked on my entry, haha! I wanted to take a more creative route, but...it only starts festive. You can probably tell I'm not a Christian, or enthusiastic capitalist and I'm fond of Krampus 
Although, I definitely was not trying to mock the Holiday.
Oh well, we'll see what happens.


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## Jazzaria

Looks like I found the same public domain video as some other folks 



I kept it closer to the original speed, and went with a more simple calm vibe as that's the best part of the holidays IMO (with of course a bit of gratuitous sugar and sweetness ).


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## Ronny D. Ana

So this is mine if anyone is interested: 
The video is not very exciting, except you have some chemical substances which will underline your impression 😆


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## Nigel Andreola

Linked is my Spitfire Audio #12ScoresOfChristmas Giveaway contest entry video on Facebook. For my entry I composed an original piece. It is supposed to be fun, childish and silly with a tropical vibe. The instructions said the holiday didn't have to be Christmas so thought it would be cool to have it be Santa's personal Holiday... where he goes on holiday! I call it Santa's Holiday. For the video art, I painted Santa holding a Shirley Temple drink on a tropical beach. I only had an hour or two to work on the art so I went for a children's book style. Because the marimba was too soft, I made my own instrument by hitting a custard cup with a spoon. It sounds something between a marimba and xylophone. For this piece I used the Spitfire LABS Dulcimer, LABS Percussion and LABS Sleigh Bells.

Santa's Holiday, Facebook Video Link

I also made a longer version and uploaded it to YouTube with my distributor:


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## Taron

Awww, Nigel, that's harsh. It's a cruel world out there, but as terrible as the feedback might've been for you, they...ehm... let's just say, you should take it seriously enough to try and figure out how to improve your composing and possibly seek inspiration for arrangement in similar genres to what you're after, just to get more confidence into your decisions, you know.

I still feel weird giving advice, because I have no idea how any of my work really holds up in the eyes of professional musicians. I often think they're just very kind and supportive. That's why a message like yours is actually fantastic to me ...sorry, I'm seriously sorry, haha, dang it, but I hope you know what I mean.  ...thing is, you've actually created a very common kind of tune for toddlers, who may actually start jumping up and down to it with sincere joy, possibly, but most folks, who have grown beyond a certain age sort of start to rather resent this type of ditty. Probably the biggest question of all, bigger then any other could ever be is: Do you enjoy listening to it? I mean, can you get some distance between you and this track and listen to it as if it came up in some ...let's say... meme video on youtube? Would you turn it up? If it is so, then you've done a perfect job and nothing you should worry about. If you yourself would say: "eeeehhhmmm, meeehhh, not so much" and "let me turn this down real quick", well, then you have an excellent journey ahead of you! 

As for your art. That's pretty good! It does- unfortunately- fit the track quite well, but that shouldn't ruin the quality of the illustration. It's totally adequate and a cute style! 

Oh, and regarding the "any holiday" comment from Spitfire, I'm fairly sure they meant any kind of festivity around winter solstice as to not limit it to Christian celebrations. Not really "any Christian holiday of the year".


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## Nigel Andreola

Taron said:


> Awww, Nigel, that's harsh. It's a cruel world out there, but as terrible as the feedback might've been for you, they...ehm... let's just say, you should take it seriously enough to try and figure out how to improve your composing and possibly seek inspiration for arrangement in similar genres to what you're after, just to get more confidence into your decisions, you know.
> 
> I still feel weird giving advice, because I have no idea how any of my work really holds up in the eyes of professional musicians. I often think they're just very kind and supportive. That's why a message like yours is actually fantastic to me ...sorry, I'm seriously sorry, haha, dang it, but I hope you know what I mean.  ...thing is, you've actually created a very common kind of tune for toddlers, who may actually start jumping up and down to it with sincere joy, possibly, but most folks, who have grown beyond a certain age sort of start to rather resent this type of ditty. Probably the biggest question of all, bigger then any other could ever be is: Do you enjoy listening to it? I mean, can you get some distance between you and this track and listen to it as if it came up in some ...let's say... meme video on youtube? Would you turn it up? If it is so, then you've done a perfect job and nothing you should worry about. If you yourself would say: "eeeehhhmmm, meeehhh, not so much" and "let me turn this down real quick", well, then you have an excellent journey ahead of you!
> 
> As for your art. That's pretty good! It does- unfortunately- fit the track quite well, but that shouldn't ruin the quality of the illustration. It's totally adequate and a cute style!


Thank you for listening to my piece and for the kind words. I deleted the part about my submit hub results about two hours ago so as not to sound complaining. You must have had this page open for a bit when you wrote your reply. For those reading this, I had mentioned that my Santa's Holiday piece received an overall 30 out of 100 on submitub Hot or Not from someone who hates the art and instruments and thinks the production quality is very poor without giving any reasons.

Normally I get nice and supportive reviews on submit hub. I typically post Neoclassical and Cinimatic genre pieces to submithub. People in that genre are most often super kind and helpful. I listen to people's criticism and use their advice to make my pieces better.

I am quite pleased with my silly little piece and enjoy listening to it. My friends and family like it and I've herd family members humming it when I see them.

What you have to say about why people might not like to listen to it makes perfect sense. I didn't write it for them! I wrote it to have fun and maybe win a contest! I put it on Submithub out of curiosity.

What bugs me is, I'm not sure where the production quality can improve to not be considered 25 out of 100. I'm sure it can be improved; however, as far as being considered very poor... nothing is clipping or unintentionally distorted, there are no harsh tones or poorly recorded out of place sounds that I can hear and the levels look and sound fine to me. I even listened to it on very bad speakers, a cell phone and Alexa unit, and it sounds OK. That's why I asked for advice.


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## Taron

Ehehe, you even wrote 20/100, but well... doesn't matter. What matters is that you still have to recognize the problems.
Start with sorting things out:
• fitting instruments to each other in timing and watch their balance.
• declutter a bit. It often sounded a bit messy with all sorts of instruments tumbling all over each other
• commit to a style! That means, if you hint at a style, it's better to go there all the way or not at all.

No doubt, your melody is cute and progression predictable in a totally acceptable way. Drums felt terrible, though, and it all just sort of became, well, as I said: messy. 

Also, it's really important to be clear with elements to provide the right kind of orientation. That's part of the sorting out process. While you may think you know where who is playing what, the listener won't know what you hear. That's always the biggest problem. We as composers (and arrangers) are often convinced our work is clear to hear, but we "know" what's what and almost don't need to hear it to "know" it's there. You may internally emphasize a specific instrument when you listen to it, but others do not.

All these things, but I'm sure you'll pick up on it all. It certainly is a different genre than anything classical, which may make it a challenge to a musician, who usually rather does soundtracks or the likes. Pop, folk, rock, it's actually pretty harshly structured and simplistic in its skeleton, so to say. The harmonies can go wild and as experimental as imaginable, but the instrumentation and their relationship to each other is almost reliably rigid. Bass+Kickdrum, upbeat chords, if that's the style, blah blah blah...you actually know it, but it's different when you make it. It's got to sound deliberate, like you must have control and show it. That's another one of those preaching moments I tend to get, talking about the confidence of the performer and how important it is. In composition you actually are a performer, too. Anytime you stumble, you lose your audience a little or even a lot.

Ah well, I hope, you find some inspiring thoughts among these and keep your chin up. As long as your heart is in it, all will be well and you find your way!


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## Nigel Andreola

Taron said:


> Ehehe, you even wrote 20/100, but well... doesn't matter. What matters is that you still have to recognize the problems.
> Start with sorting things out:
> • fitting instruments to each other in timing and watch their balance.
> • declutter a bit. It often sounded a bit messy with all sorts of instruments tumbling all over each other
> • commit to a style! That means, if you hint at a style, it's better to go there all the way or not at all.
> 
> No doubt, your melody is cute and progression predictable in a totally acceptable way. Drums felt terrible, though, and it all just sort of became, well, as I said: messy.
> 
> Also, it's really important to be clear with elements to provide the right kind of orientation. That's part of the sorting out process. While you may think you know where who is playing what, the listener won't know what you hear. That's always the biggest problem. We as composers (and arrangers) are often convinced our work is clear to hear, but we "know" what's what and almost don't need to hear it to "know" it's there. You may internally emphasize a specific instrument when you listen to it, but others do not.
> 
> All these things, but I'm sure you'll pick up on it all. It certainly is a different genre than anything classical, which may make it a challenge to a musician, who usually rather does soundtracks or the likes. Pop, folk, rock, it's actually pretty harshly structured and simplistic in its skeleton, so to say. The harmonies can go wild and as experimental as imaginable, but the instrumentation and their relationship to each other is almost reliably rigid. Bass+Kickdrum, upbeat chords, if that's the style, blah blah blah...you actually know it, but it's different when you make it. It's got to sound deliberate, like you must have control and show it. That's another one of those preaching moments I tend to get, talking about the confidence of the performer and how important it is. In composition you actually are a performer, too. Anytime you stumble, you lose your audience a little or even a lot.
> 
> Ah well, I hope, you find some inspiring thoughts among these and keep your chin up. As long as your heart is in it, all will be well and you find your way!


Oh right, about the rating I remembered 20 out of 100. I looked it up to be sure. Turns out it was the instrumentals that were given a 20 out of 100, but overall it was a 30 out of 100 so I updated my post to be more accurate. I like to be accurate!
Thank you for taking the time to consider things and writing up some nice advice. I used the LABS percussion. I've been listening to drum kits my whole life, and yet, somehow playing a convincing beat with a sampled kit is a real challenge. I'm guessing my not being a drummer and having very little practice playing or programing drum kits has a lot to do with it. I'm very much an OCD type and go over and over pieces trying to make them as perfect as I can. As you pointed out, it is hard to hear things when you are the composer. I notice things weeks later I didn't notice when mixing a piece. Perhaps, stepping away for a while and coming back a bit later would help. Bringing in a fresh set of ears for advice might be a good idea too. I've played keyboard in a live band and, honestly, modern studio pop music is way more perfect than any live performance I've ever herd or played in. I'm guessing they quantize everything to the grid as perfect as they can? Perhaps I should have paid more attention to doing that with my piece, but than, I didn't want it to sound mechanical. Finding that balance that sounds human without sounding sloppy is something I hope, with time and practice, I'll improve on. My sister is WAY better at that then I am and has helped a lot with that in the past. As far as improving the pop style I went for in Santa's Holiday, it isn't a style I'm keen on doing more of and was just a one of thing for fun.


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## Taron

Oh, no, it's not about quantization, really, the human touch is perfect and very desired, too. It's really about the synergy between the "band members", which you then have to recreate by yourself.
Sometimes when I make my tracks, I literally slip consciously into the role of the performer/instrumentalist, trying to feel the music from their perspective. It's more than just acting, but akin. You can try to view everything from the outside like a conductor, but because you must "play" the part yourself, it's like having to dive into the band and then you better become the player. Likewise you have to listen to the other players. Let them literally play with each other. I absolutely love it when this happens and I can surrender to each role like that.

Anyway, sloppiness did not come from the playing, but from the composition of the parts, the sense of isolation, like they didn't jive with each other, or not consistently... Oh, sometimes specific key moments can help! Like when you make sure that everyone properly reacts to one moment. When they fall apart after it for a bit, it won't hurt, as long as they can come back together and work off of each other again. 

As listener you respond to everything not just when it happens, but moments and patterns linger. Like when I write "BAMMM", and keep writing, in your mind you will still read "bammm", if you know what I mean. 

Composition means to be aware of all these effects and make them work to bring your idea across. Let alone defining your idea as best you can and make sure it's communicated clearly enough. 

I'm sure you can tell that I love thinking about these things, too, as well as talking about them. We all have so much to learn and become aware of. This place here is- as it should be- a paradise for musicians like us and that means to share these thoughts. It's not just about "giving advice". I can't tell, if I'm giving you proper advice, but I do give you my thoughts. 

And now I gotta take myself to bed... too darn tired!


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