r/Composing

I am working on a game called Idle Harmony and basically I need tips on how to make this correct.

I have a specific question but I am open for other critiques.

My question is: What happens to the beam/flag if an eighth note is placed bellow or above a 16th that's connected to another 16th?

I have only been playing for 3-1/2 years and am completely self trained. I improvise almost exclusively.

here is some of my music.

https://drive.proton.me/urls/AHVBT0MGXG#m2vKOnWXsaR5

please don’t judge it u til after you have heard recordings 64-66! in fact listen to them first! they are by far the best!

I'm a beginner composer, no formal theory training. This piece started as something much smaller than a fugue — a constraint exercise inspired by Eno: one instrument, one scale, only three notes (F, C, G), no more allowed in.

Out of that constraint, a four-note shape emerged: F→C→G→C. I didn't set out to write a fugue — I tested that shape against itself for a while first: stretched it, shortened it, reversed it, sped it up. Reversing it was the only thing that actually broke it — turns out the ascending direction is the one non-negotiable part of the idea. Everything else (rhythm, duration, note count) turned out to be flexible.

From there I built up one layer at a time — rhythm, then a real melody, then harmony underneath, then a second independent voice — before finally attempting the fugue: exposition, two episodes, a middle entry that relocates to A minor, a stretto where all three voices overlap, and a return home with a pedal point underneath.

This is my first real attempt at the form, and I know it's small (about 30 seconds) rather than a full-scale fugue. I'd genuinely appreciate critique on:

• Whether the stretto actually reads as a climax or just as more notes
• Anything about the voice leading that sounds wrong to a trained ear
• Whether the middle entry's key relocation actually lands

SoundCloud : https://soundcloud.com/sumit-344167009/essenceinabody

I am happy to take advice from any of you more experienced peoples 😆

Hi everyone! I'm Niko, a UCLA Global Jazz Studies student, jazz guitarist, pianist, and aspiring composer for film, animation, and games.

I'm interested in using music not simply to accompany what's happening on screen, but to explore character psychology, relationships, and how characters perceive the world around them.

I'd like to introduce myself by sharing a rescore I'm particularly proud of. The scene depicts two characters clashing with one another, and I approached the score as a musical confrontation between two different worlds. I used jazz fusion as the primary musical language, allowing the harmonic, rhythmic, and textural elements to collide and evolve alongside the characters' conflict.

This piece was also awarded the Grand Prize in an International Youth Music Competition, which made it particularly meaningful to me.

I'd love to hear what other composers think, particularly about how effectively the music communicates the characters' conflict and whether the musical ideas feel narratively connected to what's happening on screen.

Alastor vs. Vox Rescore:
Link: https://youtu.be/qL5ICz1TTeQ

This is one of my favorite projects where I show how the two overlords of Hell in the Hazbin Hotel show where they engage in an ultimate duel that inspired me to re-score this scene. I decided to replace the original soundtrack with a Jazz Fusion composition heavily inspired by Snarky Puppy, because jazz functions as a universal musical language. It allows the two characters to literally share their 'voices' during the fight through the mechanics of instrumental improvisation and taking turns trading solos.

Two completely different demonic eras clash here: Alastor, hailing from the Great Stock Market crash of the swinging 1920s, and Vox, emerging from the modern, contemporary digital aftermarket. Their main instruments take turns in an aggressive dialogue, as if one is desperately trying to 'outplay' or 'outperform' the other. For Vox, I utilized multiple synthesizers executing complex melodies at odd rhythms to emphasize his tech-savvy atmosphere, simulating his internal circuits and systems becoming physically overheated as the fight intensifies. For Alastor, I used a piercing trumpet and some rhythmic stride piano to emphasize his decaying, organic analog frequency, capturing both his theatrical showmanship and the sinister, vintage radio-filter chaos that anchors his power.

Driven by a blistering 160BPM tempo that gradually ascends slowly as the fight progresses, metric modulation, and unstable polyrhythmic displacements, the score shifts from mere accompaniment into a simulation of hardware failure, where the two god-like entities attempting to violently overwrite each other on the exact same bandwidth.

NOTE: I do not own anything related to Hazbin Hotel. All rights are reserved to Vivziepop and Spindlehorse.

© 2026 Niko Macario

Thanks for listening! I'm looking forward to learning from and connecting with everyone here.

https://youtu.be/SweVHqBCnAU?is=6rOpweobY-CkZGVm

Structures for Piano foreshadows a turn toward atonal improvisation, delving into polychromaticism

This piece titled "Aphelion" just recently got approved by an arts school in Florida, USA and will hopefully be making it's premiere of performance in October or November.

The instrumentation is written for a popular ensemble "Wind Ensemble" and represents a grade 4 difficulty.

An original composition (prelude) for piano. What do you think of it?

This is a string quartet i've composed for 2 violins and 2 cellos.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRqtIw7oTw4

I've written it specifically to play myself and record in layers. So it's not written for live performance, unknown players or the typical string quartet instruments.

It's my first proper composition. I played strings at school and have only just come back to this as an adult for fun. I wrote something that combines elements of what I find most enjoyable to play which has influenced this. I'd say that's largely the simplicity of Jenkin's Palladio with the driving cello and D minor throughout, and also lots of Vivaldi.

The current audio is from the midi score and a lot of the volume related dynamics were needed to get the midi to match closest to what is in my mind, which wouldn't necessarily be the same when I get to recording it myself.

I'd appreciate any feedback please, especially on how it sounds as a whole, more so than notation conventions, since its meant more for me to play and record.

Hi everyone. I’m an independent composer and I’ve recently started work on my first symphony, Terragenesis (Op. 6, No. 1).
The complete work is planned to be at least an hour long and is intended as a musical interpretation of the currently known history of evolution on Earth, beginning with prebiotic chemistry and abiogenesis and eventually progressing through the history of life to humans.
I’ve currently completed about five minutes of the piece, consisting of the Prelude and the first five catalogue entries. They’re divided into two Arcs:
Arc I: Abiogenesis
Op. SN1, No. 0: Prelude To A World Long Gone
Op. SN1, No. 1: Lifeless Molecular Disturbances
Op. SN1, No. 2: When Chemistry Dreamed Of Dreaming
Arc II: The Lost World Of Aeons Past
Op. SN1, No. 3: LUCA’s Legacy
Op. SN1, No. 4: The World That Dreamed in Silence
Op. SN1, No. 5: The World That Could Not Breathe

I’m deliberately posting this while the symphony is still being composed, rather than waiting until the entire thing is finished. That means I’m still able to reconsider things if there are fundamental problems with the music.

I’d appreciate all kinds of constructive criticism, some examples are things such as:
Whether the opening has a convincing sense of large-scale direction and development.
Whether the transitions between the catalogue entries/Arcs feel musically natural.
The harmonic language and use of chromaticism.
Orchestration and whether the virtual-instrument realization communicates the intended orchestral texture.
Whether the “evolution/abiogenesis” concept actually comes across musically, or whether the programme is only apparent because I’ve explained it.
Whether the material feels genuinely developmental or becomes repetitive.
Anything that you think is weak, over-written, cliché, unclear, or simply doesn’t work.

The work is nominally in G minor, although I’m treating the tonal center fairly fluidly. My current description of the style is “minimalist maximalism.”

https://youtu.be/WYdpiNwUC_w?si=i86MokncRu7l-_Hu
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FnPtoSXP4zjADhOQruA1n4cKk9tRINhV/view?usp=drivesdk

Any honest feedback is appreciated, especially criticism. I’m still working on the piece, so there’s time to make changes.

As a programmer, I do not understand sound fatigue very well, so I wanted to ask composers how this could be less annoying while keeping the mechanic?

Steam Page: Idle Harmony