YCobb wrote:
All feedback greatly appreciated, since I don't know enough about music to recognize my mistakes like I can with visual art.
Link.
(I'm not sure how much notation stuff you know already, so if you need me to explain anything better, let me know)
Well, you based it on the I-IV-V-I chord progression (C-F-G-C), which is the strongest chord progression in a tonal (not funky) major key, so that's nice and solid, but those were bodaciously the only chords you included as far as I heard. The title of it suggests that it's supposed to be something that's really easy to have on repeat for an extended period of time, so repetition is good to an extent, yes, but I would say that for your next piece, or if you decide to do another draft of this one, include a little more variety. Since your piece has no words to provide variety like in a pop song, you need your actual music to provide the variation, which makes it a little harder for a non-vocal piece to get a way with the "only 3 chords" trick. However, your melodic layering within those three chords is very nice, I thought.
Even if you're making a cheerful song, it's okay to have a minor chord thrown in there. Major scales have three minor chords in them: ii, iii, vi (or in the key of C: d, e, a), and even a diminished triad in the vii (b dim). My personal suggestion is that in major-based tunes, throwing a "vi-V-I" progression instead of a "IV-V-I" for a cadence (the point where after a few measures, the music sounds like it settles), is nice. It would work best if you framed the six in a more major-ish way. Like a vi chord (ACE) has two notes in common with a I chord (CEG). So you could have the "major side" of the vi chord come first (CEA), repeat the pattern on the V chord (BDG) and then do whatever you want on the I. But again, that's just a suggestion.
I'm still getting the hang of percussion myself, so I'm less able to give composing techniques on this, but it just seemed a little bit unfinished. like maybe switch it up every other repeat or phrase (phrases in music are clean start-finish sections of a song, in yours they're every 4 measures). Add an extra little line here, or maybe replace that instrument with this one, or add a couple more hits into those two beats so that they're eighth notes instead of half notes.
It was a fun piece, though! Really, well, cheery, and what you had was solid, but I feel like it could have been about half the length. I hope to see you come up with more stuff and think it will be cool to watch you improve!