I wrote out an answer to this and had a browser crash (I was also downloading the beta of Reason 7 at the time) so lost the lot.
Take 2.
This post is in response to a series of e-mail exchanges between myself and caycay
to which I replied
to which caycay responded
So, my point to you was that sometimes a track will meander along, seemingly going nowhere.
pianissimo percussive
My piece actually has a strong internal structure that provides the coherence for everything else.
Melodically, instead of having the melody play on one instrument in a single pitch region, I used different instruments and octaves to present it, creating both a cohesive and, at the same time, disjunct melodic contour. If we were to shift the melody back into the one octave region, it would not have the disjointed feel (losing some of its charm and character) but it would still be a viable melodic line, perhaps a little less engaging. Using points of sound or lines of sound in different registers with different timbres is a well explored technique from the 13th century and onwards.
Harmonically the piece is bereft of progression, instead sticking to almost a monotonality or "monochordality". The resolution is obtained through the juxtaposition of the various melodic lines, achieving resolution through melodic cadence rather than harmonic cadence.
yellaowolo/2-14-13-1
In your piece, different parts of your instrumental forces are changing chords at different times, causing tensions that some folks might feel are unnecessary or even unwanted.
Your bass notes change from root to non-chord scale tones without good cause: you are not moving to another chord, but using it as an upper decoration of the root - if you had gone to the tone below and then come back most folks would not even register it as a problem.
The actual rhythm in the bass is disjointed and almost a-rhythmic; I'm not entirely certain but it seems almost as though you have decided to mix triplet and dotted rhythms without thought to how it breaks up the rhythmic insistence required of much of dance music.
You seem stuck between using chord I-ii and Chord I-IV in the progression.
Chord ii has a tendency to resolving to chord V, as does chord IV, but less strongly. Moving directly back to I is adding to the aimlessness of the track and reduces your chords to a sequence (aimless wandering) rather than a progression (directed movement towards a cadence or resolution).
In all, more attention to making your chordal movement more directed and unified will solve some of the issues.
Choosing appropriate rhythms and decorative tones will address some of the other issues.
An often forgotten or even un-learnt aspect of composition is that it is architecture in time: the structures and framework are the elements that everything else must hang from.
If there are flaws in one or more parts of the structures then it is unlikely that the edifice of your music can survive the shortcomings of the design flaws. Where the flaws are meant to be highlights (as in craquelure
[SUP][1][/SUP] in oil painting as the oils dry over centuries), great care must be taken not to overburden them with other flawed materials or concepts: such stretching of the limits of the flaw can cause an otherwise engaging work to fail when viewed at a distance.
