Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.
I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!
Constructive Criticism:
- You can definitely develop this a lot more and faster than what you already did in the beginning. Right now, it sits on the same bassline and only adds slightly more in the way of drums and one set of chords that then repeats for two hypermeasures before any melody comes in. It's really tempting to do this type of thing to pad out the length of music, but the actual development itself suffers as a result. Quite frankly, the melody could have come in on the third hypermeasure with the chords rather than the fifth. This then does continue on with no further development and only more chords, with the same melody playing afterwards. This could absolutely have used a break midway through with a different chord progression and perhaps even chord substitutions within the main chord progression to keep it varied before changing everything up.
- Secondly, let's look at this melody. It appears to essentially just be one arpeggio up, one arpeggio down, and a single note with one note of anticipation beforehand. It's lovely, but really doesn't do very much. Why not add a countermelody, or extend the melody with more variation until it matches the same length as the hypermeasure? This takes the previously-mentioned repetition issue and pushes it much further.
Compliments to the Composer:
- Really, this is mixed pretty tastefully. I love the bassline and do have a soft spot for simple two-chord progressions. Mainly, I want MORE of it in different forms than the same thing. The melody is sweet and the synth used for it is quite effective and floaty, really contrasting the bass and snappy little drum loop underneath. Again, I just want MORE because its already very good. I think you can develop things far further and you'll have some really nice chillout funk music on your hands.
Final score: 8.3