Alloy & Arbor - Vibraphone & Marimba Duet - v2 Update - Eric Peel

[@EricPeelMusic]

Sorry for another long wait! I spent most of the time building a framework to make animated videos like this more easily and quickly. Building the factory, so to speak. So, expect more of this in the future!

[@davidpeel3876]

This piece has the best sound and clarity of all music to date. I plan to share this with my entire social circle. Great job!

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thanks for watching, Dad! It needs all the help it can get!

[@CAPAE]

I love your dedication to your presentation with each of your pieces in your videos. I love this new look and this composition. You have consistently been one of my top two, if not number one outright, composers when it comes to inclusion and usage of dynamics.

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thanks for your kind and supportive words! Tbh, this was a very tough project and I almost gave up in July. But now that I’ve found solutions for most of the problems, the next one should go faster and I can focus on making the presentation even more exciting.

[@ericjohns6796]

This is fantastic! The music was amazing and the animation was absolutely beautiful, great work!

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thank you very much!

[@mediocrematt7199]

this animation and composition is beautiful, you should really consider writing full outdoor marching band shows, i think they'd be fantastic!

[@EricPeelMusic]

I've always wanted to write a marching band show and definitely will some day. Thanks for commenting!

[@justtraininsanity8463]

I really like the animation, because it highlights all the intricate techniques that go into the music. The accents, the peddling in the Vibraphone, its genius. ❤ 🎵

[@EricPeelMusic]

Thank you! The pedaling was a challenge to get right, especially with the 1st/2nd endings section. Thanks for noticing those details! Did you also notice how the vibraphone mutes (X noteheads) affect the appearance of the muted notes?

[@justtraininsanity8463]

@@EricPeelMusic I most certainly did, I thought that was very clever

[@dankwoomy]

yes!!!! so happy to see more presentation of your music this way. its a super pretty way to enhance the experience listening to it. you're very precise with how you write relationships between instruments, and this piece seems to represent that really well. awesome work. im curious, what are your next plans for pieces? if thats not something you plan to have as a surprise

[@EricPeelMusic]

@dankwoomy Thanks so much for your very encouraging comment! Although this project has been tough, I’m happy to finally share the result and am glad you and others can enjoy it. As for the next one, its probably going to be an update for “On a Hike”, which should go by fast. But I’m also anxious to break from the updates and do something new.

[@kremitw]

I’d love to see what you could do for a slightly easier piece, but one that has a very solid and catchy melody to it. Basically write what a pop song is to rock and roll but for a solo/duet/ensemble

[@EricPeelMusic]

Catchy hooks are one of the most challenging things I find myself encountering with composition but I will continue to work to improve my melodies for future pieces. Thanks for your feedback.

[@omaripascal9599]

amazing work! the animation and visuals are very clean and engaging. how do you go about animating something like this? this must have taken a while haha

[@EricPeelMusic]

@omaripascal9599 Yeah it took almost a year! In short, I wrote a Sibelius script to collect and sort the MIDI and other data from Sibelius to a js file, and then wrote a series of js scripts to place markers and expressions onto the various layers in After Effects, according to that data. The layers are made from graphic exports from Sibelius. I’m not a programmer so it was a lot of learning. Thanks for commenting!

[@omaripascal9599]

@@EricPeelMusic well, you seemed to put together something very fantastic ! kudos to u 🙏🏾

[@EricPeelMusic]

@omaripascal9599 Thanks very much!

[@Pyro2334]

God i love this piece so much! Definitely gonna try to see if i could play this and perform it with someone else within my section. Is there any recommended mallet to play this piece with?

[@EricPeelMusic]

I’m glad you like it and thanks for your interest in playing it! Mallet choice is always tough to determine up front. It depends on your instrument, playing style and what you want to hear/feel. I would try a few different sets and see what gives you the best sound and feel. But nothing very hard or very soft. There isn’t any time for mallet changes in this piece so it needs to be neutral in hardness to work well at all dynamics.

[@lilmushoom5381]

Genuinely curious, what inspired the change from regular dynamics to "dynamic numbers"?

[@EricPeelMusic]

Lately, I prefer to write dynamics with more definition than Italian dynamics offer. For example, a "p" could be about 35% while an "mp" about 55%. That's a big gap. There's a lot in between the gaps that can work better in some moments.

[@daintersc4]

@@EricPeelMusicI like this approach a lot. Everyone’s approach to dynamics is going to be a little bit different, especially when it comes to touch and technique so this gives a lot of clarity to just how much it should be.

[@EricPeelMusic]

@daintersc4 Right. And most of the time, high level musicians dont need markings to know at what level to play. They can see the hairpins and the musical context and know what to do. A lot of conposers don’t define the dynamics much at all and rely more on the musician’s interpretation. So hyper-clarification can be great for less experienced players but can also be easily ignored by expert players.