“What inspired the theme of this piece the most was how I wanted listeners to stay engaged with the piece. I tried this by transitioning into a contrasting section of solos. I really liked experimenting with the different instruments and coming up with different combinations to implement. My method of coming up with the two sequences of pitches was by humming in different ways until I hit a sweet spot. I then replicated this into the software using the tempos and beats available.”

Noa’s piece’Battle to the Second’

Eoin Kyle

“My name is Eoin Kyle and I am currently in grade 8. The composition I made is called Embers on a Balcony, and I took inspiration from one of my favourite things to do during this phase that the world is in right now: Sitting on my balcony and lighting a fire in our fire pit, and then watching the embers as they slowly die out. I knew I wanted to make a song reflecting the different emotions felt during this situation, but I am very happy with the way it turned out. I actually based the composition off of an original song I was starting to make a few months back, and looking back I think it is much better now. During the process of making my piece, I was able to develop my song and express myself, and although there were many challenges, I always overcame them (google was a big help). I made my composition using GarageBand, as it was easy to use and I had some prior knowledge of the software, and this allowed me to edit the soundtracks to my liking and even change the EQ of certain tracks. Throughout the making of the piece, I changed it many times, and I ended up merging two of the different attempts at making a backing track. For me, the greatest challenge was that I was trying to combine different instruments and tunes into something that sounded good and in tune with each other, and there were many times where I just couldn’t get the sound right. I went for the effect of sitting by a crackling fire and just staring into the salamanders of flames whilst someone plays the guitar, as during this period of spending so much time on screen with online learning I believe that it is important to take a break and just enjoy the beauty of nature in any way you can find the time to. This composition took me about a week to make, on and off, and I hope you enjoy it!”

Eoin’s piece, tentatively titled ‘Embers on a Balcony’