Kiamet

This is just gorgeous! The cool school sound fits so well, and the arrangement does so much with it! Excellent playing and solos, sounds like a cohesive ensemble. I can't wait to hear more! And I would love to arrange for this ensemble too!

Great skewing of the original melody, and love the laid-back drum feel!

Still the best ever, I see. Carry on, Freij!

This is great stuff - it's bursting with different ideas, reharmonization and syncopation. You just need to tighten up the form. The intro and first instance of the melody is perfect, but from there it wanders off into a chordal exploration that muddles the form, and seems to come too early in the song's emotional development. The major reharm section is fantastic, the highlight of the piece, but needs to be built up to and 'earned' for it to really hit home. The return to the minor key, and the ending are fine but also need to be more defined. I think you've got a real gem here, you just need to space out and balance your ideas.

Good use of space, and a very precise and clean arrangement that lets the melody breathe. I like the movement and mood of this piece (especially 1:00 to 1:20, great interplay with the hands), and I think it has a good chance of getting posted. It may not change up the original enough though - it needs some harmonic experimentation in there as well to really grab the listener (and the judges). It's a pretty malleable melody with lots of opportunities for reharm . Good luck!

Love guitar ensemble stuff. The texture of this is just perfect - the melodies are so fun to listen to! Top work, housethegrate.

Just gorgeous, especially the first minute. Interesting motif at 1:29 as well. True it seems to divert from the source but I love all that exploration of the harmony. Awesome work!

Yeah, relying solely on reading and writing music would be a hindrance. After all, you're learning a language - you need to listen and converse as much as you need to read and write. Too often these things are considered to be mutually exclusive learning approaches.

Sounds like motivation is the problem. You need to work towards learning songs that you want to play, writing your own music, or playing in a group. If you listen to a particular music style a lot, even if there's no piano in it, that's what you have to focus on. You develop your musicality by building on the language you already know. Otherwise there can be no long-term motivation.

The best resource you can use for co-ordination and finger strength is Hanon's Virtuoso Pianist: http://books.google.com/books/about/Hanon_The_Virtuoso_Pianist.html?id=h11az0RJiw4C You say you're stuck with your learning, what style of piano music are you learning? Also sheet music is never a hindrance, it just may be that you need to develop your physical and aural piano skills to move forward.

The rush of coming up with a new idea can sometimes get me to the end of an arrangement in a day. But even then, I'll let it sit and listen to it again with "fresh ears" after some time has passed. Once you do this, all the small things that don't work or can be improved suddenly become obvious.

Tapping drum rudiments with your hands can help with co-ordination on the piano. And for more complicated syncopation, practice with a metronome, preferably set to the smallest subdivision on the page. If the smallest rhythm in the phrase is an eighth note, the metronome should be ticking "one + two + three + four + ". You can make your own rudiments by looking at the notes in both hands, and writing R (right), L (left) or B (both) above every note. For example, 4 quarter notes in the right hand and 2 half-notes in the left hand would be "BOTH - left - BOTH - left". On beats 1 and 3, the hands meet, creating "both".

Thanks for the lovely introduction and feedback, all! More Seiken Densetsu is in the works, I shall also be brushing up on my meager production skills.

The intro through to about 0:50 is really great, expect there's a noticeable acceleration throughout. Then I think you come in too strong, too early. The real climax of the form is at 1:10 when the harmony starts to move. This part is really strong, great bombastic playing, so I think it needs to be "built up to" a little more. After that, it's nice when the dynamics come down. But the chordal sections at 1:30-48, then 2:08-2:22 don't really add to the arrangement - rather, they exhaust the listener's patience for that loud, bassy dynamic. If you lean on that bass E too much, it doesn't feel like the piece is going anywhere. The quieter section at 2:22-3:00 is exactly what the piece needs more of - more contrast. Both in dynamics and harmony. You've got the parts for a great dramatic piano piece here, you just need to balance it a bit more, and make sure not to lose the melody in the faster, louder bits.