danielml's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[DMT:How to read music/tab]

From a composer and classically trained musician:

Poor neglected C clef (used by violas and sometimes trombones)
Treble clef (also called G clef) does not always signify melody. It's used mainly by instruments whose range is largely above middle C ... or by voices (like a tenor singer) whose natural range is easiest to signify in a treble range. For instance, a cello (who uses bass clef ... also called F cleff) is often given melodies in string music.

May want to mention that treb. clef has its bottom circle around the G and bass cleff has the dots around F ('cause these guys can move up and down the staff, yo)

being nit-picky, flats and sharps should be thought of as "down" and "up" respectively, not "back" and "in front"

middle C is actually C4 scientifically and C' in helmholtz.

You left out the symbol for naturals.

Would've been nice to include key signatures (at least the concept) and time signatures as well (again, the concept). Maybe eigth, quarter, half and whole notes? Or is that the next tutorial? :P

you may want to mention that chords in guitar tab are stacked together. Tab also has the disadvantage in lack of precise timing. You kind of have to know what the song sounds like already in order to follow tab.

All in all, decent starting tutorial. Would've been nice to put sounds to the notes (maybe clickable?) Also, to hear what the tab sounds like and the sounds each of the individual guitar strings make. This way you start 'em early on ear training and those that play by ear can associate what they already know with the visible notes.

Darkmaster603 responds:

Yes, I agree. I'm working right on improving this guide.

The thing is, I just wanted to get THE BASICS down first, you know? I didn't want to confuse anyone, and I felt that if I brought in other clefs, notes, and other things I would have to explain it all, and that would probably confuse a lot of people =/. I also didn't mention ledger lines either. I guess I could have worded the sharps and flats better.

the more in depth guide to tablature is on it's way, it's about 30% done, and it explains EVERYTHING there is to know about tablature. Well, almost everything lol.

All in all, thanks for the criticism and suggestion, I'll make some corrections!

[The Air We Breathe]

not "artsy" enough

A lot of folks are complaining about this being too "artsy". I think they are ineffectually saying that your vid is disconnected. There doesn't seem to be a unifying "theme" or underlying "thesis" to this work beyond "modernization = bad".

Some things I didn't like:
The lungs in the x-ray sections aren't "breathing". This may be on purpose or it may be laziness.

Moths coming out of old factory. Sure, moths symbolize decay -- but isn't the rest of this vid about modernization as both functional & malignant? Wouldn't a decaying factory be a good thing?

The "sparkle trees". Why are the trees sparkling? For a moment I thought this was an allusion to rorschach and psychology - but I quickly dismissed it.

Things I liked:
I like society as a set of staticy cogs.

I like that the emergency vehicle is spinning in circles and impotent.

I like the burning christmas trees because they hit at two levels - both the destruction of the environment through deforestation and the destruction of the self through over-commercialization and mass society.

All in all, the images used were loosely held together. It seemed like you didn't entirely know where you wanted to go with your theme. Perhaps that was part of your point ... modernization has led to a society in dissarray in which the symbols we use are both random and meaningless?

Good animation. Photos were well done. Thought there should be a bit of color here and there. Grainy black&white photos are SO 1996 :D. I liked it but probably won't watch it again.

Foxcato responds:

Thanks a lot for your constructive review:)