What do I need to know before I compose music?

Question

I want to compose concert band music for like high school or college bands. Now I'm only 17 so it'll be a while before I actually get my music copyrighted and published. But before all that I have to compose the music first and I don't plan on majoring in music in college. I have a wide musical knowledge. I've been a trombone player for six years and over time I've learned to play all brass instruments. I don't know how to play woodwind or percussion instruments or piano though.
Would be able to compose concert band music by transposing notes or do I have to know how to play all instruments? Am I too young to be composing music and would a degree in meteorology affect the number of people who would buy my music?

Also, how do I start? How do composers come up with these creative rhythms and melodies? Also how do they come up with the key signature and time signature? How can I avoid making my music sound like other music?

How would I compose the music? Would I use a computer software? What software would you recommend?

I'd appreciate you telling me any other things I should know. Thanks!

Answer 1

You have quite a job set up for yourself.

Here's what you need to learn.



----Instrumentation. The books on this subject have a section on string instruments, but since you're interested in concert band, you can skip that. It would help to take at least beginning lessons on most of the instruments. Tchaikovsky never played the violin, so his violin parts are awkward.



It is good to listen to lots of recordings following the score. What do the flute and clarinet sound like playing in octaves? What do the oboe and bassoon sound like playing in octaves? These are questions which cannot be answered on paper.



----Music theory. If you don't already know how to play the piano, learn. Every piano-challenged student I've ever known had trouble with music theory. In whatever book you use, terms such as "diminished seventh" and "augmented sixth" will be tossed around with joyous abandon, and they will be meaningless to you unless you are familiar with the keyboard.



After reading a good textbook, the best way to practice is to analyze Bach chorales.



----Counterpoint. After book study on this, the best way to practice is to analyze Bach fugues.



----Form. There aren't many textbooks on this, and the only one I know is "Form in Tonal Music" by Douglass Green.



The toughest form is the sonata form. After reading this book, try analyzing the Mozart piano sonatas.



On this forum, we get occasional messages from distraught university students who have to analyze a piece of music in terms of form but don't know which way is up. The other members refuse to answer these messages, ostensibly because of the DYOH adage. But it's probably because they don't know, either.



Composition majors are required to take courses in all of these areas. But if you are a self-starter, you can do it yourself.



The software I use is Finale. Finale and Sibelius are the top two. You'll have to ask someone else about Sibelius, because I've never tried it.

Answer 2

No, you don't need to know how to play all the instruments to be able to compose for them. So you're safe there. Having the brass in your bag of tricks is really a good thing. If I had that skill set, I'd start with some brass trios, quartets and quintets. It's the "low hanging fruit" approach.



There is no simple way to come up with creative rhythms and melodies. It's done by focused awareness on the work.(The "clear your mind and wander aimlessly" approach leads to Yiruma tunes.)



For early compositions, I'd start with the melody decide on a measure length that you are going to compose the theme to. Four is common -- too common. Pick five, six, seven or eight, and write a melody to fit that space. I've often said that I get inspiration from a line of text. Could be from poetry, a book, or newspaper. (And then people give me thumbs down.) I focus on the rhythmic cadence of the words. Then on the pitches suggested by inflection.



Once the theme for the melody is written (your starting point) Then you can reuse the rhythm and/or the pitches to expand the music into second and third themes.



Working out the harmonies can be a bit trickier There is a strong desire to keep everything pure (I IV V7 I chord progressions), sometimes you've got to fight that urge and build in dissonance that resolves through longer chord progressions.



For scoring, I'm a fan of Sibelius and use it every day. Finale is it's main competitor. But you could try some early scoring for free using Noteflight. (http://www.sibelius.com http://www.finalemusic.com http://www.noteflight.com) There are other products as well.



Expect that you will put a lot of labor into your music and much of it you will not find satisfying. It is often frustrating. Odds could be 10:1 against any one particular piece moving forward, probably even higher.



... but then, if you come up with a hit, people will ask for free copies of sheets (or notes like a b c) right here on Y!A Classical.

Answer 3

1. A knowledge of piano would be very helpful, though not absolutely required. It's useful for several reasons: you have plenty of octaves to play with, you can work on melody and harmony at the same time, and probably some other reasons I can't think of at the same time.



2. You absolutely do not have to know how to play all instruments. You will ultimately have to learn about orchestration, which saves you that trouble.



3. You're not too young to be composing music. I'm not really sure why you're asking that question.



4. Several things will affect the number of people who buy your music: luck, publicity, quality...music is a very competitive field. Majoring in music is by no means a guarantee that anyone will buy your music.



5. You start by learning music theory. Some people say that learning music theory will kill your creativity. I would recommend that those people go live in houses designed and built by people with no knowledge of physics or geometry. Get a book on music theory -ask a teacher to recommend one for you- and start working through it. No point in reinventing the wheel.



Regards the actual process of composition...well, I only know what I do, what my dad did and does -he was a professional musician during the 80s- and what my composer friend does. Go to your instrument. Play something. If you like it, write it down. Now mess around some more until you find something else you like, but try to incorporate some aspect of your original tune, like a part of the tune or the rhythm of it. Doesn't matter what, just something. Keep doing that for a while. To make your life easier, get a book about form. Actually, really, you're going to be better off taking some classes at a community college or finding a private tutor. If you want to be a good composer you'll save yourself a lot of time if you go and take a class.



I'm not sure what you mean by 'come up with the key signature and time signature.' The way I do it -which I'm not saying is the best way or the way you should compose- I figure out what key signature I'm playing in afterwards, and the time signature is worked out that way too. However, you can also decide that you want to write a C major piece in 3/4 time and go from there. Your call.



Regards tools: Here's what I do: I have my keyboard, some staff paper I printed off the internet, a clipboard, a mechanical pencil, and a metronome. Oh, and some headphones. I'm old-school :P The advantage of this system is that it is virtually free. The disadvantage is that it takes quite a bit more time than software.



If you're going to use software -and you should get used to at least one program- you'll want to find a sequencer and some notation software. Sibelius and Finale are the two most popular composing programs, though there are others. If all goes well I should be set up with Sonar 7 tomorrow, which is also used. You'll want to have a keyboard set up so you can input your melodies without having to click through each individual note. Thing is, you're looking at about $600 in software and more in hardware. Hooray for academic discounts! Software like Sonar is cheaper. You can also look around and see if anyone can set you up with software in some sort of cheap and legal way.



I can't tell you have to avoid making your music sound like other music. That is the bane of every composer's existence. The more you compose the better you will get at composing and the more your voice will come out. The question really is, "How unique is my inner musical voice," and that's something nobody can answer. Whether you think it was nature or God or whatever, nobody will deny that people have varying levels of ability in different things. Nobody can tell if you're going to be the next Sousa.



It sounds like you're not expecting everything to fall in to place right away, which is good. Go pick up a staff paper notebook -it's better than using loose staff paper, trust me- and start making little melodies. Doesn't matter if they're any good -honestly they probably won't be all that great but every composer has to start somewhere, and practice makes perfect- you just need to write them down. Congratulations, you just wrote your first musical sketches.



Here are my last bits of advice:



-When asking for criticism of your work, be specific.



-If someone says, "Can I make a suggestion," say no. Trust me on this one. EDIT: Well, I wrote a whole bunch more than this but Yahoo cut it off. Sorry :(

Answer 4

Well...there isn't a sort of border or rule as to how you to compose music. No you don't need to know how to play all the instruments, you can ask ur friends 4 help though. You're never too young to be composing music, I mean Mozart was 5 when he composed 'twinkle twinkle little star'. I seriously doubt people would not purchace your music even though you have a degree in meteorology.

Well, how you start is baisically from your inspiaration i guess, and everyone's music is original. I don't use or know any computer soft ware so i just write it out.

Answer 5

forget EVERYTHING. Think of a memory, girl or anything that makes you feel anything and just play.



but before you forget everything you have to know everything so that it's second nature to you. It's like learning how to write. If I asked you to write down how you feel on paper in words when you were 5, you'd be thinking about grammar, spelling, and it'd probably be one sentence etc......, I ask you now, you can probably write a whole poem without worrying that much about spelling and focusing more on emotion because you already know how to spell after a long time. Get it?



good luck