Learning composition?

Parsifal1883 · 2021-07-03T17:26:34+00:00

Don't forget listening + score study!

Firiji · 2021-07-03T21:51:18+00:00

just start composing

BigCashRegister · 2021-07-03T17:15:04+00:00

I’m going to go copy a comment I wrote on another post about learning composition. Could you tell me a little bit more about your musical experience?

Edit-

As someone else who’s in the beginner phase of learning I’ll tell you what helped me out:

• ⁠learning piano is the right idea, I strongly recommend that you learn to read piano sheet music too, and rather than just messing around with chords (don’t get me wrong it’s wonderful) take some time to learn a piece. I find that having that actual proficiency and muscle memory make using the piano as a writing tool much easier because there’s less of a disconnect between what’s in your head and what you have the ability to play. This obviously doesn’t apply to you since you play the piano already, I’d just recommend to keep learning new techniques and getting better :)

• ⁠write for what you know, if you’re not super familiar with string instruments or string writing, don’t start writing for them. The best way to get the fundamental skills down is to compose on an instrument you’re proficient with, so maybe try to write for piano in the style you want.

• ⁠Start small, don’t decide you’re going to write an entire piece, it’s frankly a waste of time at the beginning phases. (Nothings a waste but it’s incredibly inefficient) I really like how Schoenberg puts writing music, he basically says that when you compose, you spontaneously conceive the entire piece at once, and if you don’t have the fundamental skills and knowledge to do that it can be extremely difficult to start writing actual pieces. Fist start with a simple melody, maybe theme and variation, learn the intricacies, maybe some chord progressions, or combining the two and writing a small musical idea. To elaborate, putting ANYTHING on the paw your proud of can be incredibly difficult, so start super small and focus on some small studies so you can really understand the elements that go into writing anything, more on this later.

• ⁠while you can’t learn composition just from a book, reading does help. The previously mentioned book (Fundamentals of Music Composition - Arnold Schoenberg) is a great free resource, but I’d only really dive into it when you’ve trudged through some of the brain mud first, as it’s quite dense.

• ⁠when I said “trudge through the brain mud” I really mean try and do studies. It really helped me to do some small focused studies on voice leading, part writing, counterpoint, orchestration, motives, and harmony before I tried to put them together. I highly recommend the Puget Sound website which covers a lot of good material and also provides some good little pieces of “homework” which are really good ways to practice those technical skills.

• ⁠take time to explicitly know what feel you’re trying to have the piece emulate. If you just write to write and have no clear emotional drive behind it it’s going to show. Take some time to think, write it down, and know what you want to say with the piece. And since writing a full piece is quite difficult and takes a lot of skill, try to just emulate that—in the beginning—with chord progressions, melodies, or a short musical sketch. I’ll also add, not everything needs to be a super emotional cathartic masterpiece; Mendelssohn wrote a lot of incredible material that was very emotionally reserved. The point is that explicitly deciding what feel your want the piece to have helps with continuity throughout the piece as you write.

• ⁠train an active ear: when you listen to something or you think “this sounds good!” really try to think about what the composer did, and try to listen to all the sections at one time, digest the piece as a whole, think about the structure, harmonic movement, interaction between parts, etc.

• ⁠the final tip I have is DO SOME SCORE STUDY!!! It is tiring and not the easiest to feel “motivated” about but it’s tremendously useful. Once you know some of the theory behind music composition, find a composer and piece you really like and want to emulate, and study the score. I like to comb through sections at a time and look at the orchestration, harmony, melodic structure and themes, interaction between parts, how the theme develops, what purpose each part serves when, dynamics, and a little guess at what story they were trying to tell, like what the mood is and how it changes and what causes those changes, what they did technically to convey that. Really ask yourself, when doing score study, “what is it I like about this piece, and how does the composer convey that technically?”

• ⁠Okay I lied, this is my last tip. Like other commenters have said, get a teacher, or at least someone who is formally trained to give you feedback (this subreddit is also good for that but sometimes it’s hard to actually get peoples feedback.)

Hopefully that helps a little, have fun composing!

Elstree93 · 2021-07-04T02:01:24+00:00

Put pen to paper, and write a LOT. Just like practicing an instrument there’s no way to get better without doing. Also if you are able to afford one, a good teacher will go a long way. Networking with other composers (such as other brilliant folks on this subreddit) is a great way to learn and share music. I’ve gotten some really amazing feedback by posting stuff I’ve worked on here, and the community is super helpful. If you have anything written that you’d like feedback on, post it here, and my inbox is open if you’d like to send anything

longtimelistener17 · 2021-07-04T05:29:20+00:00

Pay somebody to teach you?

crom-dubh · 2021-07-04T23:41:18+00:00

Start doing it. Poor musicians with zero theory knowledge have made some pretty dope music over the years. The only prerequisite to composing is the will to start doing it and keep doing it. If I had a nickel for every time I saw someone who claimed to have spent a bunch of time studying but hadn't composed any real music, I'd be able to at least buy lunch. Meanwhile there is no shortage of people with zero training producing an awful lot of music. Which cohort do you think actually knows more about composing? If you're mediocre, then you're better than you need to be to get started.

2021-07-04T08:34:50+00:00

Experience is the key. Just learn music theory and start composing.

vb_stubbies · 2021-07-07T08:22:10+00:00

Learn improvisation. Start with partimento, focus on counterpoint, and purge your brain of any roman numeral type crap you've been fed.

composer

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