What are your favorite sections and why? Write down your initial direction for your composition. Will your piece also have lyrics? For this article, I am choosing to write a simple piano piece in a classical style. It will have a medium tempo and a happy mood. Decide on a form for your composition. Most musical compositions are made up of sections that are the same repeating sections or different from each other contrasting sections.
How long will your composition be? How many sections will it have? Remember that every style of music has its own set of common forms, such as a measure AABA form in jazz standards, or a bar blues.
You may like to stick to one of these forms or make up your own. My advice would be to keep it simple! For example, if you break down your composition into two contrasting sections of eight measures each, you have enough material for a bar AABA tune!
I will use this form for my composition example. Use your instrument to come up with some riffs. Use your voice! Sing little melodies. Do this for at least 10 minutes. No one has to hear it except for you. Go for it! Listen to the audio clip of me thinking of some ideas for my composition…. Listen back to your recording. Is there anything that stands out to you? Is there an idea that you think you can develop into a classical melody? Have you created your first chord progression for your rock song?
Can you decide on an opening line of lyrics for your jazz or pop tune? The melodic idea that you decide on will become your first musical motif—a two or three note idea that will become the foundation of your piece. See if you can notate this on paper—clap the rhythm and sing or play the motif on your instrument. My motif will be the following idea:.
Enlarge and Listen. Now that you have your opening motif, what are you going to do with it? You have some options—you can extend it, shorten it, play it backwards, repeat it, make up something a little different or completely different from it. By doing this, you are creating a musical phrase—a more complete thought or idea—from your motif. Here is my example. Notice how I have stated my motif, played the pitches backwards with the same rhythm, and then finished my phrase with a different idea.
Since I am writing two eight measure sections, I will extend my initial four measures to an eight measure phrase by repeating my idea in a different key, ending with a little change to the rhythm. In almost all styles of music, there is a contrasting section that adds interest to the piece by presenting new material to your ear.
To write a contrasting section, repeat steps four and five, trying not to play your original motif. Can you think of a different rhythm? Will your melody move by steps or skips this time? Will you use repeated pitches? Does this section have a different mood? I can't play any instrument well, I play the piano but I would never ever perform in front of an audience, not even my own family, nor do I know much about music theory I'm an autodidact , but I constantly hear music going on in my head and have been composing for many different instruments since the age of six.
Some kind of schizophrenia, I guess, because I'm definitely crazy in some way. Maybe it was the same for Mozart or Beethoven, because I can tell that those melodies aren't the result of some fragmentised trial and error-improvisation process; there are continuous musical ideas behind their works. When I was eleven I started to work together with a producer to record some of my songs I sing , and I've been using GarageBand and various notation programs on my iPad the last few years so that I could compose music wherever I am I have zero patience, when I have an idea it will be gone if I don't write it down immediately, and then I get bored with it.
Of course there needs to be immense amounts of skills and knowledge when it comes to creating great pieces of music, but I see it merely as the means to get the ideas out of one's head, and to get those ideas in the first place musical intuition is required. Anyone can compose classical music the difference is what becomes a master piece and what not.
Think if you knew how to play guitar or another instrument you could come up with a small piece for 2 guitars or 4 guitars. If you are comfy in how they sound and each piece you could almost 'imagine' how 2 guitars would sound together although, many old composers had people that would come over pupils even that would play a piece just for a demo run.
For the most part, the longest time in writing music for gifted composers is writing down what they already heard in their heads and its hard to do but not impossible. Think of a song you really like and close your eyes and attempt to hear it. Can you hear all of it or most? Well, same thing. Classical composers are just extraordinaire especially from centuries back because of the technology they had to work with and also because some symphonies have dozens of different instrument in different keys and voices!
It is rather insane when you think about it, but obviously doable. Also, music was a career. Hence you studied and worked your booty off daily and with so many musicians, you really had to be great in order to make it. Even the great ones struggled constantly, but they had music within their head constantly. Together with practice and theory and the drive to compose something great, you will hear symphonies.
You can also build from templates in your head. That probably sounds good enough and many would be able to 'hear' that in their heads. Now multiply that by a if you are a decent musician and by if you were Mozart :D. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.
Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How do classical composers write music? Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 9 months ago. Active 4 years, 5 months ago. Viewed 48k times.
Improve this question. Rick Rhodes. Rick Rhodes Rick Rhodes 2 2 gold badges 6 6 silver badges 8 8 bronze badges. Many composers these days trained with the orchestration textbooks by Samuel Adler himself an accomplished composer or Alfred Blatter among others ; two classic texts on orchestration by famous composers of the past are those by Hector Berlioz and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
The above write-up specifies certain secrets, which when implemented with caution will simplify the music composing process, and let you generate best possible outcome. Owing to being a film composer, and passionate about music theory, the author managed to specify some very beneficial information. I have always wondered whether inspiration is actually a pseudonym for life experience.
Ive noticed that after accomplishing something new in life it becomes x easier to generate ideas. Another interesting aspect of this is that the music generated is ALWAYS a kernel of what is to come, always coming in its most basic form.
I was studying how inspiration in general comes not only for composing but for everything in life. By inspiration one can compose, paint, write, say or do something. I agree with you that a deep, reflexive thinking and an appreciation for the nature makes us closer to the source of inspiration.
Hayes commented. Thank you so much for your words in this website. I love your article. This is very generous and much appreciated, Jon. Thank you! Great and insightful article. Made me stop and think. Appreciated your insights. Thank you Also the encouragement to do something with what we have completed Thank you!! A 19th century German philosopher, Schopenhauer, also wondered about this. When I write a poem I often feel like the poem wrote itself.
These days any idea I get is instantly kicked into touch by my conscious mind judging it to be nothing new, or of no value. One other thing, when I compose music I very much enjoy the process of composing and arranging. Not to make a career from it, or even to show it to people, but just as an aid to enjoying the time I spend doing it and maybe even getting better at it. Great read! Composing as a profession however will demand a fit-for-purpose approach.
Perhaps there is already a known term in use? I am not familiar with a general term that points to the purpose of the music. I think it is wrapped up in the specific terms — program music, chamber music, film score, ballet, symphony, etc. Good idea though. So many melodies and chords and ideas flew around my ears all the time. That is why I decided to be a composer and I pursued composition degree in college.
After graduation, as I have my own inspiration and desire to write about, I feel like those fairies that used to flew around my ears are all gone now. And I am losing self-confidence more and more everyday and also desires to write music… This has been over an year now. I was so happy back then to write music.
Now I am almost depressed when I try to write music. I would appreciate your thoughts on my status.. First, try to connect with the thing that really gets you excited about composing. For many people, me included, it is getting your music actually performed by other people, for other people to listen to.
This means that you are not just composing in notation software for yourself to listen to. Instead, you are actually putting yourself out in the world. This can be scary, but also very exciting and rewarding. Second, my guess is that the music you had inside you is still there, but you have other issues with not letting go of inhibition while composing. Part of this could be the mood you are approaching with — you already feel like you are not going to feel the right ideas. Part of it could be not understanding the theoretical concepts to the point of not having to actively think about them while composing.
My guess is you know the theory on a conceptual level, but not on an automatic level. Like anything worth doing, it is always hard work, but if you truly want it, it is also satisfying work. Third, I would work on transcribing some music you like, which will improve your ability to transcribe what you hear in your head, understand it, and write it down. Jon, this article was excellent and heartfelt. I find myself doing some of the same methods you list.
Also being able to hear it played back in different keys and tempos sometimes opens up new avenues of thought. Thanks again for the great article, cheers. If you get a quick working process, it can be huge. Nasko, thanks for the comment.
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