JimmyNeutron

What's up, fellow composers? I recently started a blog where I can share my experience and acquired knowledge about composing. One of my first posts pertains to speakers and headphones, and why they are so important for the composer. You can check it out here. If you find it useful, or you have any questions, or any kind of feedback whatsoever, leave a comment on my blog! I promise to read it and reply. - Sam

General Questions: When I was really little, I remember playing Mary had a little lamb on a toy electric keyboard. I played around on a friends piano when I was about 6, and I started playing a keyboard regularly when I was about 7. I haven't stopped since. When I was about 12 I started making short films that required music. I composed and recorded some very simple (read: bad) musical score on my keyboard, but I was more interested in making films than composing music. Record with MIDI keyboard straight into a DAW. If I have no access to my keyboard, I will notate ideas on my laptop using MuseScore (an awesome, free music notation program). Composers who are self-taught: I never really had a music teacher because A) There wasn't much about music that I couldn't learn for free without a teacher or school, and B) The hardest part of composing is the creative process, and that's something that I don't think can be taught. Hard to say, cause I don't know what it's like to not be self-taught. Flexibility. You can spend more time on areas you think are more important. I actually don't know. I've often wondered what you learn in a composition class, cause how can you teach someone to create something? You might be able to learn the technical aspects of the craft, but not the most important part, which is the ability to generate musical ideas. I think if anything, it would be a benefit. It couldn't hurt, anyway.

Ah, yes. He does have some pretty useful advice there.

Yes, actually. I learn almost all the music I know by listening, but there are certain things that are difficult to distinguish just by listening, particularly parts played by doubled or sometimes tripled instruments. Sometimes I will listen to a piece and attempt to transcribe it by ear, but this does result in the problem of not being able to tell if I have listened and transcribed correctly since I cannot see what the actual score looks like, nor hear an orchestra play my version to see if they match up. Long story short, there's no way to tell for sure if I am actually getting the whole picture just by listening.

Great suggestions everyone. Unfortunately, a lot of my favorite orchestral works come from film music (not the increasingly cliche Zimmer-esque 'epic' hollywood sound, rather, John Williams, Howard Shore, Thomas Newman, etc.), and the scores for these pieces are rather difficult to come by. However, the classical composers are a great place to build a foundation. Thanks for the ideas.

Thanks for the tips. What scores would you recommend I study to learn good orchestration (besides Gustav Holst's "The Planets")?

When composing music for orchestra, how can one know what the music will sound like when it's actually played? I don't happen to have an orchestra laying around that I can use to test my music, and the score writing softwares (such as Finale or the free alternative MuseScore) generally use some cheap General MIDI SoundBanks, so I can't get a good idea of what the finished music will actually sound like. Also, I'm a bit wary about creating a mockup using an orchestral sample library, such as EWQLSO, cause I don't want to compose the music such that it sounds right when played by the sample library, but not when played by an actual orchestra. I've heard some people say that that can happen if you aren't careful, since sample libraries do not fully reflect what the orchestra actually sounds like. So, does anyone have any tips for getting an accurate idea of what the music will sound like while composing? I'd appreciate any advice or opinions on the subject. Thanks!