compose

hi im kind of really new on this subject

im young, and one of the things i will go to learn when i grow more is compositing

well i feel quite embarassed :blush: by writing this, but well... i had to do it...

how do you compose? how can you creat beautiful melodies? what techniques do you use and how would be I use them? where do you get yor inspiration?

i play the piano... but i also want to compose music in my computer

i would love to, not just play others work

please explain everything you can, as much as you can

make a bass sound, make progressions, change of scales softly, or just play weird things that sounds good :)

all that stuff...

or give some websites...

well thanks for all you could do :D

and by the way, sorry for my bad english, my first language is spanish :P

see you! :)

and hope you can answer

I'm more interested in piano compositing, but really, I'd love any kind :)

thanks a lot thanks thanks

What you should probably start with is a MIDI notation application - allowing you to simply input the notes into the PC, which will then play them. I started with a trial copy of one (there'll be links around the site) in about 2002, and I've basically taught myself from there, with no music lessons for ages and only recently taking up piano lessons again.

I compose in a few ways - sometimes I'll think of a melody and rush onto my PC to mess around until I can successfully reproduce it. Other times, I'll record direct from my keyboard to PC via MIDI. Sometimes, I'll even play around with the notation software, and occasionally I'll strike gold. It also helps to have a piano or keyboard ready, and just to mess around until you get something that sounds nice. Have some software on hand first, though - no matter how lame something might sound at first, make sure it's recorded, because you may be able to take it anywhere.

What software allows you to do is just input some notes, as said above, and it will play them back to you - in any instrument, as long as the software has appropriate samples. So, if you get a melody on the piano, but think it'd sound better played on strings, you can just change the sample and you'll have that same melody on strings.

Really, just play around until you find a system that works. Once you're happy that you'll be able to compose, then you can get to it. How you build up a piece is up to you - I tend to start with either a nice melody, a cluster of notes, such as pulsing strings, or a catchy percussion riff. As soon as something comes to me, I'm quick to get it saved onto my hard-drive, as my memory is terrible. You may want to listen to some other works, perhaps ones floating around this site or your favourite movie/videogame music, to see how others manage.

i forgot to say that i have a Yamaha DGX-305 76 keys keyboard, it has USBMidi so i can plug it in my pc, and use notation software, indeed i recorded many songs i knew this way and then used flstudio to use samples and make them sound real not just midi trakcs :thumbsup:

The best way to start is...just do it.

If there's a particular style you like, start off with that - you'll develop your own style in good time!

Don't rely only on midi and computers. Get some music paper, pencils and eraser just in case that great idea steals up when the computer is switched off. Gradually learn to write down the sounds you make and like - if your keyboard can record, use it often and practice working out what you did on playback.

Don't worry if things don't work out at the first try. Composing can sometimes be frustrating (and I bet most members here (including me) have a whole bundle of unfunished work)! But it also brings great pleasure and fulfilment.

If you use technology, make sure it's always your slave, not the other way round! I still use pencil and paper for the first drafts for many reasons. And pencil and paper don't crash or need upgrade every few months!

Good luck.

Well this was interesting! I was just about to enter this place and write about my thoughts on music and composing

what you have to do if you are serious about composing music is to learn how music acctually works.

whenever you put 2 notes togehther you start off a chain event that needs to be controled.

you see music moves and it actually has a natural tendancy to move in a particular direction,and the most effective composers of the past and the present understand the implications of these tendancies and have the knowledge to to control them.

forget about just trying to write music from your creative mind unless you have a LOT of years of influence and a huge musical vocabulary under your belt.

study composition and all the melodic devices that are used to manipulate melody and harmony and you will be on the road to controling how your compositions turn out and not them controling you.

music is like a wild untamed beast that can manifest into the most beutiful and the most ugly sounds .

by learning how to control the beast you can steer it toward your personal intentions and not let it steer you.

This may be unconventional, I don't have any formal music training. But there are 3 things I can start with in making a song.

1: I try to write an interesting bass line. Just somethnig catchy and interesting. It doesn't have to be complex, usually it will just have the notes of a chord. Or it will move up and down the scales. Or it can even be one note repeated in an interesting rhythm. Once the bass line is down, and its good, a melody will just pop out. And once the melody pops out, its just a matter of making some interesting variations. And using some chords that go well with the meoldy and a song is made.

2: I sometimes start with the chords. I'll make an interesting chord progression, usually played with a unconventional rhythm. Then either the melody or bass line will come out from this after playing around. Then it follows the same process of starting with the bass line.

3: Start with the meoldy. This is actually pretty simple, I just start humming. Or singing doots, or whatever to get an nice melody in my head. Then its a matter of transfering what is in my head into some sort of musical notation. Once its there I can play around with it, add chords, a bass line then its all the same as the other steps. The key is being able to notate what is in my head. That took a while, but it comes with experience and practice.

So thats basically what I do, I come up with a bass line, chords or a melody and then with the knowledge I have of music theory I can come up with the other parts of the song. Music theory doesn't tell me specifically what to add to the song, but it narrows the choices down to what will sound best. So I try something and see if it sounds nice, and then I try something else... and then I try more things untill it sounds like something I would actually want to listen to.

I am in no way a well schooled proper composer though. I Just play around with a midi sequencer as a hobby.