Composing Novice- Need A Guide

Hi everybody!!!!

I just encountered this forum, registered and found a lot of different articles on different topics and i started reading. Most of the terms are strange to me since i compose by ear. Many of you will say that that is not real composing but i am self-taught, and i struggled through music throughout all of my life.

I did a lot of hip hop in previous year, mixtapes, demo CDs, mostly overseas in my native country-Serbia, and i had a major input on sin-Sizzerb Miztape which hit New York and it was one of the ebst selling mixtapes.

Anyways, by now i can bet that a lot of you despise me already, but music is my life. All of my beats are played on a midi keyboard, i do not do sampling, i mean not the hip hop samling. Anyways, i want to learn everything about composing and if anyone can just show me the right direction!!!

Thank you very much..

I would appreciate any links, comments or posts!!!

Yours,

Dean Milenkovic

It seems that almost every new member posts a topic of this variety. :unsure:

Isn't there a thread dedicated to this sort of thing? If not, why not post one?

Back on Topic *ahem*

Well Dean, welcom to the YC! I'm sure you'll find

the members here very helpful and informative. :P

Thank you, interesting name!!hmmm

One of the first things that i wanted to ask is what does the roman numerals beneath the chords mean? Because i was trying to figure them out and count but no help! I have a music theory book, which just included them without any explination, probably because it is sooo obvious but it seems like i cant get my mind on it.

"Bob stole my cookie"-i was looking for that kind of thread but maybe i missed it or there isnt one.

They represent the degrees of a scale (regardless of key) when used in harmony. Thus: I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii, then back to I.

Not sure about the US but there's a convention in the UK that if, in the scale in question, the triad* is major, upper-case numerals are used; when minor, lower-case. The above sequence (according to this convention) occurs with a major scale.

Be aware that you'll find many examples just using upper-case.....it's the academics with their love of nomenclature and role-distancing that led to this new lower-case idea.

vii is a special case - neither major nor minor - its fifth is diminished. Some pundits like to put a little "degree" sign next to it to affirm that it is meant to be as is, diminished, and not altered in some way. (As an aside, in minor scales, two chord VIIs exist, depending how one inflects the root).

*Are you happy with triads?

A triad is formed on the root note, the degree of the scale, with the notes 3rd and 5th added above as they appear in the scale.

In C major: I is CEG, ii is DFA, etc.

Things get complicated in minor keys however....(because the ascending scale differs from the descending).

When a chord is laid out with the root in the bass/lowest part, it's in "root position" and the numeral is suffixed with a.... Ia, iia...etc

With the 3rd lowest, its a first inversion and suffixed b....Ib

With the 5th lowest - second inversion...Ic

This might help:

http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.htm

Hope it's a start anyway.

:P

damn, i think i got it! It is simple, just to a person that knows it, it might slip to explain it in the book.

Thank you, major props for the link

Gary Garritan (creator of GPO) is doing this super awesome project. It is an online version of Rimsky-Korsakov's Principles of Orchestration book! Here's the link: http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=77

It should start in a few days.

omg, i got dat book, just bought it from amazon.com..

shoot

Who cares? The book is like $10, and it would be best to have the original book handy too! =)

I would just like for you to know that there are many different composers on this site who vary in age, gender (well, actually . . . ;) ), musical tastes, philosophy, knowledge, level of composing, etc. You do not have to feel ashamed because you do not know as much theory as the next billy joe smith does. We all learn from each other and we learn together. It is a very helpful site because the people actually give you helpful advice from all the perspectives that you could possibly run into. And by the way, Welcome to the site. Feel free to post anything you would like and as many times as you would like. There is a thread for just about anything you can think of. Enjoy.

I appreciate that " Ravel's Radical Rivalry"-

Everyone has their own taste and their opinions, that has to be respected. Any ways, that site has been very helpful, and the book is excelent too.

Since there is that variaty in age, i would like to ask if anybody did anything related to music- i mean carer wise? I just graduated from High School, and i am going to attend Full Sail, direction-recording arts.

I think that is the best way to actually get in the indutry. Being an artist at the start is meaningless to me because almost half of the American population want to be a rap or RNB star.