Where to Start?

Hello everyone,

I am new here at the forums, I have been looking around for about two weeks or so now and felt compelled to sign up to ask this very simple question.
I have Rosegarden on my computer, I run Ubuntu Linux so Finale won't run, and I have dinked around a little for fun on Rosegarden but nothing really great, I wrote a simple "Mary had a little lamb" tune and thought about how much fun it was.
About three days after getting Rosegarden I went down to a college for a 3 day clinic. There were 4 bands: beginner, intermediate and two advanced. I was trying out on Bassoon, I made it as 1st chair in the top band, beating out two seniors and a junior (i'm a sophomore now, freshman then)
I was put into a band conducted by Julie Giroux, she told us she composed a lot of songs and wrote a lot for TV shows and a few 'b' movies.
Her stories of composing fascinated me (but then again, she was a great person..) and I really wanted to become a composer, so I started asking her questions like "when did you right your first piece?" and "how do you begin?" She just told me "write what's in your head."
I've always been able to hear songs in my head, but writing them down on a piece of paper (or in this case a computer) is just a daunting task, much too difficult for me to even know where to begin.
I still tried and sat down about two weeks ago and started writing something for Bassoon. It was awful.
I tried and tried again, trying to write such a simple melody down onto this computer but every time I went off the original melody and then it became a different song entirely. All ending in the same way.. awful.
So then I found this forum, and probed around for some answers. I couldn't find any because I couldn't find anything that suited my specific question: Where and how do I start?

My question isn't exactly one about writing what I want, it's just a question on how you big guys that are writing such wonderful music started? Back when you first sat down and wanted to write something for the first time, how did you start?

I want to compose for the rest of my life, even if I don't make it like John Williams or even Julie Giroux, I still want to write songs and share with the rest of the world something only I can hear. (saying that meaning the specific song, not meaning that nobody else can hear stuff in their head.)
How do you start out as a total beginner writing songs? My dad says to start studying different composers, such as J.S. Bach and Beethoven, and find their style. Then find out your own, usually it's influenced by others that you like.
I have been listening only to the music that I like (classical and jazz) for two straight weeks, but still I can't compose anything worth listening to.
I want to write what's in my head, I really truly do, and I am sure everyone else here does too. I just don't know how to start, usually when I want to start doing something I look around online for guides, but I can't find any. Composing (although I am terrible at it) is something I love doing; although I can't write worth my life, I love sitting down and attempting to write something worth listening to, I never get tired of doing it. It's not like practicing my instruments, because I am told to do it. Nobody tells me to sit here and write something, and that is why I love doing it. It's like I am a free person, I can write down whatever I feel like writing down. I am the writer, and, if I ever get good enough to publish it, the performer is the one that has to listen to what I told them to do on the paper. I can imagine myself writing for a TV show, or a movie, or a video game... but I don't know how to start now. I want to, I really do but I just don't know how.


I honestly don't know how to end this epiphany, but..


-Mathieu

First of all, welcome here.

It's not easy to start composing, I know how you feel. But if you have the music "in your head" and the urge to write it down, you already have the most important part. Now it's a matter of practice. It may be hard first to translate what you hear in your mind to notes on paper, but the more you do it the easier it will become. At some point it won't even seem to be a translation anymore at all, but you will see the notes in your mind as you hear them.

Studying other composers is fine and all and can be helpful. However, it won't really help you to practice writing stuff down. You just have to sit down either at your computer with Finale, or to a sheet of paper (maybe at a piano if you have access to one) and write again and again. Personally, I would prefer the sheet of paper to Finale at this point, since I think it will train your ability of translating what your inner ear hears and the notes better, but in the end it's a matter of personal preference.

It's also a common experience that something we imagine in our minds may turn out quite differently when we write it down. To some degree that's a matter of training your "inner ear" to be musically accurate. But you don't always -have- to stick firmly to what you imagined in your mind. Sometimes the act of writing down music will change the music in unforeseen ways that might make the music much richer than you originally intended. Experiment with what you wrote down, try to change a note here and there, change a rhythm, etc. and see how it sounds. Even though it's an important skill to be able to write down what you hear, you don't -have- to do that strictly. Your compositions may very well take a new path once you actually write them down.

To summarize: Just write a lot and experiment. Trying out stuff will teach you more than anything else. It will be tough and maybe not satisfying at first, but you'll get past that stage. Keep going!

Unless you are 100% proficient at a computer program, I would recommend doing everything on paper, as it will be quicker.

Studying other composers is a good way, though as Gardener said it may not be the BEST way - but if you're stuck it's certianly something to try. I've been buying various scores over the past year or so just to deconstruct and try to figure out how the notes on the page became a beautiful sounds - what chords, what progressions. Then I'd try to replicate, then replicate in a different key, then re-arrange the techniques and progressions, then I'd "discover" a progression on my own that I liked, try to apply that with the other stuff I'd been using, etc. etc. until you get your own style and no longer need to take scores apart to get your material.

Then again, this method ends in a lot of "use this progession somewhere.MUS" files and less entire pieces. I guess it takes a combination of everything to get to where you can just...compose completely on your own

Starting is always the hardest.
I probably start 10 pieces for every one I will actually add to.
I've found sheets of my little one or two line ideas that never actually hatched.
You hear stuff in your head, that is the way I go.
If you hear a melody, find a piano and match pitches, and write it on paper.
Then, add to it. Vary it, make it your own.

Study composers to find the style you like. Then you can figure out why you like it. Chords, progressions, key changes, tempo, orchestration. Then try to write out your own ideas in that style.

For my first real piece that I had performed and everything, it honestly came to me pretty much finished. I just had a melody in my head, I put it down, and I played with it. But you hear it, so you are well set up.

Do you sing what you come up with in your head? I find that to be my first step most of the time. Then I go to the piano(since I don't have perfect pitch) and figure out what I just sang. I say you should play it on the instrument you plan on writing for if your lucky enough to have decided that already.

Sometimes you want to come up with the chords than make a melody off of that. Whichever works better for you. Or you could try both as you create more pieces.

I also think you should come up with some sort of format. That usually helps the flow of your songs. Like AB form or ABA' whatever. Or even just ABC, but do what you think sounds best. That's what really matters.