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New guy here--question about composing and playing instruments


Regicide

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Hey, new guy here. I'm a vocalist and recently have become interested in learning music theory and composition. My question is: is it necessary to play a chordal instrument in order to compose? I can sing, hum, or whistle any melodic line that I hear in my head, and am able to write the notes down from just that. But, obviously, I can't produce harmony with just my voice! Is it necessary to learn a chordal instrument? I want to compose but I don't want to take more time away from singing than I have to.

Should I just train my ear to better recognize the harmony that I hear in my head and use my ear and my voice? Or will I be horribly limited if I don't learn a chordal instrument?

Thanks for your input.

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Just find an old toy keyboard and learn what the notes are. It will take you little time and hopefully no money, and will be quite sufficient as a tool for composition. You don't have to learn to "play" it per se: it's just useful for working out harmonies.

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Yes, you need to be decent enough at piano to be able to bang *something* out. I'm not saying you need to be able to play a Beethoven sonata, god knows I can't. But it will help you a lot. Of course ear and theoretical knowledge has a lot to do with it as well, but I doubt you have perfect pitch, so why half donkey this?

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I agree with Robin, it's not required, but it helps immensely. Being able to visualize chords using the piano keyboard is a great help in many ways.

Plus, if you're going to major in music in college, you're going to be required to take Piano class anyway.

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Just find an old toy keyboard and learn what the notes are. It will take you little time and hopefully no money, and will be quite sufficient as a tool for composition. You don't have to learn to "play" it per se: it's just useful for working out harmonies.

Aye. Even though I'm a decent pianist, I usually use a really old 61 key Yamaha in my room for composing. You don't have to be great, but learning the notes on a keyboard to pound out parts is a good idea.

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Well......it's obviously not necessary. It's not like its impossible to compose without it. But learning what the instruments are capable of can help immensely in a realistic sense. Some instruments have a very hard time playing in certain registers and sometimes the easiest thing on one instrument can be a pain in the donkey....too much trouble than it's worth...on another instrument.

But I think the keyboard is the basic instrument to have knowledge on. It's the only instrument I can think of that his all of the notes spelled out for you in black and white...literally. It's a very good visual tool and helps you understand scales and relations to other notes a lot better.

I started out on marimba and just knowing that gave me very useful knowledge in composing even though I know theory only to a high school level.

Keyboards are very useful. Primal knowledge on the instrument you compose for is crucial if you ever plan on someone actually playing your music.

I once composed some very simple rhythmic and tonal passages for Bb clarinet once a while back, and my girlfriend took one look at it and laughed.

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