When did you start composing?

I started composing rock songs and experimental stuff when I was, erm... not sure, I think 12 or so. I can remember that I discovered by myself what were prepared instruments, because I had an acoustic guitar and I liked electric guitar, so I put some little metallic pieces on the strings to distort the sound, hehe... until I got an electric one.

I used to record myself and also to write sometimes, but it was faster just to record. Sometimes I had just brief ideas and sometimes whole songs or even kind of "works", always conceived from the guitar or a keyboard.

I played several instruments during my childhood and teens, such as recorder flute (8 or 9 years old), mallets (10-12), drums (12), guitar (12-13), piano (18) and so on, getting to play the most extraordinary and exotic instruments until nowadays.

I always loved classical music, but I think I got more interested in composing it since when I was called for composing music for an argentinian poet, who wanted to release a book in a different way, so we set up a theatrical-musical-poetic show and I composed some pieces for it. There were several actors (some of them sang also), guitar, keyboard, contrabass, didgeridoo and accessories.

Soon I decided to make a change in my life, I was studying philosophy by those days (1999), and I went to study music, specially composition. All this was in Chile, my born place.

Then I won a composition contest and that made me believe even further in what I was doing. Now I course a Master in composition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

so sad.jk

really i started to compose when i was five. since then i've composed countless peices.(mainly piano sonatas)

Hm, my first composition was made when I was 4. It's called "Ściana Szczurka" (The Wall of The Ratty - Ratty was my teddy-bear). Few years later my parents bought me a keyboard (Yamaha) - I loved to improvising. My improvisations was being recorded on the tapes, and now - ten years later - I have lots of simple themes to use in my compositions. "Serious" composing started two years ago. I was in hospital and I wrote very sad composition for piano. I like composing sonatas. One year ago I composed 1st and 2nd movement in D flat Major, in December '06 - 1st, 2nd and 3rd mov in D Major. I allways start to write four movements and I never finish. Now I'm working on 1st movement in f minor. It will be sad and dramatic, like my life. . .

Maybe I'll manage to finish it and post it here? You know me from Incidental/Soundtracks forum by now...

I think I have always been composing (in fact most of my songs I write were song I made up with I was little) but I didnt really even get into music till 6th grade band, and I really didnt start writing music till 7th or 8th grade when I would write music for me and my friends. I began to really want to be a composer in high school and my composing skills really got better after take theory in high school. Now I am working towards a degree in music composition.

I'd like to start composing right now but I'm still waiting for the license code for my sheet music software. :)

I'd like to start composing right now but I'm still waiting for the license code for my sheet music software. :whistling:

Ohh, I think you might be a little confused. Until 1995-2000 nobody composed sheet music directly on the computer, only electroacoustics.

Ohh, I think you might be a little confused. Until 1995-2000 nobody composed sheet music directly on the computer, only electroacoustics.

I'm not confused at all. While other people may be able to compose music on paper, I *need* a computer. :toothygrin:

I have *created* my own music in the past, just by improvising it on an instrument, or by solely imagining it in my mind. But I could never write it down on paper. So for me, a computer is a must if I want to write it out in score. Especially for pieces with multiple instruments.

I'm just not good enough to do it free-hand. ;)

Still no lisence code yet either! :angry:

I'm just not good enough to do it free-hand. :angry:

There's never been a better time to learn. :toothygrin:

There's never been a better time to learn. :angry:

This is true, but a computer can be a good teachers too. ;)

Some may see it as a 'crutch', but I think of it more as a teacher. I've already learned tons from using Notepad for the past two years.

I actual can compose without the computer, but it takes me 100 times longer, and the score doesn't look nearly as pretty. :toothygrin:

When i first heard the music of Igor stravinsky, i thought--hey I can do this, all you have to do is write something down on a peice of paper and get someone to play it...why doesnt everyone do this?". yeah, i was pretty naive. but that was when i was...oh fourteen so i'll put myself in that age group

Bringing back an OLD thread....

I started 7 years ago, and I am ten.. figure that one out! (It didn't get good until 4 yrs ago :))

On 1/20/2006 at 12:36 AM, Marisa said:

I started writing little melodies at four or five. I'd been surrounded by music and instruments through my whole life, and so of course I wanted to give it a try myself. Didn't really consider myself a composer until I was around eleven, though.

I don't know what my experience level is really. Basically I know nothing about harmony, although I have a much better idea of what I'm doing intuitively than I used to. I'm up to string quartets and at least one attempt at an orchestral piece. Getting there! * grins *

It's them! they started "Random"!

Edited March 12Mar 12 by therealAJGS

My story is a bit different - I started at 52 - less then 2 years ago - with no musical training whatsoever (apart from badly strumming a guitar for a while in my later 20s...). I seem to be very prolific though - my first String Quartet that I've just finished is my 26th piece since July 2024....

I began composing 16 years ago. I got started on the craft much later in life than most people who write music. That has left me with a lot of catching up to do, to say the least. It also means I'm not exactly a "young" composer, although I still choose to use this website from time to time.

Edited March 30Mar 30 by Polaris

6 minutes ago, Polaris said:

I started composing 16 years ago. I got started on the craft much later in life than most people who write music. That has left me with a lot of catching up to do, to say the least. It also means I'm not exactly a "young" composer, although I still choose to use this website from time to time.

I'm an "older youngser" too - started at 52, but with much less experience than you....

I'd been interested in being involved with music since a very young age (longer than I can remember), but I didn't pick up my first instrument until I was about 11. I didn't write my first song until I was about 14. Shortly after that, however, a classmate told me he was writing a symphony for a class project (it was more of a tone poem, but I'm being pedantic rather than critical of the quality of his work), and he challenged me to write a better one than him. Not having much experience writing for strings or dealing with larger works, mine was pretty awful in comparison, but I fell in love with writing music after having sunk almost 6 months into this project.