How do you guys get inspired to compose?

Brahms said that in order to receive inspiration, he thought about three questions: Where do we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? As he pondered these in a prayerful sense, he says he eventually slipped into a trance-like state and composed things that he heard in his head, but he never put there in the first place. So, according to Brahms, it sounds like inspiration is rather similar, and in some ways is a form of, revelation. Composers from many time periods have described this trance-like state.

If you are religious, then it sounds like a prayerful inquiry to the meaning of life is a good place to start.

Religious or not, if you can get the innermost part of your mind working on something that is intangible to you, then your mind will be able to compose, if you have the talent, which you, Young Prodigy, do. Your work is good!

I agree with what has been said about going through dark spots in your composition, where you have to sort of wade through the "work" part of composition before more inspiration comes. Some people here make it sound like composition is nothing but this dark, lonely, uninspired affair, which has not been my experience.

for me. I had this one small theme. very small. I would keep playing it and it sounded great. but the piece involved flats and I'm not a fan of flats, but I managed to eventually base my composition off of emotions and that one theme. though I think, in the end of the piece there are two themes. but yeah, I can't wait to get it finished.

to get inspired in general... hmm...

If one is never inspired I question as to

whether they are an artist at all.

Although, I know there are times we

would to be inspired more.

There are different things one can do

for example, I read of an artist

who would just mix paints and brush stokes

on the canvas and in time something would

awaken within him and he would be

inspired. In the same way I have just sat

hitting keys and chords and bump into

something nice and it inspires me and a

nice work is born.

Jeremy

Ever hear the saying "It's all been done before."? This is true for music too, save for the suttle nuances, articulations, and slight rythmical differences...... for the most part everything has already been done. So, if you spend too much time thinking about writing like someone else, rather then just forcing yourself to sit down, and write without overthinking it, you will never acomplish anything.

When I do find inspiration, I find it in moods, or emotions, usually drawn from a real life event, a movie, a good book, or just anything that you might find intrest in. I find I write best when I am either angry, depressed, or in an overly good mood....I just try to imitate what I am feeling into notation.

I suppose what I am trying to say in a nutshell is, I think your overthinking it. Just relax and write what comes out, and never delete anything....just come back to it later. You never know you may hear something later the next time you sit down to work on it.

By the way, yes I would like to hear some of your works too. Please post some.

Inspiration always just naturally came to me. Though I recently lost a full hard drive of music... go figure (I managed to salvage 10 or 15 of my not so good pieces- maybe I should go back and fix 'em). But I just sit down, and let the melody fly. I must say, I never become so inspired that I have to stop everything just to write the music (a la vivaldi), but I just let every little feeling I have inspire me.

I often get inspiration at the most random moments. But then, in this way, I manage 3 songs a school semester, and thats way too slow. So, fraid I cant help at all.

I'm really not sure what inpires me... It must not be anything I've done in the past month because I haven't been inpired at all. I was once inspired by a movie I watched called Lorenzo's Oil. I wrote it for piano and it's not exactely written out on the good old Finale Notpad yet. I was inspired by christmas. I was inspired by making a new friend. I was once inspired by an arguement with my mom. There are lots of things I could do to get easily inspired anytime I want really but I'm very busy with school right now. I won't be quite so busy come the middle of April. Then I'll start providing 2-3 songs a month!

If I need some inspiration I take a walk (alone or with my girlfriend) and watching the trees, flowers the whole ambience...And if there is something I want to capture with music... something comes up in my mind... a small part of a melody or something else...

When I´m back home I´ll try to remind this moment.. and write my emotions down...my emotions are always part of my compositions..I try to let the others, which listen to my music, feel the same way I did, when I saw the sun rise or set...or something else...

That´s the way I manage this... :)

Hmm...

I don't believe I go for walks or hiking specifically for the purpose, but I know I do get inspired at times like that. Because I don't do it on purpose, I usually forget to take paper along. I end up obsessing on the idea, running it over and over and finishing it in my head so I don't forget it before I get home.

Well thanks for trying to help me guys, but I still just can't get inspired to write this. I want to be able to write music like you hear in professional movies, but when I go into my midi maker, I usually can't get inspired to write, unless there's already a tune in my head and I'm also not good with thinking up introductions. Even if someone gives me a description of what they want, I still have difficulty doing it.

My favorite quote on the subject:

Can we search for inspiration-those ideas that come from 'nowhere'? They don't surface when you're thinking. They just come. What we can do is make fertile the ground upon which ideas seeds fall.

Michael Hedges[/b]

I think the key is to work on as much music as possible. Take any given melody and work on it. Have a look at your favorite compositions and see how the great composers developed their music. Don't worry about originality at first. Just concentrate on improving your craftsmanship. The more you understand how to develop a motif the better the chances that you will recognize a worthwhile idea when inspiration is eventually coming round the corner.

Marcel

Hello,

Inspiration i think works differently for each individual.

Someone pointed out life inspires them.One could also have emotional stress within and that is what gives them inspiration.

I once read that beethoven was going deaf,if i was going deaf i would sure tell people(Though not speak of it to people)

about it through some kind of art form.

I think he did,mabe it is not so much a inspiration but a situation like that,

Would dictate for me that someone who creates would wish to tell you how they feel this situation has fallen here.

I my self got inspired when i went and heard the orchestra play the music of

Shostakovich symphony No 8 last summer.

That was one one greatest things i have ever heard.

And put belief in me that humans with all the bad can be amazing creatures.

Mabe you need to listen to something that is beyond your existance to be inspired.

It's funny that I have trouble composing, because I can interpret music by ear just fine.

What I do is I thumb through the dictionary (or my mind) and pick an adjective that jumps out at me. Then I try to write a song with the qualities of that adjective (e.g. pathetic, wistful, lionhearted, ecstatic, etc.).

Typically, in a quest for inspiration, I sit down and listen to as much music as I can. I'm sure I'm not the only one who does that, but this is what I do with it. I find a piece that equally fits the style I'm looking for and then I disect it and pull out all the emotions embedded in the music (or atleast, the one's I feel strongly whilest listening to the piece). I take those emotions and apply them to my life, and as I think about them, I write music to appeal to those same emotions.

Similarly, when writing songs with text, I pull the text out of the song and analyze it (I'm doing this with the Requiem I'm writing). I read through the text, come up with alternate meanings and emphasis than those used in other settings, and then I write based on how that texts affect. Any composition, regardless of time period or style, should have a strong bond to the composer. If the composer feels nothing for the piece, it is merely wasted scribbling.

Sean Christopher Stork

Nightengale Incorporated

As mentioned before, life or experiences can be the best inspiration. If you've never felt love before, it's a bit harder to write a piece about love, for example.

Listening to great music can also be a great inspiration (also mentioned previously). Whenever I hear one of my favorite composer's (or almost any good piece of music, really) I have an urge to write something.

Basically, anything that gives you a strong emotion can inspire some great music :happy:. Especially if you have a little knowledge to go with it. If you're not feeling any strong emotions for anything, well, then it'll be hard to be a good composer, IMHO.

The best inspiration comes when you sit right in front of the fireplace (chimeney or whatever), complemplating the warm fire, hearing your mind telling you: "Hey, compose about this!".

Then, you leave your chair behind and go to your bedroom, turn on the computer, wait until it is ready to open the archives and then...

...you sit again, with an idea about wat you want to compose.

That is my method. My other method is about improvisating (my "Sudnegel" collection came out of pure improvisations).

Try to think about nothing and something is going to come to your mind (Antipodia).

You know what inspires MY compositions?

Life.

I compose in an over-the-top romantic style, because my life sometimes feels like its over the top.

I'm inspired by love, passion, rage, anger, happiness, sadness, bubbliness, ect.

See, when I sit down and write, I'm trying to express how I feel in a musical way. Not because I just feel like composing. I compose to express my emotions.

You can hear that in the music that I've posted in the major works section though which nobody seems to have bothered reviewing.

Your music is probably really corny.

j/k :)

you can start by changing your rather arrogant display name.

But as for your question: I think you need talk a walk or something. I normally never get inspired...i just sit down and write.

Oh! and also...listen to music...that always inspires me. Try some of the pieces here on this forum!

Hey Nico, not so hard on the new guy, remember you were new for thousands of years ago too :P

great! Welcome to YoungComposers.

how old are you? What kind of styles do you write in? Care to share some of your oh-so-prodigious work?

Hey Nico, not so hard on the new guy, remember you were new for thousands of years ago too :P

Wooohoooo, well wasn't that ironic :) :w00t: :)

I don't think you've understood that Nico is so good in music...and Musical Prodigy is really not much of a prodigy from what I heard of him.

If all you do is bash on the guy, he'll never learn, point out what he did wrong and maybe try to show him exactly what it is. (That's been my experience with people like him) and give the poor guy a chance, I know, I wrote two pieces of crap and posted them.

ANYWAY, on the topic of Inspiration.

hmm....

Sometimes I just look at stuff and think, "What would that sound like if it were music" and sometimes the perfect tune just comes to you.

On inspiration.

I have found that inspiration is not something you can force, but you can certainly coax it out of hiding. But you have to be gentle! It will flee if you harass it too much. I find that my level of musical 'inspiration' is greatly influenced by my life situation. I will give an example from personal experience to illustrate.

I attended Interlochen Arts Academy as a music composition major for three years. This particular story takes place at the beginning of my senior year. I was back and excited for the rest of my school year and looking forward to spending time with the amazing people I had the pleasure to have met. I felt on top of the world, and around that time I began to compose a piece for orchestra entitled "Pavane." Two months later, it was done, and you know what? I don't even remember writing it. The whole experience was pleasant. It was gradual. There was no sweat about it. It was hard work, but I did not feel as if I had to force any of the notes. To this day, I think my Pavane is the best piece of music I've written so far.

Fast forward to the summer after my senior year. It was as if the well had run dry. I was away from all the wonderful people and the artistic stimulation, and it was tough to even get a few bars out that I was happy with. Now not feeling 'inspired' is a poor excuse for not working as a composer, so there are two things that I do during such dry spells.

1) I pick up a book -- on harmony, on counterpoint, on serialism, set theory, whatever -- and study from it. I do the exercises. I learn as much as I can from it. The structure provides me the impetus to keep improving, and often something with a lot of potential comes out of my work and I can use it for a piece. Even if not, I've still worked my musical muscles and become stronger as a result.

2) I start a composition from some other source. This is actually how I gained a love of vocal repertoire and of writing solo vocal music. I find that starting from a poem you love gives a wonderful balance between the original creativity of musical composition and the derivative creativity of working from a text. Another similar idea is to pick a melody you like and write a theme and variations.

The fact is that a composer is not going to have an endless treasure trove of inspiration to effortlessly draw on throughout the length of his or her life. This was true even of the best composers. And one does not necessarily need a wellspring of inspiration to write a wonderful piece of music. Either way, the point is that there is plenty to do in the interim.

I'm no pro composer but maybe trying to remake other songs might help. It's what I do sometimes. Kinda like following along math problem examples then doing them yourself.

I always try to make Waltz(es) for the Paraíso's newcomers. The most basic piano and violin music with a beautiful rythm!

Compose fast and compose often. This will allow your mind to easier drift into the place it needs to be to write your best.