Archived Introductions

I'm Matt from Manhattan, KS. I have a music education degree from the University of North Texas. I have been composing since my senior year of high school and I'm currently looking to get works published. I compose primarily for a cappella choir, but I also have been experimenting with songs for voice and piano. I have two websites where I document my progress:

Matthew Brockway on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

Notes from the shadows: the composer's mind

I am currently looking for a conducting job and writing as much music as possible. I love the human voice and all its nuance and inflection.

I'm Matt from Manhattan, KS.

Howdy, neighbor! I'm up in Lawrence!

Hello guys i am newbie here My name is arjun and i am developer..This is a nice forum place so enjoy the forums me too.Have a nice day....

Hello all! My name's Daniel and I'm from South London. I've been composing off and on for many years although I did give up for about 7 years after I lost some work after a hard drive crash in 2000. I have recovered some of it recently and hope to be able to get some more off the old HD if I can get the proper equipment.

I started composing again about a year and a half ago after someone posted a musical challenge on a forum I frequent. I enjoyed it so much that it started me back up again. I tend to write either very straightforward songs or highly contrapuntal orchestral music based on baroque forms for some reason. Not really sure if there are many outlets for what I write but here's a good place to start.

Good to be here.

Good to have another brit... Kinda

Hey, this is actually my second post but oh well lol.

I'm Peter from England and i'm 17. I play the piano and organ and am trying to compose but am not hugely successful at the moment, so that's why i'm here!!

Hello everybody.

I'm Seth, I'm 17, and I'm from Wisconsin (United States). I've been playing the piano for about four years now, and composing for three. I have a lot of personal accomplishments when it comes to the piano, theory, composition and orchestration. I have never truly paid for lessons in either piano or theory/composition due to the kindness of others of my [apparent?] merit. I try to keep modest, so bare with a blunt attitude from the beginning.

Last year, I attended the International Music Academy: Pilsen in the Czech Republic. It was a very successful Summer for me, having raised all the money myself, and I came out very happy with what I learned about music and about the life of being an artist, not a career; this past Summer absolutely put the cap on me wanting to become a Concert Pianist.

However! I have been composing nearly as long as I have been playing the piano. I have studied, you could say, "with" the masters; I first started by not only listening to Beethoven, Chopin, Stravinsky (etc.) but also wondering why their music was so good and interesting and kept be going back and going back. I copied and copied and kept writing, and only could imitate very well. I've struggled with what my "style" of composition, even after taking theory and composition and having these large discussions with my theory/composition teacher about the philosophies of music... I still yet to find my niche. And the thing is, I still have to find my style, which will never happen. I don't just get ideas and I haven't just studied the "classical" field, but also terms of jazz (my secondary) to even the atmospheres of rock music, electronic-dance music (EDM) and minimalistic...but we all have a *little* trouble with the latter. :blush:

So anyway, I wanted to introduce myself properly and up-front. And it may be so some mention that I also owe a lot of credit for my passion for learning composition, from Ichigo's Forums. I know it may be considered advertising, but after being a member since Oct. 2005, I have become a proud member and I can state that I started there with a backbone; I came here to possibly, just maybe, influence compositional values from the heart, but also from the mind. I, of course, have come here to learn something myself too. I really do want to learn something new and to simply converse with others on music, whatever style of genre or instrumentation or even technique, I am all open to it, and I shall be pretty active-- or at least try to keep up with the large database!

I shall catch you all through the forum. I am very pleased to be here!

SKG

Hi to all, my name is David. I had piano lessons for 6 years and I'm now learning the violin, being in the third year as of now. I always liked to compose small tunes, and eventually people started asking me to compose music to their lyrics, set of instruments, etc. I never have had any composition lessons and all that I know, which is not much, comes solely from experience. I hope I can contribute to everyone, and also to myself, in this community!

Hi David, welcome to the party!

There are a lot of us here with little to no formal composition education and the best way to learn is from experience. Hope you post something up soon for us to hear. :happy:

Hello I'm Constantine. I will be concluding my piano and harmony studies in about a year or two and I have benn composing since I was 12. I am very happy to have found this webpage ( at first it startled me in a joyous way to see how many of us are out there :) ) and I am looking forward to meeting you and hearing you all!!

Sup guys I'm Jack from Virginia Beach, VA, I'm 15 and I've been playing guitar for 3 years. I play Metal, Tech-metal, Jazz, Blues, Hard Rock, Classical[by ear], Chikin Pickin, and just some free style acoustic type stuff, like Tommy Emmanuel and Steven Benett. Some of my influences are: Randy Rhoads, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Tommy Emmanuel, Bulb, Beethoven, and uh, some other people I can't remember.

Occasionally I make free style electronica. I usually just mix my electronica stuff up, so it never falls into one specific genre.

Hi everyone I'm new here I love music & play the guitar since I was 4ish but I have never taken music lessons, I play by ear. I want to learn how to read and write music I hope 2 find some help and tips here.

About me I'm 17 y.o and study a language degree, I'm member of a band we play just for fun and love we're not either famous or pro. I like diff kind of music my favs are metal,jazz,celtic rock,darkwave , punk,symphonic rock,gothic....... etc

see u around

Hey everyone, I decided to give this forum a shot and see where it takes me. I just started my own business composing for film, games and independent artists. All my demos can be heard on my site, currently I have over 100 demos on there, most of which are ambient and electronica material. I have always wanted to jump on board some film and game projects and I am always trying to find people to work with. Look forward to chatting with you more.:D

well, hello there.

fasten your seatbelts. Keep your arms and legs in at all times. And your probably wont get eaten.

Stick around! Enjoy the ride! (Its fun in here.)

PS - Most people here do communicate in complete sentences. ;)

Jambo, I'm Hunter Bortonio from Missouri. I play all brass instruments and I'm trying to get my hands on a piano, but it dosen't ever seem to work out for me. Anyway, I have just now started to get into the whole composing thing, so my peices that I post will most likely not be immaculate. Cut me some slack, I'm a beginner. Hah. I look forward to being a part of this site.

Peace

Hey:) I'm Angela and I have composed since I was 8 or 9. I play piano and violin and I very much like to compose things in lokria. I mostly compose to piano, but I have composed for violind and string orchestra, too. And no, I don't have education for composing, but I love doing it.

Hello!

My name is Brian, I am 20 years old. I've been making up songs since before I can remember and started formally composing at 12 years old. Up to this point I've mostly focused on Choral compositions, but I'm going to branch out into other forms as well. Starting with a string quartet! I am a Composition Major at APU in LA, and am planning on going to Eastman for my graduate degree. I play piano and am a vocalist (hence the choral music) and have begun learning the viola.

I write music for two reasons: to communicate and to take the audience somewhere better, far away from the troubles facing them (even if just for a moment).

I'd love to meet other young composers who have similar goals and aspirations :)

... I am a Composition Major...and am planning on going to Eastman for my graduate degree. :)

Welcome... Rochester is a shithole, and I hope you don't get shot!

:whistling:

Just sayin'...;)

I am a final year music student in Edinburgh. I compose electroacoustic music as part of my course, and am part of an electronic dance music duo called Rosputin.

I am currently writing my disertation on "Harmony and Counterpoint in Electronic Music". My thesis will examine the use of traditional harmonic and contrapuntal devices within this (relatively) medium. Music has pushed the bounds of harmonic language and broken its rules in acoustic music; but electronic music either stays completely outside the rules or just uses few basic ones. Think Stockhausen vs. Squarepusher: the former brakes down traditional western harmony, the latter uses diatonic melody, neither employ harmonic modulation.

Is there any one here that knows of, or indeed, composes electronic music that makes use not just of the enormous timbrel wealth that a computer can provided, but also the harmonic and contrapuntal rules which all the great masters used to such acclaim?

For example I've written a 3-part fugue with obligato bassline that I have taken into the studio and combined with hip hop beats. I'm looking to bridge the ever widening divide between "high" and "low" musical art forms, without cheapening either.

If anyone could help or has any suggestions I would be delighted to here from you.

Thanks,

Daniel

Hey, I'm Justin. Just found this site a couple of weeks ago and just about jumped out of the chair in amazement. I play clarinet and piano, but clarinet is my principle. I started composing when I was about 12 but didn't really seriously begin until my junior year in high school. None of my stuff has been published but that can always change.

Hi, my name is FX Jourdain, I'm from Quebec, Canada, i'm a french speaker so please escuse the mistakes. I'm making music for about 15 years. I'm making Trance & house music for approximatly 1 year and essencially, i'm searching for a collaborator who have great lyrics to share with us; My friend Teassy is really talented and she sings really great.

I also played guitar in couple punk-rock bands many years ago and was a staff member for some local band in my hometown. I still play punk-rock surf-rock and I'm checking for punk-hardcore lyrics writters. This is the reason why I'm on this forum...To contact me, please visit my profile or my FXDJ myspace, thank you!!

FX

Hi,

I encountered this forum when google alerts found a thread about heckelphones - one of my favorite instruments :toothygrin:

I've done a bit of composing over the years (the best was probably when I was a young composer too), but these days don't have quite as much time. Musically, I mainly perform: bass clarinet/contra-alto/contrabass clarinets with the San Jose Wind Symphony; tenor sax/bari sax/flute/misc with a funk band; contrabass sarrusophone at the San Jose Saxophone Xmas; miscellaneous here and there.

I spend my days doing patent law, working with inventors. I've taught patent, copyright and trademark law, and can give answers to general questions. No real legal advice, however.

I'm happy to help with questions about woodwinds, including fingering, what would be playable/unplayable, ranges, timbre, and orchestration. You can also find a fair amount of information on my website.

Enjoy,

Grant

FLINT!!! THAT GUY STOLE ALL YR HORNZ!!!! :w00t: ...and yr bass....and harpsichord....and yr harp. :mellow:

.... jesus christ, guys! Where do you get the money for these collections? Where do you FIND all these things? Where do you buy reeds? When do you practice?

Wanna move to toronto and play in my band? I could use a serious subcontrabassclarinet player... :hmmm:

... why no trombone? :sadtears:

------EDIT------

Dig this....whatever the thing is that comes in about 30 seconds in, I want someone who can play it.

------EDIT------

Dig this....whatever the thing is that comes in about 30 seconds in, I want someone who can play it.

:O!

What is this? Its loving awesome! Whoever's playing that flugel has a sweet-donkey tone, and the unknown instrument sounds bowel-upsettingly funky.

Hey I'm Matthew. I'm a 2nd year music student in Queen's Belfast and primarily interested in composing both acoustic and electro-acoustic music (though I'm still learning the basics of the 2nd).

So far I have had a piece played as a sound track to a short film screened as part of a play in the Queen's film theater. I am currently working on a septet and will soon start work on a short opera for a festival some point in august, though I still have to get the libretto... I have some of my music on my own site www.matthewwhiteside.co.uk