How does one compose?

I've always been around, participated in, and loved music. I sing and play the piano, and I'm at least average in terms of musical ability.

However, I've never been able to compose music. I do lots of arranging, but it seems that the only music I hear in my head is music I've heard through my ears (or read on paper). Does one need some sort of innate talent to be able to crate music, or is it something that can be learned? If the latter, how can it be achieved?

As an arranger you're constantly taking someone elses ideas, and reshaping them into your own. Still a perfectly valid artistic statement. Like adapting a book for film...

A compentent arranger already has the tools necessary to compose - you do it all the time. Just cut out the middleman, instead of using someone elses material, build your own.

This is something that's developed over time - through listening and writing.

Learn to improvise. This is the most base element of composition - extracting elements from within. The ability to do it quickly and accurately is invaluable; improvisation is a form of compositional process, in real time.

Listen A LOT - what do you like about something? Or, more importantly, what didn't you like? How can you incorporate this into your music. Check out scores as well, you can see what's going on...

Start writing. ...A lot. It won't come overnight - and you'll write some scrafty music, but it's a learning process - one we all have to go through.

...just a few thoughts, trying to get the ball rolling on this. There's more than a few threads on composition 'style' and various techniques we all use, I'll try and dig some up.

I've always been around, participated in, and loved music. I sing and play the piano, and I'm at least average in terms of musical ability.

However, I've never been able to compose music. I do lots of arranging, but it seems that the only music I hear in my head is music I've heard through my ears (or read on paper). Does one need some sort of innate talent to be able to crate music, or is it something that can be learned? If the latter, how can it be achieved?

If you need to ask a question like this then you're probably not close enough to music to do much. You need the will to compose and enough of a sense of music just...to start.

You're streets ahead if you've do arrangements and play piano. Listen to lots of music, study scores staring with whatever level suits you - if you're setting out, keep it simple. If you want to compose electronic music that's diffferent but a good sense of form, timbre and the need for silence are important. Seek the guidance of a good "teacher" - no one can teach you to compose but they can help you with elementary issues, maybe help you develop the necessary aural imagination.

good luck

M

'Bluejay' Spreads His Wings, How A Young Musical Genius Scored A Major Recording Deal - CBS News

His music's interesting, but I can't help feeling like it's just reworking Shostakovich.

I never commented on the music.

This guy "listens" music in his head, fully formed, orchestrated, finished. And the only challenge is to just write it down. Sometimes he hears more than one pieces performed in his head at the same time. He doesn't feel that he has the need to change the music, as he considers it perfect as it "arrives". It just.. comes. He doesn't know where it comes from. And he's only 15 with more than 100 works composed already, and limited himself to a number of 3 commissions per year so that he can do other things he likes.

Sounds like Mozart, no? :musicwhistle:

Not quite

Well... somebody has to be a prodigy...

I never commented on the music.

This guy "listens" music in his head, fully formed, orchestrated, finished. And the only challenge is to just write it down. Sometimes he hears more than one pieces performed in his head at the same time. He doesn't feel that he has the need to change the music, as he considers it perfect as it "arrives". It just.. comes. He doesn't know where it comes from. And he's only 15 with more than 100 works composed already, and limited himself to a number of 3 commissions per year so that he can do other things he likes.

Sounds like Mozart, no? :P

Nico's 15, and has what, like 20 symphonies? I don't believe that prolific output at a younger age makes one necessarily a good composer, or a prodigy.

So the kid hears music in his head, and can write it down. Most likely, it's a product of memory. The one thing that savants (all, not just autistic) have in common is a powerful memory, and the ability to synthesize memories into new though objects.

This is, I think, why his music sounds like everything else - because it's a synthesis of everything. One can easily make the argument that it's not truly original because it's just a distorted memory of something else.

One can make that argument about any composition.

There's something more to composing than just hearing it in your head. If you read the article, you'll notice that his teacher speaks about Beethoven's scores - how they're messy, full of cross-outs.

THIS is composition - rearranging, rethinking, reformatting.

The article also talks about the need for Greenberg to begin questioning what he hears and make alterations to his scores as he grows older. Provided he doesn't succumb to arrogance, he should develop this ability of self-examination.

And not only is he prolific, but his works are of high quality. In the video on the page jujimufu linked to, there is an excerpt of a piece he wrote when he was 12 entitled "The Storm". Provided he hasn't slacked off since, it stands to reason that the other dozens of works are just as impressive. Listen for yourself.

Additionally, I don't think it's realistic to expect him to have found his own voice at 15. All in all, I was quite taken aback by the extent of this kid's genius. If he isn't one, then I have no idea what is.

More music here: Jay Greenberg

In response to the question about if you need any inherent skill to compose. No. You don't need any sort of musical talent what-so-ever. All you need is the inborn NEED to compose, and you will find some way to work around any lack of a good ear or junk like that. And even if others tell you that "No, you wont write anything good," then take this site off your favorites list and don't visit it anymore, and compose anyway. Composition is for you, and you only. Not the listener, not the critics, not your teachers... you. And if you manage to write something that people lik, well, all the better for them.

Note that this is not to say that you shouldn't ever take someone's advice on what to do to improve your piece. That is advice that, in the long run, is better to take, just because you yourself begin to see new possibilities, and new ways of doing things.

The only way to know if you can compose or not is to start composing. Anything. Write down random notes if you want. Find a music notation program and just put in all eigth notes. Whatever. Just as long as you start getting a feel for what works, what doesn't, and how to go about the whole thing.

good luck.

This may be your view of what a composer is. It's not necessarily everyone's view, nor is it absolutely the only correct one.

I don't compose only for myself. I compose to communicate.

Sorry. I wasn't clear. What I mean is that composing just because someone tells you to, or just composing what you think other people want to hear despite what you like, is degrading to you and your listener. Yes, we all compose to communicate. But you're composing because you WANT to communicate, right? You're composing for yourself.