[Music] How do YOU get started on a composition?

Basically like the title says.

I'd like to know ;-;

I take my emotions at the time and try to express them musically.

Almost always because I'm transcribing or remixing/remaking something else, and I decide screw that, I'm going my own way with this =o

I do ok once I've got something to work with; getting something entirely original from scratch is hard for me though

Normally I develop a theme, whether through trying to write one in Finale or by playing on the piano. Then I start writing around the theme and begin sketching out ideas for the piece. Next I start a new file and use the sketches to write the piece. ~

Other times I like to just start writing and see where it goes, but obviously that's less fruitful than planning it out like above. Sometimes it works though, and some nice ideas come out.

A piano, or at least a keyboard, can be a composer's best friend. It helps a lot.

YAY! REPLIES!

Tsuno, you have such a hard method (P.S.: I was looking through onemanga.com and I saw that "Mysterious Girlfriend X" was updated and I thought of you. XDD)

I should try these all out some day. :3

I get a good melody or something in my head, and then I transcribe it. Then I just go from there. Most of the time, it evolves into something completely different.

I do what Holk does, but since I'm not good I usually can't transcribe it how I wanted.
And these days every time I get a theme, I start on it and then delete it cuz I think its stupid ;-;

I like how NW has the only reply that ends in a failure. Except I know that road far too well...

That happens to everyone. Not every idea is a good idea. It may seem that way in your head and on paper, but once you actually hear it, it may be poop.

Or maybe our imagination can just transcend our ability to write.

But yeah, most of my ideas do become poop.

PERSEVERE, YOUNG MASTERMOO!

Sometimes when i work on music my opinion of myself is split between "I AM NOT WORTHY" and "WELL MAYBE I AM WORTHY. POSSIBLY." or "FUCK I SUCK AT THIS" and "PERSEVERE, YOUNG KITKAT!"

And that's all 

As a "composer" of ambient music, I really just listen to the air around me and try and recreate the sound. Works better with quieter areas. :I

Needs more arlen

I still listen to his old demo frequently.

If I come across a riff I write i'll write it down, then normally take things from there.

I grab my guitar, fuck around for a second, and then I'm like...hey, that's not half bad. I see if I can recreate it on my computer, then I run with it as far as I can.

It depends on the type of music...

If it's boring old rock or whatever, I usually start by jamming out some chord progression on my guitar, and then building a melody around that. Or sometimes (but rarely) I'll go the other way, and start with the melody, and find something interesting that goes with it. Then I sit down at the computer and come up with a beat and a bass line, and yeah, it just kind of happens at that point.

If it's more of a pop song, I usually start with the beat. Usually in Reason or something, I dunno. And then I just kind of mess around and build around it until I find something I like.

If I'm doing something symphonic, I almost always sit at a keyboard and find a melody to build on. I'll take that melody and toss it around from one instrument to the next, making small changes to tempo, or trying things like repeating the melody but over a new chord or chord progression, so I have to alter the melody slightly so it fits. Or I'll try harmonizing, or splicing or layering them so they intersect and interact with each other.
Other times I again go for the whole chord thing, but since symphonic work isn't about verses and choruses it's more about modulating from different keys, or seeing how far away from the current chord I can get while still keeping one or two notes from the previous chord.
From there, it's just filler, really. Short melodic fragments get thrown in, rhythmic ideas work nice to give the piece drive, etc...
Again, at this point, it just kind of happens.
Though I often take cues from other composers, like Beethoven or Debussy, or even specific genres, like Gregorian Chant or Opera.

I don't do much ambient or texture work, but when I do I try to remember what I learned studying under this one teacher I had a year ago. He told me about building textural complexity from beginning to middle, and then leveling off at the end. So, I try to keep in mind what frequency range the sounds I'm using are in, and how complex the underlying texture is, and just kind of mess around and start recording until I get something I like.


Yeah.

lol

Ahhh... I see... NO I DON'T D: The last two paragraphs on symphonic pieces and ambient/texture music hurt my brain. D:

Hah, sorry, it's a little difficult to put to words.

It depends on the type of music...

If it's boring old rock or whatever, I usually start by jamming out some chord progression on my guitar, and then building a melody around that. Or sometimes (but rarely) I'll go the other way, and start with the melody, and find something interesting that goes with it. Then I sit down at the computer and come up with a beat and a bass line, and yeah, it just kind of happens at that point.

If it's more of a pop song, I usually start with the beat. Usually in Reason or something, I dunno. And then I just kind of mess around and build around it until I find something I like.

If I'm doing something symphonic, I almost always sit at a keyboard and find a melody to build on. I'll take that melody and toss it around from one instrument to the next, making small changes to tempo, or trying things like repeating the melody but over a new chord or chord progression, so I have to alter the melody slightly so it fits. Or I'll try harmonizing, or splicing or layering them so they intersect and interact with each other.
Other times I again go for the whole chord thing, but since symphonic work isn't about verses and choruses it's more about modulating from different keys, or seeing how far away from the current chord I can get while still keeping one or two notes from the previous chord.
From there, it's just filler, really. Short melodic fragments get thrown in, rhythmic ideas work nice to give the piece drive, etc...
Again, at this point, it just kind of happens.
Though I often take cues from other composers, like Beethoven or Debussy, or even specific genres, like Gregorian Chant or Opera.

I don't do much ambient or texture work, but when I do I try to remember what I learned studying under this one teacher I had a year ago. He told me about building textural complexity from beginning to middle, and then leveling off at the end. So, I try to keep in mind what frequency range the sounds I'm using are in, and how complex the underlying texture is, and just kind of mess around and start recording until I get something I like.


Yeah.

lol

Arlen, if for whatever reason you were not my hero before this post, you are my hero now

;o;

:3

You are the hero.

Don't listen to her arlen, she likes you know
I loved you from before



;-;

Well, I worshiped him when last the arltree appeared.

Also, apparently it's spelled "worshiped" instead of "worshipped"