Composing : Where Should I Start? by Kevin Dombrowski

Kevin Dombrowski

Where Should I Start?

I'm a screenwriter with a ton of music in my head and no way to get it out. I figured the people who actually write music might be able to help me. Can anyone recommend software someone with zero knowledge about composing could fiddle with to start learning and making music? Ideally symphonic composition firstly and dabbling with electronic later. Thanks!

Charlie Lavín Martínez

i suggest you take music and Midi/Daw lessons. Symphonic composing is a lot harder for it is an arrangement and a composition at the same time. I suggest you start with learning the basics on how to develop your musical ideas and grow up from there, cheers!

Bryan Thanh Nguyen

What I do on a daily basis is keep voice memos of all the melodies that are flowing through, so that when I get to a piano, I can flesh it out before orchestration

Christopher Weatherwax

I teach piano performance and music theory, definitely recommend Ableton 9 and getting a cheap midi keyboard for messing about with. You can get live 9 lite for cheap $50 or free with many midi keyboards these days to mess about with and full version has literally over 3000 different amazing sounds from synths/pianos to electronica/dubstep you have never heard before to let out that creativity with. If you've never played before then midi is the best for you, because you can mess about playing the first few bars of a piece on a controller and then fix/finish the rest on Live's great midi editor even combining many diff instruments to counterpoint it like this Concerto I've been working on was done entirely on live: Cheers good luck -Chris

Tom Rasely

Without a strong knowledge of music theory and harmony, you will probably not get the results you want just by getting a computer program. Beyond the theory, you would also need some working knowledge of texture, orchestral doublings, not to mention working in any kind of music forms and structures. I agree with some of these other folks that you would be better served to sit down with a real composer and talk through your ideas, even just humming theme, and let that person work them out for you. This is exactly how Paul McCartney "wrote" his larger orchestral works (working with Carl Davis) and how he "wrote" many of the instrumental parts for The Beatles' songs (working with George Martin).

Joel Irwin

People learn music all the time from scratch - I did. Most often they start with either guitar and piano. While not specific to film music - there are myriads of instances of musicians and bands who have well known and great tracks who never learned anything formal through lessons. However, they developed their sounds and style over very long periods of practice and experience interacting with other musicians. On the other hand, a large fraction of the world famous ones, did start young and often had some sort of formal training even if it was a completely different genre. Now film composing, especially 'symphonic' as you mentioned in your question can be a completely different beast from say playing guitar chords for folk, country, church or writing a country tune or even a jazz improvisation. It requires the same sort of stamina and training as say an engineer or a software computer programmer since you are working in 'multiple dimensions'. You need to learn the techniques of nuances of each instrument, how to properly combine the instruments together to make the 'sound' you want and then learning the general principle of formal composing techniques applicable to writing to any group of instruments/ensemble whether it be classical, jazz, big band, orchestra, or even gospel choir. If that is the direction you want to move in, as others have stated, you want to get some formal training. First on the basics, often done with piano or guitar and then go more advanced to writing for groups of instruments/ensembles. Everyone learns at that own pace but this is no small task - it will take 'years' to get to the 'playing field' (unless you are a 'prodigy' :) ) Now keep in mind that for film music there are really two types - there is the orchestral score stuff but there is also pre-recorded music stuff that can be most anything at any level of complexity. So for example, many films just have a simple solo acoustic guitar playing cues in the background. That could be your 'calling'. The bottom line as I tell people is in my opinion any music you write is artistic and 'legitimate'. It doesn't have to be as sophisticated as John Williams, Hans Zimmer or Alan Silvestri to work.

Wenda Zonnefeld

You did not specifically say you wanted to create film music, if that is your goal, there is something of extreme importance that no one commented on. SYNC. Even the great Sony Rollins had trouble with this when he scored Alfie - and he never scored another film even after his awards. (Because it nearly killed him). The human brain processes sound faster than sight. Because of our natural instinct to recognize rhythm we are lured into thinking it is easy. For our brains to be fooled that many pictures going by quickly is actual movement; results from seeing frames move at around 1/23rd of a second (frame rate) for our brains to be fools that audio is happening along with the picture (Synchronization) the sound matching the picture needs to be within one MILLISECOND! It takes an amazing amount of work and study to accomplish this needed math joined at the hip with music. It's why the Auricle time processor recieved an academy award back in the '70's, and before that huge set of gold guided books full of formulas were used. No matter what your goal - music lessons benefit you on many levels. Those who studied a wind instrument when they were around the age of ten increased their I.Q's by ten points higher than those who didn't. Stroke victims recover better if they already knew how to play a musical instrument. It is the constancy of chipping away each day that is key (consistent practice) There are a lot of software out there that can be a lot of fun, and it can bring you joy. Today's culture is all about praising. I would rather find out from a teacher if I am on the right track. Your Mom and friends will always thinK you are wonderful. If you have the talent and want to get the songs out of your head - a good teacher will put you on a real path and not a platitude. I Agee with Joel, there are many genres and and degrees of sophistication in music that are all legitimate. What I'm trying to say is - the hard work is totally worth it! Becoming musically "literate" (knowing how to read and write) is totally worth it! If you have an iPad "Notateme" it is a great way to hear what you have written, and perhaps a great way to get you started.

Joel Irwin

And there is nothing like professional feedback. I have now been going to Houston Community College for 12 years now (that's a 2 year college :) ). Obviously not for a degree. I am being mentored by not only arguably the top jazz pianist in Houston but he is a wonderful and very talented orchestral and chamber composer. In composition class he will review my works artistically, not just my jazz and classical pieces but also all my film scores. This past Monday I brought the popcorn (last class of the spring semester) and we watched the whole 35 minute film I just finished scoring (about 30 minutes of cues). I came with 27 pages of scores for 14 cues covering 584 bars of multi-instrument music (slow music or it would have been more bars :) ) - and all of it was reviewed and critiqued. Sometimes I had really great suggestions for improvement and others times, he just liked what he heard.

Christopher Weatherwax

Yes agreed with everything Joel said. If you haven't yet, start listening to NPR and baroque/classical/romantic composers and find somebody that inspires you. Start listening to the chord progressions of the greatest composers and figure out the small bits that they have in common.

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