Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Composition Help (Read 2766 times) previous topic - next topic

Composition Help

Are there any understandable online tutorials for classical composition?? I have worked on several pieces, but have failed to finish them...

~Jeff

P.S. I am taking music theory next year (I am in high school) and I hope that will help a great deal. I really want to compose and I know there are some of you out there who rule. BTW I have no piano to compose on it. I have to wing it LOL.

Re: Composition Help

Reply #1 –
Hi, Jeff. I'm the sort of person you should talk to. I got my beginnings in composing with NWC. Now, I've just reached 70 songs! You can compose as good as me, but you need to work at it :)

Re: Composition Help

Reply #2 –
Well it is nice to hear a response... I am working on a waltz.... it is coming along nicely ecept for the ending...

~Jeff

Re: Composition Help

Reply #3 –
I NEVER used a piano to compose... mostly because I am not a piano player.

May I give you a suggestion?  Listen closely... once you have taken your theory classes, please forget all that "no parallel 5th or octaves" and other "rules" they teach you.  That is applicable to Bach Chorales they teach you to write, but has no place in modern music.  I am about to give you the only rule you need.  Ready?

If it sounds good to you, it is right.

That's it.  Now, don't you feel free?  Now you can be a composer.

Let me make a few more suggestions.  Most of the books on arranging and orchestration are, shall we say, less than useful.  There are two you really need.  Buy Earle Hagen's "Scoring For Films", if you can find it.  And the other, Henry Mancini's "Sounds And Scores."  This one especially is needed.  You have to write for more than just the piano, and this teaches you how to handle your other instruments.  Try www.jazzbooks.com for the Mancini book.

As far as your ending... why don't you try "going out the same door you came in"?

Paul Coats
Featured Columnist
Sax On The Web
www.saxontheweb.net

Re: Composition Help

Reply #4 –
...please forget all that "no parallel 5th or octaves" and other "rules" they teach you. That is applicable to Bach Chorales they teach you to write, but has no place in modern music.
Not so fast, there.  I wrote a duet where I did not see an occurrence of parallel octaves, but BOY did I hear it when it was played.  On the other hand, jazz scoring makes good use of parallel anything, even fifths and octaves (as long as there are other voices involved).
"If it sounds good to you, it is right" works for some situations, but not all.
 

Re: Composition Help

Reply #5 –
Taking it a step further -- if it "sounds good to you," there's most likely an explanation. Similarly, if it "sounds dumb" there's very probably a technical reason.

Music theory is all about what's been found to work. It's not an end in itself, nor is it an absolute. It's a largely empirical set of caveats that can help you write / perform better music.

Sure, go ahead and break the rules, and see what happens. There are situations where parallel fifths sound way cool. But, by the same token, if you haven't taken the trouble to learn the rules, you won't have that power of discrimination. Knowing "what works and what doesn't" can save you a lot of time and frustration trying to fix something that doesn't sound good to you!

And yes, there is a different set of "rules" in Jazz than there is in Baroque. They may be more subtle, and less codified, but it's those implicitly understood "rules" that make the difference between a top-grade jazz band and a cacophony of enthusiastic amateurs. ;-)