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Composing Music at the Piano
Whether you are a beginner piano player or have been playing for years, you can use the piano to compose music at the piano more effectively. When I was a student, my composition instructor required me to play numerous technique-based exercises to improve my ability to compose. He stated that I didn't need to be a pianist, but I did need to know how to use this extremely valuable tool to compose music. Learning how to play the piano can prove challenging at first, but everything gets easier as long as you practice. Regardless of where you…
Music Composition: Expectations vs. Reality
The path toward becoming a composer is still very much shrouded in a bit of mystery and intrigue. Growing up, we all know the myth of the deaf genius and the composer who created a masterpiece in a frenzy of inspiration. While this can certainly happen, this is more of an expectation that rarely fits the reality for most composers. The Internet gives young composers plenty of venues to second-guess their career choice. Ultimately, success can come, but it's going to take a pro-active and consistent approach to composing music to make it in…
Intervals for Sleep
Meditation typically requires you to focus on your breath with your eyes shut. When thoughts come to you, it's often recommended you take notice of these thoughts and gently come back to the breath. Instead of using the breath, you can meditate on the sound of intervals and learn to recognize the most important intervals in music. Listen to these playlists while you meditate, sleep, work, or take care of errands. These simple exercises can dramatically increase your ability to recognize intervals and get away from writing at the keyboard o…
Creating the Musical Form for a Composition
Many composers that start out writing music are able to create a melody, have an idea for a rhythm or a sense of a particular mood they want to create. Once the initial melody has been created, the difficult part begins -- developing the composition. Composers can approach this problem in a few ways. If you're a composer struggling with this, you've probably tried repeating the melody, creating a new idea, attempting to use your knowledge of phrases to create a new phrase, or rewritten the melody with slight changes to continue the com…
Purchase the Musical Core Today!
Interested in learning to compose music but don't know where to begin? Even if you have no experience with music, The Musical Core is designed to take you through the basics so that you can learn to identify notes on the musical staff and begin to read and write music of your own. The course is designed to benefit the complete beginner while also providing a challenge to intermediate-level musicians. This course is recommended if you're interested in taking music composition lessons and learning how to compose music on your own. …
Learn How to Compose Music and Notate Your Musical Ideas
It’s possible for anybody to learn to write music. Some composers may have more talent and be able to write more effectively than others, but the basic skills that make it possible to compose are within grasp of anyone that has the motivation and desire to learn. Whether you want to write music professionally, or create music in your spare time as a hobby, there are some basic skills you need to master that will help you succeed as a composer. Once you’ve mastered these basic elements, you’ll find that the processing of composing music gets ea…
Gun on the Wall Theory
If you've spent any length of time studying music composition, and you've studied with a few different instructors, at some point, you'll probably hear about the "gun on the wall" theory. It's not exactly a very scientific theory, but there is a good premise behind it. Basically, if you're watching a movie and you see a gun on the wall at some point this gun has to be used. Some of you might know this as the "Chekhov's Gun" principle. "Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If…