newb here

[hiei]

i got some tips bout composin. am i gettin sometin here?... tip = #1 listen to ur heart, trust ur self...  



email me totnaksss@netscape.net

[Piano Squall]

Have you posted some of your work on fanplay.net?

[Darxim]

Here's a real tip:

Try, fail, work with it.

If you can't seem to compose anything successfully, try composing something with expectations of failure.  Then you won't try to fix it along the way, and you'll actually finish something.  After you're done failing, you can go back and fix it.  It's easier to make a success out of a failure than it is to make a success out of nothing.

My heart says to make a success out of nothing.  I never finished anything until I stopped listening to it.

[Dereku-Sama]

Try, fail, work with it.

What I do is I get a wonderful idea of something "spiffy" so I put jot that down in finale and work with it a while, then I think of something else I like, and I put that in finale, but I can't narrow down my thoughts to get something that flows, if you understand what I mean.  Then I get sick of that project because I just can't work with it anymore, then I throw it out because I think it's crap.  What do you suggest?

[bluefire]

*sigh* i'm a horrendus composer. i can make my own versions of songs, like i usually do... but composing something from scratch... i am not that good at.  

[Piano Squall]

Theory classes are really helpful if you feel like you have no direction at all, but if you rely on it completely, it sometimes comes out quite mechanical.  That's the problem I have, my compositions are way to repetitive.

[dmdflarekojima]

I know how you feel, getting your compositions to come out sounding like music you could listen to and not think that was produced for a machine. I've had that problem for most of my musical career... still have it too. The only way I've ever overcome it was to work on the specific areas that were giving me trouble. Sometimes, I've ended up scrapping the areas that I wasn't working on and ended up completing the arrangement around the areas I focused on earlier. It all just finds a way to work itself out if you keep at it. Don't worry about it, music comes from within.

[Blak_Omen]

If there was one thing I would recommend it would be "listen to all the music you can". Jazz, hip hop, heavy metal, pop, classical, ska, punk, whatever - music really is just that - music, and the more you listen the better you can "feel" it. I know it sounds crazy but it works! (Maybe it's just me...) Anyway listening to music is fun and helpful and might inspire you and give you insights into compositional techiniques and stuff.

[Eternal Calm]

Two words ... Finale Notepad! It's a proggy where you can put your notes in and listen to it ... as well as check for any math errors in measures etc. It's especially good because you can actually sit back and listen to what you've written instead of needing to play it to see if you like it.

[WMRose]

Another good program is Sibelius. It's expensive so I suggest finding a keygen to get it for free. If you like taking risks go ahead. It plays as you create and you can just make some on there and save it whenever. It's a little complicated at first, but soon enough you'll get the hang of it.

[Mephista]

Ugh, Sibelius should only be used for working on Visual Scores and nothing else...it isn't a sequencing program and should never be used for that purpose ^_^

[WMRose]

I use it just fine for stuff like that. You just have to know what you are doing.

[Mephista]

Well I have a lot of experience in both programs and I would much rather use a proper sequencing package which is designed for sequencing than a program which is designed for the printing of professional looking sheet music.

[Chronos]

I dont have much experience but i can play a few instruments and practicing on more i just dont have the money and ive tryed to compose music but i dont have any instruments to practice it on or listen to it on

[Piano Squall]

A [/i]few insruments?  That's really impressive, just one is hard enough for me