Musical Composition

The composition on music, and how to go about it, has been a large topic in my mind for the past few years. As I have struggled to write what I would hope to be “beautiful” music, I have tried a few different methods. What I have found to be most effective for me is to just “fiddle around” with an instrument (in my case guitar or piano). While experimenting, often absent-mindedly, I often stumble upon something that sounds appealing. It presents a certain mood that either pleases me, or complements my current mood. The product of this experimentation is then refined over time, and sometimes introduced to others for outside opinions. After that, I add lyrics (or leave it as an instrumental). My lyrics are usually taken from a store of poetry and lyrics that I’ve prewritten, in the hopes that I’d be able to write a song with the appropriate emotion for some of the lyrics. The writing of the vocal melody is more of an improvisational process. I just play the music on the instrument and see what melody my brain makes up.

So that’s my whole writing process. But now I will describe to you what I believe to be the proper process. I think many famous composers of music had the ability to transcribe music directly from their brains down to paper. Beethoven, for example, still wrote music towards the end of his life even though he was deaf. This deafness would make my own process useless. So the only method he had left to him was to write down his music directly from his head.

I do have the ability to write music in my head, as this is the basis for improvisation (probably my favourite part about writing music, maybe a future blog post). But when it comes to bringing the music directly into reality, I am lacking. With a small, single noted melody, I could probably figure out it out on guitar or piano. However, anything more complex (and therefore actually worth composing) is very difficult and time consuming. I think it’s just a matter of knowledge. I need to know notation better in order to be able to write the notes down straight from my head. (HA! I haven’t used traditional notation properly since my second or third year of guitar... when I was 13 or 14). I don’t know the nature of chord progressions quite well enough to bring them directly to the guitar or piano after creating them in my head. If only I could find a method of bringing my mind-music (which never stops, by the way) into reality. Then I believe my composition would make a giant leap, and I would progress greatly (oh, if only).

What made all of these classical composers so great (as well as some today, there are geniuses among us, many unrecognized) was the combination of both musical talent, and knowledge. I myself write and play music mostly by ear. Technicality is my weak point. But saying that I use my ear is no excuse. I’m sure these composers all were “ear-musicians”, but they had their knowledge as well. It is something I should work on. I need to learn more technical music knowledge (or relearn).

Maybe when I have more time... (like when I’m retired).

Sigh.

(Thanks for the prompt, D-tin)