Musical Phrases – The Big Picture “Man that was a great two bar continuation phrase, with awesome fragmentation and melodic liquidation!” Super Music Nerd In the grand scheme, no one is going to listen to your Symphony and say, “Man, that was a great two bar phrase.” Well… maybe some music nerds, like me, but […]
Warning: The Composing Secret Mozart Didn’t Want You To Know
Musical Sketches – Mozart’s Dirty Little Secret Mahler did it. Beethoven did it. Even… gasp… Mozart did it. What am I talking about? Sketches. I think we can all agree that these three composers were geniuses. But genius is not enough to create what they created. In this article you’ll find out the secret that […]
30 Minute Composition #4 – B Minor
30 Minute Composition #4 – B Minor These are turning out to be very valuable exercises. I feel like I am learning a lot about the connection of melody, harmony and form. It is easy to get yourself stuck in a melody without thinking about the underlying harmony. When I do fill out the harmony, […]
Symphony of Enlightenment 01: Musical Inspiration
Enlightenment and Musical Inspiration I have titled the Symphony that I will be writing, The Symphony of Enlightenment. I have done this for several reasons. First, I just like the name, I think it sounds pretty cool, maybe I am a nerd. Second, it will keep me focused on the fact that I am writing […]
Mastering the Art of Composing a Symphony
The Universe in a Grain of Sand The art of composing music is at once, a mysterious and yet simple thing. In twelve notes (and a few quarter tones), repeated over a few octaves, we have all tonal music that has ever and will ever be written. It is so complex and still so beautifully […]
Composing Music by Hand vs. Software
To Compose Music by Hand, or Compose by Computer? That is the Question. Recently I have been writing a lot more music by hand and I have noticed something drastic. The music is better. Now, this is my opinion, others may not think so, but none the less, my opinion is what really matters to […]
30 Minute Composition #3 – D Major
30 Minute Composition #3 – D Major This one proved to be a little more difficult in the D minor section. I was attempting to make it sound a little “medieval.” It usually comes down to the wire with these. You may notice in bar 8, it slows down, kind of boring. This is because […]
How to Compose Music, Part 3: Melody or Harmony First?
Should I Start With the Melody or the Harmony? This is a common question when learning to compose music. The answer is a simple one. You need to start with both. How Do I Start with Both Melody and Harmony? Let me stat out by asking you a question. If you were to write a […]
How to Compose Music, Part 2: The Setup
Your Home Music Composing Studio Yes, your home composing studio. The space where all the magic happens. There are several things that you need to consider in setting up the idea environment for composing and to be most productive. These are: Home Composing Studio Setup Areas of Focus Privacy Ambient Sound Organization Capabilities Feng Shui […]
How To Compose Music, Part 1: The Composing Mindset
The Art of Composing Music This post is going to be the first in a series of post that will cover how to compose music. Having a personal process of composing music can be just as important to composing well, as knowing music theory. If your process is disjointed, or even worse, you don’t have […]
30 Minute Composition #2 – G Major
30 Minute Composition #2 – G Major. Another one bites the dust. Just barely made it this time. Let me know what you guys think of these. I plan on breaking these down in the future for short lessons on composing and honing your composing skills. Jon
The Different Sides of Musical Form
Musical Form In All Its Glory Musical Form is very important in music and is often neglected. People want to go straight into writing a piece of music, without a plan, and just let the music take them wherever they want to go. But without an idea of or blueprint of what you imagine the […]
30 Minute Composition #1 in E Minor
Here is my first 30 minute composition in E minor. I plan on doing a lot of these. 30 Minute Composition #1 in E Minor
5 Reasons to Learn Music Theory
Why should you learn music theory? You may have many of your own reasons, but here are just a few to get you motivated. Reason 1: Being Able To Write Down What You Hear In Your Head First, and most importantly, it gives us the ability to describe what we hear in our head on […]
The Stages of Learning to Compose Music
I am trying to come up with a structure for how I approach learning to compose, or really, re-learning to compose. While driving to work, it dawned on me that learning to compose is similar to learning a language. More accurately, learning to write in a language. Listening First When we first learn a language […]
The Fundamentals of Music
So where to begin. Composition is a huge field, spanning hundreds, if not thousands of years. What do you learn first. Well for this I will turn to some of the ideas from the past in terms of what we should be learning. Writing Down What You Hear in Your Head I assume your goal […]
Who is ArtofComposing.com for?
Passionate Composers This site is for anyone who is passionate about composing music. Plain and simple. There are a million different styles of music, and everyone has slightly different tastes, but the underlying theory and guidelines apply to all, no matter if you are trying to learn to write a large romantic symphony, or a […]
Welcome to ArtofComposing.com
The Art of Composing Welcome. Thanks for coming to artofcomposing.com. This site aims to be the preeminent site for learning about the art of composing music. This is a large topic. People have been doing it for thousands of years, so I plan to tackle one step at a time. My Journey Who am I? […]
