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
Privacy
First and foremost, you need somewhere that you can get away to and compose in private. Most of the “good stuff” that you will write, won’t happen in the first 5 or 10 minutes. Nope, it’s gonna come out after you have been sitting composing for a while, and your ideas really begin to gel. A good private composing studio will do wonders for you.
The Key to Privacy
Have a door lock. Its pretty much that simple. There are other things you can do, like asking your wife not to let your 20 month old son near you why you are composing, or like me, you can get up at 4:00 am (I’ve been getting up early in the Army so long, I can’t sleep past 5:30 am anyway).
Just get a lock on the door. I recommend getting one of those handles that have the built in lock for the bathroom, that you can put a little metal key in to unlock.
Ambient Sound
Next, you want to address the ambient sound. This may or may not be in your control, but things like not having a loud fan in the room, don’t have a TV or radio in the room. Don’t listen to internet radio, and so on.
I also recommend having soft furniture, carpet and if you can stand it, some sound foam or blankets hanging on the wall. This will help not only the ambient sound from outside, but it will also lessen your noises from going outside as well.
Organization
This is the bread and butter of your setup. The key here is to figure out your ideal workflow. For me personally, I prefer to compose on paper, so my workflow is not to complicated where I sit.
Digital Piano and Ribba
I have a digital piano, with a little thing called “Ribba Ledge” from ikea that I screwed into the wall right in front of me. This acts as a permanent, extended music stand. This is probably the best thing I have ever done, and it’s super cheap.
One note about the keyboard height. You should be able to compose for long periods of time without getting tired or sore. The biggest problem I have is pain in my shoulders and back, from the keyboard height being too high, and no back to a piano bench. So you should actually get a good computer chair and position it so your keyboard is just a little above waist level. This will prevent a lot of pain.
Another Ikea Shelf
I also have a small bookcase above my head, also from ikea (can’t remember the weird name). This is just handy to have nearby. Watch out that it doesn’t get cluttered.
Computer
Yes, the all important computer. I have an old computer that I built sitting below me. I also mounted a monitor above the piano so I would not need a desk.
Now for the dramatic part. Turn off the computer when you compose. What?!?!?
Yeah I said it. If you really want to get down to the nitty gritty of writing good music, turn off the computer. (Caveat, if you can’t play piano well enough to hear your composition, then I guess you can leave it on, but I’ll address the piano playing in the future, it’s vital). Composing by hand is how Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, Chopin, Debussy… well, you get this idea. The greats did it, so can you.
Also, have a wireless keyboard and mouse, they come in handy when you don’t want them in your face, and you can put them on top of the piano, when you are not actively using it.
Capabilities
What I mean by capabilities, is have your necessities in the same room as you. What are your necessities? I touched on a few earlier, like a piano, and computer. What else?
- Writing materials: Staff paper, pencils, erasers, a white board (for form and general ideas).
- A printer for printing your final composition or other drafts.
- Other instruments if you play them. Have them nearby for inspiration.
- A trash can. Duh.
- A comfortable chair (super important).
- A glass of water (or beer).
Feng Shui
Ah yes, the feng shui of the room. It has to be pleasing. Maybe throw up some inspiring paintings. It’s nice to have a window.
The most important thing. It must be comfortable. It has to feel like home. This will help focus, creativity and enjoyment when you compose music.
Let me know about your setups.
What software do you recommend to compose music?
There are many options. My personal choices are digital performer and sibelius/dorico.
You can go with DAWs:
Logic
Garageband
Digital Performer
Cubase
Studio One
And you can go with notation software:
Sibelius
Musescore
Dorico
Finale
Hi,,
After writing down my sheet music on hard paper, which instruments do i need to turn my sheet music into sound and which instruments say keyboards would you recommend for this and lastly are the DAWs a must?
Orchestration has many different possibilities, but a great place to start is by keeping things simple and thinking in groups like strings, winds, brass, and percussion. DAWs are required if you want to create a finished recorded version of your piece using high quality sample libraries and live recordings. But you can do a lot with notation software. If you are planning a live performance, a DAW isn’t required.
Thanks! will be fun to get mine setup 🙂
Hi, am music trainer, but am not able to compose apiece ,how can go about it plz!?
https://www.artofcomposing.com/free
Hi I’m currently a junior in high school, Im The process of writing a suite but I tend to have a struggle finding to really compose with school standing in my way. Do u have any tips in balancing out this problem?
Wake up earlier.
I wake up very early, generally around 4:30am. I started Art of Composing when I was still a full time company commander in the army. In that time, I have started a career in film scoring, written over 120 articles, many videos, podcasts, two very extensive courses in composition, read a ton of music theory and I know have three children. Trust me, you have more time now than you ever will in the future. I am not saying this to make myself seem better than you. The point is, the time is there if you really want it.
In the early days of Art of Composing, I frequently would get up at 3:00am, and sometimes earlier to compose, study, and write articles.
If you think you are not a morning person, you’d be surprised what switching your schedule can do. If you do have trouble waking up early, then try to go to bed earlier. Avoid caffeine and sugar in the evening.
On top of that, figure out how much time you spend watching TV, playing video games, and doing other time wasters. I would say, if you could find 30 minutes a day to compose, you will improve.
The other critical aspect, is focusing on your weaknesses. If you have trouble finishing pieces – then just focus on finishing pieces. If you know that you don’t fully understand how harmony works, practice creating intricate chord progressions that modulate.
Mastering a subject will always be time consuming. But the time is there.
I believe you can do it.
Ok, so I’ve got a few quire good tunes going, which are all in the same key, and I want to join them into one. How do I do this? The ending and beginning notes of each part are all quite close, but I don’t want to just jump to the next one, because it soumds sloppy. Whad should I do?
You are effectively talking about structuring your music. There are several factors that go into it, but the most important is that each should either be in the same key, or you should modulate to the new key. I talk about modulation in depth in Music Composition 101.
My composing space is just a computer on a desk with a decent chair in a room that’s so full of junk that my wife rarely ventures in. I have a window, and the main ambient noise is the hiss of road noise from a busy street outside the window.
I played recorder in elementary school, trombone in junior high, and a compact organ in high school, but never played any of them particularly well. So my composing instrument is MuseScore with the http://www.schristiancollins.com sound font, with the computer keyboard and mouse. For composing away from the desk, I have a drum machine app on my phone, for rhythm development, and sometimes paper printouts of works in progress.
It works, and I think a music keyboard would intrude on composing because I’d be spending more time struggling with my weak technique than working on composition.
Possibly, although I find it’s nice to have the keyboard as an option, even for typing in notes. Whatever works and offers the least resistance to your creativity is probably the best answer.
This is being very helpful to the fact that I had already started composing I just want to get better and more inspired into composing for various of instruments. Thanks- Ashley
Glad you like it.
Jon I want to say I have truly enjoyed your articles. You have inspired and encouraged me at the same time that I am on the right path as far as composing larger works!
I have enjoyed your compositions as well. This setup article is on point!
Thank you very much Demetrius.
Jon,
Excellent site! Your compositions are truly second to none. Thank you for your service to our country!
Take care,
Tom
Thank you very much Tom.
The computer thing hits home, all my best work has come from long sessions of composing and stuff i thought of in the taxi or walking home from the mall. Great articles! Really helpful, thank you.
Comfort is always key. If you become uncomfortable, or your neck starts to ache, it’s always hard to focus.