# I've decided I want to major in composition



## WavesOfParadox

Are there any tips from here I can get? I'd appreciate any advice whether it's on how to progress as a composer or to what colleges I should apply.


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## BurningDesire

Have you written music before?


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## WavesOfParadox

I would normally think that's a dumb question, but I've seen people on the internet who say, "My dream job is composer, but I have one problem: I've never written a piece of music before!"


Anyways, yes I have. This past week, I got Finale, too.


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## jani

WavesOfParadox said:


> I would normally think that's a dumb question, but I've seen people on the internet who say, "My dream job is composer, but I have one problem: I've never written a piece of music before!"
> 
> 
> Anyways, yes I have. This past week, I got Finale, too.


Can you read music?
Oh sorry for the stupid question i didn't notice this part at 1st.
Don't do the same mistake that i did and that is not reading scores by the greats.
Check out this guys channel.




Compose everyday, ( 10,000h rule) 
I get better all the time because i keep noticing what i am doing wrong and developing my ear.
Do you want to do Film scoring or do you want to compose more "serious" music?


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## Couchie

My advice is to major in Engineering or Business and take up composition in electives or as a hobby.


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## WavesOfParadox

My plan is to double major in Composition and maybe Electrical Engineering.


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## Mephistopheles

Use the internet to look for and enter major national and international composition competitions - there are plenty, and they will do wonders for exposure should you ever win.


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## SuperTonic

How do you plan to support yourself after you graduate with your degree in composition?
Because I can almost guarantee that you will NOT be doing it by composing.

Couchie's advice is spot on.


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## Ramako

SuperTonic said:


> How do you plan to support yourself after you graduate with your degree in composition?


Mine is attic :lol:

Write lots of music. Listen. And think.


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## WavesOfParadox

SuperTonic said:


> How do you plan to support yourself after you graduate with your degree in composition?
> Because I can almost guarantee that you will NOT be doing it by composing.
> 
> Couchie's advice is spot on.


See my previous post.


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## drpraetorus

I wish you all the best. It sounds like you have planned well.


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## drpraetorus

As for schools, unfortunately, there is a certain academic snobery out there. If you go the the "right" schoolsyou will have more respect. The Ivy League schools al have that snob appeal. Another good one in the east is Eastman in Rochester, NY and Juliard of course. In the west there is USC and UCLA in Los Angeles, Stanford in Palo Alto (I think) and UC Berkley in Berkley. That being said, you can get an excellent education from most state schools and a great many private schools. If you really want to go to a prestige school, i would suggest that you get your bachelors at a more reasonably priced state school and get your advanced degrees from the big name schools.


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## PetrB

Depends entirely upon 'what you've got' and what you have done. There are two basic divisions of route toward:

College or University with a strong music department offering degree programs for music and composition.
In undergraduate work here, you must play an instrument or sing - to a moderately advanced level upon entry. You are required to keep the performance as a minor all four years.
Required of all music majors: study in the standard progression of theory and ear-training, music history, orchestration, electronic music, performance ensembles.
Over half your units in undergrad are general education requirements - get as many of these in around the music credits as possible within the first two years. There will be more to fulfill, but less altogether in the class-load of your last two years, when you concentrate more on music.
The college / university music program may not offer any composition classes, but by your Junior year, you may 'declare' a major, and will have to submit some works written to qualify for acceptance as a composition major, at which time you should be assigned a once a week private lesson with a comp teacher. 
To 'go all the way' you should take advanced analysis (over the standard generally required theory courses) -- plus plan on grad school, where you concentrate almost solely upon composition and advanced theory.

The conservatory:
You apply as a comp major, and part of the process to gain admission will to be to submit three or four 'earnest' compositions, sometimes with specific parameters of form, length, instrumentation. Once in, you still go through the standard four years theory, music history, etc, but often with less general education requirements, and more fully concentrated on music courses, and in-class composition courses. You will still have to play an instrument or sing, and keep the performance as a minor all the way through.

Trust me, at either institution, a few 'tunes', derivative 'epic' movie style scores, or quasi baroque concerti, etc. do not at all impress in a portfolio presentation. You must show a real musicality, and a more 'classical' intellectual bent for investigating newer harmonic realms.

In search of schools, university, college or conservatory, you want to strongly investigate the composition department and what is coming out of it as done by its students. If you are not into 'the new complexity' as good as Carnegie-Melon (Pittsburgh) is, it is not the music department for you. See which schools teach which way, what comp teachers whose work you admire are at which schools, and let that be your guide. That comp teacher may be at a prestige Ivy League School (Princeton, Yale, Harvard) a prestige conservatory (Curtis) or a state school department of far less glossy luster, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for example.

Getting in is primary, but after that it is your time, money, and a 'great forming' by what is taught and who teaches it - it is good to have an idea of what kind of music you are wanting to write before you make those preliminary searches.


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## WavesOfParadox

So can anybody tell me a good way to find composition contests?


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## Sonata

Probably online is a good way to start. "Composition contest" or "composition competition"

Throw in the worth amateur or youth and you might be able to tailor it down to your needs more. Or, calling local music conservatories/music shops/asking a music teacher if they have any such contacts.


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