# Basics for a complete beginner



## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

I'll start off this thread by saying that I am no composer, and my knowledge of composition and musical theory is extremely limited. 

With that said, I would like to try my hand at composing something very small/basic, just to say "Hey! I actually wrote that and made something!". With the amount of classical that I listen to, I feel like it is something I would really enjoy. My trouble is that I can't seem to translate the music in my head into sheet music. I can read sheet music (slowly, but I can indeed read it!), but actually getting the notes right is a lesson in futility (basically I use one of the music score programs and play every single note until something sounds like it's right). By the time I actually get anywhere I completely forget what I was even working towards and give up!

Anyways, my question is simple: for someone with very little knowledge of composition or music theory, do any of you have any recommendations for learning the absolute basics? Basically just enough to write, say, a simple melody or something to say I did it (that actually sounds halfway decent that is...I can write some pretty terribad stuff already!)


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

Can you play the piano? 

Do you have a device like an iPad where you can download a keyboard? Then you can just noodle around with your melody.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Stargazer said:


> My trouble is that I can't seem to translate the music in my head into sheet music.


...Classic!

Ear training will take care of that. I'm sure there are a number of free programs online.

For the rest: Allow me to tell you the news many do not like to hear:

You are going to have to compose a myriad of very short pieces, most of which will be very bad to a little less bad, and tons of them, and then you will have to compose many more which will be slightly better than bad but still rather mediocre, and those will be slightly longer pieces, etc. etc. etc. -- unless you had the native gifts of Mozart and a family of professional musicians to home school you from infancy, that is more normally the progression towards being able to write anything which is slightly memorable.

Yes, Midi _(add: and midi score software, mentioned below)_ and computer playback can be a very useful learning tool, including learning better how to notate the music.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

My creative expertise lies in the visual arts. I couldn't even learn how to play the recorder in grade school, let alone read notation. As far as music is concerned, I am happy to simply continue refining my taste and enjoying this noble art. In any case, why worry about 'melody'? Raise hell and strive to create something incredibly fearsome and ugly (not boring, though). It's probably too late to aspire to conventional beauty.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Get a piano. Learn to play a couple of pieces and read some basic theory from internet sources.

If you have any kind of compositional talent and innate ear, then that should be enough for producing some very simple _chords 'n' melody_ pieces.

Theory, etc., becomes more relevant if you have more big ambitions. Paradoxically, for the kind of things you want to do, theory will not help you, on the contrary, you will end producing dreadful theoretical pieces (akin to exercises), since for applying theory properly and when needed you need both a profound knowledge of it and of the music. For the kind of things you aspire, better to use your ear (like most composers in popular music). Try piano pieces since you can compose them over the keyboard.

Of course, the kind of things you can do with all this approach is extremely limited (assuming average talent), but that's how a lot of the famous composers started!

Note: this pragmatic approach is not a general advice, just for you and the kind of things you want to do.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I have suggested it here a number of times: a free computer program called Musescore. I can just barely read music (I know the notes associated with the staff and not much more  ), but the program is simply marvellous for pasting notes onto and hearing exactly what you have composed. If you have slightly greater understanding, you will be able to do a lot of great things with the program, without having to spend weeks learning music theory and notation first.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

senza sordino said:


> Can you play the piano?
> 
> Do you have a device like an iPad where you can download a keyboard? Then you can just noodle around with your melody.


Yes, I *can*...I'm not very good, but I did take lessons for a year. I used to do that a bit, but my keyboard died on me a while back though 



brotagonist said:


> I have suggested it here a number of times: a free computer program called Musescore. I can just barely read music (I know the notes associated with the staff and not much more  ), but the program is simply marvellous for pasting notes onto and hearing exactly what you have composed. If you have slightly greater understanding, you will be able to do a lot of great things with the program, without having to spend weeks learning music theory and notation first.


That's the one I use! I agree it is a pretty intuitive program


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Stargazer said:


> ...my keyboard died on me a while back though


I found one in the alley yesterday. I knocked on the door and asked, but the woman seemed to know little about it. I took it home, but I presume that either the power supply, the power switch or something else was broken  as it wouldn't make a peep. I took it back this afternoon.

New ones aren't really that expensive though :cheers:


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

First you pick a note, and then follow it with another note above or below it (or even the same note again, if you're a risk taker). Repeat as necessary. 

It it gets more complicated if you wish for two or more notes to be heard at the same time. How much do you know about Fourier analysis?


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## Majed Al Shamsi (Feb 4, 2014)

This really helped me when I just wanted to know how to get started. Be careful, though, because it can be a bit misleading. Some of the things presented as 'rules' in these videos are really just guidelines that you can play around with.

After that, I imagine it would be a good idea to read about scales, chord/key progression, melody and harmony.

As PetrB said, you'll have to start composing short and bad pieces first.
You can try to make the most of it by trying something new with every short composition, so that when the time comes for you to compose something long and impressive, you'd know a little bit about everything you can use to make your composition sound a lot better.

Things you can try include: Jumping from one scale to another (major to minor, minor to major, major to major, minor to minor), using good transitions, switching up the tempo mid-piece, using different forms, and the list goes on, really.

So, don't worry at the moment about the length of your pieces, or how much your listeners are going to enjoy them. Focus on learning and trying everything you can learn and try, and then you can run your short compositions by the members of TC. I'm sure we would all be more than glad to offer comments for improvement where it's needed.

Good luck!


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