# Starting Out A Compostion



## TrazomGangflow (Sep 9, 2011)

I have just purchased classical music composition software and I am having a little trouble coming up with a good melody. I am planning to start off with something easy such as a waltz, minuet, or mazurka. How do you personally start off when writing a new piece?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I would invent an instrument out of others I have previously broken, bash anything that would make a noise, scribble notes at random onto manuscript paper until I come up with an idea. Then I purchase the necessary chemicals on the Internet to be delivered to my house, mix them all together and drink whatever I have made. This is what gets my brain working to develop the idea. I would then pace around the house humming madly to myself until the idea is in place. I write down the whole idea and then calm down to some *strong* black coffee.

When I get down to the actual composition process it usually starts with me at 5:00am staring at 50 kilograms of molten iron wondering what on earth I'm going to do with it all. By the end of the day I would have built some sort of contraption (or "musical instrument") that can produce some sort of noise. I would then use my ideas from the previous day and edit and transfer them to my contraption's capabilities. Once I finish composing I look at the manuscript and wonder what on earth I was taking when I came up with those ideas.

That method usually works for me. Well not exactly that method, but I think it is always good to experiment on an instrument and improvise little tunes that you might end up using in your composition. Experimenting and improvising on instruments is what made some of my most elaborate compositions. If you just go out for a walk and start humming a tune, or make up a tune on the piano you should write it down straight away. Don't force a melody to emerge from your brain, just let it come by itself.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

A baroque dance form? Piece of cake. First: Understand the form and the texture of the dance in question. Next: Outline your melody, noting contour and which notes you wish to place emphasis on, keeping in mind the harmony you desire for proper tension. Then: Outline the harmony and melody with four-part voice leading. Finally: Fill in the melody, following the voice leading, with any nonharmonic tones and whatever secondary motifs you want to bring up in counterpoint, keeping in mind the texture and rhythm of the dance. Of course, that's how I do it on paper. If I were to do it on the computer, I'd probably simplify it to just writing the melody as above and filling in the harmony without all that sketching.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Take 2 Adderall pills with a glass of gin.


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