How do you write music?

I have the great fortune to be able to write symphonic prog at the early age of 18.

When I write a song I usually  compose it on a piano or a guitar, and then I trip myself all the possible instruments that the song might have, then I do the arreangements on my head and bring them to life with a keyboard. After all this process the song becomes a scene. You know like Hendrix used to said that he could see colours with his music. I see scenes in my music, and this scenes becomes a story, a phantasmagorical story kind of like a dream with various acts. Unfortunately here in Guatemala dont aprecciate prog music (they dont even know it exist) so I have to keep all of my escenes and dreams inside of me.

shrooms?

To answer your question, I write lyrics first, create a rhythym second, and tinker with how i want it to soundn third. 

The melodies seems to fall into place when this is complete becasue ive usually accomplished the most of melody, if not all of it, by writing the lyrics. 

Ive been riting stories and poems all my life, so its easy for me to express my feelings in an emotional way. 

Honestly, im not concerned playing like Blackmore, Paige, Malasteem, Vai, Eddie Van Halen, or Stevie Ray Vaughn.  Im more concerned with a song asa whole, then the guitarwork, although it is a vital part of any good ballad.   

The Lost Chord wrote: I play instruments all day, i am an avid flute, piano and guitar player and i have been playing piano for my whole life and i know music like i know math! But i cannot seem to create epic melodies, I can write songs easily, but i am never satisified with what comes out at the end...is there a formula people follow?  How is it these people made such great music back in the 70's and 60's, what was it about them!?!

Hello!

In a nutshell, the process by which I write music starts by having a concept first of what I want to write about.  Once I have decided on what I want to write about, I start to conceptualize the music in my head including all the arrangements and instrumentation that would fit the theme.  Afterwards, it's all jamming and improvising around by myself based on what I hear inside my head.  When I'm happy with what I've just played, I try to seqeunce the drum parts immediately (to form the skeleton of the composition) then record all of the stuff that I can remember playing.  Other details are added afterwards depending on what I get to think about later or when I think the composition lacks something.  When it comes to pieces of epic proportion, I usually write them as separate components or movements first then I try to string them together in an attempt to make them as cohesive as possible.

Of course it's important that you educate yourself through reading and studying music theory, listening to good music and practicing technique on your respective instrument as this will form the basis of your technique in composition but this does not mean that you have to attach yourself strictly to the rules.  Having rules help a lot but if you don't experiment, it will not sound fresh and you will not discover anything new.  As an example, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, even Bach did experiment with the rules of their present time and came up with something great (example of which is Bach's counterpoint method which I don't think strictly followed counterpoint rules set by Fux).  It would be good to remember that without a basic working foundation, you cannot experiment or improvise, so it's best that at least you get yourself some working and practical knowledge on music theory.  It's an advantage if you have opportunities to take college-level music classes but it doesn't mean that without formal training you can't compose (I for one am largely self-taught yet I can write music and so can Vangelis, Yngwie Malmsteen and Phil Collins for famous examples).  A formulaic approach, such as that seen in classical music, is good but do not discount improvisation as an important tool.

I hope that gives you ideas that would help.

BePinkTheater wrote: Goldenavatar wrote: Do not listen to these wierdos who say there is no formula for writing music, they clearly don't know much about music. There are MOST CERTAINLY RULES! Did Bach just sit down and totally make crap up? Well he probably did, but it was a very formulaic approach. Why do you think there are different genres and styles of music? The reason is because there are different rules and formulas for each one. There ARE rules for blues. There ARE rules for Baroque. There ARE rules for Jazz. Anyone who claims that music is obtained by just doing whatever the hell you want is musically illiterate. They may be able to come up with some interesting stuff occassionally but that will be the exception. So if you want to learn to write some music you just need to learn the rules of the style you want to write. I personally would suggest, if you have not done so, take some college level music theory classes. That helped me tremendously. One thing you will learn is tonal harmony from a classical perspective. Since prog artists are often influenced by classical forms, this would be very beneficial. You have to learn to walk before you can run. Learning the basics of tonal harmony will help when you get to the point when you want to start breaking the rules. You can't break the rules if you don't know the rules. Plus, once you know the rules for writing a 4 voice chorale in the style of Bach, anything you write will sound good. I'm not kidding. 4 voice chorales will then lead to keyboard pieces and then on to your own instruments. When I was taking music theory I would write chorales and have no idea what they would sound like (I have not taken an ear training course yet). Then when I heard them I was always amazed that they sounded so pleasing. All because I followed the rules One thing I've found in my own experience is that it's much easier for me to write starting with a harmonic basis for the song. When I was a bit more inexperienced I always thought you just come up with a melody in your head and then add to it. That has proven to be much more difficult for me. Now I try to come up with a chordal model first and then add to that. Also, my teachers always say, "Don't try and be creative," when you are first starting out. Start off doing the very cliche stuff. This will give you a firmer grasp on how harmony works. Plus most works are NOT very complicated harmonically. That includes prog. Most tunes follow very standard harmonic progressions. For example pretty much every jazz tune in the world is based on ii-V7-I chord progressions. Sure there are more things going on, but those are usually ornamental things, not the basis for the work. Chew on that! Good to know coming formt he guy wiht 30 posts   There are rules, and noone said otherwise. But they are genreal rules of music. The modal systems, inversions, posotive/negative chord changes, time signitures and such. And there are formulas( 1,4,5; 1,5,2,7; ect...) but those just end up sound like repetative sh*t. He needs to have either a great understanding of theory, or a miraculus connection with his intrument which wil make its 'sing' what ever he hears in his head( he obviously doesn have the latter or he wouldnt have starded the tread)   It jsut takes practice, you'll get it man

I didn't realise the number of my posts translated into writing ability and understanding of music. But don't worry I'll keep posting, and pretty soon I'll be the next Mozart.

When it comes to melody, there are no rules or formulae.

Melody is the ONLY aspect of music for which this is true.

What Goldenavatar is talking about is mainly form, but also partly trends; At certain periods of time, particular melodies are popular, and composers were also keen (and usually very able) improvisors.

Theme and Variation has long been the most difficult form to master - even Mozart and Beethoven wrote very few works that are rhapsodical in nature, but when they did, they wrote superlative examples.

Writing Themes and Variations is a way of learning how to write and develop melodies - but ultilmately it is the ultimate art in music.

Timbre is largely taste, and combining sounds is an enjoyable form of alchemy.

Anyone can write a piece in standard song format, and it's not too tricky to extend that form to sonata form or more complex forms, but "free-form" is a waste of time and almost always ends up as noodle. Strict structures always work best in Western music - people use cliches because they work.

Harmony is just filling in the dots - but there are black arts to this too, as harmonic development can provide a drive for the music that is detectable as a kind of pulse that can enhance rhythm. Unless your name is Stravinsky, however, harmony, like form, works best when subjected to strict rules.

Rhythm is somewhat harder, and requires a special skill almost separate to melody. I feel annoyed when I hear so many pieces composed using a mathematical formula for rhythm - it's got no soul, man!

But Melody is the Holy Grail and should always come first when writing.

Write the tunes you like the sound of

While I agree that it is somewhat important to know the rules before you break them, all the talent in the world will not help you write music if you aren't inspired.

There are many very talented musicians in the world who can't compose a lick (no pun intended). There are many (usually unknown) people in the world who can't play a lick but can compose great music.

Goldenavatar wrote: Do not listen to these wierdos who say there is no formula for writing music, they clearly don't know much about music. There are MOST CERTAINLY RULES! Did Bach just sit down and totally make crap up? Well he probably did, but it was a very formulaic approach. Why do you think there are different genres and styles of music? The reason is because there are different rules and formulas for each one. There ARE rules for blues. There ARE rules for Baroque. There ARE rules for Jazz. Anyone who claims that music is obtained by just doing whatever the hell you want is musically illiterate. They may be able to come up with some interesting stuff occassionally but that will be the exception. So if you want to learn to write some music you just need to learn the rules of the style you want to write. I personally would suggest, if you have not done so, take some college level music theory classes. That helped me tremendously. One thing you will learn is tonal harmony from a classical perspective. Since prog artists are often influenced by classical forms, this would be very beneficial. You have to learn to walk before you can run. Learning the basics of tonal harmony will help when you get to the point when you want to start breaking the rules. You can't break the rules if you don't know the rules. Plus, once you know the rules for writing a 4 voice chorale in the style of Bach, anything you write will sound good. I'm not kidding. 4 voice chorales will then lead to keyboard pieces and then on to your own instruments. When I was taking music theory I would write chorales and have no idea what they would sound like (I have not taken an ear training course yet). Then when I heard them I was always amazed that they sounded so pleasing. All because I followed the rules One thing I've found in my own experience is that it's much easier for me to write starting with a harmonic basis for the song. When I was a bit more inexperienced I always thought you just come up with a melody in your head and then add to it. That has proven to be much more difficult for me. Now I try to come up with a chordal model first and then add to that. Also, my teachers always say, "Don't try and be creative," when you are first starting out. Start off doing the very cliche stuff. This will give you a firmer grasp on how harmony works. Plus most works are NOT very complicated harmonically. That includes prog. Most tunes follow very standard harmonic progressions. For example pretty much every jazz tune in the world is based on ii-V7-I chord progressions. Sure there are more things going on, but those are usually ornamental things, not the basis for the work. Chew on that!

Those "formulas" only applies to organizing ideas. Perhaps I'n not a usician myself, but I do have a lot of friends that are into fusion or stuff like that. I also happen to have a "formulaic" friend. He has no inspiration at all, so his music clearly follow a path of "logic" key progressions, with very common chords, etc. Clichè, as you said. Believe me: with no inspiration to begin with, formulas will take over your work.