How do you write music?

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.

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.   

shrooms?

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.