how do you begin to compose??

[Adriel]

I have been thinking about trying to compose someting but just dont have the knowledge. Plus I have no idea where to start....

 

can anyone help me out?

[eeglug]

Have a look at this topic maybe?

[realtree71]

i write about {censored} in my life. Luckely there is always a ton of {censored}, Good or Bad, going on in my life, comedy-tragedy, war-peace, love-hate, fishing-hunting, racing-wrecking, rock climbing- falling ha.

 

I read a book once and Nikkie Sixx said something like his life is a War others are a race......everybody else just sits by and watch.... Those people dont have much to say...

 

I write {censored} down, single words, that I realy relate to.... the ones that form a pattern get put into a story and then become a song....

 

 

Just what I do!

[jewel]

i just sit down and start playing. a song usually is the result. but not always.

 

jeff

[buffbiff21]

Drumline -> guitar riff -> bass -> vocals -> "hooks"/melody -> guitar solo

[jewel]

 

Drumline -> guitar riff -> bass -> vocals -> "hooks"/melody -> guitar solo

 

it's almost hard not to write a song when you start with a cool drum part.

[EVHoYEAH]

 

it's almost hard not to write a song when you start with a cool drum part.

 

 

I'll second that. I'll often go through my loops that I have with Garageband looking for inspiration.

[T. Alan Smith]

Speaking of starting with drums... Lately, I've been starting with a loop on my Emu Orbit. I mangle the living hell out of it. That usually inspires me to grab my bass and start jamming to it.

[fiziwig]

I write classical and symphonic music, so no drum line, as others have suggested. HOWEVER, I often start with the equivalent, the bass line or harmony line. I pick a nice chord progression and put it into midi, then play it back over and over while I doodle at the keyboard. Eventually, bit by bit, a melody evolves to fit the chord progression.

 

--gary

[T. Alan Smith]

 

I write classical and symphonic music, so no drum line, as others have suggested. HOWEVER, I often start with the equivalent, the bass line or harmony line. I pick a nice chord progression and put it into midi, then play it back over and over while I doodle at the keyboard. Eventually, bit by bit, a melody evolves to fit the chord progression. --gary

 

 

When I started writing, it was on piano and I would come up with a harmonic progression first. During college however, the melody would come first and I would right the harmony & rhythm to it. I gotta tell ya, from my perspective, it's much cooler to have the melody to work with first.

[eddieboston2]

For me it depends. Sometimes I'll be noodling around with the guitar and come up with a melody, then something about the melody will put me in mind of specific lyrics, usually about something going on in my life at the time.

 

Other times, I have a topic I want to write about, and come up with the words first, and those words will lend themselves to a certain rhythm, and thus to a melody, which I'll then try and find a guitar part to.

 

Still other times, it's something as simple as a phrase or a rhyme that I'll come up with (or somebody else will say) while walking down the street, and I'll build the whole song around that.