How do i get into music composing as a hobbist?

[Piranha Fang UGC]

I don't want to spend money in professional courses, but i want to learn enough to be able to compose at least something, so, is there any site or video, or etc. that could help?

[continuum.mid]

What do you already know when it comes to music? Do you play any instruments? I learned a lot about composing from piano lessons, just by paying attention to how the songs I played were structured, etc. That was enough to get me a place to start from which I could teach myself the rest.

Edited April 6, 2021 by northivanastan

[Immorpher]

I started with music decades ago by just editing midis and changing their instruments. Trying to figure out what "tricks" they used. Then when I wanted to make my own tracks, I had certain styles of music I was inspired by and tried to recreate them. Took a lot of experiments, but experiments produce unique things! I know theres a lot of YouTube tutorials out there for beginners with music. Just depends where you want to go, if you want to do some MIDIs or you want to do some more modern stuff. There's free software for both.

[Mr. Freeze]

Learn theory. It is the first step to writing music at any level. 

[stewboy]

In terms of software:

You find whatever program is easiest for you to pick up, and then you just try it! If you're totally new to all music composition, most programs will seem a bit overwhelming, but some will be easier than others. If you have some basic understanding of music notation, all the better - try MuseScore. If you're not looking to get into notation-based programs, there'll almost certainly be some free DAW's that are pianoroll-based (or even try Sekaiju, which is purely for midi files I think). They'll probably be relatively simple, and not as powerful as more expensive options like Pro Tools, Cubase etc, but if you're just getting into it then something simple is probably better for you anyway.

Another kind of music software is tracker-based ones. I've been using OpenMPT for a while, but it can be hard to get started with if you don't have some sort of existing sample library. Alternatively, try FamiTracker, which is a very simple chiptune tracker which I've also made a bunch of stuff with. It's limited, but still surprisingly flexible once you get good with it. They're both free programs.

If you do go notation based (and I think there are definite advantages to knowing music notation), there'll probably be a few websites (or youtube channels) out there that may be of help. I've been a member of https://www.youngcomposers.com/ for many years, although I never used it much, but you might find it useful.

 

In terms of musical ability:

There's no easy shortcut here. You just have to keep writing music, and exposing yourself to a wide variety of existing music (and trying to figure out what makes it work), and over many years you'll get better at it. For me, music composition is a very instinctual process, but I had to do a LOT of it before I really developed that instinct into what it is today.

 

Also, if you're just getting started, I wouldn't necessarily share everything you write to begin with. The first things that most people make in any sort of art form are rarely going to be good, and it might be discouraging if you get too much criticism at once. You have to develop a love for the art, and make things just for the sake of that love, and then that will keep you going!

[Dragonfly]

I only started writing music last summer; I feel both amazing and like a total and utter novice, but the advice I can give you as someone who's only really just started out is to watch other people making music, and watching/reading things to do with composition in general.

 

It's definitely been useful to watch how a song comes together, how the musicians think and how differently they think from one another. This is also a good way to pick up on musical terminology. I'm often hearing terms that initially mean nothing to me (for example, "major third"), making a note to go read up what it means when I hear it, then after watching the video/stream, going away and doing a little research into it and sometimes even putting it into practice.

 

Another thing that's been helping me lately is working on covers of songs in midi format; it's hard work but I've learned a lot by essentially dissecting existing music and trying to recreate it myself.

 

Both Jimmy & Eris Falling, members of this community, stream their music creation process; I'd highly recommend watching them when they're live. Also, some YouTube channels to watch would include the likes of Adam Neely, Andrew Huang, Yogev Gabay, Shady Cicada, Rick Beato etc.

[stewboy]

2 minutes ago, Dragonfly said:

Both Jimmy & Eris Falling, members of this community, stream their music creation process; I'd highly recommend watching them when they're live.

 

I've thought a fair bit about trying my hand at streaming composition myself but I've not been brave enough yet - would it be useful?

[Dragonfly]

Absolutely!

[magicsofa]

1 hour ago, Mr. Freeze said:

Learn theory. It is the first step to writing music at any level. 

 

I disagree. I think most people should not worry about theory until they are intermediate songwriters. It's much more intuitive and powerful to develop your own sense of what sounds good first. By doing that, you are already understanding the reason for the theory without muddling around with naming conventions, interval math, and other things that are totally esoteric for the pure beginner.

It's kind of like telling someone that if they want to get into painting, the first thing they should do is memorize a list of types of paint, artistic styles, and methodologies. Why? None of those things make you a good painter. Similarly, being able to name all the chords won't help you put them together, nor will knowing a progression help you understand when it's useful. You can certainly learn those concepts in tandem, but just starting out on pure theory seems like a good way to burn out on homework without getting to the fun part.

[wolfmcbeard]

I got into it as I had a little background in dabbling, but never recording anything until a few years ago or bothering with theory until more recently.
You can definitely pick it up, it never hurts to learn things before or during you musical adventures, the critique you'll get over time will be a great way to pick up new things for the next track as you continue.
Don't be afraid to take your time and make what sounds good to you.
 

[MFG38]

4 minutes ago, magicsofa said:

I disagree. I think most people should not worry about theory until they are intermediate songwriters. It's much more intuitive and powerful to develop your own sense of what sounds good first. By doing that, you are already understanding the reason for the theory without muddling around with naming conventions, interval math, and other things that are totally esoteric for the pure beginner.

 

Basically this. I wrote my first songs way before I ever knew the first thing about music theory - I only gained that knowledge while studying music in vocational school. While I think that having that knowledge has helped solidify my compositional skills in some way, I really don't follow those conventions any more closely than I did 10 years ago. If anything, I almost follow them less closely. Having music theory knowledge is helpful, but it's a skill of its own to be able to consciously ignore it and just follow your gut.

[TheEvilGrin]

43 minutes ago, stewboy said:

 

I've thought a fair bit about trying my hand at streaming composition myself but I've not been brave enough yet - would it be useful?

 

Ah yes, it definitely would. And I think I might not be the only one who would 100% watch it.

[Jimmy]

48 minutes ago, stewboy said:

 

I've thought a fair bit about trying my hand at streaming composition myself but I've not been brave enough yet - would it be useful?

 

Hell yeah. Your writing would be incredible to witness live.

[The Final Event]

I learned theory by googling it. imo it's best to teach yourself since you know how you learn the best, you also know your own limits better than anybody else so you won't burn out unless you push yourself too hard which I wouldn't recommend doing.

If you know it's something you want to do, stick with it and you'll eventually arrive at a level you'll be proud of

Edited April 6, 2021 by Regular Warren

[The Final Event]

1 hour ago, stewboy said:

 

I've thought a fair bit about trying my hand at streaming composition myself but I've not been brave enough yet - would it be useful?

Yes, share your workflow you musical wizard you <3

[ClumsyDoomer]

Since only one specific resource has been mentioned here so far - Rick Beato is a very knowledgeable and charming "music nerd" on youtube. He does all sorts of music-related lectures, breakdowns and rants. His explanations and applications of music theory are easily the best out there.

And yeah, the ultimate goal is to squeeze music theory into a lower level of consciousness, i.e. learn to operate it without being aware, like with language. Ignoring and avoiding it will make your life harder - the reason it exists is because people have done the basic stuff millions of times over the centuries, condensed the "axioms" and results of experimentation to save newcomers' time. No need to invent a bicycle.

[P41R47]

3 hours ago, stewboy said:

 

I've thought a fair bit about trying my hand at streaming composition myself but I've not been brave enough yet - would it be useful?

you are one of the few composers that use exclusively music notation as your composing process.

So yes, it would be really helpful, entertaining and informative.

 

Hope you get your way at doing it, pal!

[continuum.mid]

50 minutes ago, P41R47 said:

you are one of the few composers that use exclusively music notation as your composing process.

So yes, it would be really helpful, entertaining and informative.

 

Hope you get your way at doing it, pal!

I also use music notation to compose my MIDIs (specifically, MuseScore) and seeing videos of how stewboy does his work would also really help me, as a lot of the tutorials out there are built around sequencers and DAWs.

Edited April 6, 2021 by northivanastan

[morse2179]

Guitar Pro 

[Serum]

Coming from someone that's been producing for a decade and currently lives off of it, the best way to ease yourself in is, in my honest opinion, FL Studio Mobile

 

For one, desktop workstations are fucking expensive. FL Mobile is cheap... Like, less than 20 bucks

 

Another thing is that, with mobile, there are many feature limitations. This is actually a good thing as a beginner, though. Trust me, you want to jump in the shallow end.. The mobile app is perfect for that. It will show you stuff like how playlist interfaces works, how presets work, how MIDI works, how automation works, lots of universal terminology, and a little bit of your own synthesis. Eventually, once you're competent in all that, you'll be very well equipped to jump into the real deal. Plus, you're going to end up finding that, even with the feature limitations, FL Mobile is still very powerful

 

If you feel like diving in the deep end and dropping hundreds of dollars to begin with, I'd recommend just getting FL Studio desktop. It's by far the best DAW for beginners. There are other DAWs out there like Ableton and Reaper that I'd argue are more powerful for complex stuff, but the learning curve is steeper

 

Whether you choose to do the mobile app or the desktop app, just begin looking up beginner tutorials. Go through the FX plugins and plugin-types (things like flanger, reverb, delay, chorus, compression, EQ, bitcrusher, etc) and just look up tutorials on each one of those things. Do the same with the synthesizers. You can take your time with those and learn them along the way

 

 

Edit: Also, if you jump right into music theory, you're likely going to get bored quickly and quit. Just focus on messing around and having fun

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by Serum

[Maximum Matt]

Get a guitar, a big-assed amp, learn how guitar tab works, and play along to some if your favorite metal songs.  That's a good way to start. An intense hatred of neighbours helps as well