I'm an ear guy. Always have been. These days I start with a VST instrument usually, scan through some presets till I start playing something interesting. That usually sets the tone for the whole project and often becomes an intro. From there, the whole project seems to take on a life of it's own and gets written and arranged from there. basically I just need an inspiration spark to get me going. A lot of times I start out looking for one things and hear something completely different and take off in that direction instead. the great thing about VST's is that there seems to be endless inspiration for songs. Then adding live audio just goes with the flow. Finally I arrange, work in the midi window quite a bit and then mix and master to taste. I mix and master for my ears rather than for any certain format. I try not to get too bogged down in the technical aspect of it, for fear of loosing the inspiration I had to begin with, since at heart I am a musician rather than a technician.

 

Random nonsense is the best!

 

In a very simple way: using the brain, eyes and hands.

 

Very carefully.

 

In times like these
Roll your face over your Piano. (maybe set your auto theories tool of choice to only one scale.)
Think of the dumbest text/lyrics you'll can image
like
(only the lyrics )

make money with it
repeat repeat repeat



Ok now a bit less satire

The tips given with a 4-8 bar loops are good (even deadmau5 uses this )

Learn a bit about music theories, scales, harmonics, rhythm

Try stuff. Everything can be an instrument

Or you'll have the luck of being just gifted and dream the music you'll want to write. (let you subconsciousness do the work)

For lyrics the real way think about everything you'll see.what do you feel what do you think. What’s the message you want to give the world
Maybe it should be funny, maybe a political statement, maybe to thank someone in you're live. Or the classic sex drugs and Rockenroll lyrics.

 

Well, you are of course correct that stuying music theory is not essential to the many thousands that have proved it not being essential, that is per definition, so I hope noone will try to convince you otherwise.

It is to be compared, though, to the many, many more good and great composers that could not write anything before they started studying music theory.

The simple truth is that If you are some kind of musical genius you might create great music without studying music theory, if you are not, you won’t get very far without studying it. There is really nothing to argue about here, so we might aswell kick the elephant out of the room altogether, wouldn’t you say, Ad H?

 

Agreed, a Doctorate in Philosophy - the title speaks for itself. However, Doctorate in performance in music (DMA) (or in composition which is available) produces slightly different results. A DMA contains the aspects of most of the good things about music. The ability to play well, the ability to write, the ability to hear a set of changes relatively on first listen and more. It has the added value of the philosophical analytics.

Also agreed, genuine answers are definitely different for everyone. If the method achieves the desired result, does it really matter whether the person wrote their music tapping on a kitchen table, driving somewhere, with a DAW, with an instrument in their hand, with notation software or a myriad of other unrelated life-event scenarios? I think not. There is much information out there already where composers of tunes people like on interview have explained when and how they wrote something. To try and do a one size fits all, people have been trying to do that for centuries, unsuccessfully. People grasp things differently. It does not make someone stupid because they do not understand something another does, it only makes them different. Theory is a tool it can aid or hinder. It also depends on the person. Not everyone finds the same thing easy to grasp. If they did, every person on the planet would be able to fluently speak every language in existence.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 14, 2020

But we LISTEN to the music, no?

 

If music really was a listening art why does gear come with a spec sheet?! Riddle me that ear guy!

 

You can say that about many things, like 'If food was meant only for eating why do recipes and food packages resemble a specsheet before you can eat them?"
You do have a point though. There is more than one option to cook an egg too.

 

Well, I need to lay off the late-night sarcasm, really. But yep, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

 

You had a good point, many things have more than one purpose or method attached to them.

 

Don't put your pudding in a puddle else it will go to waste and you won't be able to eat it, besides, pudding puddles are nasty to walk through barefoot.

 

Because of nerds like me. We made them do this.

 

I had already kicked that elephant out of the room, by describing it as optionally beneficial, and totally non-essential.
The only relevance music theory has in this thread is when some people might describe some nice actual uses that they find for it and other people describe actual wonderful music making techniques that ignore it completely.
This is NOT a grandiose 'philosophy of music' thread discussing hypotheticals,
it's simply about 'practically' how do YOU actually compose!

So, @farao, your so-called 'simple truth' assertion, which amounts to "if you're not a genius you need music theory" is actually just a failed provocation, a poorly constructed back-handed baited attempt at dragging that poor elephant back into a fight pit. It ain't gonna work. You can run around barking at that poor sod elephant as much as you like - no-one else cares.

It's a bit weird; the only comments I ever see from you in this forum are when you are exercising your
ludicrous self-appointed barking-mad guard-dog duties.
To be fair this comment you made was the closest I've ever seen to you actually being 'on topic' but most of the time your comments are always just a variation of "grrr, grrr, bark, bark, yap, yap"
I wonder if there will ever be a day when you actually post something that is simply 'on topic'
instead of just criticising other people's comments.

Just once, (when pigs might fly), instead of barking about other people's comments,
why not try adding an actual constructive 'on topic' comment?
In this case that means you actually describe how you compose music.
Even a barking dog can be regarded as composing in some sense, so, bite the bullet, be on topic,
grace us with your wisdom, tell us "how do you compose?"
To all of us musical non-geniuses how you do it, that's all we want to read here.

 

Last edited: Jan 15, 2020

@Thankful Your sarcastic comment was (sincerely) enjoyable to read.
But while discussing insanity...
I remember, in another thread, the time I stopped reading your woo-woo new-age pseudo-science drivel was when you tried to convince us that "theories about Stonehenge and the pyramid stones being raised into position using sound frequencies" was the new science that I should be paying attention to.
Now, on science grounds, I think I was right to call that "pure bollox" but for artistic composition maybe I should give you a second chance. Please do tell us how your approach to composition actually works. If it can raise pyramids then I really do want to pay attention.

Again, the main point of this thread is "How do YOU actually compose?"

Many people have already contributed wonderfully to demonstrating that collectively we have a really wonderful wacky bunch of practical techniques that help us fumble forwards to our musical goals.
What all the nice comments share in common is how exploratory they all are.

@Thankful, what are YOUR methods? Describe them!

 

I always use a stick into the composition.

 

Any Questions?

 

What kind of stick? What colour is it? Where can we buy them?
Can we use them to stir @Lois Lane's puddings?
The details matter.

 

You are correct in what the thread is actually about. But you brought the elephant back in with your platitude about music theory, I simply replied to that ill founded statement in your post in this thread.

——
My attitude to music theory is very simple...

• I personally think music theory is brilliant. I love it. It helps me a lot. I would definitely study it even if I wasn't a musician.
• BUT - No-one will ever convince me that music theory is 'essential' for the many thousands of past, present and future brilliant musicians who very clearly demonstrate that they have outstanding musical competence and really effective musical knowledge without understanding any musical abstractions whatsoever.

—-
I also said there was nothing to argue about since it goes without saying that you have to be a special musical talent to be able to compose great music without studying music theory. I thought we would agree about that and never have to go back. But you had to redicule an obvious statement and revert to personal attacks instead.