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How to Write Music
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How to Write Music |
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mirror man Senior Member
since 2001-01-08
Posts 814 |
How to Write Music The first thing you need to know before you do anything is how to read music. That probably sounds simple, but a lot of people seem to want to be able to write music, yet I hear very little about reading it. Actually, reading music is easier than reading words. And the best way to do it, and the cheapest, is to just search the web for “reading music” or “read music” or something like that. The basics are usually free. However, if you want to get more deeply into it, you can buy the book I bought, which is Contemporary Music Theory by Mark Harrison. I bought mine from Amazon. After you’ve learned how to read music, it’s probably best to practice. Most people practice with an instrument, just to get an idea of what the notes sound like in real life. However, you don’t need an instrument if you have a computer. You can use a music writing utility instead of a real instrument. I use Melody Assistant. You can download Melody Assistant at: http://www.myriad-online.com/ This will give you practice with reading and writing notes and hearing how they sound on a large number of instruments. However, if you want to save what you write, you’ll have to register. The cost is around $25 now. It’s one of the cheapest music writing utilities there are. I know, it sounds like a cheapie, but there are a lot of features on it, and you’ll be a long time learning what it has. Composing, writing music, is something else. Some people want to just jump right in, and that’s okay for a lot of people. But if you want to learn the techniques of music composition, you should at least read up on it. The first thing I learned when reading up on it for myself was that there is a difference between music theory and music composition. Music theory is concerned with the nuts and bolts of writing. It’s like the difference between spelling and meaning in language. The spelling tells you what word you’re reading, the proper placement of letters in relation to each other. Music theory is like that with notes, mostly with chords. Composition however, is different. It’s concerned with the meaning of the piece, like syntax is with words. There are a lot of books on music theory but very few on composition. At least, few that won’t cost you an arm and a leg, or aren’t written for PhD’s in music. I have five books on music composition: Structural Hearing, by Felix Salzer Treatise on Harmony, by Jean-Philippe Rameau The Study of Fugue, by Alfred Mann The Study of Counterpoint, by Alfred Mann Classical Form, by William E. Caplin You can probably get these all at Amazon. All that is probably daunting to most people. It’s a lot of study and time, and it might cost more than most people want to spend. So if you just want to get a look at the techniques used in composition without all that study, after you’ve registered your music utility, you can download a music composition utility called Tangent. You can download Tangent at: http://www.randomtunes.com/ It generates random songs using a large number of instruments at once, such as in a band or orchestra. For a small fee, also about $25, you can register and save the songs it generates. It will save these songs in midi format, and you can then import them to Melody Assistant and look at the score. You can also, using Melody Assistant or any music writing utility, alter the score to your liking. Tangent, in other words, writes the score, and then you can alter it with your music writing utility. It’s a lot of fun, and I use it all the time. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who uses Tangent or something like it. You also might want to invest in a small dictionary of music. I use the Harvard Brief Dictionary of Music. And that’s basically it. All my music is instrumental, classical based, and free to copy and distribute. Midi files can be played on almost any computer by just clicking on them. Most versions of Windows come with a free midi player. I use Yamaha XG Player. See my note below for getting copies of my music. It's FREE! [This message has been edited by mirror man (08-09-2003 06:34 AM).] |
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mirror man Senior Member
since 2001-01-08
Posts 814 |
Note: all my music, all that's worth listening to, is posted in the pipTalk Lounge. Click on Discussion (above) and then pipTalk Lounge. They are titled Music I through Music XV (fifteen in all) and posted by me, mirror man. Each contains the ABC file for that particular song listed and instructions on how to convert these files to midi and mp3 formats so you can listen to them. Enjoy! |
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