Compose Music Tutorial

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Here is a little tutorial on how to compose music for the piano. Before I give my advice, I'd
like to say that composing music is not a talent as most would think. Most people will say such
a thing as an excuse because they themselves think they can't compose music. The only reason
why some of us are better than others is because some of us have more desire to compose
music than others. Those who do desire to compose music, will be the people who practice
more. Practice on anything will increase our abilities. This concept goes for anything, even
piano playing. Composition is not a talent, it is acquired skill, but once mastered, you can be
dangerous. The tips I present will be for the serious composer, not the amateur:
1. You should have a basic understanding of music theory. While music theory can't help you
compose better, it aids the composer to write in a more sophisticated and logical way, helps in
planning composition development, helps a composer to write logical progressions, and most
importantly, helps the composer to write the composition in an efficient way. By efficient, I
mean, no redundancies, which is music that does not fit in, or music that shouldn't have even
been inserted into the composition. This is actually important, because these redundancies will
be picked up by an average listener, and the composer of the composition will soon enough
have lost the listener's attention. This is why a basic understanding of music theory is pretty
necessary if you want to become a good composer. Although music theory won't help a
composer write better music (that comes with creativity), it definitely aids the composer in
organization. On the contrary, having great ideas in music, doesn't necessarily mean your
composition is will sound appealing. The composer can have a great compositional idea,
however without good organizational skills, the composition will soon be like a story that was
written out of order.
2. Establish your time signature. The time signature will be based on the type of composition
the composer desires. For example, if the composer wanted to write a "waltz", the time
signature would be 3/4. Keep in mind that the time signature can hinder some of your ideas.
For example, perhaps you chose to write your piece in 3/4 time, but you come up with an idea
that is 7 eighth notes long. There is no way you can fit this idea into your composition if you
have a 3/4 time signature. There are two ways to overcome this problem. One way is to
change the time signature for that particular measure. The only problem this produces is that if
you still want the beat of your left hand, or bass, to be 3 beats, this is impossible for the time
7/4. So, I present another solution. The other way is to arpeggiate your sequence of notes,
basically this means, you make your own rule of sequence. If in a waltz, with 3/4 time, this
would mean, you would arpeggiate 7 eight notes to every 3 quarter notes while still being in 3/4
time. This probably sounds confusing to the amateur, but having knowledge of time signature
is imperative if you want to compose music that is not too limited. Here's an example of how
an amateur composer probably would go about putting in his 7 eight notes in 3/4 time. He
probably would roll over his last note to the next measure. There would be 6 notes in one
measure, and 1 note in the adjacent measure. While his compositional idea may have been
superb, this organizational method is poor, and is an example of why music theory is pretty
necessary for a good composer. A good composer wants to be versatile, not restricted.
3. Establish your key signature. The key signature will be based on the mood the composer
wants his composition to sound like. For example, if the composer wanted to write a sad or
frightening piece, the time signature would have to be in the minor. For the piano, establishing
a correct key signature for the type of piece you want to compose is crucial! Although
musically it doesn't matter where you start, since music is relative, physically, if you choose a
key signature that is difficult to play, the more harder it would be for the composer to get a

pianist to play your piece. A perfect example is Chopin's Fantasy Impromptu. Chopin did not
write this piece in C# minor for his health. He planned it for performance! Try playing this
piece in A minor. It is almost impossible. And A minor is a pretty easy key signature for
beginners, because it basically uses all the white notes. But the way Chopin wrote Fantasy
Impromptu, A minor would be a poor choice of key signature, and probably wouldn't have been
as popular of a piece if he hadn't wisely chosen C# minor. Of course, any key signature can be
easy to play. This all depends on the way the composer composes his composition. If a
composer does not improvise and writes by hand, the less probability the composition will be
easy to play. Key signature is also important for development of a piece. If a music
composition stays in the same key signature for the whole piece, don't be offended if you lose
your listener's attention! For example, lets talk about C major, A minor's counterpart. C major
uses all the white keys. An amateur composer probably would start out in C major. There is
absolutely nothing wrong with this key, as music is relative. However, an amateur composer
may just use ALL of the white keys to compose his piece. The composition may sound nice
with good ideas, but the composer probably wouldn't even realize how boring the composition
would sound. The first minute was enough, but the rest of the 9 minutes becomes a bore due to
lack of change. This leads me into my next idea...
4. Be creative with your key signature. Don't just stick with the main key signature if you
want to create interesting music. Be creative! Even if you want a dark and gloomy song, did
you know that if you manipulate the Major key, you can create something even freakier?
Knowing how to merge Major into Minor, or Minor into Major is an extraordinary skill. Of
course if this is not done correctly, this can lead to redundancies and music that sounds out of
place. Also, learning how to change from the minor to the relative major (or vice versa) is
pretty important as well. Let's say that the composer desires to have a secondary romance
theme within his gloomy composition. If you do not know how to do a relative major, the
transition will not be smooth. It doesn't necessarily have to be the relative major, but a smooth
transition is all that is needed. You know you constructed correctly a relative major or minor,
when you realize that you do not have to change your key signature. An example is F minor
and A flat major. They both use the same 4 flatted key signature. Check it out. You can also
go into ANY key signature if you want. You shouldn't feel restricted to just 2 key signatures. If
your composition starts in C major, and ends up in E major, there is nothing wrong with that.
The problem comes when you do not know how you ended up there. This is a problem because
if you do not know how to get back to the main key signature, your piece loses compositional
organization. Think of it as a story or article. If my article about how to compose music and
ends up praising one of Chopin's compositions, (I did, with the Fantasy Impromptu), and
doesn't know how to get back to talking about how to compose music, this would be a horrible
article. If I was a horrible writer, I would then talk about Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, then I
may discuss why Beethoven was influence by Mozart, and this article would be a total mess.
The point is, going back into the root key signature is pretty important, which is analogous to a
story or article going back to the main idea. This is not to say, that a composer is not allowed to
go off into a tangent. This is of course necessary for interesting composition, however, get
back into the root signature!
The above topics talk about theory, now I will leave theory, and talk about how to formulate
and expand ideas.
1. Think of a main theme, secondary theme, tertiary theme, etc. Your main theme can be in the
left hand, or the right hand. One way to do this is by experimenting on the piano or,
improvising. This is what I do in order to compose. I improvise until I get an idea, then, I
write that idea down.
2. Think of a tempo. Do you want this to be fast, slow, medium paced? If writing a scherzo,

you want a fast paced tempo probably in 3/4 or 6/8 time.

3. Figure out how you are going to harmonize your composition. This means, how will you
synchronize your composition with your left hand? Will you use chords, octaves, one low note
and too high chords, one low note and three high chords, two low octaves and a high chord,
etc. You can be as creative as you want. In one of Chopin's preludes in 4/4 time, he used the
same pattern for the left hand, which is as follows: 2 low ascending or descending eight notes,
followed by a high quarter note chord. Another example is Chopin's Fantasy Impromptu. For
his left hand, he has a strict pattern of 6 rolling arpeggiated eight notes. He did not use a single
chord in that composition. You don't have to be strict with the left harmonizing hand though.
The composer can do anything he wants!
4. Pedaling, and knowing when to un-pedal is critical for a piano composition. I can't really
give much advice on this, as this is completely up to the composer. But I can say this: Make
sure you don't over-pedal, as the piece will sound too echoed. Also, if you decide to pedal,
make sure you pedal one complete idea. This can be the whole measure, or half the measure, or
even a quarter of the measure. You can have four pedal marks in one measure if you like.
Sometimes an idea will expand 2 measures. If it sounds right, then pedal for the 2 measures.
In my opinion, a piano composition without any pedaling doesn't sound appealing. I think it is
the nature of the instrument. Fast playing without the pedal will just make everything sound
staccato, so make sure you learn this skill as well.
5. Practice! It took me 10 years of practice and I am still learning to this day. You can't
practice if you do not have the urge to compose, because it takes time. But if you are like me,
and just NEED to compose, you can do it. These are just a few of my tips from my own
experience of my 10 years worth of composing and experimenting, but these tips are useless if
the composer does not practice. Good luck, and please make sure to visit the forum.