Looking for Guidance

[Wyatt Till]

Hi,

I'm a self-taught guitarist from 15 (now 22) and I have done some amount of composing over the years but in the last year or two have been unable to write or complete anything I start. I believe the original ideas I form are of substance, but I can never seem to get that next riff/section out.

 

I am looking for guidance, I'd also love to learn how to really analyse compositions and I'm guessing for that I have to be able to hear what scales are being used in a piece? Where would I learn to develop that ability?

 

I am really enjoying this forum from what I have been reading and hope to post some work when I am able to finish it.

 

Thanks,

Wyatt.

[Tyler Hughes]

Well where would you like to start?

[Fredrick zinos]

I don't beleive you are experiencing a problem related to music, rather what I think you are descirbing is an all too frequent and common a problem in basic decision making. You need to decide, when you are creating your "ideas of substance," what your composition will and will not be. You need to be ruthless in elminating those ideas and dead-ends that don't contribute to a very narrowly defined concept of the end piece. if you fail to do this, the "music" will control you and not the other way around, in which case you are not the composer but your emotional impulses are. A situation you can avoid. 

[Nigel W]

Fredrick's comment is accurate, I think. This is something which everyone will experience, sometime or other. You can get through it by a) taking the pressure off yourself- it's only music, noone's life is one the line! and b) sticking to something even when discouraged. You may think it's total crap for a long time but at some point you will immerse yourself in what you're doing, find something cool in it, and that's the feeling you lock on to.....from then on you will find progress is automatic. 

 

Learning music is an endless study, and also endless fun. There are so many ways. Scales are part of it but on the way to that the basic harmonic relationships are the main thing. Try playing along to songs on CD or the radio, you'll soon get a feel for it. There are also many great resources for getting to grips with harmony, much of it free on the web. I recommend Jim Aiken's book however, as one which is very musician-friendly:

 

http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/0117656/details.html

 

Also, self-taught is ok, but do look for mentors here & there.....maybe a more experienced guitarist for instance - not neccessarily for loads of lessons, but just to check your direction. When I started playing drum kit at 13, I had no idea what the hihat was for, and I held my sticks like chopsticks!! ...incredible really, but if you don't ask you'll never know.

 

It's also good to give something back as you go along...even if it's just listening to a neighbour's kid play the piano. When you start to talk to other people about music, it helps you to define your own ideas and also appreciate your abilities and areas which need attention.

 

So have fun & good luck!!

 

Nigel

 

[Nigel W]

and, how about that! -you could start here with the Forums very own Pete Whitfields clear introduction to basic chord relationships:

 

http://elearningformusic.wikispaces.com/

 

cheers

 

Nigel

[Andrew Gleibman]

I recommend to start with understanding of basic music forms up to the sonata allegro form. Independently of the way you study this, try to compare the structure of music masterpieces, which you like, with the structure of literature or cinema masterpieces, which you like. There is much in common in the psychology of a listener/reader/spectator.

Also, sight-reading music is very important; it is as important as reading books for a cultured man. The best way to do this is listening to music and tracing the corresponding score. Start with simple piano pieces, gradually removing the audio so that you recall it mentally.

 

[Wyatt Till]

@Nigel W

 

That was really helpful thank you.

 

I've done a small amount of study at uni (took a class here and there) but he explained everything in an easy to understand manner.

 

@Andrew Gleibman

I will be sure to read up on music forms in some spare time! As for sight reading, I can do it with tab does that count? I can read script to play piano, but manly know tab for guitar. I mainly compose on guitar and guitar pro 5 which I use both tab and script to read now but a 7-string guitar is somewhat difficult to right for in script (for me anyway).

 

Thanks,

 

[Andrew Gleibman]

I am not familiar with tab notations, but I think you cannot avoid classical music notation and general piano lessons if you think seriously of a career as a composer. You NEED to play and/or read music scores of masters in various genres and for various instruments, not only for guitar. Classical notation is the main language of music culture, although today, with the advent of VSTi, even this notation has limits and is often replaced with MIDI (piano-roll) notation.

[Wyatt Till]

@Andrew Gleibma

Ah well I use Tab for every instrument and most of the classical stuff is in tab as well which I've had a good look at.

 

@Ray Kemp

Yes I have composed a number of songs, I could post my recent one which I did in a songwriter class at uni, I'm new to mixing though so it needed work.

[Wyatt Till]

This is the peace I worked on, as I said its not mixed well.

 

I basically wanted to mix 'metal' with that 'jazzy' big band and I should have done research into big band, but just going from what I've herd in movies... The main thing I wanted was to make it groovy. I was also originally going to record a distorted guitar into the mix (mostly for the chorus etc) but I had to hand it in the next day and decided just to do a quick improve guitar solo (horribly not mixed) towards the end. But I mainly enjoy writing drums as I used to play drums in a jam band and loved improvising.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/p794fpvn878wo7a/1_SONGWRITING.mp3

 

Thanks,

Wyatt.

[Andrew Gleibman]

Wyatt, can you please upload your mp3 into your profile here in Composers Forum? Your link seems to be not safe as to popups and ads.

[Chris Alpiar]

I have reams of sketch notation paper with ideas, motifs, orchestration snippets, etc. I make a point of writing SOMEthing every day, black dots on the page, regardless of if I have a current project or not. It's a simple discipline, just write something, anything. Of course if I'm inspired it can be good, and often enough it's crap. But just outputting something every day is crucial to my growth. Then some days I'll revisit some of the more recent scrawlings and often enough things click together in very nice ways, enough to build something greater from the scraps. And then every so often that larger bit starts to catch my heart and then it's using that same discipline to do something with it and move forward and bring it to some level of completion. At that point is where Frederick's points come to play. One of my best composition professors at Berklee told me that being an excellent composer was more about being able to make executive decisions quickly and to going with it than it was about 'divine inspiration'. You can spin your wheels for years on a piece and never complete it. And then what is the point? So developing your craft to the level where you can make those 'executive musical decisions' quickly that work well for what you are trying to create is the first essential step as a composer. If this means study if harmony or counterpoint or modal harmony or analyzation of masters or kind of rote assignments to keep the pencil to the score paper then so be it. Otherwise you will easily end up with a lifetime of unfinished meanderings or noodling that never creates the intent you desire

[Chris Alpiar]

One other note is understanding rationally when something is or s not good enough. Too many 'composers' today are easily self manipulated to feeling they have created 'excellence' because the sampled instrument sound they used sounds great, or even worse because the pre made loops they used sound great. This is important to recognize and not be sated with mediocrity of composition because you are in love with that violin sound or whatever. Which is why I always recommend starting with pencil and paper, NOT an instrument, NOT a DAW, NOT a notation program that plays back instantly unless you have used pencil and paper so much that you are truly cognizant of what you are writing as opposed to what the timbres are coming out like. Writing with pencil and paper makes your imagination Tell the story and not be sucked into the pit of musical mediocrity by accepting something as being 'good music' just because the timbres played sound good