How do you start composing?

fuck around
source: making music

the answer to your question is the last two words of your question.

For some reason people don't understand that when it comes to making any sort of art, getting better is literally just

>I made this
>this could be improved
>improved it this time
>this could be improved
>improved it this time

until you die.

>>52084086
/thread

>>52084177
/thread

>>52084071
reverse a song
now make a rip off song of whate your hear

most song writers aren't technical or theoretical geniuses. they just fuck around and experiment until something sticks.

>>52084175
But I want to know what comes first, the drum tracks, the lead guitar? I have no fucking clue.

>>52084302
I have no experience from making music myself. But I'd guess they come parallel to each other. For example you write a piece for the guitar and then you do some drumming that fits it, or vice versa if you prefer.

There probably isn't a schedule to follow, just mess around.

>>52084302

The answer is there is no answer. No set formula.

Just make. Simply feel, then do.

>>52084302
There's no set process find what works for you

If you have absolutely nothing written you could start with a drum beat throw some bass over it then build the rest of the song from there I guess

>>52084302
depends on what you want to do
like, what instruments do you use?
really you shouldn't force anything
just write down some parts you like, like chord progressions, just stuff to do, later you can try to compile it. If you want to just write stuff that's whatever you could just start with drums and then whatever, but there's really no rule.

>>52084071
just start buying gear and eventually you'll be ready

Are you making beats or are you making vaporwave?
That's what everyone on mu makes for some reason.

I suggest trying out some chord progressions.
Then try out singing out a melody straight from ur <3

>>52084294
Yeah it isn't hard.

Knowing things like scales can make the process easier, but really what helps most people is just listening to music that inspires them and then try to do something similar but with their own creativity and other sounds.

>>52084302
any of them, really. Different artists have different processes, for some music some methods are easier than others (house and techno generally are easier to make if you start with the drums).

Just play with what sounds inspire you most, then try to accompany those sounds with other sounds you like.

>>52084302
try starting a track with writing a melody and then the other day try starting it with the drums, you really got to find the way that suits you best

>>52084441
>are you making vaporwave?
>That's what everyone on mu makes for some reason.
That's because it sounds cool but it's easy as fuck to make and requires no real skill to compose. It's just finding obscure 80's music, looping bars of it, pitch shifting it and adding effects (the musical equivalent to taking a pretty photo and adding a ton of raster effects in photoshop).

Back in my day, we called it a shitty attempt at sampling a song for a Chillwave track.

Not to say that I don't like Chuck Person's Eccojam or even some other Vaporwave like Miami Vice, but most of the shit people make here is just soulless wank.

>>52084394
I have a keyboard connected to my computer, an electric guitar and a bass.

>>52084441
Nothing beat-y, I'd like to make something like dreampop.

>>52084598
Back in my day, we called it a shitty attempt at sampling a song for a Witch-House track.

>>52084175
Pretty much. Art and computing are quite related.

Bump for personal explanations of in-depth methods for individual composers.

How do YOU compose?

>>52084843
When I make electronic music I start with drums everytime and then just go in whatever direction it takes me from there

With guitar it's a little different since writing guitar songs takes some times. So I usually build up a riff build some changes around those riffs and then build the song around that

>>52084843
>How do YOU compose?

taking this as an example

https://soundcloud.com/noisecastleiii/hazeltine?in=noisecastleiii/sets/outsider-folk

>get obsessed with polymeters
>graph out a 7 over 4 rhythm and learned how to tap it with both hands
>[wait five years]
>[hear elliot smith, read ezra pound's cantos]
>get the idea to make fingerpicking patterns around my favorite polymeters
>create 20 or 30 patterns around the 7 over 4 meter
>sequence them out in ableton
>learn the sequence, double track it
>write a melody in my head while listening to the track 2 hundred times
>write the words to the melody over long walks to work
>record vocals, double
>program some patches on my modular
>mix

that song took a month, lol

>>52085066

same asshole here

taking this as an example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Fc26WZm5c

>still obsessed with polymeters
>make loops in reason to play saxophone to
>meet deantoni parks, virtuoso drummer
>we get epicly stoned
>he listens to my loops
>asks me to turn the bpm on this up to 180
>improvises this drum part on first take
>I sit with my jaw on the ground for 8 months
>try to figure out how to do something
>never made electronic music before
>I make this by hand shifting and sequencing sine waves in protools
>record me playing saxophone over it
>some crappy mixing

bam

>>52084843

Contrary to what most others in the thread preach, I always work my melody around my lyrics. I'll spend months writing them, then have a rough enough idea of how it should sound to write the rest.

>>52085295
This is epic man wow. How'd you get so much detail in must have taken you months to do a song that technical

>>52085517
>How'd you get so much detail in must have taken you months to do a song that technical

The actual composition came in probably three sleepless days, but I had to figure out what to do first, and that took 8 months.

>>52085517
>This is epic man wow.
thanks dude

>>52084276
This x 1000

>>52085295
This isn't art though, it's good on a technical level but it's just clever for the sake of being clever

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>>52084071
What do you want to say?
Listening to music is a deductive interpretative process, whist creating it is an inductive intuitive process.
It's not like laying train tracks down one after another, you're supposed to use your synesthesia, map the various sounds to various other stimuli that you are fond of, and combine these things in a way that conveys who you are, soul and all.

>>52084177
>>52084200
/dubs

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>>52086511

>>52086511
:o

Learn an instrument, noodle around on it until you hear something interesting, repeat it over and over

>>52084418
Don't buy Chandler gear like Tame Impala here.

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>>52086438
>This isn't art though, it's good on a technical level but it's just clever for the sake of being clever

There was a point where this would have hurt my feelings.

The reality of the situation was that all I was listening to at the time was free jazz, african music, mid 20th century classical music, and maybe a little squarepusher and raga.

I just wanted to make something that nobody had ever heard before and that I thought was beautiful.

>>52087942
>I just wanted to make something that nobody had ever heard before and that I thought was beautiful.

And I wanted to communicate ideas- I wanted the album to feel like playing a video game- not to sound like video game music, but like playing some ideal video game.

I wanted to communicate the meaning of polymeter, how it allows you to hear the same rhythm in two different ways.

And I wanted it to be like dmt hallucinations.

When I hear this again- it's been like ten years since I made it- I hear the heart in it. Not many people do, but I do.

A guy I was working for played this for Hans Zimmer, believe it or not, and Hans apparently said "he's gonna have a real hard time breaking through, but if he ever does he'll do great."

So thanks for telling me it's not art, that's a new notch on my belt I guess.

>>52084071
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqz876VkwwY

>>52085295
i like this. i disagree with the wankery comments, this is a cool piece. don't be upset it's 2deep4everyone. hans zimmer was right.

>>52088286

Anon you are great and what you make it important. You clearly know what you're doing and someone out there will like it. Look at how many people have seen it on Youtube and though it was sweet. You've done good.

>>52085295
>https://soundcloud.com/noisecastleiii/hazeltine?in=noisecastleiii/sets/outsider-folk


This is really really good. Seriously.

>>52088408
>>52088548

thanks guys! here's the free EP

https://archive.org/details/EAR016

there's a 9 song version available at cdbaby too

>>52088813

and thank you

here's the whole set of those, they're all pretty similar

https://soundcloud.com/noisecastleiii/sets/outsider-folk

>>52085318
>Contrary to what most others in the thread preach, I always work my melody around my lyrics. I'll spend months writing them, then have a rough enough idea of how it should sound to write the rest.

Good fucking advice.

You get better at writing lyrics by doing this, too.

I grab my guitar, sit at my computer, open up a word document and just try to make something happen.

I know a lot of people might advise against that, and would prefer to be more technically inclined and thorough but it's pretty much the only way I can write music. If I can't put together the basis of a song in one sitting then I generally can't come back to it and make it work. That's probably a bad habit, but it's just hard to come back to whatever idea I had already put in my head.

>>52084843
I usually do what this anon does. >>52085318

Take a few lines that sound really natural, then work a basic melody for those lyrics. Then write some more lyrics of that melody. Then add some other parts with a new melody that comes naturally. It's a style that John Lennon and Mac DeMarco clearly use this style in their music.

If I get bored I'll pretend to sing a pop song in my own made up version of japanese. A melody comes naturally from there and I fit the lyrics.

>>52085066
Your stuff is really good.

>>52090003
Panda kinda does this too. Most of his songs he just kinda spits out, and then alters them from there.

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>>52085295
dude this is fucking rad


I myself like to try different approaches with each song.
on my group`s demo
>https://mockfountain.bandcamp.com/
All of the songs are frankenstein`d with riffs I`ve came up with by noodling around,recorded jam sessions,personal flavor/interpretation,ever-developing and cool ideas the other members bring in. It really feels like a project of sorts,aimed at pleasing ourselves and having fuun.

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>>52084843
I make noise music:
I find new sound inputs
>drum heads
>coat hangers
>vocal chords
>feedback (oh god that glorious god given audio phenomenon)
>glass bottles
>field recordings

Then I try to run those inputs through an effects pedal and putz around until I find cool tones or make new rhythms. I then record as I jam in my shed, often dancing/prurient esque thrash about to ward off the cold.

After jamming image song naturally comes to a close. I take the recording I put it in audacity and preform minimalistic editing. (Cut off the beginning and end parts of the file that consist of me messing w my phone to initiate/end the recording) then I am done.

>>52084302
>what comes first
fucking whatever happens to come first nigga. roll dice if you can't decide

>>52084827
yeah in both if you're smart you can get the optimal answer in as little effort as you're smart enough to spend no more than