How do you write music?

[Pincho Paxton]

I usually play my keyboard randomly, but with some idea of chords, and notes that will work together. Quite often my music also has to fit a theme.

 

 

A demo of my music...

 

Edited April 10, 2012 by Pincho Paxton

[suresh123]

I write poetry.I write it whenever I feel lonely .By writing my feelings I feel great.

[Biochemist]

Usually, I’ll just be singing and playing, often fumbling to remember some song, and begin to like the way its sounding (usually an acoustic guitar, sometimes a mandolin or an electric bass, very rarely a fiddle), and get an idea for some little story the music seems to suggest. Then, I’ll write a poem, following a regular metric foot with the usual variations for emphasis. Next, I mark it up with whatever chords inspired it, sometimes with little stretches of tablature for any phrase I don’t think I’ll remember.

Nice, CD. This is pretty close to what I do:

1. 
    
   
2. "Sense" an interesting chord sequence
   
3. Write the lyrics
   
4. Write the song
   
5. Arrange the song.
    
   

BUT (please comment!): This really only works on acoustic pianos. I have a nice keyboard with a nice synthesizer, but my piano is a 7'5" 1972 Grotrian Steinweg. I think of my piano as my "largest" child (and by far the heaviest).

 

I almost never (perhaps absolutely never) compose at an electronic keyboard. Acoustic noise is just so much more connective.

 

Anyone relate to this?

 

Bio

[Aethelwulf]

When I write music, I am very disorganized. I find that I tend to use a stream-of-consciousness approach (whatever falls into my head might get developed or it may fail). Sometimes I try to plan a structure, but more often than not my main theme develops automatically into standard ABABCA formats or similar structures.

 

I write by trying chords and lines on my guitar or keyboard, and then I use my sequencer (Ableton Live) to record stuff. I rarey write any notation these days, although sometimes I write down a chord progression.

 

One problem I have is that I own too many virtual instruments (aka VST plugins), and I have lost count of all my "creative sessions" that have been spent previewing presents rather then write anything at all. :hihi:

 

 

I write music like it was an ancient script, or perhaps, it was a piece of art.

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

When I write music, I am very disorganized. I find that I tend to use a stream-of-consciousness approach (whatever falls into my head might get developed or it may fail). Sometimes I try to plan a structure, but more often than not my main theme develops automatically into standard ABABCA formats or similar structures.

 

I write by trying chords and lines on my guitar or keyboard, and then I use my sequencer (Ableton Live) to record stuff. I rarey write any notation these days, although sometimes I write down a chord progression.

 

One problem I have is that I own too many virtual instruments (aka VST plugins), and I have lost count of all my "creative sessions" that have been spent previewing presents rather then write anything at all. :hihi:

I pick up whichever instrument calls to me sits down (or stand as required) with it and start playing...either I like what comes out and the recording is given space on my hard drive or I close the session without saving....sometimes bits that pleased me are saved while the rest is scrapped...sometimes I luck out and find corresponding bits among these session portions that "belong" together, sometimes I get really lucky and get enough to fulfill all of the requirements to call a song complete.

[Aethelwulf]

When I was younger, paying the piano a lot more frequent than I do now, I simply wrote it by hand.

[cal]

When I write music, I am very disorganized. I find that I tend to use a stream-of-consciousness approach (whatever falls into my head might get developed or it may fail). Sometimes I try to plan a structure, but more often than not my main theme develops automatically into standard ABABCA formats or similar structures.

ABABCA structures for any genre get really boring really quick for me, the way I structure my music (and it is pre-planned, I don't like improvising structure) is based on Ragtime/DnB for structure and then Psytrance for layering. Yes, that is a weird mix but when I took piano lessons I mostly learned ragtime which has traditional structure, but heavy emphasis on the C part; psytrance (arguably) has a structure of ABCBDA, where the Initial A introduces a new instrument (usually the bassline), B introduces a new main instrument, C introduces a new main instrument, and then D has all the main instruments playing together as they harmonize. I like the layering format, it's very psychologically engaging, but even doing that all that time gets repetitive so you should always try switching out main structures every song (I go back and forth between Ragtime and DnB for main structure, not layering).

 

 

One problem I have is that I own too many virtual instruments (aka VST plugins), and I have lost count of all my "creative sessions" that have been spent previewing presents rather then write anything at all. :hihi:

I don't know if you know who ill gates is, but he has a

so that you go through all your vst's and make libraries of only your favorite sounds that you know you want to use, and leave everything else behind. Get all that out of the way first, then take a day or two to sit down and marathon a single song from start to finish, if you don't finish in 48 hours, then give up because you'll just keep coming back to it and thinking (like all artists do) that it isn't good enough.

 

 

I have my own method of writing music, it makes sense to me and wouldn't make sense to you.

Yea everyone's a little different in how they get their brain to work, but almost unanimously I've found that everyone has an easier time creating stuff when it's late at night.

 

 

Sometimes I just lay down beats and play various synths to them and see what happens. I get a lot of ideas that way, too.

I've found that this doesn't work for me, because there are usually too many synths that will work for any given beat, and often times those synths won't really work well with the mood of the rest of the song. However, occasionally there is gold, so I suppose the gold makes up for the ****, bleh =P.

 

 

I usually start out with a simple beat or a drum loop and improvise on top of that until I find something that fits. There is also the rare occasion that I actually "intellectually" create a tune, meaning that I use theory as a dictionary and precedence as guidance.

You guys are lazy lol, it's better to have a clear vision in your head when you tackle a project (not just for music production but for anything in life, right?) and just winging it can help you be creative, but you have to immediately turn back around and make it into something that incorporates smoothly with your original vision, otherwise the plan gets warped and turned into something it wasn't supposed to be, usually making it sound double plus un-good. At least that's my experience.

[ToryRodgers]

Depends upon my experience.