[Talk] Tips for Music Composition.

[DoomDoom]

Alright, so I see a lot of people here in Creative Media who are beginners or just starting in music composition (Yes, this includes me.) So I wanted to start a thread to discuss various tips and tricks or articles that we could share so that we can grow as composers.

I will start by sharing an article (or just a large tweet) made my toby fox, the creator (and composer) of Undertale. Despite if you like the game or not, there is no denying that the soundtrack in the game is quite good, and really catchy, so here it is.
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sothcs

Have fun :)

 

[moon]

I'm not even sure of which program to start with if I wanted to learn anything. People seem to use something called FL studio, but I'm really the newbiest newbie I could be and don't even know where to get/how to use midis haha.

 

[Ninja-boyz]

So I think I might know a little bit about composing and music production. So to start you off, a few simple things that are very common in a lot of music are:
Melody
Harmony
Chord Progression
Baseline
Percussion

I think the most controversial one is probably the melody, so I'm going to stay off of that one since you can do a whole lot with it. Harmony is usually the same rhythm as the melody but they are different notes, usually to go along with the chords. The chord progression part of composing is usually how a phrase is made in music. There are lots of different chord progressions that you can make. If you listen to a lot of pop songs, they have a lot of the same chord progressions. In fact when you listen to pokemon music, something like the different battle themes all have really similar chord progressions. The baseline to a piece is also a bit controversial, but I usually match it up with the chords as well, something like arpeggios should be fine. Percussion, I'm not too familiar with, I actually don't use it, but I think it's pretty easy to make a simple beat. Sometimes simpler is better with percussion

 

[ResidentEcruteak]

I'm not even sure of which program to start with if I wanted to learn anything. People seem to use something called FL studio, but I'm really the newbiest newbie I could be and don't even know where to get/how to use midis haha.

To answer you and others in same situation:

Decent, easy to use and also free programs to start with are Musescore and LMMS (Linux Multimedia Studio). Musescore is notation program so with it you will be working with traditional notes and clefs - simply enter notes and play back. LMMS is DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and allows you to do more advanced things, but is still relatively easy to use although the interface may be bit intimidating at first - it's also very similar to FL Studio, so if you want to eventually move to it then LMMS is good place to start.

You also should find soundfont (.sf2 file) to make sounds. It is only way to make sounds in Musescore (as far as I know), but it has a soundfont included. LMMS has many different kind of build-in synthesizers and VST support (don't worry what's that for now), but it's easiest to start with soundfonts - you can play them with LMMS' Sf2 player. I would recommend SGM-V2 soundfont - it's free, easy to use and sounds very good (at least among the world of free stuff).

Here are some links:

-Musecore: https://musescore.org/
-LMMS: https://lmms.io/
-SGM-V2: http://en.osdn.jp/projects/sfnet_androidframe/downloads/soundfonts/SGM-V2.01.sf2/

Hope that helps, just try different things out and see what works for you. In the end the programs are not what matters, but the skill - some of which you can find from this free course on composition (you may want to learn some musical notation first though): https://www.artofcomposing.com/courses/free-beginners-composing-course

...also, if you're interested about FL Studio, here's a link to download the demo, but you may find it harder to use than the other programs mentioned here https://www.image-line.com/downloads/flstudiodownload.html

Lastly, I thought I would throw in some inspiration: https://www.pocketmonsters.net/content/Miyazaki_Interview_Anime_OST (I don't know about you but this kind of interviews help me a lot.)

That all I think...

 

[Lucario]

alot of what I would say is already here, so one tip from me:
Make music the way YOU want to, and in a way you enjoy. I started playing the piano and euphonium, then started using LMMS, and now I use trackers. Find the way of making music you enjoy most, and use that, no matter if others say it's better to do it differently.

 

[DoomDoom]

I'm not even sure of which program to start with if I wanted to learn anything. People seem to use something called FL studio, but I'm really the newbiest newbie I could be and don't even know where to get/how to use midis haha.

Well, FL studio is a bit expensive, so it's better for you to download the demo and search a tutorial on youtube and see how to use the program. FL studio is probably the best software for music production on windows, and that's why people recommend it. If you are still not comfortable, or just want more freedom that is not allowed in the demo, there are always good free programs you can start experimenting like LMMS, Musescore or just a free midi program. I started with a program from my phone called caustic, it's seven dollars and has a lot of options when it comes to instruments and mixing, although I am going to switch to FL studio. If you have a mac, Garageband is a perfect software for beginners, and Logic Pro is as good as FL studio. So really, there are quite a bit of options when it comes to software for beginners-