My Tools for Composing Music
- Manuscript Notebook
- Nothing beats good old pencil and paper. As you experiment with motives and chords, jot down the general outline of the melody and write chord names over top. I always leave room for the bass clef as well, but typically fill in the patterns later.
- MuseScore Studio
- Free software that has recently gotten a huge makeover. I am really enjoying the upgraded instruments and the regular updates. This program can be used with your computer keyboard or a MIDI keyboard.
- Recordings
- Regardless of how many books you read about how to compose or how many scores you study, you must be listening to lots of music. I actually bought a 65 set of classical music cds that I used to receive by mail order as a kid. I found it on eBay. It's called "In Classical Mood". I essentially learned orchestration simply by listening to this huge collection of classical composers. I can hear the tone quality of each instrument in my head and decide when I want to apply in my own music.
- Streaming services work too! But I am definitely in hard copy mode as of late.
Labels: composition, how to
