1. Composing Music (Tutorial) - Choose a Reference

A videolog and guide on how to compose following 5 steps hour by hour. This is a live tutorial of how I compose an orchestral piece in a day. I hope it will teach and inspire you to write some music too!

1. Reference Music

Listen to a piece of music that you would like to replicate. Also, choose a piece that you believe you can understand. Then, write down the structure of that music on paper. Listen to it's motifs and chord patterns - most importantly, don't worry about the extras ;)

I choose 'Battlefield 1942' game theme soundtrack. Spend about 2 plays of the track to understand the score. After that, give yourself time to think and imagine how your piece will be like.

At this stage, you are training your listening skills and as a composer, that is a skill that is quite often overlooked. Listening is key!

//Go to www.ctplr.bandcamp.com to download the track 'Victory'
//The video was captured with the iPad2.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• music
• composition
• live
• tutorial
• guide
• steps
• reference

[treycwong]

@Bobinazee Hi, yeah i used to start with Windows and I used Cubase. It's my favourite, because of it's ease. Not cheap to buy it on the shelf, I would recommend getting an audio interface/midi controller that comes along with that software ;)

[Bobinazee]

Hey, great work on this. You're obviously very talented. I've always wanted to compose music on my computer.

I noticed that you're composing on a Mac. Any suggestions on good composing software for Windows?

[treycwong]

@drwuggles Yeah, you're right ;) Glad you like it.

[drwuggles]

thank you so much for taking the time to post these videos. holy crap its about time someone posted a tutorial on composing orchestral type music. THANK YOU!!!