"How do you write music"

[CRASHiC]

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Today I was playing music with my neighboors, Michal about 20 years older than me and Jim about 40 years older than me. At one point, me and Michale were listening to some abstract music while my uncle and Jim were in there talking about and playing rockabilly, and he said to me, "Jim in there once asked me 'How do you write music' and I told him 'You just do, there are no rules.' 'No rules?' He asked"

I've always regarded music as such a highly personal thing, and never thought anyone would ever even consider such a thing, not knowing how to express themselves in music and seeking out some formulated response to music. Its one thing when someone feels that formula, but another to search for this.

That, and ontop of the fact that the Michale was attempting to capture onto the success of the abstract rock music of the late 60s early 70s, and seeing him attempt to capture a spirit long gone from the world, that didn't help either.

 

[Sraigux]

I just play around with notes until I feel something coming on. Than music are wrote.

Also this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6wYYgKlDsA
Just wrote it this week

 

[Frown]

I just play around with notes until I feel something coming on. Than music are wrote.

Also this: http://www.muziboo.com/Frown/music/dramatic-crap-a-song-by-frown
Just wrote it this week

 

[john!]

I just play around with notes until I feel something coming on. Than music are wrote.

Also this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czpwrg8zNls
I didn't write it

 

[Melomaniacal]

I took music theory for a few years, and they had me use a program called Finale. There is a free version that gets the job done.

Basically, I use that, build a chord progression, then build a melody around the chord progression. There are certain intervals and chord changes that I like, and will incorporate them into some songs. Other times I just go off the dome and start doing anything that fits the key signature, than I'll fix it up afterward.

 

[Sucumbio]

I just play around with notes until I feel something coming on. Than music are wrote.

Also this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6wYYgKlDsA
Just wrote it this week

Not bad for your first song. The synth patch is a bit dated, but you have a good build up workin' ... it's ready to take off, just as your clip ends, lol write more and get some snares goin' and some hats, and a bassline. yeah.

I just play around with notes until I feel something coming on. Than music are wrote.

Also this: http://www.muziboo.com/Frown/music/dramatic-crap-a-song-by-frown
Just wrote it this week

Very lovely melody! Strange title... almost... self defeating. It's definitely NOT crap if you think it is... and don't let anyone give you any **** on the videogame likeness I used to have to put up w/that for years "Oh dude you should work for Sega" meh. What are you using? It sounds like a tracker, S3M (very old school) or something more modern like Fruity Loops...

I just play around with notes until I feel something coming on. Than music are wrote.

Also this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czpwrg8zNls
I didn't write it

Wait, that's YOU playing guitar? ... ... and who is paul gilbert? Not a guitarist so I don't follow much in the way of guitar heroes.

OP: REALLY depends on -what- I'm writing. A lot of times I'm fulfilling a need of some sort, be it a request, or a command (from within) so to speak. If its to be classical, I'll start with the melody, always. If it's to be electonica, I start w/the drum line, or bass line, or both. One usually builds the other for me. For any real synth or piano work, I employ a Karaoke style... I lay down a line, then play it back while recording to add to it, then again, and again... maybe changing patches maybe not.

Though I know CRASHiC's already heard lots of these, I'll post links to my players anyway These songs I wrote between 1997 and 2007, and the last is a link to one recently written with CRASHiC :D

http://sucumbio.com/pages/player.html

http://sucumbio.com/crashicdemo/player.html

http://sucumbio.com/crashic/1.mp3

 

[Frown]

Very lovely melody! Strange title... almost... self defeating. http://sucumbio.com/crashic/1.mp3

When I make music, I usually don't know what it'll sound like when it's done. That's why I give my songs names like "Sad song", "Fast paced song", "Sad song #2" or, like in this case, "Dramatic crap". I haven't changed the title yet since it's not entirely done. I plan on making it slightly longer.

 

[Jim Morrison]

M-u-s-i-c.

You can already write it, why ask :S?

 

[CRASHiC]

Whops, I guess my OP wasn't concreate enough xD
What I meant was the idea that someone who didn't instinvtivly know how to write music made me depressed. It made me realize that I had taken that for granted in myself, but great replies guys xD

 

[Teran]

I write music (no lyrics plox) by just going with the flow.

Just let whatever strong emotions I have flow out onto the sheet.

 

[Sucumbio]

When I make music, I usually don't know what it'll sound like when it's done. That's why I give my songs names like "Sad song", "Fast paced song", "Sad song #2" or, like in this case, "Dramatic crap". I haven't changed the title yet since it's not entirely done. I plan on making it slightly longer.

LOL I gotcha, that's clever. I hope you'll let us hear it when it's done, I really liked it...

Whops, I guess my OP wasn't concreate enough xD
What I meant was the idea that someone who didn't instinvtivly know how to write music made me depressed. It made me realize that I had taken that for granted in myself, but great replies guys xD

ahhhh, ok that makes more sense now. my last piano teacher basically suffered from this. he was running late once and when he finally got there I'd been jammin' away to myself for about 15 minutes. he stayed there quietly, listening. Finally when I stopped, and noticed him, he came over "how do you do that? like, do you hear the song in your head and just play it, or what?" I had no real response... it was... and still is, just... there. it goes from brain to finger tips to sound-board almost instantly, so there's no real process involved other than that, and I have no control over what melodies come out, they just do. he got so mad, lol frustrated... he'd been unable to write anything original ever, and lamented this fact. granted he was strictly classical pianist, but even still, he wanted more, he wanted a formula by which he could study and assimilate. he asked me to play again, "do it again..." so I did. after a while he slumped... then scoffed, "well, I see you're just doing the same thing over and over w/the left hand"

"oh you mean my bass lines? Well i do them that way so that I can have a rhythmic pattern going, that way I don't need a drummer, or bassist. kinda like vince guaraldi, though he was able to do so w/o conflicting w/his bassist and drummer."

"oh. yeah now that you mention it, it does sound a lot like his work..."

haha, ah well. he never did quite get the knack. but writing music is ... there is no formula, really. the real part of music at its heart is literally as much from the soul as the soul itself. it's the soul as represented by sound.

 

[john!]

Wait, that's YOU playing guitar?

No lol, if that was me I'd be out there making tons of money and getting tons of poon.

Ok well for a serious reply: the best music is the one you feel the most. I have tried composing (Finale NotePad/FL Studio) and I usually can't think of anything when I try, then I'll randomly hum a great melody a few hours later. It's spontaneous and creative.

 

[Jim Morrison]

What I meant was the idea that someone who didn't instinvtivly know how to write music made me depressed. It made me realize that I had taken that for granted in myself, but great replies guys xD

Uhmm, I don't see how it makes you depressed. Sure everyone can make music instictively, but writing music is not something you just "do", you learn it. You can't just put notes on paper if you don't know what to do with it. Also, hearing the music in your head, putting it on paper and then actually playing it is a lot different.

 

[Sucumbio]

^^^

THERE's the sig.

*resurrects ub*

 

[CRASHiC]

Uhmm, I don't see how it makes you depressed. Sure everyone can make music instictively, but writing music is not something you just "do", you learn it. You can't just put notes on paper if you don't know what to do with it. Also, hearing the music in your head, putting it on paper and then actually playing it is a lot different.

The music came before the paper and the systems to write it man. You don't learn anything. Any sort of systems or rules or laws that you think exist, they don't.

 

[Jim Morrison]

That's making/imagining music. Writing music means other people would be able to play it as well.
That either works by paper or by learning it one tune at a time.

 

[Sucumbio]

semantics are a *****.

you get what he's saying, though, right? Music at its core is fundamentally intrinsic. Yes "writing" involves ... writing. >< Composing, is what he's referring to. And that has no real system involved at the base level. It's not until it goes forth to the next stage that it becomes systemic, with organization (melody, harmony, rhythm, etc.) then to yet another stage (recording, sequencing, ledger, etc.) though technically those 2 stages can be inverted.

There have been a few composers who write completely based in music theory and nothing else. My director in high school for instance, who was a fairly good and published percussionist and orchestral director, wrote a piece for piano using his computer. He is not a pianist, but he didn't have to be, because Finale let him do all the hard stuff. He would just point and click the notes into place, using the 'rules' of classical composition as defined in Music Theory.

It sounded terrible to me, lol. But I don't care for most post-modern 20th century classical - think Bela Bartok ... ugh, it sounds so off the whole time, lol all that dissonance really grates on my ears. But.. technically, my director's work was "perfect" in terms of composition, and its adherence to the rules of theory. So, yay for that. But to me, a song isn't worth **** unless it sounds good to those who listen to it. I honestly haven't met anyone who listens to that strange sounding stuff and goes WOW THAT SOUNDS GREAT! Usually they're wincing the whole time, cause it... doesn't sound great, lol. Well at least not to anyone I've encountered.

 

[El Nino]

Sure everyone can make music instictively

I can't. Can't improvise either.

Sometimes I wonder what music sounds like to people who are close to it. It must sound different than it does to me.

 

[Sucumbio]

I can't. Can't improvise either.

Sometimes I wonder what music sounds like to people who are close to it. It must sound different than it does to me.

TBH it doesn't sound like anything. It's just already there. It's literally as fast as speaking. Or typing as it were which is speaking with your fingertips, lol.

now I WILL admit to having so-called Perfect Pitch. And many artists will have this, or Relative Pitch (learned perfect pitch). But all that really does is allow you to match tones. You can basically call out a note just by hearing it. I used to call out the notes to fire alarms, sirens, even that really high-pitched sound you get when you turn on old monitors, or cameras, lol.

But music itself doesn't sound any different to me than to anyone else, because by the time I or you or they are hearing it, it's already created.

As for hearing music IN my head, well sure, sometimes I'll dream about melodies or performing some mad crazy piece, then wake up and try desperately to write it. Never can though, it's always so fleeting. If I day-dream a composition I can reproduce it on a medium, but it's still the same thing happening. The actual notes of the work are coming to me as fast and as inexplicably as words come to thought.

This is not an automatic ability. It's as much a special trait as those who have photographic or eidetic memories, untold strategic minds (chess champions for example), spatial reasoning gurus, all that kinda stuff. It's just some switch that's "on" in the brain of some and not in others. You can try to learn around it, and many do, such as my best friend from childhood, loved music, loved writing it, but... was a rhythm guitarist, couldn't solo to save his life, cause he couldn't improvise, always had to be chord structures that he'd planned out or learned the progressions of from previous artists. He'd experiment w/chord progressions eventually, but lacking fundamental training in music theory, these too would sound... off. His lyrics were ok, we made a good duo w/me on keys... but yeah. it's definitely not automatic.