I'm 16, and right this minute I've decided that I want to start composing.

I was..16 I think. Still am. :lol:

I was 16, and still am. :)

(I started last January, about.)

Started when I was 12. :rolleyes:

16. -When I was a junior in High School.

lol, dunno, maybe around 14...15.... that's like a year or two back...

Wow Zebra, to just decide like that is amazing! =) Can you tell us how it happened?

As for me . . I was around 6 - 7 years old. I wrote three songs: "First Sight", "Second Sight", and "Third Sight" . . . they were the worst songs ever x.x

Hmm, I think I'm going to keep a timeline/record of all my songs . . . *digs up archive and travels down memory lane*

Show spoiler (javascript:void(0);)<span style="display: none;" id="QUOTE">

age 6 - 7: "First Sight", "Second Sight", "Third Sight" (the worst songs ever x.x)
age 8 - 12: countless abandoned projects
age 13 - 15: "Destiny", "Three Etudes"
->1) "Destiny" was written in grade 8 for a music project (form a fake rock band), but for some reason I decided I should write a rock song (which ended up more classical than rock&#33;) for my group (I still have the music video v.v)
->2) "Three Etudes" were written to mock aleatoric/serial music (i) the first consisted only of the note C, played in different pitch ranges (ii) in the next, each letter of the alphabet was coded into a specific pitch, and thus I converted a passage by Michael Crichton into music (iii) in the last one, the notes were the most randomized out of the three movements (no accidentals were used)

All those scores were deliberately destroyed by me many years later ^^ although some of it still remains in my memory >.> . . but after that was the start of my mature phase, when I began to compose seriously.

~~

age 16: "1st Movement of the yet-to-be-completed Sonata in C minor" (Jan. 22, 1999 - Feb. 10, 1999)
->in my French Geography class, I was opposed to our Africa project (I got the province of Niger), so I wrote a song with which to bore the class while I presented
->song revised and name changed to "Romance in C minor for 2 violins, 1 viola, and 1 violoncello, K.1" (March 2000)
->another revision, and name changed again to "2nd Movement of Alphonse Nguyen&#39;s String Quartet in E flat Major, K.1" (no date) . . urgh, the title sounds so stupid&#33;

age 17: "3rd Movement of Alphonse Nguyen&#39;s String Quartet in E flat Major, K.1" (Jun. 30, 2000 - Aug. 25, 2000)
->the first song of mine that I actually like, somewhat
->updated to "String Quartet in E-flat Major [K.1], 3rd Movement" (March 2001 - August 2001)

age 18: "Piano Sonata in C major" (May 1 - Aug. 24, 2002)
->revised Nov. 23, 2002 (K.1 added to the title because the string quartet was incomplete)
->this song was written because my friend had made a bet with me, haha (but I forget what her part of the deal was)

age 19: "Chan Troi Moi, K.2" (January 2003, performed Feb. 22, 2003)
->written for a Vietnamese culture show as background music for our skit
->was originally meant for lyrics to be added by friends, but they later changed their mind

age 19: "No Name Yet, K.3" (conceived Oct. 29, 2002, written May 2003 and finished on the 15th)
->dynamics and articulation added Oct. 9, 2003

age 19: "Violin Waltz, K.4" (May 15, 2003 - May 22, 2003)
->final version June 4, 2003

age 19: "Distant Summer Memories, K.5" (conceived Aug. 7, 2003, resumed/completed Aug. 21, 2003)
->song has no ending, and repeats as often as the performer wishes

age 20: "Dissonance", "Theme and 3 Variations"
->"Dissonance" completed March 2, 2004 (lyrics by me)
->"Theme and 3 Variations" completed March 5, 2004
->both were school projects, performed on Mar. 11, 2004 for a class recital

age 20: "Listening to the Rain" (April 2004)
->lyrics are from ancient text of poetry by Trai Nguyen (translated to English)

age 20: "Memory of Hope" (Aug. 16, 2004 - Sept. 2, 2004)
->written after a much needed composing break

age 20: "Alone" (Oct. 27, 2004 - Oct. 29, 2004)
->French translation of my lyrics made by Vincent Gagnon a few days later

~~

Guys, keep all your rough copies&#33; Write down everything, or else you&#39;ll regret it later on. =)

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Originally posted by Al@Nov 3 2004, 03:23 AM
Wow Zebra, to just decide like that is amazing&#33; =) Can you tell us how it happened?
....Are you being sarcastic?

Well if you really wanna know, I&#39;ve been listening to a lot of music on this site and in this forum. Really captivated me, and made me think. Thats basically what I want to do with others, sit them down for a minute or two and share a tune with them.

Nope, not being sarcastic . . it&#39;s not everyday you meet somebody who just decided that he&#39;ll start composing. You usually only meet people who have already finished a song or two.

Anyways, thanks for your reply. ^^

I started 17 when I was a junior in High school. I compose my first piece (The Last memory) for a humanity creative project; (interesting, how come so many people start composing at their 16~17?,) but now I am 19 in university, only slight improvement over these 2 years.

by the way, I also wrote about music in my college essay - how I earn my first paychecks to get a piano myself, how I suddenly found a way to express myself differently, how my father mistakenly thought I was playingback a CD outloud in my room...etc.
since many of you are still junior/senior in high school applying to college, it might be a good idea to incoperate your personal excitements about music in your college statements.

I wrote the first one when I was 9 years old.. :mellow: Some classical-sounding type piece.. then I suppose the next main, complete piece after that was "A Piece with no Name", written erm.. when I was.. 13..? :heh: Really can&#39;t remember..

When I started GCSE Music, which was when I was 17 - I found I enjoyed it, and have about half a dozen unfinished songs sitting on my computer as a result ;)

WOW............... I never really thought that ppl got into composing that late in life... (hm... now that i think about it, mebbe I&#39;m wrong). Well, I started when I was 10-11 ish. (I&#39;m 13 now) I WAS SOOOOOOO HAPPY&#33;&#33;&#33; I&#39;m like, OMG&#33;&#33;&#33; I&#39;m the modern Mozart, except not deaf&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33; (deliberate)
Yeah, anyhow... It was really exciting my first piece. I wish every1 could have that feeling. But as to your first piece, zebra, have you thought about it? Get a good music writing program if you don&#39;t know how to play the piano. (Start by just cheating off other ppls things [like altering it some {so they don&#39;t recognize it right away}]). It helps get new Ideas (i always capitalize that, but I never knew why).

I started when i was 25, i&#39;m currently 34, father of 2, and i have a loving, beautiful wife.

*cough* FRAUD&#33; *cough* :sherlock:

Originally posted by Gnomish@Nov 4 2004, 04:17 AM
*cough* FRAUD&#33; *cough* :sherlock:
You&#39;re cute kid, gnomish ^_^

:offtopic:

I "composed" a couple of things in my elementary school music classes, but they were probably pretty bad. (I didn&#39;t really pay much attention to Music back then. I preferred baseball and other "boy stuff"...) My interest in Classical Music started when I was in my early twenties, and I began reading through the scores of what I was listening to a few years later. This led to a desire to transcribe the scores of songs from several movie soundtracks, which I&#39;ve been doing (seriously) for about two years now. Maybe when I get the hang of transcription I&#39;ll try creating some original material...

I started composing after my first love broke up with me... Music seems to flow on the verge of maddness for me. I haven&#39;t stopped composing since. XD

I started composing when i was about 15

Im 16, and wrote my first song about 3 days ago&#33; :lol:

I started composing when I was 13, after learning music theory (which was quite boring ). -_-

Well, I made a few songs, but I don&#39;t feel like any of them is worthy of being posted here. :sweatdrop:

how do you compose? gather up a bunch of music then write your own? oy

I started composing when I was 7 or 8 on the recorder, then once i figured out that i can actually play the piano (11-12), I really started composing some great stuff. I recently got a really nice violin on my 15th birthday and decided to compose things for string quartets. hopefully i can play one someday, and I&#39;m really anxious to play Al&#39;s Violin Waltz; The song sounds so empty without the violin.

Now i spend all my time working on my music theory class and as a substitute accompanist for my choir. I really don&#39;t get to compose much anymore...

Hmm...i composed my first song when i was 8..
its was like a spunkier verion of twinkle twinkle little star....
and chopsticks...
I called it "Happiness"
lol
I was only 8...

I have been wanting to compose music, but nothing ever gets me in the "mood". :unsure: I&#39;ve wrote a couple of songs, though. It was not too long ago, and I&#39;m thirteen years old. Can anybody give tips on what they do to compose? ^_^

I learned this from a famous composer:
write music whenever possible whether you&#39;re in the mood or not, just get the music juice going in your head. doesn&#39;t matter if what you write doesn&#39;t make sense or stinks like socks, just write.

its been little more than a year and im 18 now.

Am 16 right now... Started composing...

Last week, because of some english assignment, but I&#39;ve been composing/learning how to compose/studying theory for hours every day since then, and since winter break is coming up next week I&#39;ll study a lot then... Trying hard to improve ^^;

I&#39;ve always been interested in composing since me childhood days, though I haven&#39;t really gotten serious about it until I was 12 or so.

I shall be turning 16 in a month. ^^

I accidentally wrote my first song based on a chord progression from my piano book when I was about 11. I didn&#39;t try to write music until I was 16. I&#39;m 17.

I composed my first pieces when I was 12~13, but I wasn&#39;t really serious back then. Well, I picked up composing last year again (I&#39;m 16 now) :P

I started composing when I was 15 but I&#39;d been taking piano when i was like 10 ...for some reason I hadn&#39;t figured out that you could actually make your OWN songs..I&#39;m about to turn 16 and I am still hapily composing B)

i actualy didnt start that long ago, about a few months and im 12 now....i dont make good comps. but i remix songs for piano or make diffrent endings ect. it is sorta comping. but not really&#33; my favorite remix sofar is for loss of me

i was like 11 when i started.

started when i was 10. A tune just came to me when i was having a shower in my head. I played it on the piano and hey i&#39;m a composer&#33; You might not believe it just came to me but it&#39;s true. Stupid professors at this audition i did for secondary school (high school i think in america) ( i was 11 at that time) didn&#39;t believe me so they asked me to make one up on the spot. Composing on the spot?&#33; Can do it now though which is the only thing I think I can do better than most other musicians (music isn&#39;t jazz so don&#39;t get confused with improvisation).

Can anyone else compose literally on the spot if given a theme? (somehow i think most people here can)...

Uh... I started composing 6 months ago and I am almost 13 years old...

wow sukarufu ur pretty good at composing for only composing for 6 months

I can compose given a theme, but it takes a lot more time to actually compose something with promise... like I could just BS stuff and make it sound good, but I could also make something a lot better by thinking of good chord progressions and interesting harmonies... I started when I was 10-11... really fun stuff, composing.

I started composing when i was 13 years old (it was like 2-3 months ago). :D
I´m 14 years old&#33; :P

Been doing it for almost 4 years now, though not consistently. Almost 20 now... *feel old*

I was 12. Once we were in the terrible opera "Hänsel und Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdinck with my class. I thought the music was boring, but was impressed by the variety of sounds that you can get with an orchestra. So I tried to write something, too. After fussing around a bit with my stupid notation program (ConcertWare, if anybody knows it), I wrote something for the Percussion Ensemble I played with. After we played it in a concert, the guy who managed the concert gave me information about the composition competition in Berlin. From then, I really got into composing and wrote a few pieces, with some success.

Hmmm.

It was a year and a half ago for me, sort of, when I was 15/16. Having taken a mandatory half-year Music History course in my school made me interested in composing, so I initially used Finale Notepad. But, Finale Notepad, being Finale Notepad, wasn&#39;t able to fully execute all of my grand ideas, so I had to limit myself and compose very little, if at all, until I got something better. Sibelius was it. And, that was about half a year ago. Then, I started fully composing.

That&#39;s my story. I&#39;m 17 now. :D

Originally posted by an&#045;kun@Apr 20 2005, 04:06 PM
started when i was 10. A tune just came to me when i was having a shower in my head. I played it on the piano and hey i&#39;m a composer&#33; You might not believe it just came to me but it&#39;s true. Stupid professors at this audition i did for secondary school (high school i think in america) ( i was 11 at that time) didn&#39;t believe me so they asked me to make one up on the spot. Composing on the spot?&#33; Can do it now though which is the only thing I think I can do better than most other musicians (music isn&#39;t jazz so don&#39;t get confused with improvisation).

Can anyone else compose literally on the spot if given a theme? (somehow i think most people here can)...
Yeah, I can compose on the spot. When themes just "come to me," it&#39;s always been in the shower. But my best themes come when I&#39;m just farting around on the piano, but my best orchestration and whatnot is from when I work it out on paper.

Originally posted by Alfonso de Sabio@May 14 2005, 06:37 PM
Yeah, I can compose on the spot. When themes just "come to me," it&#39;s always been in the shower. But my best themes come when I&#39;m just farting around on the piano, but my best orchestration and whatnot is from when I work it out on paper.
That&#39;s exactly the same as me&#33; Best bits when as you say farting around on the piano and orchestration is on paper. Freaky. :blink:

I started when i was 13 i think. My piece was incomplete but i played what i had for my friend. she said it sounded familiar. So i gave up on it. I must&#39;ve gotten it from a movie or something. I can&#39;t be original =/

Can anyone else compose literally on the spot if given a theme?

Depends on what you mean by "composing on the spot". If you mean making something completely from scratch on a whim, without having to sit yourself down for a routine or whatever, then, yeah. Sometimes, a theme will enter my head, and it&#39;ll bloom into an entire, complete piece before I&#39;ve even figured out what key it&#39;s in or before I&#39;ve even written down one tiny little note in it. The only bad part about that is, I usually experience these compositional enlightments when I can&#39;t access my program to make a note of it (because I&#39;m out and about) and I&#39;m no musical virtuoso, being able to identify every note I hear or whatever. So, that forces me to annoyingly loop the thing over and over in my head until it&#39;s imbedded into my brain. I sometimes lose pieces this way. -_-

Bah.

You know, the first melody I ever created was exactly by messing around on the piano (my piano, in particular; just after I got it). And, to this day, I think it&#39;s a pretty darn good melody. Now, if I can only get around to developing on it, one of these years. = &#092;

Orchestration is still something I&#39;m trying to become comfortable and confident with.