Just out of curiosity, how long has everyone been seriously writing music? When I say serious, I don't mean writing 24/7 as a career but I mean flipped through books to improve yourself, studied the music you've composed to find what more can be done...ect...ect. Also, what was it that got you into composing?

I've been writing for about 1.5years I think, maybe bit longer. I started fooling around with my piano since...a long time ago, but never really started writing until highschool. It wasn't until last year that I became more serious about music. I just found a sense of achievement with the music I finish writing.

Since your asking this, you could say I didn't even start composing. Hah.

well lets see... I think its been 4 or 5 years now.

It was like this. We had a crash course in using sibelius in school and when that was done I thought to my self: Hey! This is cool I can actually make music for a friends games! Yay! I can be of use. And here I am now a mad scientist...

Edit: oh yeah I use my guitar to compose instead of the more common piano....

Hmmm... I've been composing for more than one and a half years, that's for sure. Anyways, I started because... I figured I could speak to the world in that other, more beautiful, language Music. For me, writing music is my way of speaking to the world and its people; telling it what I feel, what I am, what they are sometimes, and telling stories. Although, when I started, it was more of just an outlet, especially since I was going into a really bad depression when I started. I was actually very un-musical before. I didn't know I even was remotely talented for these arts besides visual ones. :blink:

About 4 or 5 years now @_@ . I didn't get serious until my 3rd year, then I started doing a bunch of studying. I got into composing when I was in 5th Grade, though... I don't remember for what reason, though.

Hmm... I've been studying for a while... 2.5 years maybe? Well, it's a long story on why I started... ;)

1-1.5 years, but I've actually only started to study composing instead of going by pure imagination about 4-5 months ago @_@

EDIT: Whoops, forgot to answer the other question @_@ Hmm, why I started... I'm not sure :heh: My cousin gave me a music tablet with empty staves, and as they say: the rest is history ^_^

I think we have a thread about this somewhere, haha. Meh. It's been approximately 17 years for me.

For me...about 8 years. Only really a lot for the past 3 or 4, though.

I think we have a thread about this somewhere, haha. Meh. It's been approximately 17 years for me @_@

Holy Jesus!

Whoa, you started composing when you were 5?!? (your profile says you're 22) Whoa, we have ourselves a child prodigy here :D

Heh. I love when people think prodigy's are just people who compose at a young age. How good was it? Lol.

~~~

Now, since it's Al here, I'm sure it was good back then since he takes things simplisticly, but it turns out very professional. ;)

hmm...i remember i did my first ever composition when i was 10:think: ... but never got serious...so i cant remember what i've done between 10 and 17:unsure: ... i call myself beginner coz i havent really finished anything much..lol..no professional..therefore BEGINNER:sweat: .. well..what made me start..:think: ...omg i have no idea.. when i first composed at 10 i didnt even know it was called composition@_@ ... i often go to my piano and i just play without thinking..i mean like i dont have to think and pause and stuff..just play stuff continuously:huh: another reason why i never finish! coz i can never remember what i've played! x_x
started getting really serious 2years ago when i had to do it for school..and its assessed:( have a great passion for it!:lol: .. i feel like it speaks what i cannot speak with my mouth..which is the expression of sadness.............

Nono, I'm not a prodigy =P my first songs were horrible. And I started composing at age 6, not 5.

I would say for about a year or so, at least in terms of serious attempts, though I've dabbled in it a few times before.

Wow, for me it's only been about 10 months. Basically, I started off arrangeing pieces just for the fun of it and then one day I decided that I would try writting something myself. It's been rough learning all by myself, but someday I'll get there. My goal, (be it good or bad, I'll leave that up to you) is to have something that I write or arrange performed and recorded: be it by a novice or a small high school band.

I still haven't seriously got into composing. @_@ Everything up untill now has just been fooling around, maybe flipping through some books out of curiousity, but no hardcore study.

Not to mention I don't have a piano to play anymore and my computer is too slow to really tap into finale. -_- I just need to find a way to buy a piano...

I still haven't seriously got into composing. @_@ Everything up untill now has just been fooling around, maybe flipping through some books out of curiousity, but no hardcore study.


just fooling around is a vital part in composing, atleast in my opinion.

Have you guys ever walk in a super market, listen to the songs they played while you shop, and suddenly realized that you could guess what the next music note is going to come up before it actually did, and start to forecast the notes throughout the songs? I think that's the reason I started composing.

Have you guys ever walk in a super market, listen to the songs they played while you shop, and suddenly realized that you could guess what the next music note is going to come up before it actually did, and start to forecast the notes throughout the songs? I think that's the reason I started composing.

Yes, I tend to do that.
Though I do not plan on composing anytime soon. That would be bad.

I...? I started composing here because I thought it would be fun (everybody was composing and there were awful songs... Awful!!) I started 367 or 368 days ago (1 year and 2/3 days)

I started about four or five years ago. I wasn't really serious back then, i just started composing to see what I could come up with. I started to get serious, which was when my songs actually started to sound good, about two years ago cause I help write songs for my band and friends who want music for games they are programming.

I didn't really get started until about a year ago, but the seeds were planted before then. To be honest, it's actually a rather strange story. It all goes back to when I first got into anime. I loved the art style and feel of it (though admittedly, part of my interest was sparked by the cute schoolgirls:heh: ). At the same time, I was still mulling over my attempts at writing short stories and I begun to contemplate revising the ideas I had and attempting to write a manga. In truth, the concept was rather silly and unoriginal, ripping of my favorite shows and so on (most conspicuously Neon Genesis Evangelion, Star Trek, The Matrix, 1984).

When working on sketches, synopses, or even just brainstorming about the project, I would often listen to music in order to help me focus on the mood and provide background for imagery. That got me interested in the possibilities of music, though not yet into composing. What really occupied my attention at this time was the question of how Japanese a work had to be to qualify as manga (in hindsight probably a silly concern). Since I'm not Japanese, obviously, I realized that there were some very difficult issues with the definition of manga and so decided to quit the project.

As I was going through all of this, my interest in music was growing. I tried my hand at writing leitmotifs for characters in the manga and once I gave up on the manga idea, I turned to music as a possible avenue. Oddly enough, one thing that I think really sent me this direction was End of Evangelion. The soundtrack, especially the Bach pieces, really amazed me, more so than the film itself, I think. As I noted the great paucity of music coming from my fellow socialists and progressives, it only made sense for me to at least give it a try. A musician on another forum offered to teach me some basics, so I did.

Since I started piano 9 years ago, I have composed a little bit. I didn't really get into it until the last 3 years, and I've only started to really improve since last Christmas when I got Finale 2006. My dad has composed some songs for the piano, so that's what got me interested.

I got into composing about two years ago and made a song called "Meridian" (it's posted somewhere here on the ichigo's forums). Unfortunately, it is the first and last one I will probably ever write because I'm so busy with school and work.:cry:

I never got into writing music before. I barely got a pass for writing 12 bars of music for the clarinet.

I've been trying my hand at composing music for about 2 or 3 years now; and the reason I started was out of pure curiosty when my orchestra teacher had installed Finale 2005 unto the class computer - also the fact that I would love to make a soundtrack for a possible future game, which may or may not be very likely.

i've been starting to play for a year now. so far i only learned how to read notes w/o puting notes on the sheet itself. im learning how to play while reading the music at the same time but its pretty difficult. that'll probably take me a couple of years though.

This is about composing, not about playing.

"Proper composing," strictly for school. Last year I sat my Int 2 music and we had to come up with a composition, I found it excruciatingly difficult because I had all these ideas in my head but we were given pianos to do it on, and I am the worst piano player you're likely to ever come across. I managed in the end though, I put a lot of work into it.

Now we're doing Higher composition, and I'm doing a song, and I'm trying to learn how to play basic piano, because I figure if I play better piano, I can write better piano, simply because I understand it more.

So overall...two years? Maybe longer, if you count song writing, which I have always done.

"Proper composing," strictly for school. Last year I sat my Int 2 music and we had to come up with a composition, I found it excruciatingly difficult because I had all these ideas in my head but we were given pianos to do it on, and I am the worst piano player you're likely to ever come across. I managed in the end though, I put a lot of work into it.

Now we're doing Higher composition, and I'm doing a song, and I'm trying to learn how to play basic piano, because I figure if I play better piano, I can write better piano, simply because I understand it more.

So overall...two years? Maybe longer, if you count song writing, which I have always done.

If you can compose for small quartets or concertinos then changing it to piano is just a matter of cramming the notes into two stalves of the piano and making sure 10 fingers can play it. If you have trouble, then just write ur idea down as ur orchstra and try putting the entire score into two stalves and deleting the unnecessaries.

Do you play the piano, man?! There is SO much more you can do with a piano than that!

I do, she doesn't

I started a bit before I registered on these forums.
I have around 3-4 books for piano and harmonica. Even though piano is my main instrument I compose using my harmonica.
Most of my pieces (which aren't very good ^^) are written for piano though.

It's just that when I play harmonica I can basicly improvise without doing too many wrong notes. When I find a melody I like, I notate excactly what I played on my harmonica, in a treble clef, and then add bass for piano.

Weird method, but my later pieces (when I started using a harmonica) are getting better and better :)

I do, he doesn't

Ahem, she.

I realize that, but you missed the point! Making a piano piece from orchestration IMO is more than just "cramming" the notes onto one staff and making sure that 10 fingers can play it. I just don't want her to get a bad start in piano composing!

Heh, piano arrangeing from an orchestra takes work (in order to get the notes in well) but also to make it sound what you hear overlayered in the orchestra, and filling the rest in of what you HEAR not what is always written.

It takes a third-person ear to arrange and transpose, not just knowledge. ^_^

Isn't she just putting small ensamble music onto a piano(s). Besides, even if I wrote "cramming" the notes into the part, I'm sure she would realize if something is awkward in sound and fix it accordingly after she crams it. making a condenced score is definately a good start for changing it to piano in my opinion. It's easier to see, simple to identify the overlaping voices, and easily changable in adding/removing voices.

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say. Are you just talking about making a reduction?