i`m not good at playing any instrument, but i`m in to composing music and that got me depressed cuz i thought it was useless, but when i read the biographie of Gabriel Yared i found out that he wasn`t good at playin instruments he just used to read the sheet music and figure stuff out. so now i`m doin that and i need u`re help to give tips and teach me stuff about accompagnements so plz reply cuz iguess icould get somewhere. thx

what do mean you`re not good at any instuments? you`re just not trying hard enough. when i first started playing clarinet, i sucked, horribly. but i stuck with it and five years later, i`m not that bad. most composers i know compose using the instriments they play. hey you aren`t bad at playing musical instruments, on one is. but you just have to stick with it.

ric is right, you have to stick with it. i took piano lessons for five years and quit to continue on my own. i`ve been playing now for nine years and can play most adavanced piano pieces. but when you are composing it is best to know the instruments. like what key they are in and their ranges. and stuff like that. if you could tell me what instruments you are thinking about composing for then i could help you better.

u guys must have misunderstood me. i know everythin like scales and keys and all these stuff but what i would wanna know is in composing a score how to work the violins and the wind instruments together and the variations of`em so the accompagnements would fill the whole score and so the whole thing would sound better.And if anyone is interested, i could send them a score i composed as a midi file just give me your email adresse.

you should listen to the radio. find a classical station. usually all the higher range insruments have the melody and the lower pitched instruments are just the backround. although for a very intrecate compositions, violins, flutes, carinets will have the melody and the cellos, trombones, baritones and tenors will have a couter melody, and the basses will still just be the background. oh yes, the precussion section adds a very nice touch to the composition. the precussion section can totally change the mood of the peice. although a lot of classical peices don`t even use precussion. but reconsider playing an instrument. it`ll help you out when composing.

oh yeah........ all compositions are different. heck, the basses can have the melody while the violins have the background melody. depends on the composer.

Buy a book called "Orchestration" by Walter Piston. He deals very lucidly with all the different sounds and combinations of orchestral instruments. However the bottom line of his conclusion is, if you want to know what a combination of instruments will sound like together, you can`t guess because each instrument affects the sound of each other instrument in unpredictable ways- you have to put them together and listen to them- which is a bit difficult for anyone who doesn`t have a private orchestra.
Only marginally cheaper than a private orchestra, however, is the Sibelius 3 software (find it on Google- it has a downloadable demo), which enables you to compose music for different instruments and then play it back, using sounds sampled from a range of orchestral instruments and sections. The sampling of short notes is tremendous (apart from the double basses), but sustained notes seem more difficult to get a realistic sound from. It needs a high spec computer. I am going to "watch this space" as the galloping progress of processing power suggests this software and the hardware necessary to utilise it will be considerably better and cheaper a couple of years from now.

naim. is there any chance you could write a piece of jazz music for:

Piano
Saxophone
Drums
Singer
Double bass

I would be unbelievable greatfull! it would be for my band. I will give you all the feedbak i can about how good/bad it is?

Is there any chance? Let me know at bwfcccc@hotmail.com

Thanks!

My my, composition is certainly a much more ambitious project than playing instruments. There are plenty of areas of theory that you need to master - counterpoint, 4-part harmony, chords + key progressions, forms + structures, and of course orchestration.

You will likely need to take some classes to begin, or get a private theory teacher. You will also need to read up and study music literature from throughout history. All compositional students end up studying and analyzing intensely the works of Bach, Brahms, Mahler, Schoenberg, Webern, Bartok, and others.

But most of, you will need endless creativity and a desire to learn. Best of luck to you...

hey guys check out musicarragers.com it teaches music from a to z. There`s some silly stuff for beginers but also there`s some pretty important stuff. and for orchestration go to www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jam228/Orchestration/contents.html

I also play piano. I`ve only been taking lessons for a year (yes, I know..... I`m probably too ambitious now.... ).... anyhow.... I know quite a few major, minor & dominant chords (or how to form them if it`s one I don`t know), and I`ve been playing around w/ chords & melody.... I`m actually more of an instrumentalist @ heart, but when I try to have melody all in one hand (left or right), that doesn`t work too well. Hope you all can understand what I`m asking for.... (help!!!)..... and can give me some advice. honestly, I kinda suck w/ melodies.... anyways, thanks for the help.

hey.. what instrumentdo you play... im sure i could help you with whatever u need to know...including getting better and composing.....
ill give u my email so u can email me and ill help u it it..
jen_a_n@hotmail.com

I`m an aspiring master composer and you can hear some of my works in progress at http://www.geocities.com/vangriegm/index.html . What I have discovered is that an accompaniment can be had using any combination of orchestral instruments usually three or four, each having a separte motif ( figure ) combined for a total effect. There are certainly many other techniques for constructing an accompaniment. PS let me know what you all think of my music.

When yr done composing and recording yr own tunes...don`t forget to upload yr creation onto our website. We have serious and fun discussions about original compositions by our own members at http://www.solomusic.net/forum.
Seeya. And happy experimenting!!!

Learn the difference between `your` and `you`re`!!

`u`re` is the same number of characters as `your`.

yr is an abbreviation of year.

Whinge over