In my experience, composition teachers don't teach you how to compose your music, just how to compose it "better".
...If even that. The majority of the "lessons" (which were in groups of about 5) just turned into some kind of musical show-and-tell situation.
I have this preconception that composition should be more of a private activity.
the reason is simple: it's impossible to teach composition. in the other hand, composition is about technique and musicianship, and that's very unlikely to learn by your own.well, excuse me but that was an odd experience: that's far from being a rule.i respect whatever you think, but you already said it all: it's only a preconception. there is a myth about the "lost of ingenuity and creativity" when you take regular lessons of something. this is sometimes associated heavily with composition classes, but it's not true. according to that kind of reasoning, after your 10 years of piano lessons you probably don't have nothing of your own in your piano playing. is that true? sure that it's not.however, let me explain why i suggested a teacher: if you "have no idea where to start", there is no book that can help you. there are many books (from fux' gradus to cowell's new musical resources, from berlioz' treatise to griffiths' modern music and after), depending on what you are in. furthermore, the main approach to composition is through composed music itself, so reading and listening actual music is essential to that, and that's need as much guidance as an instrument class.if, reading all that, your answer is still "no", something that won't do any harm: schoenberg's fundamentals in music composition. best wishes!
i respect whatever you think, but you already said it all: it's only a preconception. there is a myth about the "lost of ingenuity and creativity" when you take regular lessons of something. this is sometimes associated heavily with composition classes, but it's not true. according to that kind of reasoning, after your 10 years of piano lessons you probably don't have nothing of your own in your piano playing. is that true? sure that it's not.however, let me explain why i suggested a teacher: if you "have no idea where to start", there is no book that can help you. there are many books (from fux' gradus to cowell's new musical resources, from berlioz' treatise to griffiths' modern music and after), depending on what you are in. furthermore, the main approach to composition is through composed music itself, so reading and listening actual music is essential to that, and that's need as much guidance as an instrument class.if, reading all that, your answer is still "no", something that won't do any harm: schoenberg's fundamentals in music composition. best wishes!
I do most of my composing by sitting down at the piano and just having a play around. I don't always decide on a key first, that often comes later, but sometimes I play a few triads, find one I really like the sound of and then try and build a melody around it.I'm in no way an accomplished composer, I only have a total of 1 complete piece, 2 incomplete ones, and several possible melody ideas.Good Luck!
If you went to a conservatory maybe.It seemed like the stuff I learned about theory in college was more like elementary math. I could see it being done that like. But who knows they want to devote themselves to music like that at that age? Not to mention whatever other "critical" material it would bump out. The people who were really confused didn't know their scales very well and didn't have a clue what the notes on a keyboard were. They thought it was like Calculus.
I've composed a few pieces using Schoenberg's twelve-tone method for music class before; the great thing about the method is that you don't necessarily need any musical knowledge to compose.
I think a lot of it has to do with the way we are taught in schools.. a lot of countries requires that you know Calculus in high school but they do not require that you know music notation... music education is far behind other areas it seems. I am not saying that a highs school student should know their counterpoint.. but that it should be available for people who desires to learn them.. For me i was not exposed to those things until i was college, and i wish i knew earlier... because until then i was "stuck" knowing very limited theory to do music. I am sure Mozart studied scores of great composers at very young age (he probably transcribed some of the scores himself), so if someone has the same desire to do that my all means they should go for it.. i just wish those tools to do that were more available for them.