BEFORE POSTING:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42KkkWDuqCo

posted a bit of this yesterday and got some kind words and advice and decided to spend my day fully fleshing it out. very happy with how this turned out, hope all who listen enjoy<3

Hello all! Music major here, I use MuseScore for my compositions but I feel like it takes so long to compose stuff. Should I look into a midi keyboard? Are those even compatible with MuseScore? Any advice? Thanks !

https://youtu.be/zaXeNkKJXgc

It’s an arrangement of the Epitaph of Seikilos, all commentary and criticism would be welcome! And if you like it please say so!!! I plan on doing more in the future

https://youtu.be/IJK08v0LmSc

Hello, I am an amateur composer who has spent more time performing than composing as I am a Music Performance and education Major. I recently been asked to write a couple of pieces for a 5 piece hornline that is centered around jazz and I was wondering how you would typically write the harmonies? I have had a couple ideas in mind, but I want to avoid sounding like a classical composer trying to write jazz literature as much as I can. If it helps, the instrumentation that I have is 2 trumpets, 1 alto sax, 1 trombone, 1 bass trombone, an upright and a drumset.

Hello, I am amidst the process of applying for my masters in composition and am looking for some help! (and yes, I am talking with my prof).

I have my portfolio, CV, and rec letters, and all thats really left is the academic statement of purpose. I have a general idea and a draft in progress, I am just looking for as much input as possible.

Would any current masters/phd students feel comfortable sharing their academic statement of purpose or any insights?

I'm relatively new to composing and I've gotten pretty good at melody writing and orchestration as well as developing ideas. But the one thing that I haven't been able to figure out is harmony, probably because I've never had any formal theory or composition education. I can't figure out how to pick chords or write chords that sound like they have any direction or tangible meaning. The style that I want is a romantic era + a classical era style. Imagine if Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky had a love child. That's what I'm aiming for. Any help would be appreciated. Resources or referrals to learn would be highly appreciated as well

How to increase auditory memory? Are there any easy ways? Can you suggest exercises?

I want to improve my auditory memory dramatically.

From what I understand, auditory memory includes melodic memory, harmonic memory, rhythmic memory, timbre memory, pitch memory, and dynamic memory. Is there anything else?

Thanks in advance to everyone who provides valuable answers.

I've orchestrated 2 pieces by Maurice Ravel and I'm looking for feedback! I tried mixing Ravel's style as well as my own.

Fugue

Toccata

Useful information: The Diamond notes are just a quick way of saying to play an octave higher than written. I also used the down bow symbol as a semi-accent. There are a few errors in the Toccata, such as at the end where the second horn is still in bass clef, so don't mind those

I'm self taught and I wrote a suite recently. I know a little bit of music theory. I think it's pretty good. Thoughts???

Here's the YouTube video and here's a copy of the score if you want to see it. Thanks!

I liked the song so I wrote a cover:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/nVIDqcSJeog?si=7F5YWI9PY5O-U3ec

MuseScore: https://musescore.com/user/58374520/scores/22112503?share=copy_link

Still very much just a hobby for me, but I'm always looking to improve. If anyone has any feedback, that would be very much appreciated. I don't know how to play an instrument, so please let me know if there are any errors in notation or if there is something that would actually be impossible or incredibly difficult for a real person to perform.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFyMve_kX0w

somehow managed to start and finish this in one sitting, been a while since ive felt that kind of motivation. hope all who listen enjoy!!

Hi everyone!

I’m very passionate about music composition and want to improve my skills. I have a basic understanding of music theory but struggle with applying it to create my own pieces. I’m looking for resources, books, online courses, websites, or YouTube channels, that can help me learn and practice composition techniques.

I’d also love to connect and chat with fellow music composers and producers! If you’re open to sharing your journey, advice, or favorite tools, I’d be so grateful!

Thank youu

So, as the title says I may take a semester off college and go to a conducting masterclass over the summer. I am not very well off financially and it was a bit of a gamble to even go to music school, but I want to be a professional comductor. I'm only one semester into a four year composition degree right now and I'm not doing very well with some of my classes (especially the early morning ones at like 8-9).

I do some conducting and got into it by writing and rehearsing pieces I wrote with a local concert band I'm in. I saw a conducting masterclass that takes place in June and was completely free to apply too and I decided I had nothing to lose by applying. The masterclass is with a professional orchestra and only takes a group of maybe 12 students and only 8 actually get to conduct the orchestra it's partnered with while the others basically just go for the lecture portions. I didn't really expect that me, being a young barely experienced conductor would actually be accepted, but I was accepted as an active participant.

For some background my college makes us live on campus for our first year of college which would normally be fine but I can't keep my car anywhere that's within reasonable walking distance and I haven't been able to get a job anywhere within walking distance of my dorm. I also applied for federal work-study but something happened and I couldn't get it for some reason. So long story short, I haven't been able to get an income for this whole semester.

The situation I'm in now is that if I pay the fee to attend the masterclass I may not have enough money to attend my second semester of college. I am a bit torn because I feel like I'm not furthering myself very far twords my career goal so far in my degree path and next semester doesn't look that much better, but the masterclass feels like it would get me more experience and further me more in the direction I want. I also feel like taking one semester off and just working and practicing on my own wouldn't really put me in a terrible place.

What are all your thoughts on this? Should I risk taking a semester off of college and take a break and work a job during that time and attend the masterclass? Or should I pass on the masterclass and stay on track to get my four year composition degree?

• p.s. this all probably sounds dumb but I'm stressing and just wanted some advice 😁

I'm making an instructional series on /r/Counterpoint to help get people started on species counterpoint and hopefully demystify some of the process. Counterpoint is one of best ways to hone your compositional skills and to learn how to use melody.

To that end, I present to you a thread I put together discussing what a cantus firmus is and how to write one. Many counterpoint resources start you off straight away with writing two-voice textures, but learning to write for a single voice is a great way to work on handling melodic dissonance and balancing phrasing. I hope you find it useful, and feel free to drop your attempts in the comments. I'll try to evaluate them for you.

I had this crazy idea to write a song about narwhals while playing "Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza" with my family yesterday. This is the song that I came up with. The "C" section is a chance for the band to recreate the sound of narwhals in the ocean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmo0I9q-c8E

Hey, I’m a relatively new composer. I’ve been writing music for about a year. I’m working on a piece for my band and we have 5 oboe players so I have to write a part for them. Thing is, I have absolutely no idea how to start. I’m fine with literally any other instrument, knowing how they work in regards to the band but oboe is what I really get stuck on. The flute and clarinet have the melody in my piece and it sounds weird to also give the oboes the melody. Can anybody help?

Hi all! I was wondering if any iPad notation apps have options for using extended techniques in their apps? Which has the best implementation if multiple do? So far staffpad has my eye but I can’t find much documentation.

I am currently writing an Arrangement for the Christmas Song "O Holy Night" from Adolphe Adam and I am stuck with a trumpet line i need to write. I originally planned to write a Quintett but for the Ensemble im currently playing I need atleast 3 Trumpets. The Lines which are already in the Score, I copied them from another Arr. because i dont really know much about the composing with trumpets. The second problem I have is, to bring the melody of the song more out (make it more present). So if anyone is down to help me, I'm open to suggestions.

Sorry if my english is not great. Im not a native speaker.

This is the Score: https://www.file-upload.net/download-15419588/ChristmasReverieFinal.mus.html

EDIT:
Here is a PDF version of the Score: https://www.file-upload.net/download-15419600/CRFinale.pdf.html

Hey all, I just had a question. I've found that when I export musescore to an MP3 the volume goes really wild. the pianissimos are barely audible and the fortissimos are deafening. is there any way you guys deal with this? I've tried putting it into a DAW and trying to even it out but I'm not really sure how to make it even and nice. any thoughts or insights are appreciated!

Hi everybody,

a while ago I recorded the score for Treasure Trackers - a family friendly Halloween feature film with the 90 piece Bratislava Symphony Orchestra. We wanted to go the opposite way of current trends and create a classic adventure score for the movie. This also reflected in the way it was recorded. We recorded the entire orchestra in one pass, no synths, no samples*, no overdubs, just pure orchestral recordings. So everything that you can hear has been performed live at the same time.

Here you can listen to it:

https://soundcloud.com/robin-hoffmann/sets/treasure-trackers-soundtrack

If you prefer better audio quality than Soundcloud, you can stream it wherever you stream music: https://album.link/treasuretrackers

I had a lot of fun writing and recording that music and I hope that also transports to the listener.

Since the release of the score, I've received quite a few messages asking if the sheet music was available for study. It is now! The entire 300-page score, in PDF format, with all cues from the soundtrack (in the same order as the official release), is available for free download.

https://www.robin-hoffmann.com/score-sheets/treasure-trackers-complete-score-sheet/

Hi everyone,

I’m an amateur composer just starting out. I recently wrote a piece for a cello quartet and reached out to some musicians. Some of them are genuinely interested and even willing to include it in a future concert, which is exciting!

However, some people have told me that giving them the music for free might be a mistake. As a beginner, I find it hard to feel legitimate, and I worry that offering my work for free could send the wrong message or devalue it. At the same time, I believe it’s important to build connections and have my music performed.

What’s your perspective on this? Is offering music for free common practice for beginners? How do you balance making your work accessible while ensuring it’s respected and valued?

Thanks for your time and insights!

I recently fell down a rabbit hole of looking at composers studio setups, and it got me thinking what gear do professional media composers actually use on a day to day basis. I felt this subReddit is the perfect place to ask this.

So, if you don’t mind me asking…

What computer do you use? What are its specs? (Processor, RAM etc) What about external display monitors (if any)? Which keyboard and mouse do you prefer? And all other things such as audio interfaces, studio monitors, headphones, midi keyboards, control surface for dynamics, expression etc, instruments/ synthesisers or whatever else.

And also what gear are you looking forward to acquiring or getting rid of from your collection?

Looking forward to your answers. Hopefully we can all find some new gear to be excited about.

(And yes of course I know gear isn’t everything when it comes to production, but hey, it’s nice to see what people’s preferences are)

I want to make music but I want to make an instrumental for my keyboardist. What's a good software were I can make a demo of the keyboard

Hi everybody! Disclaimer: I am still pretty new to notation. Using Guitar Pro 8 if that makes a difference.

Score I'm working with: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eoQrHIEXLh2IE0R9xRSShbskeNCZOQkK/view?usp=sharing

I am transcribing some of my band's music, and I've run into an issue with one particular song. The intro seems to have a strange accent that throws off the first beat of the main riff, so my score has a ton of ties. Something like 75% of the bars probably begin with a tied note. I tried playing around with the timing on the intro to make the first note of the main riff fall on the first beat of the 2nd measure, but that threw off the timing for the drums. Only by having all these ties have I been able to make the snare fall squarely on 2 and 4. Am I just doomed to begin every bar with a tie?

I haven't encountered something like this yet in my transcription journey, so any pointers are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Edit: Transposed guitar an additional octave up, switched bass to bass clef, and switched to the final tuning to avoid tuning confusion: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oBqqlDFoeWk23xRwp-p5wBZxYTa9KWTu/view?usp=sharing

A lovely day to you all!

As the title suggests, this piece is intended as a gift for a friend. Rest assured he is not on Reddit and therefore will not find this post before intended.

While he does not do a lot of sacred singing himself, he is nevertheless quite fond of it, so I thought I would write a Renaissance motet, evoking the likes of Byrd, Tallis and Palestrina, though being merely an amateur composer, I can only dream of achieving such resemblance to them! I thus come to you for feedback, in the hopes that I may make further revisions to this work to give him the best possible version.

Should you need specific points to discuss, here are some questions I would particularly like answered:

• How is the voice leading? This is definitely something I need to work on; I already have qualms about certain passages, but would love to hear your thoughts too.
• Are these lines singable? In addition to the overall harmony, I'd also like to know whether the individual parts could reasonably be sung. Again, I can think of some questionable rhythms and intervals within this piece.
• Does this composition have the characteristics typical of a Renaissance motet? As I am an amateur composer, and my friend is not an expert in Renaissance music, I'm not necessarily aiming for a completely authentic Renaissance work, though if there are any easy fixes which could reinforce the Renaissance character of this motet, I'd definitely at least consider them.
• Is this composition too similar to other Renaissance works? I remember hearing somewhere that composers in those days would have been familiar with a set group of cadences, motifs, etc., and thus "composing" back then would have been understood to be the way that a composer worked with these. As a result, I'm not particularly concerned if there are certain cadences which sound familiar, but if I have accidentally copied certain passages from other pieces, I'd love to know, so I could potentially revise these.
• BONUS for those who are particularly nitpicky: if there are any typos, formatting errors or aesthetic issues with the score itself, feel free to mention those too. While I try to fix everything that I spot, sometimes an extra pair of eyes can be extremely helpful in situations such as this.

I've included a video of this motet (only the playback from Musescore unfortunately), but for those who would prefer to have the score without the audio, here it is. I hope to produce a proper recording of this piece soon.

Thank you all so much in advance for your help. I look forward to reading your feedback! :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41ICXgjjL90

I learned improvisational accompaniment and improvising on the piano like three years ago, and I have been using the skills I learned then to write pop songs. Right now I want to learn to compose systematically, but every resource I find starts with very basic theories that I know and I get bored before reaching new content. Is there any textbook or video recommended for my current level? An additional piece of information is that I am interested in game music.

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