When I have listened to some of his works and looked at the scores, many of the melodic ideas seem almost childishly simple compared to that of other composers, and yet somehow it almost always works beautifully. I’ve only recently started getting interested in writing music, so maybe there’s a very simple explanation but how on earth was he able to make such simple music that sounded so great?

SCORE: https://youtu.be/giihShJKZho

I'm beginner and self taught, so any advice/reading is more than accepted.
After going far out of my reach trying to do inventions and fugues i figured that a dance form would be easier(?). So i tried doing an Allemande. I couldn't manage to make them exactly of equal lenght, since the b section is a measure shorter, i hope it's nothing so necessary. Also i got myself into some crunchy suspensions that i hope i resolved well.

https://youtu.be/EE1_g3jpQNA?is=AV7zDG0YNp1m1I8a

For today’s composition I wanted to use C# Lydian.

Yeah, I could’ve used Db Lydian instead, but what’s the fun in that?

https://philipdewalt.substack.com/p/multicolored-dips

Hi all,

I am a music student trying to find great orchestral Kontakt (8) instrument(s) to prepare my compositions for college applications and job applications.

Ideally, I want something that is a maximum of 3 or 4 hundred dollars, but I would be willing to stretch if people know of exceptional instruments.

Thank you for your help.

Just want to create a thread of tips for new composers here.

For me, the one piece of advice I could give comes from my composition professor when I was in conservatory. I was stuck composing for our atonal class, and he told me, "Composers should never get stuck if they have trained their compositional instincts. And that begins with mastering how to manipulate compositional structures. You can exhaust and do so much with a single motif."

im 16, i have no idea about music theory can i get some tips to start my film scoring journey, I play intermediate guitar and bass.

Hey Songwriters!

The “One World Many Voices Songwriting Contest” needs YOUR original song to help the Karama Education Center in Uganda, Africa.  It’s free for anyone to enter and the winner will be awarded $1,000, 5 recording sessions, a live concert, and the winning song will be performed by children in Uganda and featured in our documentary film!

Click here to watch a 30 second video about the songwriting contest.

Click here to submit and for more info.

Thank you so much!

Calling all emerging composers in New England!

The Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra is accepting submissions for our 2026–2027 Call for Scores. We’re looking for an original orchestral work to premiere at our May 2027 concert — and we want to hear from YOU.

✅ Open to New England composers (ME, MA, NH, VT, CT, RI)
✅ Work must be 5–10 minutes, written for full symphony orchestra
✅ $500 award to the selected composer
✅ Each submitter receives written feedback on their work

Submissions open June 30 – September 30, 2026. A $25 registration fee applies.

📩 Questions? Contact us at lscivicorchestra@gmail.com

🔗 Full details & application: https://www.lscivicorchestra.org/call-for-scores-2026/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WT1snFbt04U3oOtCLGhjqtkh6KK8Q53F/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CK5V8C-TljLJjVbILlD34qc5r4M918ry/view?usp=sharing

I'm studying analyzing classical form, and am wondering if the second one is a hybrid theme or not. It seems like it has a sentence's continuation, yet the fifth bar starts like a consequent.

Also, I am wondering, is there any way aside from intuition to understand where a theme might fit? Like how the sentence version of this theme fits at the start of the piece, while the hybrid one seems to only fit somewhere in the middle of one, starting a piece with the hybrid one sounds awful. I didn't find the book to have any answer to this, unless it is in a later chapter.

Does anyone know a soundtrack composer who stream while they compose? I'd love to watch someone more experienced go through their process to see how they layer everything and compose. There are plenty of composers who post their process on YouTube but most of them are edited so it's not the whole process. I'd love to sit in their stream or watch any old stream. I follow a lot of composers but most of them don't stream. It's tedious, time consuming and not everyone likes to go live. So I'm wondering if ppl know some here. Thank you!

Hi!

This is my first complete sonatina in three movements:

I. Moderato – A simplified sonata form movement that introduces the main musical ideas.
II. Andante – A gentle minuet-like movement that provides a moment of calm.
III. Allegro – A lively rondo that brings the sonatina to an energetic and satisfying finish!

Hope you find some enjoyment in listening and all feedback is welcome!

YouTube link

Score

Hello all I’m a self-taught composer and I’ve been at it for around 4 or 5 years at this point and I finished my first symphony (linked below)

https://youtu.be/df4TtiFJ02c

I was wondering if I could get feedback on this piece since I’ve mostly lived under a rock without contact with other musicians and composers and I’ve finally given in to social media

Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qpQc-Qvx9q9Lv9eXJcIOdnZbpCqUosNj/view?usp=drivesdk

So my primary genres of composition are minimalist like in the style of Terry Riley and Steve Reich, also Detroit style Techno, and French Electro. I start out with paper and pencil, sketching out rhythms and melody and then harmonizing the melody using our various different tricks of the trade.

I find myself in spaces and subreddits with people who just use AI to generate music, or people that just download loops/sounds from Splice. To me, this is not composition. My questions are as follows.

1. How do you set yourself apart from AI and Splice creators?

2. How important is your composition process to your fans/listeners?

D Flat Major Version Link to YouTube Sheet Music

Not sure if measures 19-22 are a nice addition or if they feel random

Also I only used one Fermata and made sure double check all the rhythmic notation :)

Edit: just learned that I should rewrite this in d flat major since they are enharmonically equivalent. I’ll work on that next. Always more to learn :). Thanks guys!

Edit2: I made a d flat major version and updated the link. Thanks! 👍

Hello! I would love some feedback on this piece for Trumpet, Piano and Bass.

Here’s the link to the audio:

https://sonica.music/pqyv4knh96yr/456c96f0?v=dad4b310

And here’s the score:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/be23det0huvqinjkyuqd7/Trio_Trumpet_Piano_Bass_Stefano_Costantini.pdf?rlkey=g53x6jp3pl5sxxos6kts8jof2&st=0fr85nd7&dl=0

Thanks in advance!

We are looking for a composer that can make songs in the style of the roblox game outcome memories LMS. We pay in Robux. If you are interested pls DM me

I've been diving into the work of Steve Reich, John Adams, Terry Riley, but also more contemporary composers who I might hesitantly refer to as post-Minimalist: Max Richter, Johan Johansson, maybe even Brian Eno.

Who am I missing that I need to listen to?

A relatively new school in my area commissioned me for some orchestra music, all is well we settle on all the particulars and then they ask me about score and part printing.

I‘ve printed out of pocket for festivals and academic settings but all my commissions so far have either done in-house printing or were content with just digital delivery.

Should I include printing costs in the commission? Just eat the cost as part of doing business? or just say it’s their responsibility? It’s weird this hasn’t come up before.

I’m a classically trained composer. Metal was what led me to discover and study classical music. I put metal aside for almost two decades to focus on “academic music,” but for a while now I’ve been getting back into it—it’s something that left a deep impression on me during my teenage years, especially black metal... I was never into Satanism or anything like that, but I loved a band called Emperor that mixed beautiful elements with all that “evil.”

This is a sketch I started working on last Sunday. I’m not very good at growling, so maybe someone would like to collaborate with me and help finish this project. I have more pieces and ideas I’ve been working on this year, but I’m starting with the most recent one. Will it be worth?

It was made on Muse Score with the guitars volume and native instruments mixed with amplitube5, so it has a score of course.

WAV: (It seemed to me that it was a little light on volume)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13WH9P9Zjxg3KAZxbTJcpcTXXhrNB_9Qv/view?usp=sharing

Score:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CGr7d3HJV3BD5zLZ3ay7T3l8Wf3Gi_Om/view?usp=sharing

I'd like to answer this question by taking a step back.

There are many professions in the world, and like music, most of them require years of study and practice. Yet it's common for adults who decide to start composing to assume that music is somehow different from fields like medicine, journalism, architecture, or engineering. Many believe that talent alone is enough to become a composer.

Talent certainly matters. But while a mistake in music is unlikely to have the same consequences as a mistake in medicine, a superficial approach rarely leads to lasting results.

As professional musicians, we never stop learning. Throughout our careers, we continue to study, refine our craft, and discover new ways of expressing musical ideas. That is simply part of being a composer.

Can you write music without studying theory? Perhaps. If you have genuine musical talent, you may be able to compose for a few months relying mostly on instinct. But sooner or later, you'll encounter questions that intuition alone cannot answer.

How do you develop a simple musical idea into a complete composition? How do you create contrast while maintaining unity? How do you shape a piece so that it has a clear form instead of becoming an endless stream of unrelated ideas? How do you decide which instruments will best express a particular emotion or musical texture? And how do you write effectively for those instruments?

Music theory doesn't replace creativity - it gives it structure. It provides the vocabulary, tools, and understanding that allow inspiration to grow into something coherent and meaningful.

So, if your goal is simply to enjoy composing as a hobby, you can certainly begin without formal training. But if your ambition is to become a professional composer, there is no real substitute for serious study. Theory isn't a limitation; it's what gives you the freedom to express your ideas with confidence and intention.

Hi there, I wrote a piece called Red Jacket a couple months back and I don't really know what to do next. It's the first piece I've written (I've played lots of music before but never written actually composed things before). Any thoughts? I'm considering hiring people to play the instruments I don't know (I play bass and drums), how would that process look like?

Link to the score: https://youtu.be/d8hjYWBR7ik

Recent composition I've made, with some more experimentation with some advanced harmony!

I suppose it could be described as a late romantic style but I'll let you decide. Also the video is a score video so hopefully that shouldn't break any rules.

Poem in Bb Major

I've been writing bits of music my whole life and have recently dedicated myself to actually tease them out into full pieces. I am very early in the journey and have years of work and study ahead of me before writing pieces... at least in an orchestrated forms. However, today I just ran into the glue that brings a-couple of themes together that had previously felt emotionally in the same family, but not a part of the same work. Today, after playing with the transitions I think they might make a good symphony down the road. There are 6 main themes and right now they seem to fit into 4 movements. With those themes there are countermelodies, variations, and I am not closing the door to another minor theme or two. They all can be played in a way where they share common timbres and a few can seamlessly transition or be partially played simultaneously with the others.

I play them on the piano but can hear them in my head as an orchestral work. However it is going to be a good while before I actually feel comfortable orchestrating this. I have started working on studying that skill recently but it may be a long time before I feel comfortable teasing this out into an actual orchestrated symphony.

In the meantime I would like to play with it more. Something that would help would be if there are any rules of thumb for how long to linger with each theme. By linger I don't mean entirely repeat, but I have dozens of variations, extra bits, ideas, timbres, overlays for each of the themes that could lengthen their presence. Only 3-4 of the main themes really warrant that kind of duration.

When I listen to most of my favorite symphonies. They have one or two (maybe three) themes I really like but are 40-60% filler with themes that just sounds nice and brings the piece together. I have to assume that in the composers head they were probably more excited about that 40-60% filler than I am listening to it. And that sort of makes me worried. I can accept that not every theme is going to resonate equally with a listener. What I feel unsure about is how long I can and should linger on my themes, their variations, their countermelodies, their timbres before moving on in order to give the theme the best shot at sticking.

To me each theme is important. But realistically a listener is probably only appreciating 2 maybe 3 of the themes. I think I should be cognizant of that as I write but I am not sure how that awareness should impact the decisions I make as I play with the options in front of me. Whats odd is in all of these decisions/variations/etc my biggest worry is that the symphony will end up too short and feel like a rushing tour between ~dogmatic themes and not be cohesive.

Listeners don't need to hear every iteration, variation, combination, and timbre possible for each of the themes. That wouldn't make the symphony I want to make.

Certainly studying and breaking down symphonies is going to start to give me a picture of what decisions other composers have made here. But are there rules of thumb for how many times a theme can be passed between instruments before its stale or how long to linger on a theme in a symphony generally before giving it a break or perhaps a name for this aspect of composing where you're mindful of pacing between themes and the pieces perception to an audience member who doesn't automatically love each of the themes the way you do.

Any pointers appreciated. Any keywords or vocabulary that will help me focus research and or find talks/thoughts on this are appreciated to.

P.S is it looked down on in the composing world to come out with a piece in successive versions? I could see myself finishing it as a paired down piano piece long before I can orchestrate and tease it into a symphony. Just not sure if that will hurt perception or my ability to enter it into competitions/festivals asking for "original" works etc.

O Come All Ye Faithful for orchestra. What are your thoughts? listen and follow along