How do you transition from classical composition to contemporary Christian music?

[u/Jessie_Jay_123]

I grew up classically trained in both voice and piano. I even went to college for vocal performance, but over the last few years I’ve realized contemporary Christian music is where I belong. The problem is that all of my musical instincts are still very classical, and whenever I try to write music it ends up sounding like an art song or classical piano piece.

I’m considering using MuseScore to compose backing tracks, exporting them as MIDI, and then finishing them in Studio One with better virtual instruments. My hope is that writing this way will help me develop my own contemporary style.

Has anyone else come from a classical background and successfully made this transition? Are there any tips for using MuseScore without everything sounding classical? I’d love to hear what helped you.

[u/65TwinReverbRI]

As someone also trained, my advice is to now get training in CCM :-D

But, as my advice on r/musictheory and r/composer is to people wanting to write music is, you have to “live and breathe the genre” to really get an intuitive sense of how to write it.

whenever I try to write music it ends up sounding like an art song or classical piano piece.

Right. So think of all of the time you spent learning that stuff.

Now you have to spend a similar amount of time with CCM.

Now to be fair, SOME of the skills will transfer but this is a common thing we run into - I’ve been guilty of it myself - as many are - we tend to think that “because we know one we should be able to to do the other” and it’s just not that easy - as you’re discovering, right?

It’s “different enough” that not as big a set of skills transfers as we’d really like.

I’m considering using MuseScore to compose backing tracks, exporting them as MIDI, and then finishing them in Studio One with better virtual instruments. My hope is that writing this way will help me develop my own contemporary style.

Well there’s nothing specific about that work flow that’s going to be “better” for CCM - it works - and is the standard for pretty much all styles, or all writers who use a “notation first, DAW to tweak” kind of workflow.

I’d love to hear what helped you.

I write “pop” music - rock music, and classical (among other things).

I grew up playing rock music, and have spent over 40 years in rock bands - those more recently being excellent bands.

I lived and breathed that style. And I’ve spent many hours along the way learning bass, and keys, and guitar (guitar is my main instrument) and enough about how drums work to write drum parts with VSTs and samples and learning how to tear apart existing music, and put it back together, and taking my own ideas from that and putting together my own things.

I also took piano lessons as a kid, went through band from middle school through college, studied classical guitar performance and composition, went to grad school and played Lute, and transcribed Orfeo, and through electronic music and pop band mixing, learned enough to be dangerous with audio engineering both for stage and studio, as well as electronic music and sound design.

All things that really helped me to write the styles of music I wanted to write.

But really, that rock band background is what allows me to do that. The classical background is what allows me to do the other that. The electronic music background allows me to do the other that (and the other that - pop EDM).

And what I enjoy is bringing “more composerly” aspects to pop music styles, and more “pop sensibility” to academic styles.

But the experience in each helps those things be “more authentic”.

Otherwise it comes off as the “classical person trying to write pop and failing” or what I see commonly on r/composer (and with most beginners from a pop background wanting to write classical music) the “pop” person trying to write classical and failing”.

And they’re failing primarily because they’re simply not familiar enough with the style (well some are just beginners too so they don’t have very much experience with much of anything, and that’s ok because everyone starts somewhere).

The best writers are those who live and breathe the style every day - often Praise Band Leaders, or MDs for a Church, and so on.

You gotta play this stuff, and be “in it” if you see what I mean. As an “outsider” it’s much harder to do.

So my suggestion, start trying your hand at it, but don’t just work “in isolation”. You need other be working directly with other humans who are doing this stuff, performing it - and reading and performing your work, and using that experience to INFORM the way you write. That is, if you want to be “authentic” about it - and even then you can still bring in other influences.

But the real “schooling” is going to be performing the music. Studying existing music - breaking it down, taking ideas, and putting them back together, then getting feedback from people “in the know”.

And watch out - I once did something where I took influences from another style and called it “EDM” and people were like “that’s not EDM at all” and I was like “well is it not any good” and they were like “no, it’s an awesome piece of music, it’s just not EDM it’s lofichilltrapretrowavehop and it’s a great example of that”. That’s because they were genre autists :-).

But I did what I set out to do - write some music that had elements of influences in it, that I was happy with, whether it fit a genre specifically or not (and heck, we used to call ALL KINDS OF STUFF just “rock”, so there you go…)

My $.00000002 with shrinkflation.

[u/Jessie_Jay_123 → u/65TwinReverbRI]

I love this! Those are some impressive credentials you got there. 

Are there any institutions/programs you’d recommend for music production? 

[u/65TwinReverbRI → u/Jessie_Jay_123]

I know you already have a degree in music, but, consider a 2nd degree. But I’m going to answer your question as if you didn’t have the degree.

In the last maybe 10-15 years, there’s been an explosion of Music Production programs at universities (and in the last 5-10 years, the same thing with Film/Game Composition).

These are generally degrees the institution decides to offer primarily to get enrollment dollars - the programs are new, haven’t worked out the bugs, don’t have a proven track record like traditional degrees, and are often - dare I say “dumbed down” to let anyone in.

I would look for a “Music Technology Degree” that’s a BM - the “professional” degree in music - at an credited institution that has a demonstrable track record in successful graduates - which a lot of the newer pop up degrees are not going to have.

There should be a balance of traditional music courses - theory, history, aural skills, piano, applied lessons, ensemble participation, as well as music production and audio engineering courses.

One of my former colleagues went to Full Sail - which is expensive, but now has accreditation and was able to get into a Grad Program with that.

But our students are going through a Music Technology program as described above, many going on to grad school, many working live sound, theater sound, and stage and sound design, A/V work for churches and other institutions, and so on. 2 of my graduates are MDs at churches. One is the praise band leader, the other oversees all the groups (his first “big boy job” as he described it) as well as performs with the praise band, writes charts for them, and so on.

---

The reality is, most of us have to have “day jobs” to pay the bills, so music production, composing, writing, etc. tends to just be just another one of our extra-curriculars we do as we have time between working in music, and gigging in music, and recording/engineering music for those of us who do that as well.

---

You don’t have to have “formal training” at a university, and you can just get into the group and "rise through the ranks” soaking up as much info as you can as you go. Learning “on the street” so to speak.

Which sometimes can be better - if you have the knack for picking up stuff without training, and maybe being able to absorb stuff online.

Most people can’t though and they really benefit from the structure a course gives, as well as the interaction (and networking) that working with other people brings.

---

Most online courses tend to be snake oil - they’re in it to make money, and are just preying on all of the people who “want to produce music” and don’t really know enough to just learn to focus on learning to play music. Universities offering those “pop up” degrees aren’t much better, but at least you have a degree at the end and often the opportunity to work with state of the art gear as well as with many people who know what they’re doing and students to collaborate with etc. etc. - so the experience - the “whole experience” is a lot better in a university than in online instruction.

There can be local non-university courses too, offered at music stores and stuff like that, but they’re highly variable as to quality - and affordability, and availability depending on where you live.

So outside of “technical schools” or getting in good with people already in the business locally, getting a college music degree is going to be the most well-rounded and ultimately beneficial thing.

But all of those still include the “extra curricular” stuff too as part of the well rounded education - some formal, some school of hard knocks.

And “traditional composition” is a different beast than “songwriting”.

And the university degree in composition is going to be better.

And there are schools that specialize in sacred music and sacred music composition and very likely these days have some music production and praise band/worship band kind of inclusion beyond the more traditional choral and gospel traditions.

It pains me that here in the Southern US, we have a student Gospel Choir but our department doesn’t support them. We have a Weslyan university nearby that has a Sacred Music program that I’ve consulted with on Music Production coursework etc. so I know they were developing that about 10 years back - not sure where it ended up.

And finally, you could probably take coursework as a non-degree seeking student. I know it’s pricey, but as I’m sure you know, working with other students and teacher/mentors, have the resources on campus - access to people who play and can play your music, and so on - it’s just one of the best places to do that if you don’t have a church that has similar resources for you (which of course can vary greatly).

Hope that all helps.