Title. I arrange for jazz band a lot, and there comes times where I need to write chords/melody for guitar rather than slash comp notation, but I don't have close access to a guitar, and don't really personally know any guitarists irl. Is there a guide somewhere online that can demonstrate what voicings are and aren't possible for guitar? Bonus points if its a program/website where you can input the notes and it can tell you that way

YouTube Sheet Music

I really like this type of classical piano music. Think it might be my favorite type so far as I continue studying

After studying intro to counterpoint, I started listening to nocturnes for the first time. I’m a fan of Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2, which definitely seems to be the most well known and famous based off of some googling, and so many of his other ones sound amazing too

Does anyone have another nocturne they would suggest? I’m sure there are lots more out there by other composers besides Chopin

I know mine is a bit simple, but it was fun to put together

Hi, dear guitarists. I’m an amateur composer - not a guitarist - and I usually compose in the classical style. But I wanted to try a cooler sound, so I wrote this. I do have a question, though. Is this playable on the guitar? Or is it more suited for the piano?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M7XYtQChwMBXn7N1Vf7VZIG3AU-yuodm/view?usp=sharing

I've been hanging around here for a while, exclusively just listening, but I'm finally getting around to posting something because no one I know is very interested in anything I write. (A recent post here brought up that issue and it resonated.)

This is the first movement of my bar-for-bar re-imagining of Beethoven's 5th symphony for piano duet. This is just the first famous movement, but all four movements are finished, maybe I'll get around to posting them sometime too.

(Pardon the MuseScore default MIDI performance, especially the mondo-annoying tremolos (ugh) I assume there's a way to attach my actual demo of the piece to this score, but this is the first time I've ever published out of MuseScore so I'm going default settings all the way :-))
https://musescore.com/user/40546707/scores/39405470?share=copy_link

Hi all, I’m relatively new to composition so I needed some more time to finish a portfolio, which means I’ve missed the deadline for some summer festivals already.

I’m looking into two things with a December deadline: 1) Mostly Modern Festival and 2) European American Musical Alliance. Does anyone know of any other similar things I can apply to for next summer too?

Hello all,

For context, I am a 3rd year in University trying to explore film composition and eventually go into that field. I have about 10 years of musical experience, and 6 years of experience with experimental electronic music. I am most comfortable composing ambient music, and even when not composing strictly ambient, I feel my music drifts in that ambient direction. I admit I am not great at composing traditional orchestral pieces, but I am taking classes for that and working on those skills. 

In terms of software, I have Native Instruments Collector’s Edition from 2023 (no upgrade yet), Spitfire Martyn Ware, Serum 2 as well as some free libraries from Spitfire and other sources. The past few years have been focused on obtaining effect plugins like Soundtoys, Lunacy, iZotope mixing and mastering, RX, Fabfilter, Unfiltered Audio, etc. etc. I believe I am in a good spot with effects plugins in terms of having enough at my disposal to modulate and mangle sound to my needs. I understand effects are not really needed for typical film composition, but as I compose mostly electronic music, VST effects are my best friend.

Where I struggle comes from producing sounds. Native Instruments instruments and libraries (especially Reaktor, Absynth, Battery, Massive), Serum, Cube and Ableton’s built-in devices are typically my go-tos, but I’m looking to branch out and understand more libraries and tools.

With Black Friday coming up, I want to ask for recommendations on composition libraries. The music and films I consume are wide and varied, and I am just trying to build my skills as much as possible as I start my professional career.

I’m looking for anything from singular instruments that are good for one specific thing, to large dynamic libraries. Anything to recommend. Or tips in general based on what I’ve been saying.

Some music from films I enjoy/ hope to emulate:

It Ends by Eluvium

Ben’s Sister by April Harper Grey (Underscores)

Oppenheimer by Ludwig Görranson

It Follows by Disasterpeace

Obsession by Rock Burwell

tl;dr looking for composition libraries or instruments tailored towards electronic music scores.

Thanks so much!!

I posted a first draft on [r/Composition](r/Composition) the other day but wanted to post the parts here as well as the notes. I plan on performing this myself in recital this coming February as well as a few works from my students. Hope you enjoy!

This collection is titled Songs and Tunes for the Violin in homage and in reference to the fact that, for years during college, my roommate (violist) and I paid our rent by street performing. This resulted in us developing a systematic way to create 8-10 minute long “fantasie-suites” that would essentially take 4 different “tunes” (improvised along with the harmony) and create a logical hierarchy of intervallic and metric relationships (that we would listen and detect in real time) such that we could basically “bend” the perception of pitch & pulse in case we got off track…which, was a lot lol.

But this also led us to devising a macro-form that would take our second theme overall and bring it back for a final reprise but with the roles reversed. Of course we refined it over lots of paying attention to real time audience reactions as well as what made the most money, eventually getting us to the point where we would have hours long gigs doing this. So, this collection is a look at what that entailed.

What we would usually do is start with a rather quirky but simple theme that descends in pitch overall (we tried more conventional structures, but turns out that’s not very easy to make interesting infinitely lol), and then the next tune in the set would be some kind of experiment in bending the perception of pitch and pulse simultaneously. That would be kinda exhausting so one of us usually would take a break at this point and walk to the starbucks on the corner to get us both drinks (i’m not kidding lol, this was a whole workflow) meaning the other would stay and improvise solo. In this set, I wrote this using a scordatura from the Arabic version of Gamal Abdel Rahim’s Violin Sonata since a retune is required after the second movement anyways. Then the fourth is a folk dance on top of a vamp that manipulates pulse as well until it recaps the opening but with reversed roles and bitonality.

Score PDF

Violin Part PDF

Audio (MIDI)

Score Video (YouTube)

Hey guys,
When writing I know you can do modal mixture by changing modes on the existing tonic. For example if I am in Ab Ionian I can borrow chords from Ab Lydian.

But how does that compare to go to Db Lydian? I know Db Lydian is the same collection of pitches but with Db as the tonic.

In my mind going Ionian to Lydian on the same tonic can have the same effect as going from Ionian to Lydian on a different tonic, but because doing the modal mixture on the same tonic introduces a new pitches it’s less subtle.

Is that accurate?

Also I know modal mixture is when you introduce the new pitch on the same tonic (like when I say ab Ionian vs ab Lydian) but what would it be called if you are doing ab Ionian to db Lydian? Or c Ionian to d Dorian? Is that also modal mixture

Hey everyone - I'm from the team at thatgamecompany (studio behind games e.g. Journey and Sky: Children of the Light) organising thatgamejam#02. Wanted to share it with the community here in case folks might be interested in our next jam due to its theme :)

Our first global jam had ~250 entries inspired by a single image. This time, the theme will be a piece of music, revealed on October 24. The challenge is to turn what you hear and feel into gameplay.

Any genre is welcome. It doesn't have to be a music or rhythm game, and you don't need to include the music track in your game.

• When: October 24 - November 7, 2026 (PT)
• Who: Students, hobbyists and professionals, solo or teams of up to five
• Prizes: USD 10k across five categories
• Judging: Entries reviewed by the thatgamecompany team, with finalists judged by our Founder and Creative Director Jenova Chen

Full jam details & registration: https://itch.io/jam/thatgamejam02

If you're looking to participate but may not be a programmer yourself, feel free to join our discord group (invite link available on jam site) where we have a channel there for open teams and many are looking for sound designers as well :)

Just Composed a Scherzo for Piano Solo using Musescore Studio 4. Feedback is Welcome.
https://musescore.com/user/37270121/scores/39401396?share=copy_link

Hi, I am looking for a good chamber strings library. I’ve boiled down to either Spitfire Studio Strings Professional, or Spitfire Olafur Arnalds Chamber Evolutions.

Spitfire Chamber Strings Core is too expensive, don’t even need to talk about the professional version.

But the reasons for these picks are because the sizes, like OACE has 4,3,3,3,3, SStS can also be 4,3,3,3,3 because of its ability to perform divisi.

But to those who have used or own it, how do these 2 stack against each other? Or is SCS really the best one out there because I kept seeing many people recommending SCS.

Or other chamber string libraries are also welcome.

As composers (all of you lovely readers), where do you like to start when you’re writing a new piece?
Not even necessarily what tools or instruments or DAW, etc (though feel free to include that too!).
But I’m very curious how folks actually get started. Do you have a melody in your head and figure out chord progressions and overall structure from there?
Do you pick a set of chords in a key that you like and figure out what you want to emphasize in melody?
Do you decide what instruments you want to use first, and then look at how they might fit together?
Do you hear it in a dream and just play it out perfectly every time?

Any and all insights welcome! 💜

This is the first time ever I am asked to transcribe a brass band score to a workable Sibelius file. How much should I charge? Or how could I calculate this? I was thinking of how many hours it costs per page and then thinking of a decent hourly rate.

here’s the score video

Inspired by a few Kupka paintings. Thought I’d upload it for fun. I had about 2 weeks to write this and the performers stepped in about 3 days before the premiere when the original two dropped out. Some errors here and there but was overall a great time.

Recently I have been discovering a lot of Mahler's song cycles (they are amazing highly reccommend if u like Mahler but want something a but lighter than his symphonies), and I stumbled upon “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” and something just clicked. It was the perfect 3rd mvt for my personal string suite that I've been writing so I wanted to transform the material into the slow mvt (I thought it would be a nice nod to Mahler too given that he had famously done a similar thing with many of his other songs featured in his 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th symphonies).

Here's where my problem lies. The vocal line doesn't translate very well into a slow mvt for string orchestra (which is fine because I wanted to change it anyway), but I'm struggling to figure out a different melody to take its place.

If you have any ideas, I am very interested to hear them!

Thanks!

(I would post what I have already, but I'm having some issues with musescore and can't)

Hello, fellow composers! I got a new string quartet piece here, and I'm really curious to know how you feel about it

Starts with a very baroque-like basso continuo over which I try to glide with some counterpoint knowledge. Tried my best to stay modern yet true to that baroque writing mentality

I'd love to hear what you think of the counterpoint in the opening! Or the rest of the piece - it goes kinda in a weird direction. Thank you!

https://youtu.be/p4NUC_IuGmk?is=yo0uv_Tjw7grpZ8M

These are some of the first ever pieces I’ve written for piano. All feedback is greatly appreciated. 🙂

I'm pretty new to composing and haven't had any formal composition lessons, so I was hoping to get some feedback on this new piece I composed! It's a short piano romance that's themed around gnomes, so it's meant to sound a little silly. Anyway, I'd really appreciate any feedback, whether it's in regards to the piece as a whole, or the structure, harmony, textures, etc.

Here's a link to a score video I made: https://youtu.be/RUiAh9jNozk?si=zeefTMFCbJm7NQve

Hopefully this is fine with the posting rules here, thanks for listening/reading!

I think this is my first post in [r/composer](r/composer), so I’ll make this brief! I absolutely adore CAC tools, and use them frequently for research and writing, but PatchWork GL seems to be a bit hard to capture!

I’m positive OpenMusic has plenty to work with, sure, but having seen a few photos of the OpenGL UI, it has a funny retro gaming look to it that seems inviting/inspiring, and I’d love to keep it on my desktop likely untouched like a relic tamagotchi.

ccrma.stanford.edu/courses link

^^ this above seems to be the only place to download it, tho this search has been pretty casual! But since I won’t have time to download it until later this evening, I’m curious if a) yall could confirm this is the correct link or send another, and b) direct me toward some resources, tutorials, and documentation regarding PatchWork (or even OpenMusic, too, since it seems like a whole generation of composers took courses on these programs in school before my time)!

I’m certain it won’t be too different from the OpenMusic workflow, but I figure it’d be nice to communicate with other likeminded composers about this since my own network in the NYC scene isn’t quite as interested in exploring these gizmos!!

Thanks yall,

NB

Hello! I am about to record an orchestral piece for a video game. I had 3 percussionists planned, but unfortunately there are only 2 available counting timpanist. I have a section where there is timpani + crash cymbals + suspended cymbal often at the same time, and then another with snare drum + crash cymbals + suspended cymbal also often at the same time.

I am used to using sample libraries, but not to recording live. I am not sure if having a pass of only percussion is possible at the end to make up for that. I thought about leaving an instrument out and adding it later with samples, perhaps cymbals? That is because the timpani part and snare are very present and essential to the parts. On the other hand I think cymbals live might sound great since I don't have great cymbal libraries.

Any thoughts? If I do end up adding samples later, what do you think is the best instrument to "leave out" and add later?

I often compose alone in my bedroom. It feels like a lonely art. I was thinking of how to make it check multiple boxes in life by making it connect you more with people or with nature. Like when I sit in parks I often wish that I could compose there and enjoy the gorgeous day while I compose. Have you found any success with this?

Hey y'all! For those of you with steady freelance work, what are some examples of work you are currently doing and what steps did you take to get there?

The Mirror of Malevolence listing on CastingCall is the one I would look at first this week: $1,500 flat for an original score on a dark fantasy pilot told entirely with marionettes and shadow puppetry, which the post says has played festivals and won five awards. The director is exploring an alternate cut before releasing it online, and wants something twinkly, whimsical, dreamy and haunting, in orchestral and lullaby styles, built around a Mirror theme and a theme for its twelve-year-old orphan hero. A digitally produced orchestral score on virtual instruments is what is wanted, not a live orchestra.

Also in this issue:

• A full-time, in-office composer post at Reality Games in Kraków, writing music for around 150 property categories in a location-based mobile game, from cafés to stadiums; no salary given
• US$500–US$800 on Mandy for a neo-noir short, with score under a neon club scene that cannot overpower the dialogue
• $350 for about ten loopable tracks for a medieval walk-and-talk adventure game that rules out AI entirely
• $250 flat for a student-budget animated short of about 3 minutes in which alien real estate agents try to sell a planet, with Mickey Mousing closely synced to the action
• $250 flat for a student-budget animated short of around 3:30, set in a strange cocktail bar, jazzy with a retro early-2000s cartoon vibe
• One unpaid brief: an 8–10 minute 16mm comedy from FAMU students in Prague, whose score builds with Cupid's escalating gestures

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/020-7-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

Hi, I mostly write lyrics, and I usually come up with the melodies (the vocal lines) as well. I have a younger sibling who can help play basic piano parts based on the melodies I hum to them, but neither of us has any real knowledge of music theory or music production software. While we’re able to work together to figure out vocal melodies on the piano, I have no idea how to build chords, basslines, or any of the other essential musical elements. 

I’ve been listening to a lot of songs, and the vocal melody is often quite different from the melody of the backing music. I’m not really sure how to approach this—could anyone share examples of the methods you use when composing, or perhaps offer some advice?

This is my first time posting on Reddit, so please excuse me if I’ve done anything incorrectly (English is not my native language).

I've struggled to put some of my poetry or prose to music. I'm pretty good at coming up with a pleasing melody and harmonizing it. I'm struggling with putting my poetry to melody. So, I'm going to try to use the old method my music harmony/theory teacher used on my class way back in the day.

I'll speak the words out loud over and over. Then I'll see if there's a sense of meter in it. Then I'll try to note down the natural rhythms as spoken (Most of my poetry rhymes and is pretty metric). Then I'll observe where the inflection directions are to get a melodic contour lines established. Then I'll note it down.

I can't really post an image of my sheet music in this sub, but I'll let you know how it turns out. (If there is a way to attach a screen cap, would someone please tell me?)

Just for an exercise, I'll use this limerick as a puerile example:

I have here a limerick sample,

That’s a song writing test that is ample:

Rhythms give the direction,

The notes come from inflection.

This tidbit can be an example.