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Composition Kickstarter Exercises

JoeWatkin

JoeWatkin

Member
Would love to hear some of your methods to getting started with a composition. I’m sure there are some age old composing exercises to get the old creative brain going.

I personally have struggled the most with this, but have found limitations to be extremely motivating. Also challenges such as coming up with a melody while out walking and then using that as a starting point back in the garden studio.

Let’s hear ‘em!
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Just a few off the top of my head that often work for me...

You don't always need to reinvent the wheel. Find an existing chord progression, or part of one, and use that as the foundational starting point of your piece. You're not ripping anything off - chord progressions aren't copyrightable, and you can always throw in your own variations after your piece gets off the ground.

Write with an instrument or virtual instrument you typically don't use. Instead of composing on piano, pull up a crazy synth patch in Omnisphere, or use a guitar, etc...

Use a favorite composition as inspiration. Obviously don't steal it, but maybe use similar instrumentation, arrangement, dymanics, flow, etc.

Pull up a drum/percussion loop and try writing over it. You can always remove the loop later.
 
If you have a melody 1) copy it to another track, transpose it in scale two or three times up or down, an octave lower or higher and tweak it 2) copy the melody and where there are pauses, continue it, transpose octave up or down 3) get a rhythm going then add pitch.
 
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anp27 said:
Continue what? Could you please elaborate?
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Your 1st melody is c,d,e, (gap) e,f,e. In the gap continue c,d,e (f,g,a). Afterwards, you can fill in the busy parts with something sparser (for ex: one note in place of three).
 
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szczaw said:
Your 1s melody is c,d,e, (gap) e,f,e. In the gap continue c,d,e (f,g,a). Afterwards, you can fill in the busy parts with something sparser (for ex: one note in place of three).
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Oh ok, I think it's getting a bit clearer... so continue (f, g, a) in a different instrument? Or within the same instrument as a "reply" to the original melody? Hope I'm making sense!
 
anp27 said:
Oh ok, I think it's getting a bit clearer... so continue (f, g, a) in a different instrument? Or within the same instrument as a "reply" to the original melody? Hope I'm making sense!
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Whatever you like ! If it's the same instrument (such as piano) change the octave, so there's no collision.
 
Some good tips there! Writing over a loop is a good idea will try that out
NekujaK said:
Just a few off the top of my head that often work for me...

You don't always need to reinvent the wheel. Find an existing chord progression, or part of one, and use that as the foundational starting point of your piece. You're not ripping anything off - chord progressions aren't copyrightable, and you can always throw in your own variations after your piece gets off the ground.

Write with an instrument or virtual instrument you typically don't use. Instead of composing on piano, pull up a crazy synth patch in Omnisphere, or use a guitar, etc...

Use a favorite composition as inspiration. Obviously don't steal it, but maybe use similar instrumentation, arrangement, dymanics, flow, etc.

Pull up a drum/percussion loop and try writing over it. You can always remove the loop later.
Click to expand...
 
make up a scale with 9 notes in it. Then make up some chord shapes that are not triad based and also not just 3 or 4 notes high and plane them across the scale.....start improvising with what you have created.
 
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