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Learning how to compose music in my head?

MikeLG

Member
Hey all,

I've never really been able to hear original music in my head, so the way I compose right now is through a combination of experimentation and music theory.

I can hear music that was on the radio perfectly well in my head, so it's not that I can't hear music, it's that I can't hear ORIGINAL music.

Any tips on ways I might be able to develop this skill?
 
Maybe start with variation. For me listening to music and recalling it afterwards with variations feels very natural. Often one idea becomes something totally.
Maybe an analytic procedure could help aswell. Lets say youd like to write a classic rock song:
Imagine the drums first. F.e a really classic drum pattern. Hear it drum by drum.
Add the bassline. Imagine some sort of melody etc.
Training to follow and auralise multiple instruments at once is also good.
 
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You can't hear it at all or you can but just don't know how to write it down?
Either way, you probably gonna start simple with a melody that you play on your piano/keyboard, and then since it is original, repeat it until it's in your head, and then start building further from there in your head and transfer it step by step into your composition. That should help and train it.
 
Let your brain follow the emotions generated by your heart.
Look, the beginning of the word heart is hear...Okay, the end of the word brain is rain.
So, imagine every drop is a note and let the umbrella aside. Rain comes from the sky and inspiration also.

brain heart.gif
 
Might be worth trying to master intervals to start with. Try singing say a perfect 5th and more importantly, keep singing a perfect 5th until you can sing it without even thinking about it.
Then work on all the other intervals in a similar way. The trick is to practise as regularly as you would scales etc. You do not need perfect pitch to do this rather you will develop a relative pitch if yours is not perfect. Always good to get used to chromaticism too, so perhaps start off diatonically, but at some stage start introducing chromatic movement.
Once you can sing any interval at will, then you can let your inner imagination do whatever it wants, you can make up melodies easily and can try as many alternatives as you want in real time because you will be able to call to mind any stepwise movement you desire. At the same time, singing intervals like this is good groundwork for then realising harmony in your inner ear too. A good way to hear a perfect 5th as a dyad might be to sing say c then g, repeat a little quicker, repeat more quickly and keep bringing the two notes closer together until you can hear them as one.
It takes time Mike, maybe even a long time, but the only way to get what you are asking for is to get very, very familiar with the materials of music with commitment.
 
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Thank you everyone! I am going to take all of this and work hard at it. I'm in for the long run so no rush!
 
1. Write a simple, short melody.

2. Sing it to yourself.

3. Start jamming on it in your head - adding variation.

Relax and play with your melody, by slightly altering some of the notes of your original melody.

Relax and play with it. It'll come.

Main thing - enjoy playing with the notes.
 
Music comes from the chest, not the head. Listen to something you like and let it nest into your chest.

For you that might always be true.

For me it varies and I'm sure it's not the same for everyone.
Sometimes it's from my throat, gut, crotch, back of my head (not thought), forehead (not thought) intellect (thought process)
solar plexus, diaphragm, upper left of chest.
Yet all are organised and filtered through thought to get them to an instrument or to paper.
 
Shower singing/humming and that type of thing are honestly really helpful in this process. For example, you could take a song that you know well and improvise on it (experimenting with it in the process) while you're doing something else like taking a shower, working on something else, etc.

That has really helped me come up with a lot of the ideas for different pieces that I've written.
 
Maybe pick a simple phrase (two to five notes) and repeat it in your head a few times (leave some silence or beats between repetitions) then either do variations or a second line on top of it or keep repeating the same thing and listen for something in you to start "talking back" musically.
 
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This may sound weird but, I can jam with my teeth.. I first noticed it - clattering(is that the word) my teeth 'to the beat' - to the first Nolan batman film, and I think it was during a percussion only section. Sort of similar to tapping with you fingers but how do i do this?.. It isn't simply up and down which produces a sort of 'sound', everyone does that right?.. it is also side ways, moving the lower jaw and 'dragging' between the teeth quickly. It sort of help I guess. I'm sorry if you read this...
As for composing 'in' your head. I personally can't start that without inspiration. With inspiration I mean a song or composition that sits in my sub conciseness and feeds a 'new' creation.. I don't believe in original music because I haven't found it yet. But listening and finding something I love, letting it simmer (sometimes for weeks) and come out sort of 'new' seems to work I guess.. There is just too out there in music to try something original. You have to start somewhere.
 
I think improvising with your main instrument is the fundament. I don't know any composer who isn't noodling around all the time when having an instrument within reach. After a while even without the instrument the noodling goes on in your head.
 
I try to combine melody and rhythm in my head. If I just concentrate on one or the other in my head I don’t retain it in time for the instrument, DAW or mobile phone capture...

So I sort of mentally map out a 3/4 - 4/4 section or say a steady 5/4 rhythm then motif/ jam over that. Some of my best pieces include these “mental” sections.
 
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