Writing Music

I have always struggled with writing music. My first year in Music Theory class I got the comment, "It sounds like a monkey playing a Jack-in-the-box." That definitely kept me away from composition for several years, but now I'm starting to experiment again.

My favorite quote from J.S. Bach is, "Anyone who is equally industrious as I will succeed just as well as I have." It made me realize that in order to write really good music, you need to learn from your experiences of writing mountains of mediocre and not-so-good music. Not every peice Bach wrote was a masterpiece, but that didn't keep him from writing new music every week!

So here's my advice to you. Pick up the pencil and manuscript paper and try to write a thirty second piece of music. Write for an instrument that you are familiar with, make two or three parts if you want to spice it up a little. Don't try to create the music on the paper, but instead try to write down the music that you are creating in your imagination or on a keyboard.

Write with a purpose. For instance, you could write down an articulation and scale exercise that you made up in the practice room, making it an etude. If you are feeling melancholy, write an expressive melody with simple harmonic or rhythmic figures underneath it. It doesn't have to be perfect. If it's not very good then don't show it to very many people, but use it for your own good by identifying the parts that you dislike.

Writing music is like making a sculpture, no matter how disfigured it is there is always some beauty to it!

Benefits of music

Music has multitudes of benefits. There are educational benefits, career paths, hobbies, personal benefits, communication skills... the list goes on. Most importantly, music is a life pursuit, and it is beneficial at any stage in the life of a human being.

One of the things that makes music class unique is the interdependency within the group. Most pieces of music are written for ensembles, and even "solo" pieces are usually written for two people (a soloist and an accompanist). In essence, you can't just play by yourself all the time. Music teaches you to interact with other human beings by using your instrument and your ears.

Another feature of music is its ability to express emotions without using words, colors, or shapes. Music is a safe outlet for the entire spectrum of human emotions. When you figure out how to express your emotions through music, you discover a deeper, wiser you than you ever thought you could be.

Listening to music

Active listening is a developed skill. If you can remember way back to your years in elementary school, you might remember having a General Music class where you worked on this skill. But if you're like most people, you probably just remember General Music as learning how to play the squeaky recorder and singing out of tune in the Christmas (politically correct, "holiday") concert.

Active listening has two main ideas to it. The first of the two is concentration, which makes the difference between active listening and passive listening. Start with a quiet setting (minimal distractions) and throw on your most expensive pair of headphones to get the best quality sound and once you hit play, concentrate on the music that you're hearing.

The second part of active listening is identification. Ask yourself these questions: What am I hearing? How does the music make me feel? What instruments are playing? How many different parts are going on at the same time (texture)? Does it sound professional or amateur? The list is infinite, the goal is for you to be able to create your own music related questions.

Budding musicians will benefit from active listening because it gives them a better idea of how their instruments or voices should sound (characteristic tone quality) and it heightens their musical awareness for when they are performing with other musicians.

Practice makes perfect

We all know the saying, "The more time you put into something, the more you get out of it." It's true with music too. You can't expect to be a good musician if you never practice music! Practice doesn't just mean putting your horn to your face or your fingers on the keys and having at it. There are different ways to practice, including actively listening to good recordings, reading music related books, and writing your own music!

When I was just a freshman in college, I started practicing a minimum of three hours a day. The results were incredible! In fact, the progress itself was enough encouragement to keep me in the musical career field. This summer I taught trumpet lessons to five highschool aged kids, and even though I knew they weren't practicing more than half an hour a day, I could hear leaps and bounds of improvement in their sound.

The moral of the story is: PRACTICE! Pick an instrument that you really want to play, do some quick research on the internet to find a good method book to learn from, and start playing even just for 15 minutes each day. You'll be surprised how quickly you can learn!