Robert J. Brownlow's Blog

Write 3 short melodies every day. Get as much variety as you can by varying clefs, meters, ranges, rhythmic patterns, etc. In a short while, you’ll have a library of tunes to come back to when you feel the need. Many of them may never be used but some almost certainly will. They may help you get past “brainlock” that all composers experience from time to time.

On Beginners…

I’d like to start by stating that ideally a student would have at least one and preferably two years of music theory studies completed before studying music composition. There are many reasons for this- which I’ll not discuss here except to say that understanding functional tonality and some fundamental aspects of great composers’ approach to it makes most aspects of composition MUCH easier than they otherwise would be. This is NOT to say that one can’t write music with little or no theory background.  Many pop musicians do it all the time. And it is true that a curious student can study great compositions on their own and learn quite a bit. This is in fact what I did. When I was 16 years old I tried to write pieces in the style of Giovanni Gabrieli. I knew nothing about theory whatsoever- but I knew Gabrieli’s music very well.

Brahms said, “Study Bach. There you will find everything.” I believe this to be true in Brahms’ era. And I still agree with it to a large extent even today. However, much has happened to music in the years since Brahms. Today, one also needs to study some of the twentieth century masters such as Bartok, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Hindemith, etc. And of course you should listen to composers who are alive and getting their music played in our own time.

You need to know what is going on in the field as you endeavor to enter it! Bringing me back to my original point; having a full cycle of music theory under your belt greatly enhances what you can learn from studying most any music.