Practical-minded Resources For Learning To Compose?

After a late-night binge of Homestuck music the other day, I got inspired and downloaded Pyscle. I've been noodling around with it for a few days, and like my results but wish I had more foundation. I'm the sort of person to do research rather than just dive in and find out what works, so I'm currently looking for (preferably online) material that I can learn from before attempting to put anything out there.

What I'm looking for:

• An approachable crash course is applied music theory. Just enough so that I know what the crap I'm doing, without burying me in knowledge I'm probably not going to use any time soon.
• Tips, tricks, techniques, and solid advice for actually composing a song, preferably with an eye toward electronica.
• Some info about acoustics and other sound-tech stuff would also be nice.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you have any personal advice on the subject that would be welcome as well.

Things you gotta learn:

• Time signatures

• Chords & Chord Progressions (*Circle of fifths?*)

• How to program a softsynth (*This'll get ya started*)

• Song structure (*Depends on genre*)

• Mastering (*It's something you gotta practice a lot, levels, EQing, ect.*)

Then you gotta practice all of it a bunch.

ON Music Theory: Musictheory.net is a great place to start learning if you're interested. They have both hearing and reading exercises. Also, these two books are available for cheap on amazon and I've used both of them. Although, the thing about Music theory is it doesn't teach you how to compose, just how other people have. It's best to treat music theory as a tool for finding ideas to use in your own composition.

And when you say sound tech stuff, can you be more specific?

Nane: Thanks for the info, I'll look into those things.

Nameless: Thanks for the link, and yes, I know that music theory is not a magic "press to make music" button. I've been down that path with other endeavors. By sound-tech, I mainly mean how variables like gain and reverb actually affect the sound, as well as how to make sound that doesn't sound like shit on all but my own speakers.

edited 5th Mar '12 6:17:57 PM by Aniventerie

Well, reverb is composed of 3 features. The direct sound, Early reflections and Late reflections. Early reflections are sounds that arrive at the listener after being reflected maybe once or twice from parts of listening space, such as walls, ceilings and floor. They arrive later than the direct sound, often in a range from 5 to 100 milliseconds, but can arrive before the onset of full reverberation. After that come the later reflections which are present after the direct sound has ended. When people think of reverb they are usually thinking the late reflections.

As for not making your sound sound like shit, I know you said you were looking for a crash course, but it would be worth it to spend time with some books on mixing and mastering. I highly recommend Modern Recording Techniques by Daniel Huber (for the Basics), Mixing audio by Roey Izhaki (for a very technical in depth information on mixing), and Mastering Audio by Bob Katz.

Other good books are Zen and the Art of Mixing by Mixerman, a professional mixer (which offers a good methodology and mindset for approaching a mix and is a good contrast to Izhaki's technical approach by focusing more an some aesthetic details) and Understanding and Crafting the Mix, Second Edition: The Art of Recording by William Moylan, which is an in depth look at approaching analyzing a mix and sound from a scientific perspective.

edited 5th Mar '12 6:01:20 PM by Thenamelesssamurai

The Interactive Circle of Fifths is an awesome tool for learning about basic music theory (chords, key signatures and modes). It comes with a very accessible, well-written User's Guide which includes some handy remarks on composing.

You may also find the Chord House helpful.

edited 27th Mar '12 10:59:26 AM by MidnightRambler