Music Composition Articles

Cheat Sheet / Updated 07-28-2024

For quick reference, most of what you need to know about music composition is covered in this cheat sheet. Whether you’re sitting with a band and need to know what someone means when they say, “Take it up a fifth!” or you can’t remember the proper form for the 8-bar blues, this handy info is right at your fingertips on one convenient page.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-09-2022

Songwriting is fun, and also full of challenges. One of the biggest challenges is getting over any shyness you may have about writing songs. Other challenges include finding inspiration, collaborating, jotting down your ideas, and sharing your songs. Luckily, the internet is filled with numerous sources to help you along the way.

Article / Updated 03-29-2021

Musical themes in composition are characterized by three main categories: motif, melodic phrase, and period. You use these three kinds of melodic elements to build your compositions. Motif: A motif is the smallest form of melodic idea. It can be as short as two notes, like “cu coo,” or the first two notes of the theme from Star Wars. Melodic phrase: A melodic phrase can be up to four or more measures in length. Often a phrase is not really a complete musical idea. Phrases are usually separated by slight pauses, breaths, or rests. You can think of them as being similar to a single line of poetry. Several phrases make a Period: A period is a complete melodic idea. It can be 4, 8, 16, or even more measures long. It constitutes a musical completeness and can contain motifs or short or long phrases. When we refer to musical forms using letters (ABA and so on), each letter usually represents a period. The long and short of musical themes: motifs and phrases Often a composer’s entire body of work belies a tendency towards melodic long-windedness—using long, elaborately developed phrases—whereas other composers are more at home with shorter, choppier motifs. Take a look at Maurice Ravel’s long and winding opening phrase in his famous one-movement orchestral piece, Boléro. If you’re not familiar with Boléro, and you have a high tolerance for prurience, go out and rent the film 10, featuring Dudley Moore, a heavily be-braided Bo Derek, and lots of jogging. You’ll be glad you did. Now, compare Boléro to the following figure: Beethoven’s four-note exclamatory motif in his Symphony No. 5 (Opus 67). If you don’t know that one, you must have just crawled out from under the rock where you’ve been hiding for at least 200 years. In the Ravel piece, he weaves his melody up and down for sixteen measures before he gets us to the end of a period, whereas Beethoven doesn’t even need four beats to state his motif. There is no question that both of these compositions were successes for their composers, but their approaches are obviously very different. There are similarities as well: each repeats his theme and explores variations throughout the piece, giving the theme to different instruments and throwing it at the listener from various perspectives. With Ravel, our fascination springs from seeing how far he can take a single, long theme while keeping it within a very repetitive rhythmic framework. Or is it seeing how far he can push a repeating rhythmic idea by leading us through it with his melodic narrative? The rhythm helps us hold our place as his long narrative expands. The long melody line keeps us from getting bored with the rhythm. Of course, the long, slow build-up of magnitude and intensity creates tension and keeps us interested, too. Beethoven’s melodic repetitiveness holds our interest because we are fascinated and surprised by the variations he is able to bring to such a short, powerful motif, and the uses to which he puts such a simple idea. How many ways can you say, “I love you?" It’s okay for your melodies to speak through short melodic ideas or long ones. The danger lies in losing the listeners’ interest. If your melody goes around the block a few times before reaching its destination, then maybe you should support it with a framework that allows your listeners to keep track of where they are, and where they are headed. A strong, repetitive, supporting rhythmic phrase or motif could be a good choice. And if your melodic ideas are short and sweet, it is important not to let them get boring. You have to get pretty inventive with the various uses of a short motif or phrase to make it hold interest for very long. Remember that a motif is not particularly useful unless it is somewhat self-contained. If you imagine Beethoven’s Fifth without the fourth note, it would be very weak, and we probably wouldn’t be able to remember it very well. And Beethoven still needed more development around his motif in order to drive the idea home without driving the listener crazy. The whistling part of Ennio Morricone’s theme song for the movie The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is another good example of a motif that is complete and sticks in your head as a result. Similarly, a good melodic phrase is one that carves a place easily in a listener’s memory. If the phrase is too much like another one, it might be as easily forgotten as if it were too complicated to make sense out of. Walking the line of originality, accessibility, and familiarity is the trick to writing a lasting, memorable musical composition. Of course, it is not uncommon to hear compositions in which a long melody line seems almost suspended in timelessness, like Pavane for Une Infante Defunte by Maurice Ravel. In this composition the composer leads the listener through several different melodic periods that are almost complete enough and different enough from one another to have been the basis for three different compositions. It is all about mood, and few things are as tricky as sculpting time into a sense of temporal stasis where time itself seems to stand still. How to build a melodic phrase Let’s step back from motifs for a minute and examine phrases — the most basic building blocks of melody. How do we turn a couple of bars of melody into a musical composition? Consider the very simple melody line shown here. Now, let’s make the piece longer than the three measures it already is by employing repetition. Repetition is just like it sounds—repeating a musical theme in a piece of music, either immediately after the first time it’s played, or somewhere later on in the song. This figure shows what it looks like if you repeated the melody immediately after the first time it’s played. In the following figure, we use repetition again, this time adding a few additional phrases, sticking them in between the repeated parts. Another way to employ repetition is to have multiple instruments take turns playing the same phrase. You could give the music in the following figure to one instrument and that in the next figure to another, and the result would be a “round” kind of effect. Another way to spread the phrase across the instrumentation would be to have the two instruments take turns “soloing,” as shown in these two figures. Spice it up by varying the melodic phrase If you were a minstrel living in the Middle Ages, the information provided so far in this chapter would probably be all you would need to know to make your compositions minimally palatable to an audience. However, modern audiences want more from a composition than the same musical motifs and phrases repeated over and over. Four ways to give them what they want would be to use the following tools: Rhythmic displacement Truncation Expansion Tonal displacement These four methods are all ways to help make your short or long phrases expand into full-fledged compositions. Rhythmic displacement You can expand a rhythmic idea by changing the meter of the phrase. Rhythmic displacement is a favorite tool of jazz players. They pass around a theme, with the rhythm of each solo differing just enough to make it sound like they’re not all playing the same piece of music — even though they pretty much are. In the example shown in the following figure, we’ve taken our original theme and expanded on it by changing the rhythm of the repeated theme. By changing the values of some of the notes, we’ve changed the tempo and even the mood of the repeated phrase. Truncation When you truncate a verbal phrase, you cut it short (for example, the Dixie Chicks truncated their name to The Chicks in support of the Black Lives Matter movement). When you truncate in music, you’re cutting a repeated musical phrase short, as shown. It’s completely up to you where and when you want to make the cut-off. Expansion Expansion is, of course, the opposite of truncation. In expansion, you add new material to the original phrase to make it last longer. You typically do this at the end of the phrase, as shown. Expanded phrases are found at the end of many classical music pieces, including Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata and, especially, his Symphony No. 5. Tonal displacement Tonal displacement is the technique of moving your motif to different notes within the appropriate scale while retaining the rhythm and contour of the phrase. Go back to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and notice that almost immediately after the statement of the first motif, old Ludwig repeats the motif, but with lower pitched notes. In fact, the bulk of this composition is an exercise in moving the same motif around tonally without much changing as far as rhythm and contour of the motif.

Article / Updated 03-29-2021

Drummers have a language all their own, and drum notation has some peculiarities as well. Rather than write out a drum part, it is often easier to say something like, “Play a half-time groove,” or “Swing.” This article guides you through some of these conventions for composing music for drummers. But first look at the way in which drum notation works. The most important parts of a drum “kit” are the bass drum, the snare drum, the hi-hat cymbals, the ride cymbal, and crash cymbal. Since drums have no standardized pitches to which they are tuned, they don’t need a treble clef or bass clef. You will see in the following figures what is commonly used as a clef sign for drums. So, the bass drum is written on the bottom line of the staff, the snare on the middle line, the hi-hat on the top line, and ride or crash cymbals on the first ledger line above the staff. Regular note heads are used for the bass and snare (and the tom toms), and Xs are used as note heads for the cymbals. A circle is drawn around the Xs for the hi-hat when the hi-hat is played open instead of closed. The ride cymbal is an X with no circle, and the crash has a circle around its X. Look at the following figure. This is a basic rock groove with the snare hitting on beats 2 and 4. Notice the open hi-hat at the end of the fourth measure. If you ask a drummer to play a straight rock and roll beat, this is likely what you will get. The hi-hat might alternately play just quarter notes or it could play sixteenths for variety, but it’s basically rock and roll. The following figure shows you what a “half-time” groove looks like. The snare is now on beat 3. Hi-hat can also play different subdivisions. The next figure is what a drummer might see written, but if you look at the image following, it illustrates what a “swinging” it would “sound” like. You wouldn’t write a swing groove this way because if a drummer knows how to swing, he won’t need it. Some musicians couldn’t swing if you hung them from a rope, so the figure might not help. It’s just there for you to get a feel of what “swing” really means and to keep you looking at drum notation examples. The following figure shows some tom-toms, ride, and crash cymbals. The tom-toms are written on the spaces with normal note heads. Their position on the staff indicates which tom-tom you want played, from high to low. Modern drum sets typically have at least two or three tom-toms. This figure is a drum groove complete with all the stuff you have learned so far. Can you read it. Can you hear it in your head? Though you can totally write out parts for a drummer, it’s often better just to let them know what feel you want the groove to have. Sometimes you can just write out any special accents you want them to play within that groove. Look at this figure. Here it doesn’t really matter what clef sign you use. The drummer will give you the groove you agreed on and will play the accents when they come along in the chart.

Article / Updated 03-29-2021

A distinct type of lead sheet, designed specifically for guitar and bass, is called tablature, or just tab. Instead of using standard musical notation symbols, tab uses ordinary ASCII numbers and letters, making it ideal for reproducing music for the Internet and online newsgroups where anybody with any computer can link up, copy a tab file, and read it. Tablature notation has existed for more than 800 years, with the first known examples appearing in Asia. Up until the 1600s, the majority of musicians used tablature to write music for just about every instrument you can think of, from stringed instruments and horns to early keyboard instruments. However, tablature had some serious limitations, a major one being that each piece of it was so instrument-specific that there was no possible way for a lute player to reproduce a piece of music on a harpsichord, or any other instrument, by reading his lute tablature. The system began to fall out of common use when the five-lined staff and modern music notation was standardized in the 16th century. Basically, tab sheets tell you what notes to play. However, there is usually no indication given to a musician reading tab exactly how long or short a note needs to be — the way quarter notes and half notes and so on do — so it may be necessary for musicians to hear how a piece is to be played before they can successfully read any tab you’ve written. There are some cases where note flags are written above tab characters, but this is not a standard practice and is mostly confined to tablature written for more archaic instruments like the lute and the contrabass. Tab is very easy to read, though, and many beginning musicians, or musicians without any real music theory background, prefer to have their music written for them this way. The basic idea of tab for guitar is that you start out by drawing six parallel horizontal lines (four for bass), which correspond to the strings of the instrument. The top line is the highest-pitched string, and the bottom line is the lowest-pitched. An example is shown here. If you’re writing a piece for a bass, you would write out something like this: Next, you write numbers on the lines to show you where to fret the string —meaning upon which fret to apply pressure (in case there’s any confusion). If a zero appears, this means play the open string (no fretting). The tab shown here means play the sequence of notes: E(0), F(1), F#(2), G(3), G#(4), and A(5) on the bottom E string by moving up a fret at a time, starting with the open string. If two or more notes are to be played together, they are written on top of one another, such as in the example of a G barre chord shown in the following figure. Here, you would play all these notes together at once, as a chord. You might see the same chord written out something like the following figure. Writing tab like the figure shown would mean you want your guitarist to strum the chord, but more slowly, with each individual string plucked, starting at the bottom string and ending at the top. Most modern tablature doesn’t show note values, but as a general rule the horizontal spacing of the numbers on the tab should tell you which notes are the long ones, and which are the short and fast ones. As an example, the following figure shows the first few notes of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in tab. As you can see, the different spacings correspond to the different note lengths. To show technical markings in tab, the standard practice is to write extra letters or symbols between notes to indicate how to play them, such as the example shown here, which indicates a hammer-on (playing the note by simply bringing the finger down on the fret, without plucking the note). In that example you would play the open E twice, then hit the A string at the fifth fret and hammer on to the seventh fret. Following is a list of the extra letters and symbols most often used in guitar tablature: What to write What it means H Hammer-on P Pull-off B Bend string up R Release bend / Slide up — Slide down v Vibrato (sometimes written as ~) T Right hand tap

Article / Updated 03-29-2021

Making a living as a music composer is hard. And it’s not because the money isn’t out there waiting for you to come along. It’s simply because that for every legitimate composing job out there, there are dozens—or even hundreds—of budding, starry-eyed composers out there waiting in line for their big chance. Does that mean you should give up? No, it means that what’s going to set you apart from every other composer out there—besides your massive talent—is your ability to persevere against what might seem like tremendous odds. That, and the ability to seek out work on your own and not sit around and wait for want ads in the paper or the music journals to pop up. The following careers are just a few of the opportunities open to composers that may not have crossed your—or your competition’s—mind. School bands and choirs Every year, high schools and colleges across the country put on musical performances for both parent and community audiences. Sometimes, the music used for these performances comes from well-known sources, such as Oklahoma! or Grease. Sometimes, though, the school in question wants to use completely original music, preferably written by a local composer. It’s an extra bonus if that composer once attended that school. The best way to get your foot in the door as a composer at your local high school or college is to approach the music department head in person with a selection of your own original music. Call up the school in question, set up an appointment, and then come prepared. You’ll want to bring a portfolio of your original written music to present at the appointment, plus a recording of it for the music director to listen to at his or her leisure. Granted, most high schools and universities don’t have a huge budget for paying composers for original work, but having this credit under your belt may open doors you can’t currently imagine. Your name will be on the printed program of the performance, and every single person attending the performance will receive a copy of this program. If the performance is a success, there’s a chance that schools outside of your community will want to use your music. The trick to writing music for either a high school/college choir or musical is that you have to take into consideration that you’re writing for kids. Talented kids, probably, but still kids. Therefore, you want to keep the instrumentation and vocals just easy enough for them to handle, but challenging enough for them to feel like they’ve accomplished something. Think somewhere between Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Phantom of the Opera and the music from The Muppet Show. Make sure you copyright any work that is accepted for use in a performance. Some cities have arts organizations that work directly with the public school system and with the local universities. While you’re making appointments to talk to band directors and music departments, stop by and drop off a résumé with them as well. They often have a bulletin board in the lobby or online that announces when jobs for composers pop up. Incidental television music Spend any amount of time in front of a television set, and you’ll be amazed at how much incidental filler music is used on any given program. There’s music to accompany car chases, love scenes, deep, funny, confusing, dangerous or poignant moments, and so on. Even your local news programs probably use little musical segments at the beginning and end of the shows. For major network shows, you’re going to need a good, persistent agent and a whole lot of experience behind you to get your music in those action/love/flashback scenes. Or you can try your luck with music placement services, such as Taximusic. On the other hand, the world of cable TV is a whole lot more approachable to the beginning or mid-level composer. Your locally produced cable or public-access stations are good places to start. Their budgets are likely to be small or nonexistent, so you’re probably going to have to do a lot of free work right off the bat — but people do watch these shows, and this is a credit you can put on your résumé. Scout out programs that you personally think are interesting or show great promise and then call up the station and find out when those shows are recorded. You can then either show up in person on the day of the recording and try to hand your demo to the hosts or actors of the show in person, or leave a phone message and a copy of your demo in the program’s station mailbox. Make sure you call back to confirm that they received your materials and to see if you can set up an appointment with the people in charge of the program’s music. Don’t be a pest, but be persistent. If you don’t hear anything back within a reasonable frame of time, brush the dust off your jeans and go knock on another door. Local news programs are another place to try and place your music. Call ahead of time and try to get an appointment with the music director. If an in-person interview isn’t possible, try mailing a copy of your demo and a résumé to the director. Always include your contact info (address, phone number, email address) and follow up with a phone call about a week after sending your materials. The personal approach almost always works best in these situations, and if you don’t have a direct contact at the station who’s already expecting to see your demo, try to make an in-person impression first. Musical theater Musical theater is another area where your mastery of music composition can be utilized. Generally, the composer writes the music, and a lyricist writes the words, although it’s not unusual for one person to act as both composer and lyricist. In most cases, composers leave the dances or underscoring to the orchestrator and dance arranger. Only a very few people have succeeded as both composer and lyricist as successfully as Noel Coward, Robert Meredith Willson, or Jonathan Larson. If you can find a good lyricist to partner up with early in the game, you can save yourself a lot of hassle. Most show tunes are written on an AABA structure, with a verse and a chorus/refrain. The verse (A) sets up the premise of a song and helps move the story of the musical along, and the chorus (B) states the main idea. For example, consider the title song to Oklahoma!, where the verse begins “They couldn’t pick a better time to start in life,” and says how happy the leads will be living in a “brand new state.” The chorus starts with a joyous shout of “Ooooo-klahoma,” and then sings the praises of that territory. Broken down very simply, there are three basic types of show tunes used in musicals: “I Am” songs “I Want” songs “New” songs “I Am” songs explain a character, a group of characters, or a situation. “I Want” songs tell us what characters desire — what motivates them. Most love songs fit into this category. “New” songs include any songs that don’t fit the other two categories, such as instrumentals. “New” songs are there because they serve special dramatic needs, such as the dialog-free big fight scene in West Side Story, set to “the rumble” ballet. The chances that you’re going to have your music performed on Broadway right out of the gate are slim to none. So once again, this is a good time for you to check out the musical theater offerings in your own neck of the woods and see if you can get hired writing music for local productions. Dinner theaters that feature live musical entertainment sometimes hire one or two composers or musical directors to work with all of their productions. When you do land yourself a gig, any gig, put in your own fair share in getting the word out about the production. Send press releases to newspapers and local critics. If any good reviews of the production go to print, especially if they mention you by name or your music, photocopy them many, many times and include a copy of the positive review with any future résumés you send out. Concert composition and performances Any pop musician will tell you that the big money in music is in playing concerts. This is why some bands and artists are always on the road. It applies to classical performers as well. Sure, some people will buy a major label classical recording to listen to in the car, but the real cash comes from ticket sales at concert halls. Your best bet for booking a performance at a club is to talk to the club’s booking agent. Or hire a tour manager to set up performances for you on a national or international basis. If you’re just planning on playing small, independently run venues on the local level or on tour, you probably don’t need a manager, and a little bit of Internet and phone book research can give you the names of hundreds of clubs that would love to have you stop by and play for free, or for popcorn and beer, or for a percentage of ticket sales. You also usually get a table to sell merchandise before and after the performance. A good tour manager also has the connections necessary to book you at larger venues where money up front, a guaranteed rate, or a substantial percentage of ticket sales are part of the deal. If you’re not comfortable performing in front of people, but you have lots of music that is performance-ready, you can get that music performed by selling or even lending out your performances on a profit-sharing basis to a local classical ensemble to perform at events. Unless you’re composing for an ensemble as big as the Kronos Quartet, you’re not going to make a whole lot of money this way, but you can get your name out for people to see, and it’s one more credit to put on the ol’ résumé. Producer/arranger Just about every rap star and electronic music performer has had a “producer” credit at one time or another. Ask them what they did as “producer” on the record, however, and they may give you a blank look. “Why, I produced! What kind of question is that?” The truth is, being a producer can range from singing backing vocals on a couple of tracks to really giving a record a complete overhaul with a patient and guiding hand. If you’re very famous, then the first example is probably the extent of your production work. You’re attaching your very famous name to a lesser-known person’s name, and hopefully attracting your fans to this person’s record (and vice versa). Real producers are people like Genya Raven and Steve Albini (who prefers to call himself a studio engineer instead of producer). They go into the studio with the band and help tweak their sound and make it more marketable, or just better. A good producer can call up other musicians in the trade, like horn, steel pedal, or xylophone players, to fill in what they think are missing parts of the existing music. As a composer and overall expert in music, you can make a huge difference in the evolution of a band by working in the producer capacity. Start with small, local bands first, and if it seems like this is something you are very good at, the word of mouth and studio association will start bringing the clients in. There are lots more bands out there than there are producers (especially good producers). A good producer is never short on steady employment. Don’t be afraid to start at the bottom. Many producers need assistants, and this is a good way to gain experience and get your foot in the door if a producing position opens up. Knowing how to write arrangements is another side of being a good producer—it’s also a good career in itself. An arranger can take a piece of music written for one instrument, or multiple instruments, and make it better suited for another instrument or another set of instruments entirely. A familiarity with instruments’ physical and tonal capabilities and excellent, second-nature transposition abilities are essential to being an arranger. But if you want to be a successful producer, you are going to have to be able to turn musical ideas into “product.” That is the number one thing that a producer does: create product. That means you will need to understand the marketplace and what listeners want or expect in any particular genre. The producer is the one who knows when “it’s done.” Musicians and singers will always feel they have a better take or another interesting idea to try out. The producer must move the music from the studio into the public. Industrial music and advertising Industrial music — not the dance music, but the music of the working world — is any music that is used for a specific, usually commercial, purpose. Advertising music (jingles), convention music, and music written for music libraries all fall under this category. The best way to break into advertising as a new composer is to actively go out and seek local businesses and find out if they need music for any television or radio campaigns. Local bars are a great place to start, because they almost always use music in their advertising—an extra bonus for them (and you) would be for you or your band to perform at the bar in question. Local clothing and shoe stores are also good places to try, as they also use music in their advertising and are always trying to find a new way to sound “fresh” and “cutting-edge.” Business conventions If a big business convention is coming to your town, find out if any local businesses are planning to have a booth at the event. Many times, the most stodgy-seeming company, such as medical suppliers or stationery stores, will hire a musician or a small band to play music at their booth in order to attract attention away from their competitors. As with any potential job, call ahead to set up an appointment — or at the least, try to find out who is in charge of setting up the convention booth for the company. Mail a copy of your demo disc to that person and follow up after the appropriate length of time (one week is usually good). Music libraries Music libraries, or song banks, can range from a single collection with one composer’s interpretation of public domain scores (musical copyright expires 70 years from the composer’s death and becomes “public domain”) to websites that sell thousands of sound effects to full-length compositions from any number of musicians and composers. Many of the online music libraries, such as Audiosparx, are always open to working with more musicians and will pay you 50 percent of whatever they earn from people downloading your sound effects or music. Plenty of musicians make a small but steady income working with music libraries, which then sell music and sounds to video game companies, independent film companies, and even phone companies (for ringtones). Film scoring One of the most lucrative careers that a music composer can pursue is writing scores for films. It’s a very difficult arena to get into, though, and if you’re not able to stomach competition or rejection, it’s probably not for you. If you do get your moment in the sun, however, just remember that your score has to fit the film, it has to be evocative emotionally, and you absolutely have to be able to stick to all deadlines and timetables thrown at you, no matter how impossible they seem. Video game scoring Video game scoring is another very lucrative career for composers, and also one of the most challenging. You have to have an intimate knowledge of every game you’re scoring for, including the sounds needed for every possible scenario in the game. Most video games are wall-to-wall sounds, all the way through, and therefore require a composer to write a lot of music. An intimate knowledge of how rhythm and changing tempos affects mood is necessary, as is the ability to compose both highly unpleasant, discordant music and triumphant-sounding music to fit scenes on a very tight deadline. Songwriting Another good career for composers is that of a songwriter. Many big-name pop stars depend on songwriters to come up with music and lyrics for them, and if you can get your foot in the door in this highly competitive field, you’ll have no trouble finding money to fund your own pet projects. A good place to start finding leads is the book Songwriter’s Market (Writer’s Digest Books). Songwriter’s Market lists hundreds of agencies, record labels, publishing companies, and production companies looking for songwriters to work with, as well as pay rates and basic contract information. Make sure you get the most current edition of Songwriter’s Market, as the listings can change drastically from one year to the next. Teaching You know that old, oft-quoted adage, “Those who can, do; those who can't, teach?" It’s not true, especially in the music industry. Almost every professional musician and composer has at one time taught, and many of them continue to teach well after their music careers take off because they truly enjoy it. Today, with so many music institutes now offering online classes for an international roster of students, you have the capability to teach any number of music and recording classes from your home. All you need is a fairly modern computer with a camera and audio capabilities and an internet connection. If you have a master’s degree or a PhD in music, you probably already know how to get a job in a university setting or have contacts that can help you get in the door. But if you don’t have a degree but have a good track record working as a studio/session musician, an independent performing and touring musician, a credited producer, or any other number of professional credits that detail your experience in and out of the studio, then there are a lot of places where you can take your experience and turn it into online lessons for kids or adults—or both. Here are just a few places you can start: Outschool.com: Outschool classes are aimed at K-12 learners and offer everything from English lessons to ukulele lessons. Music instructors are in high demand at Outschool, and your students come to you from all over the world. Instructors are paid per enrolled student, and you have complete control over designing your curriculum. Sagemusic.co: Sage Music School offers classes on nearly every type of instrument, including voice, for talented youth and adult students. All of its classes are structured around its patented ARPEGGIO lesson framework, which it trains hired instructors to use. Sage offers a full benefit package to full-time instructors. Udemy.com: Udemy offers hundreds of classes on every subject you can imagine, including music instruction, recording technology, and music theory. Once approved, you prerecord your courses then upload them to the site. Every time someone purchases one of your courses, you get paid, with online deposits sent to you once a month. Courses usually range from a couple of hours up to 30+ hours, depending on the subject, and the amount you can charge per course is usually determined by the length and specialization of the class. Aside from working with an established institution, you can also strike out on your own by posting a sample class on YouTube with your contact information at the end of the video lesson. Potential students can contact you this way about private or group lessons, which you can teach from your home via Zoom.com.

Article / Updated 03-29-2021

Walk into any bookstore and check out the Music Books section, and you’ll find yourself before a wall of daunting choices. Stop by any given online bookstore and search for music, and you’ll be faced with even more. It seems there are nearly as many books written about music composition, the music business, and music appreciation as there are albums or compact discs containing music. Here are just a few of the good ones. Songwriter’s Market by various authors, Writer’s Digest Books Songwriter’s Market is one of the most respected of the market guides and worth picking up every year when a new edition comes out (the 2020 edition is the latest as of this writing). For more than 30 years, the guide has provided up-to-date contact information on music-publishing houses, record companies, managers, booking agents, and record producers. The book also explains what sorts of musicians and composers these organizations want to work with for the coming year. Besides that, it lists how much money you can expect to be paid for projects from each record label and music publisher mentioned. There’s also lots of information on composing and songwriting contests, as well as information on networking groups and unions that are beneficial for composers and musicians. Plus, the book has a huge, easy-to-understand section on the business side of being a composer or songwriter, including how to read contracts or even write your own basic contract, what sorts of fees are acceptable when signing with a manager or agent, and advice on copyrighting your material. There are also about a dozen interviews in each edition with professional composers and songwriters on how they found success in their given field. The Shaping of Musical Elements, Vol. II by Armand Russell and Allen Trubitt, Schirmer Books/Macmillan, Inc. If you’ve taken a beginning theory class in college, you may have read or heard of this series. Where the first volume introduced many of the basic principles of music theory, form, and analysis, Vol. II concerns itself with the historical development of music since the 17th century. Baroque, Classical, and Romantic era music is analyzed and dissected to its minutest parts, with good and detailed explanations of what each composer was either trying to do with his music or what his music inspired the next generation of composers to do. The book progresses into the 20th century, with analytical stops at every point in musical history. It’s a really ambitious (and pricey) book — we feel particularly sorry for any student expected to cover all this heady material in one year at music school, even with the benefit of a professor close at hand. You could spend years familiarizing yourself with the concepts and techniques discussed in this book and have a lot of fun doing it, too. The Norton Scores, Vols. 1 and 2, 10th Edition edited by Kristine Forney, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. These books are an absolute must for anyone interested in seriously dissecting classical music. Vol. 1 contains full orchestral scores from the early secular period to renaissance, baroque, and classical periods of music, including works of Beethoven, Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, and more than a dozen other composers. Vol. 2 features scores from the 19th century on and includes scores from Schoenberg, Bartók, Copland, and others. The best way to use these books is to own or check out a recording of the score being studied so that you can follow along with the written material. For the novice score reader, this is an exciting new way to study music; for the more advanced score reader, these books provide the opportunity to really study a composer’s technique in a whole new way. Both books are written for the expert and the novice alike, with significant sections of the scores highlighted to make following the piece easier without dumbing down any of the material. Another great thing about these books is that you have all this truly amazing sheet music at your fingertips. When you’re feeling particularly uninspired to write your own music, sit down and analyze and play a section of Mozart’s Don Giovanni or Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto — it might be just the thing you need to get inspired to write something entirely new! How to Grow as a Musician by Sheila E. Anderson, Allworth Press This is a really fun and informative book to read, one that is aimed specifically at the touring and recording musician. There is a lot of information here about booking a tour, mentally preparing yourself for live performances in both familiar and unfamiliar settings, marketing yourself, and even figuring out how much to charge for different types of performances. Contracts and royalties are discussed in great detail, as are all the hidden fees that can pop up even after a contract is signed. Anderson’s background as a jazz radio journalist makes this a great book to just sit down and read even if you’re not planning on going on tour or even into the studio; the book contains tons of great stories about the ups and downs of being a professional musician, including anecdotes from jazz greats like Ruth Brown and Michael Wolff. It also contains advice provided by attorneys working within the music business. Analysis of Tonal Music: A Schenkerian Approach by Alan Cadwallader and David Gagné, Oxford University Press Schenkerian analysis is a method of musical analysis based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker, a music theorist of the early 20th century. In Schenkerian analysis, the basic goal is to reveal the tonal structure of a piece of music by reducing the music using a specialized, symbolic form of musical notation devised by Schenker. The analysis reveals the inner musical workings of the music, dividing it into what is called the foreground and the fundamental structure. The foreground is the part of the music that immediately attracts a listener’s attention, such as the rhythm or the repeated chord changes; the fundamental structure is composed of the arrhythmic pitch events that help keep the music from sounding mechanical. The beauty of Schenkerian analysis is that it is completely subjective, and there is no right or wrong answer to how each individual dissects a piece of music. Each analysis reflects the musical intuitions of the analyst and shows what he or she thinks is the underlying structure or most important parts of a given piece of music. It’s a more philosophical way of studying music than most theoretical approaches, and one more way to learn how to really sit and listen to a piece of music, instead of allowing it to disappear into background noises at a cocktail party. The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music by Victor L. Wooten Written by Grammy award-winning bassist Victor L. Wooten, The Music Lesson is partly about the process of writing music and partly about self-discovery. Wooten takes the reader on a spiritual journey in which strange characters appear out of nowhere to offer advice on how to become a great musician. The book’s main spiritual guide, Michael, divides music up into Groove, Notes, Articulation, Technique, Emotion, Dynamics, Rhythm, Tone, Phrasing, and Space, and takes the reader—through the eyes of Wooten—on various adventures to teach each of these components. As Michael explains as he’s demonstrating various techniques to Wooten, "Doctors use lasers to operate. Music, in the right hands, can do the same thing." Throughout the book, Wooten reiterates that music is more than just notes—it’s magic. American Mavericks edited by Susan Key and Larry Roethe, University of California Press This book is gorgeous enough to be a coffee table book, and, if you’re as obsessed with music as we are and you have a coffee table, you really should pick up a copy. It’s loaded with fantastic photographs of unique American composers and their equally unique choices of instruments. It features in-depth profiles of composers as varied and dissimilar as John Cage, Aaron Copland, Steve Mackey, and Carl Ruggles. The book also comes with a CD containing 18 tracks of music — one for every composer and several from albums that are just about impossible to find in your local record store. RE/Search #14 & #15: Incredibly Strange Music, Vols. I and II by RE/Search Publications Anyone familiar with the RE/Search books already knows they’re in for a treat when they pick up either one of these books. For those not familiar with the RE/Search series — well, you should be. They’re a lot of fun to read. RE/Search #14 and #15 are both filled with interviews with fringe performers and radio personalities, all talking about their personal record collections. In #14, Vol. 1, Ivy and Lux from The Cramps talk about their collection of easy-listening records; Eartha Kitt talks about her own records and the scandal caused by her performance at President Johnson’s White House; Gershon Kingsley reminisces about his first recordings on a Moog synthesizer; and Martin Denny talks about the world of exotica. Vol. 2 features Jello Biafra on Les Baxter, Robert Moog on the theremin, Juan Esquivel on the Latin music of the 1950s, and Yma Sumac on her own mythical life. Both volumes contain many, many more interviews and articles than what we’ve just mentioned here, but these are just a few examples of why these books belong in every music-lover’s collection. Silence by John Cage, Wesleyan University Press This book is an incredible look into the mind of one of America’s greatest experimental composers. The founder of the concept of “happenings,” in which a thing happens exactly in the present and at no other time, whether it’s an art show, a live concert, or a dance performance, he epitomized the “Be Here Now” mentality of the Beat Movement of the 1950s. In this collection of Cage’s essays and lectures, Cage discusses some of his compositional processes, including aleatorics, in which chance elements determine how a composition sounds. A prime example of this is Cage’s possibly most famous piano piece, “4’33,” in which no notes on the piano are actually played, but every sound around the piano — the audience shifting in their chairs, the breathing of the performer picked up by the mic, papers rustling in the room — becomes a part of the piece. His other most famous compositional technique, used later by musicians such as Brian Eno, is that of drawing from the I Ching to determine where a composition is going to go next. Cage also talks about how the sounds of remembered or overheard conversations and numerology have dictated his compositional process, the effect technological advances have had on his own and other’s music, and his dabblings with psychedelic substances.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-27-2016

If you're getting serious about writing your own digital music, look into a few magazines and online resources that can help you keep up with what's happening in the music industry and offer forums, downloads, and even legal advice. Sibelius is the most popular software for composing digital music; check out some common keyboard shortcuts you'll find yourself using often.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

A music attorney should be one of the first business associates you add to your songwriting team. A music attorney can be your best friend and ally, so hiring your attorney in the beginning will start your team off with the right offense and defense. Good attorneys don't come cheap, but a good one is worth his weight in gold because he can help you avoid the pitfalls so many songwriters fall into and guide you into fair contracts with reputable people. Because of the importance of this person's role, some say, if you choose to handle your own legal representation, you may end up with a fool for a client. Discovering what a good music attorney can do for you A good music attorney will have contacts with artists' managers, publishers, song pluggers, record company artist and repertoire (A&R) people, and the artists themselves. With a good attorney, you don't have to worry about not having 35 years experience in the business. A desirable music attorney does all the following: Makes sure that every piece of paper that you are asked to sign is fully negotiated in your best interest and makes sure that you fully understand what you are signing. Puts you in touch with other potential team players, such as publishers, managers, agents, accountants, and other songwriters. Promotes you among her friends and associates and raises your visibility in the music world. Adds credibility and prestige to you as a songwriter — if she happens to garner the respect of her peers in the business. Gets A&R people, record labels, publishers, and artists to listen to your work. Analyzes contracts previously signed for ways to permit her to renegotiate, expand upon, or even invalidate an unfair contract. Upholds and defends your legal rights in the case of a dispute and deals with any "breaches of contract" (when someone fails to live up to their part of the bargain). If you start your team off with an attorney, the rest of the players will appreciate it. Many industry professionals prefer not to hear from you directly — they'd rather talk with an experienced music attorney. Hiring a music attorney For starters, make a list of potential candidate's referrals you receive through other musicians. You can also call one of the performance rights organizations, such as ASCAP or BMI, as they can be helpful making a recommendation on a music attorney to handle your needs. There are also listings of music attorneys in publications. By the way, an attorney need not be in your home town to be effective. Although face-to-face contact is always preferred, with phones, fax, and e-mail, long distance communication has never been easier. Write letters of introduction to those on your list and follow up with a friendly phone call. If they fail to call you back after a few tries, either they're too busy for you anyway, or they lack in the courtesy you're looking for. Keep searching and soon you'll be sure to find the one with the expertise you need who also happens to match your personal wavelength. Although there are many top-flight, caring attorneys who reach out to bands, artists, and songwriters they've seen perform at various showcases to offer a helping hand (sometimes for free), they'll always ask the person if he already has legal representation. Beware of the ones that try to persuade you away from your current attorney. After you make a solid connection with an attorney by phone, the next step, if at all possible, is to set up an interview at the attorney's offices. You need to be in harmony with the person who's going to help you make tons of money with your music, so be armed with specific questions when you have your interview. Let the attorney's answers to each of the following questions help you decide whether you want this person on your business team: Is your practice limited to music? A jack-of-all trade's attorney may not be the master of any. (Your dad's real estate attorney who "plays a little banjo," ain't gonna cut it.) Look for an attorney who specializes in music law. Next, find out what his specialty is within that broad category. For example, if his forte is negotiating recording and publishing deals, make sure he also feels comfortable handling copyright issues and royalty questions, or has others on his staff that he can pass the baton to when the need arises. Whom do you represent? See if, on his list of clients, you recognize the names of any big success stories that have inspired you. Also, check for any conflicts of interest. For example, does he represent any publishing companies that may want to sign you to a future deal? That's something you may want to avoid. How much experience do you have? This may tell you how much time he's going to have to spend with you. Find the one attorney who has enough experience in business to make you feel confidant in his services, but also whose workload won't make you feel like you're at the bottom of his totem pole. How strong are your contacts? Let's face it. Networking and access are important aspects to consider as far as what this team player can offer you. An attorney's clients, contacts, and relationships are important aspects to consider in making your choice. How much will your services cost? You can expect a variety of options, and there are pros and cons for any of the following fee arrangements: • Retainer: Simply put, this is when you pay your attorney a fixed advance, usually monthly, from which his fees and expenses are deducted. • Hourly rate: The attorney keeps track of the time spent on your behalf, and you're billed on a monthly basis. You can expect the hourly rate to be $100 to $500 per hour, billed in 15-minute increments. In addition to the billed time, all expenses for phone, postage, photocopies, and so on will be added to the bill. • Fixed flat fee: Usually, this is a fixed amount that's proposed by the attorney when a deal is being negotiated for your project — like when you're offered a huge amount of money and you don't know how much of your attorney's time you'll need, and you want to call him at all hours of the night! The fee could be $5,000 or even $100,000 depending on the deal. • Reasonable fee: This arrangement is similar to the fixed flat fee; however the amount is not arrived at until after the deal is completed — which could be sticky and lead to unpleasant surprises. If you're ever offered a reasonable-fee deal, be very cautious! • Percentage: Now we're talking popular! Here's an arrangement most people would enjoy having. Typically, 5 to 10 percent goes to the attorney who negotiates the deal. This is based on whatever you receive, whether it's from an advance payment or from royalties down the road. With this type of arrangement, you get all the professional advice you need when you need it, and if there's no deal, there's no pay except for expenses — it's kind of like profit sharing with this type of arrangement. The attorney will be highly motivated to keep working with you when he sees big bucks added to his bank account. The important thing is to establish a fee arrangement that you feel comfortable with before any work begins. Think about it — surprises are much more fun at birthday parties! After completing your interviews, asking your questions, and checking up on references, it's time to decide. Look at your notes and organize them into a pros-and-cons list for each attorney. Why would this attorney be good for you? What are his strengths and weaknesses? Take a look at your lists and see which attorney best fits your needs. Perhaps it may be wise at this point to whittle down your choices to just two or three attorneys, and then take some time to digest each of their answers and reflect on their personalities and contacts before making a final decision. With all of this in mind, go ahead and try to make a choice.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

You can't overestimate the value of a good musical imagination. It's the single most powerful source for composing music — if you can tap into it. The imagination is so powerful, in fact, that it was long ago personified as the Muse. Because it's inside your head, though, your imagination is also the hardest source to put your finger on. Its timing is sometimes off, for one thing. The Muse can feed you melodies when you least expect them and are least prepared to do anything about them. But you can do a few things to help your Muse produce new music. Here are some tips for encouraging your Muse: The Muse needs space to work in. Turn off the TV, log off the Internet, turn off your cell phone, and tell your family that you are indisposed for the next hour or two. The Muse likes to be nourished. Every day, expose yourself to a variety of musical influences — not just the few favorites you keep cycling through. For your Muse to get real exposure to different music, listen with full attention. The Muse likes quiet. Music as a background often silences or distracts the Muse. It's hard to focus on what you're hearing in the mind's ear when you're hearing things in your physical ear. The Muse needs you to follow where she leads. The Muse can't do it all; you have to do your part. Once the Muse gives you something, run with it. Work it, play with it — above all, write it down! No matter how impressive your melody seems at the moment, it will slip out of your head just as magically as it slipped in. Your Muse needs you to remember what she says. Keep a pencil and paper or a simple recording device next to your bed. The first few seconds after you wake up provide the best opportunity to clearly recall your dreams. Discipline yourself to write them down, even if there is no music in them. And when you do wake up with a strangely unfamiliar and uncharacteristic Beatles song in your head, get it down on paper or tape. It's possible that it wasn't a Beatles song at all, but your Muse playing hide-and-seek with you. (Of course, make sure it wasn't an actual Beatles song before you try to publish it!) The Muse works for you. If you sit at your keyboard, piano, guitar, computer, or pad and paper long enough in a patient, receptive state, your Muse will show up more often than not. The Muse lives in your subconscious, waiting for only one thing: your impassioned receptivity. Once you figure out how to turn that on, you will be on another level entirely as a composer. If you defend a routine time and place to work quietly, your Muse will become trained to know when and where to make an appearance. The Muse is fickle. Of course, even if you do all of this, it won't always work.