How do they do It ? Write Music!

            When you listen to the radio, go to the movies, watch a TV series, go to the symphony hall or just being annoyed by your neighbor's garage band, your are being surrounded by music that was made with a purpose. They might be noises or effects but the truth is that all of the above is music composed by someone. It might be to support some visuals in a movie or maybe it is going to be sang by a famous celebrity or a good symphony orchestra. Either way, the process of inspiration is the same for all of them.

The first thing a composer have to do is get involved in the project and get as much information as possible.

• If he was commissioned to write a symphony he will have to study the symphony form and all the symphonies of the great masters. Know the symphonic instruments, and have a vast knowledge in orchestration. By doing this he will be deep enough in to the project to do the job prominently.
• If the composer is assigned to write a song for a celebrity, he would then have to know the artist,know their style, know their previous albums and anything related to the artist.
• A film composer will have to attend the shooting sessions, know the story extremely well, decide if he is going to use electronic effects, a symphony orchestra, a rock group, the use of ethnic instruments, an existing band, a choir, or just a piano.

 

The Compositional Process

When the composer have all the important details about the project and gather all the information he is ready to take the next step, the compositional process.

• The composer think about melodic material that can be the essential base of the project
• This melodies have to be short and sticky to the ear, this is the only way of making it popular
• The melodies need the right character for whom is composed.
• After the melodies are composed he would find an accompaniment and work hard to make this as unique as possible
• He would then make some variations of the theme and/or transpose the theme in to other keys to change the color and mood.
• After choosing the melody and accompaniment, the composer has to work with the details. What else would that piece of music need? Effects, electronics, acoustic instruments, synthesizer,etc.
• With the right colors we are almost there. The composer check with his supervisor or boss for his approval.
• At this point he will work on any necessary improvement of the piece and try to give it that special something for it to success.

Every composer have their own way of writing music. Even if they don't follow the list above step by step they will eventually cover all of them by the end of the compositional process.