Developing a Strong Foundation for Music Composition

A few months ago, I connected with a reader of my harmony course about developing a strong foundation for music composition and performance. He was interested in using some of the ideas in the course to create original music at an extremely popular music and arts festival. Even though I never did what he is trying to do, and always caution people to never take advice from people who haven't done the thing you are actually trying to do, I thought about the unchanging principles I've discovered from 10 years of making music and studying conducting and composing. It turns out in conversation there is a remarkable similarity between producing a live electro-acoustic performance at a festival and the art of music composition. He wanted to learn about developing a strong musical foundation, so here's what I shared with him.

Step 1. Establish your first musical principles.

The word music refers to something with infinite variety. That poses a problem for music creators, but also offers its solution. Before you set out to do anything, you have to choose what it is you want to create. Ultimately it is a search involving the question, "What is music?," and answering it for yourself. Thankfully there isn't one answer, even within an individual, so no worries about coming up with anything specific. Approaching a working answer for yourself is one of the best creative exercises you can do if you are trying to do something new in music. I'll share two examples. 

In Musical Composition (2018), Alan Belkin shares 35 years of experience teaching music composition. He focuses on finding general "style-neutral" principles that are inherent in all kinds of contemporary and ancient music. These principles are discussed in the book by looking closely at the shared formal requirements of music based on the experience of music itself. Primary experiences such as beginning, transitioning, variation, and ending, are common across minimalist film music and hyper-complex concert music and electro-acoustic works. Belkin had to make a few assumptions about music in order to come to these principles. The first assumption is "powerful emotional communication is an important goal of music" and that some means are more effective than others at achieving this goal. What I appreciate about Belkin's approach is that he attempts to solve the problem of approaching the study of something with infinite variety by basing it on your concrete felt individual experience as a listener.

Discovering your first principles will reveal your own thoughts about what to practice in music and art, and the how, and why. I started asking myself what my first principles are and I came up with something like this: Music is an experience that involves external sound, and musical sound has a universal structure that we can perceive. Musical structures are sound relations that we experience, and this experience forms the basis of meaningful organization in music. During the musical experience, structured sound vibrates with the internal structures of mind and body, and that interaction gives rise to the elements of music. This interaction allows us to experience our own unity, which is a source of the transcendent nature of music. Great music making is necessary for a musician's state of well-being, and connecting with our inner lives in a structured way is a way to find even greater musical expression. (It’s a start.)

‘First principles thinking’ is among the most powerful ways to come up with new ideas. “What are your first musical principles?” Working through this highly personal question may offer you future inspiration for that next album.

Step 2. Develop your craft. 

Alan Belkin thinks music composition is best seen as a craft that can be explained and learned. Craftsmanship is not about memorizing formulas but understanding how each technique affects the experience of the listener. It means being at ease with all of the tools of expression. 

What are the specific crafts that a composer (or music creator) should learn? In Theory of Harmony (1983), Arnold Schoenberg states that composers should learn harmony, counterpoint, and form.

"The materials involved in the teaching of musical composition are commonly divided up into three subjects: Harmony, Counterpoint, and Form."

Schoenberg defines harmony as the study of simultaneous sounds and how they can be joined and their significance relative to one another. Counterpoint is the study of the art of voice leading and motivic combination. Form is the arrangement of musical material for the construction and development of musical ideas. 

A much more broad definition of counterpoint is shared by Walter Piston in his book, Counterpoint (1947). In Counterpoint, Piston teaches that it is the art of combining melodic lines. He spends the first 60 pages looking at melodies of all sorts and shapes, pointing to the curves, rhythms, and harmonies implicit in the melodic experience. 

"The art of counterpoint is the art of combining melodic lines. The contrapuntal essence, as an ingredient of inner vitality in music is, however, something deeper than a process of manipulation and combination, and it is to be found in nearly all music. That is to say, most music is contrapuntal."

In Musical Composition, Belkin briefly discusses prerequisites: "A solid grounding in tonal harmony is the minimum requirement for this book." He recommends learning common chord connections and cadences, understanding the way a bass line creates direction, writing a good soprano line to a harmony, and being at ease with basic roman-numeral analysis. He also mentions orchestration and counterpoint are good but can be learned alongside the materials in the book.

Practicing the art and science of tonal harmony will set up a solid foundation for building and creating music.

Step 3. Listen to the works of others. 

When traveling you must know where you've been to know where you're going, and the same concept is true for expressing yourself in the arts. This opens up yet another complication in the matter of studying music composition. The music of the last century has seen "an unprecedented level of stylistic fragmentation," writes Belkin. Articulating first principles can help a student manage this landscape. Craftsmanship is about empowering the artist with tools of expression, and the first principles can help prioritize where to put their attention. To be a good producer, you should think about being a good consumer first. What are the experiences you want to have? If it doesn't yet exist, set out to create it. Reaching an audience requires understanding how great art achieves its claim in your own experience. 

Writing this, I am reminded of an idea shared by the late Lowry Burgess, a visionary concept artist. "At one point, the sound of Brahms 4 didn’t exist." Today, the sound of Brahms permeates all of the music around us. Great music of the past lurks behind our film scores and streaming platforms. You could flip open the original score by Brahms, point to a bar and appreciate the 136-year-old contemporary novelty of that particular sound relation, but it's very easy and tempting to assume that the sound of our time has always been. The sound of our time was hard won from a lot of sharing and experimentation. The most effective way to add your honest stamp to it is to continue in the tradition of trying.

Creative musicians should study musical forms. Short works are the perfect starting place. The strongest reason is because the conscious and unconscious information on how to create a form is only present in a form itself. The potential of a piece is due to the existence of previous pieces. Explaining an idea from Aristotle’s thought, Jonathan Lear writes, "It is actual form which is responsible for the generation of actual form." Every composition book out there is not just words about music, words which can only do so much—the authors thoroughly rely on the composed music of others. In order for us to create a form, we must first experience a form. If you're interested in creating music, learn and develop some musical analysis skills. (They are very different depending on how you want to express yourself.) You can do it on your own, or can do it alongside me. 

Step 4. Be professional.

Read The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. Which are you? An amateur does the thing when he feels like doing it. A professional does it because he has committed to doing it no matter what. I couldn’t recommend it more.

Step 5. Express in real life. 

Composer Leonardo Balada said the best thing a student composer can do is have their music performed. 

Don't just write music down on paper. Ideas are useless until they are shared. Music on paper is meaningless until it is performed.

Workshop your ideas, get feedback, and develop those relationships with the musicians who support your undertakings. 

Make your experience primary, connect with your why, develop your craft, listen to other artists, be professional, and commit to expressing yourself, and you will develop a solid foundation as a music creator.

Step 6. Continue Reading

Belkin, A. (2018). Musical Composition Craft and Art: Craft and Art. Yale

Hindemith, P. (1942). The Craft of Musical Composition. Schott.

Piston, W. (1947). Counterpoint. W. W. Norton

Pressfield, S. (2002). The War of Art. Warner. 

Schoenberg, A. (1967). Fundamentals of Musical Composition. Faber and Faber. 

Schoenberg, A. (1983). Theory of Harmony.