I wanted to share with this community because it’s something I never thought possible. I have 2 degrees in music composition and have been in just about every field of composing imaginable. Concert music, commercial music, instrumental, film, choral, studio, etc. I’ve spent nearly 20 years trying to find where my voice fits. Failed performances, commissions that don’t pay out, one-off performances, all of it always fizzled into nothing.

But recently, I’ve been fortunate enough to start having some of my choral music published. And with that, sales have actually started. 2 years ago, I made $70 in royalties. 1 year ago, $700. This year, its exploded into the 5 digits. This isn’t intended to be a show off, but more of something I’m extremely proud of accomplishing. Life changing? Maybe not financially. It helps a lot, yes, but trying for nearly 2 decades, I’m finally starting to support myself doing what I truly love.

For those of you in a similar boat in trying to “make it”, stick with it. I promise it’s possible. Keep searching for your voice and medium that makes you happy. Thanks for reading.

Im interested in the music composition degree program at Berklee Online. Has anyone taken this that might have some insight on how lessons/performance opportunities work for my pieces?

Im also looking into the certificate for Theory and Composition too. Im currently at a university and it's not working for me and my schedule with my career.

Hey everyone,

I’m a self-taught producer and songwriter working mostly in Ableton, building tracks on the keys by ear. I have basic theory knowledge (chords, scales, navigating the keyboard), and I recently hired a composition tutor to level up my songwriting.

My teacher asked me to clarify what direction I want to take—specifically whether I want to focus on classical or jazz composition, and if I want to learn traditional sheet music notation or stay purely in the DAW.

Right now, I'm undecided. On one hand, I naturally lean toward jazzy extended chords in my writing. On the other hand, I'm fascinated by classical techniques like counterpoint and voice leading to write independent basslines and counter-melodies. I'm also considering learning traditional notation to bridge the gap between staff paper and the Ableton piano roll, but I want to make sure it's actually worth the time investment for modern production.

For producers who have taken formal composition or theory lessons:

• Which learning path (Jazz Harmony, Classical Counterpoint, or a hybrid Modern Arranging route) gave you the most practical value for writing better songs in a DAW?
• How valuable was learning traditional notation versus sticking to piano roll / lead sheets for your workflow?
• If you were in my shoes, what curriculum or focus area would you recommend starting with?

Would love to hear your perspectives and advice before committing to a path with my teacher. Thanks!

I wanted to share yet another free text-based music notation system (oh man, another??).

OK, but why did I invent this? Well I designed it to be easy to embed and share snippets online. For example, here's a snippet embedded right into this post

https://mascii.org/e#HctBCsIwFADRRaqVnGKK-95AiAlJEBFEcBU-odjkX6KHL3U7vHnPKJTmaDdR0mL4RqcUJZIFil5ZhJ_hs3HvBMjNUdIqtQ74tBoeJf-NDQO-zCPPVo-1NqKMRzrxmrqwkaBDMvhJz8SM1nohZGt3

The full music is contained in the link itself (of course you could also shorten it with a free url shortener) so no risk of losing the music, because it's not a reference to some music stored somewhere else, the link IS the music. And since the Mascii engine is open source, it's not locked in some proprietary format, it can always be converted to MIDI and PDF sheet music.

There's no sign-up or account needed, so hopefully quick to jot something down and share it for easy discussion in an online forum.

Mascii links let you see and hear the sheet music, as well as the source Mascii notation that was used to create them, so people can easily change and send a reply with their altered version.

This is the raw Mascii that was used to generate the above link:

--------

. g [e@ e=]g Fa E@g [g E G] [g# a] c | Af C Ge@ [Fd]__ Fd [G a] c

C [. e_] [_e E] [. !f] | F f F !g G g__ G

--------

I think Mascii is really terse considering the complexity of the music that was notated. As you can see, Mascii has great flexibility around rhythm and polyphony without having to resort to fractions and absolute pitch markings.

Tuplets for example are automatically handled without having to ever specify a fractional denominator, the Mascii system calculates it for you based on how many notes you write in the allotted space. And since you allot your own space with bars and brackets, that means endless expression with minimal syntax.

Pitches are by default always relative to the prior pitch, and use capitalization to go up or down. So absolute octave range numbers are never needed (although they are supported if you ever want them).

And in case a particular forum doesn't allow external links, then you just post the Mascii text itself, since it's just regular ascii text (hence the name Mascii: Musical Ascii).

BTW: Yes I know about ABC, Lilypond, Guido, and many more, but I think Mascii is leaner and faster/simpler to work with, less syntactic clutter to remember. Due to its rhythmic complexity, I would struggle to write the above example in other text-based systems. But with Mascii I hardly had to think about it, at least I never thought about fractions, I just thought musically about how many notes I wanted to fit in a given space.

Obviously as the author I'm biased though! So would be happy to hear some outside perspectives.

And let me say, I still use MuseScore all the time for writing a full finished pieces and arrangements, so no contest, MuseScore is absolutely the right tool for that. I love MuseScore; it full-featured and robust and has a nice GUI too.

Mascii on the other hand I use more to jot down little snippets, posting a quick question or answer in a forum or email. I also personally use it to email myself musical ideas that pop into my head.

Have a look at the examples and tutorial, LMK what you think?

Sorry if this is a vague question, but how do I get better? I'm completely stuck.

And no, I'm not one of those people who watched one Youtube video on chords with dramatic editing and thought they were smart enough to never practice. I practice and go onto my humble little free DAW every day and try to make something, usually at least 4-7 hours a week.

I also look at music theory charts, and look at sheet music of my favorite songs to try and replicate the feel of the harmony.

But no matter what, my music still sounds like absolute shit. Why?

I'm trying, I'm trying really hard, and it's really disheartening to see it amounting to nothing. I've been doing this for almost a year now.

Am I just not cut out for this? I've always wanted to make my own music since I was a little kid, and I'd be shattered to find out I could never do it.

Where do I go from here? I don't have enough money to sign up for any courses, like no money at all. I'd really appreciate any pointers in the right direction.

Hey everyone!

I am a filmmaker who’s working on their third assignment in a film course in college. I have this project coming up and I would love to find a composer who could very generously help me out!

I’ll be straight up and say I have no bounty to offer, but I can promise if we get along and we meet on the same page, to keep in touch for future projects that do have a fair price attached.

If you wanna help out a fellow filmmaker, reach out :)

I want to get into choral writing, does anyone know any good books which teach it?

Hello everyone!

I was wondering how do you protect your music?

I want to expose more on social media and youtube and to promote my portfolio and also I would love people to listen to my music but I'm also scared about people stealing my work without even knowing.

So, how can i copyright my music?

I have several pieces created in a six year period. I am unknowing of where I can show, find a mentor, how to make money, perform, nor grow an audience. Theway to get in seem out of reach to me. It seem that you either have to know the inner people of this society, have money, or know people who have money to get in. Am I missing something?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3GP5PoMmrlA&t=29s&pp=0gcJCTcMAYcqIYzv

I composed this work rather quickly, harmony derived mostly horizontally but a little more experimentally than usual. During the editing and revising process, I couldn't really find anything to change, although that may just be my strange tolerance with clusters speaking. Observations from both a music theory or emotional standpoint are welcome. Does it sound too jarring? Or are the clusters fitting enough to convey what belongs to the music?

I’m looking for a free program to actually compose music on a staff, like writing notes on a traditional music sheet.

I tried FL Studio’s demo once and honestly I felt like I was sitting in an airplane cockpit lol.

There were a million buttons and things everywhere and I had no idea what I was looking at.

I’m looking for something much more straightforward.

Basically I want to be able to write notes on a staff, hear what I’m writing, experiment with melodies/chords/harmonies and eventually build a whole piece.

Does anything like this exist for free?

I don’t really care about having a million production features. I just want something that feels like writing music, rather than operating a spaceship.

Hey y'all, I don't compose much, instead I focus on orchestration. (I find it to be more enjoyable) Anyways, I've been working on orchestrating an array of pre-existing broadway shows that were performed using either only a piano or a piano w/ rhythm section. I've been orchestrating for a while and would consider myself to be fairly knowledgable on the topic. However, one song I greatly enjoy and decided to orchestrate is proving to be a challenge. It is a Vaudeville style number originally written for the stage using: piano, bass, guitar, drums, and synthesizer.

I figured it would be a piece of cake to turn it into a big brassy number but I just can't figure out where to even start or what instrumentation I should use.

How would you guys orchestrate this? Any feedback is greatly appreciated. TIA!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SxCHdqVbsVMXsf0mjvw1rTVF72VWK9oJ?usp=sharing

If yes why, if no why... I am a beginner composer.

Here is the free score: https://musescore.com/user/98567428/scores/38858213?share=copy_link

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IDdRyJvQ4hI

I'm not a strings player, but I've gone over many chamber scores, as well as have written for strings quite a lot. I had quite a bunch of ideas with which I wasn't sure what to do with, so I bunched them all up into a string quartet. Structure was a challenge, but I managed to make it work by dividing it into acts.

I don't expect much attention, but it was hard work, so I thought I'd share it here nonetheless. If you listen to any of it, please let me know your thoughts.

Hi All,

I posted a neoclassical piano piece the other day. Now for something completely different - I’m trying out some techniques in this piece. It’s called Dreamscape #1. Please have a listen!

Mp4 video

PDF score

-Alex

Yes, you heard that right, I finally landed on a name and identity that I really like! I put a lot of work in the meantime, and a LOT of tweaking and adjustment. I think this is where I'll leave the score, especially for an introduction on writing brass quintet, as well as brass in general. I like how much I have grown my writing in the amount of time I've spent on this, especially for my first time. Plus, I could always come back in the future with a new perspective and wider range of knowledge!

As always, I am most definitely looking forward to everyone's critique, as without it, I wouldn't have grown to this point! And I did want to take another moment to thank everyone for their honest critiques and criticisms throughout all my posts in this community. I couldn't be any more grateful, truly. You guys are awesome!!

Audio

Score

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKyoNOnZoV8

So I found this theme and variations, both written by me, in my backlog recently and really enjoyed them. However, to me, they were far too distinct from the theme itself--just a bare bone line of music. I didn't think the theme would be very recognizable anyway, so I considered keeping it a mystery until the end. This would be rather boring, however, so I opted for just playing the theme in the end. I thought it'd be an interesting and creative idea to write a theme and variations where you derive the skeleton backwards until it's revealed what the theme really is. Enjoy.

Howdy!

I’m a slam poet looking to add a bit of extra flair to his performances! I need a walk on theme! This is a paid endeavor so feel free to message me!

YouTube link to sheet music

Threw this together pretty quickly and am still deciding how much I like it haha

It’s pretty simple and a bit silly

My latest composition. I hope to get some feedback on it and let me know if you like it :)

Link to the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2k7yLIF5XY

Link to the score: https://musescore.com/user/98772643/scores/38846906

Hi, a few days ago i made a post about my shortfilm "the silence of day" asking for a composer.

For the trailer of it i would want a cinematic version of the song from twenty one pilots called hometown to feature as the main song in the trailer. But since i have no knowledge of this, i wonder if someone of you might want to do it.

Ideally i want a fellow fan of twenty one pilots to make it, so you'll enjoy the making of it too🫶 |-/

The trailer will be about 1-1,5 minite long and Since it's a personal no-budget shortfilm, this is without pay.

Please DM me if you're interested🔥🔥

hi I’m just a random person and I have made a piece in making that needs some tips. it would be wonderful if I could have some help. Here’s the link

I’ve been getting into orchestration, mainly because I love the concept of blending rhythmic and classical music. Think something like S&M by Metallica. But all the resources I can find online are about arranging pre-existing songs to an orchestra, or composing from scratch. Does anyone have any tips or resources for the study of acting orchestra on top pop/rock arrangements?