# Learning how to compose music in my head?



## MikeLG (Jun 19, 2018)

Hey all,

I've never really been able to hear original music in my head, so the way I compose right now is through a combination of experimentation and music theory.

I can hear music that was on the radio perfectly well in my head, so it's not that I can't hear music, it's that I can't hear ORIGINAL music.

Any tips on ways I might be able to develop this skill?


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## Divico (Jun 19, 2018)

Maybe start with variation. For me listening to music and recalling it afterwards with variations feels very natural. Often one idea becomes something totally.
Maybe an analytic procedure could help aswell. Lets say youd like to write a classic rock song:
Imagine the drums first. F.e a really classic drum pattern. Hear it drum by drum.
Add the bassline. Imagine some sort of melody etc.
Training to follow and auralise multiple instruments at once is also good.


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## Voider (Jun 19, 2018)

You can't hear it at all or you can but just don't know how to write it down?
Either way, you probably gonna start simple with a melody that you play on your piano/keyboard, and then since it is original, repeat it until it's in your head, and then start building further from there in your head and transfer it step by step into your composition. That should help and train it.


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## Sami (Jun 19, 2018)

There is a lot of singing to myself in the shower involved. I don't need to mention I live alone, do I? Actually even people I work with (that is: musicians) complain about how much I hum...


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## Paul Grymaud (Jun 19, 2018)

Let your brain follow the emotions generated by your heart.
Look, the beginning of the word heart is hear...Okay, the end of the word brain is rain.
So, imagine every drop is a note and let the umbrella aside. Rain comes from the sky and inspiration also.


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## mikeh-375 (Jun 19, 2018)

Might be worth trying to master intervals to start with. Try singing say a perfect 5th and more importantly, keep singing a perfect 5th until you can sing it without even thinking about it.
Then work on all the other intervals in a similar way. The trick is to practise as regularly as you would scales etc. You do not need perfect pitch to do this rather you will develop a relative pitch if yours is not perfect. Always good to get used to chromaticism too, so perhaps start off diatonically, but at some stage start introducing chromatic movement.
Once you can sing any interval at will, then you can let your inner imagination do whatever it wants, you can make up melodies easily and can try as many alternatives as you want in real time because you will be able to call to mind any stepwise movement you desire. At the same time, singing intervals like this is good groundwork for then realising harmony in your inner ear too. A good way to hear a perfect 5th as a dyad might be to sing say c then g, repeat a little quicker, repeat more quickly and keep bringing the two notes closer together until you can hear them as one.
It takes time Mike, maybe even a long time, but the only way to get what you are asking for is to get very, very familiar with the materials of music with commitment.


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## MikeLG (Jun 19, 2018)

Thank you everyone! I am going to take all of this and work hard at it. I'm in for the long run so no rush!


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## Alex Fraser (Jun 19, 2018)

I have the opposite problem. I'm forever composing in my head and can't turn it off. To compound the issue, I have perfect pitch so what I "hear" in my head is identical in pitch to the "real life" version.
It drives my wife crazy. Drives me crazy sometimes too.

Best of luck!
A


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## SchnookyPants (Jun 19, 2018)

1. Write a simple, short melody.

2. Sing it to yourself.

3. Start jamming on it in your head - adding variation.

Relax and play with your melody, by slightly altering some of the notes of your original melody.

Relax and play with it. It'll come.

Main thing - enjoy playing with the notes.


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## SergeD (Jun 19, 2018)

Music comes from the chest, not the head. Listen to something you like and let it nest into your chest.


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## Steve_Karl (Jun 21, 2018)

SergeD said:


> Music comes from the chest, not the head. Listen to something you like and let it nest into your chest.



For you that might always be true.

For me it varies and I'm sure it's not the same for everyone.
Sometimes it's from my throat, gut, crotch, back of my head (not thought), forehead (not thought) intellect (thought process)
solar plexus, diaphragm, upper left of chest.
Yet all are organised and filtered through thought to get them to an instrument or to paper.


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## solomon.kim (Jun 22, 2018)

Shower singing/humming and that type of thing are honestly really helpful in this process. For example, you could take a song that you know well and improvise on it (experimenting with it in the process) while you're doing something else like taking a shower, working on something else, etc.

That has really helped me come up with a lot of the ideas for different pieces that I've written.


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## Kevin Fortin (Jun 22, 2018)

Maybe pick a simple phrase (two to five notes) and repeat it in your head a few times (leave some silence or beats between repetitions) then either do variations or a second line on top of it or keep repeating the same thing and listen for something in you to start "talking back" musically.


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## Steve_Karl (Jun 22, 2018)

Good ideas Kevin.


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## TIM_STEVE_97 (Jun 22, 2018)

This may sound weird but, I can jam with my teeth.. I first noticed it - clattering(is that the word) my teeth 'to the beat' - to the first Nolan batman film, and I think it was during a percussion only section. Sort of similar to tapping with you fingers but how do i do this?.. It isn't simply up and down which produces a sort of 'sound', everyone does that right?.. it is also side ways, moving the lower jaw and 'dragging' between the teeth quickly. It sort of help I guess. I'm sorry if you read this... 
As for composing 'in' your head. I personally can't start that without inspiration. With inspiration I mean a song or composition that sits in my sub conciseness and feeds a 'new' creation.. I don't believe in original music because I haven't found it yet. But listening and finding something I love, letting it simmer (sometimes for weeks) and come out sort of 'new' seems to work I guess.. There is just too out there in music to try something original. You have to start somewhere.


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## Saxer (Jun 22, 2018)

I think improvising with your main instrument is the fundament. I don't know any composer who isn't noodling around all the time when having an instrument within reach. After a while even without the instrument the noodling goes on in your head.


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## RiffWraith (Jun 22, 2018)

SergeD said:


> Music comes from the chest, not the head.



Care to explain?


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## enyawg (Jun 23, 2018)

I try to combine melody and rhythm in my head. If I just concentrate on one or the other in my head I don’t retain it in time for the instrument, DAW or mobile phone capture...

So I sort of mentally map out a 3/4 - 4/4 section or say a steady 5/4 rhythm then motif/ jam over that. Some of my best pieces include these “mental” sections.


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## SergeD (Jun 23, 2018)

RiffWraith said:


> Care to explain?



Music is exploration of emotions. The intellect may put music on partition, arrange orchestration, sequence different parts. But only the emotional center will tell you "Yes, this is the feeling I'm looking for".

Only my .02 cents of course


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## RiffWraith (Jun 23, 2018)

SergeD said:


> Music is exploration of emotions. The intellect may put music on partition, arrange orchestration, sequence different parts. But only the emotional center will tell you "Yes, this is the feeling I'm looking for".
> 
> Only my .02 cents of course



A fair argument 

Some would argue that the emotional center starts with the brain.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human...g-the-brains-emotional-center-enhances-memory

Cheers.


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## SchnookyPants (Jun 23, 2018)

SergeD said:


> Music is exploration of emotions. The intellect may put music on partition, arrange orchestration, sequence different parts. But only the emotional center will tell you "Yes, this is the feeling I'm looking for".
> 
> Only my .02 cents of course


That's pretty good. You're under estimating the value of your own advice. That's worth at least $2.00.


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## Henu (Jun 24, 2018)

Alex Fraser said:


> I have the opposite problem. I'm forever composing in my head and can't turn it off.



This. But at some point you just learn to live with it.


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## nilblo (Jun 24, 2018)

Vivid imagination... for me the most driving force. I have for as long as I can remember seen "movies" while listening to music. An example: The swan of Tuonela by Jean Sibelius. It is said to be about the barge called "The Swan" that ferries the dead over a river to the "other side" (like Charon, the man that ferries the dead on the river Styx..) in the Lemminkainen Suite.

Myself, I don´t see this barge or boat while I´m listening to this music. I see a small tarn in the forest with still water and water lilies. Willows are bowing their branches and touches the water, on which a swan slowly is "paddling" about..
The string pizzicato sequence makes my imagination see a slow, drizzling summerrain on the water mirror and the scene changes - the swan is moving a little faster to get some shelter from the overhang of willows..

Music has always been pictures or movies for me and conversly, my imagined pictures results in multipart music which I try to write down. What can I say - the imaginative force is strong with me. I have been accused of living in a fantasy world more than once and I´m more than happy with that, given how the real world is today..
One thing that really sets my fantasy going, is that I´m imagining that they (who ever they are..) are going to perform my music and I´m sitting there - in the audience - and the orchestra/ensemble commences to play. Most of the time, I can start write immediatly - part by part. I´m not playing any instrument on a skilled level, I can plonker down chords on a keyboard and I use a Yamaha midi windcontroller, (used to play altosax..) I have been singing opera and recitals on a somewhat professional level. (Couldn´t cope with the selfpromotion that is needed for a sustained career..)

I have never been able to hear my music being performed. I send my wife to listen and she calls me on the phone and tells my how it went. This condition has been getting worse over the years. I whish I could muster enough courage one day.. 

To each hers/his own, I guess. Maybe there are better ways to get started writing music, but for me fantasies in the form of pictures or "movies" is everything.
o&o


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## jfino (Jun 24, 2018)

Make a simple chord progression focusing on the mood you want. Then play/write/hum as many melodies as you can on top. You'll find a couple of good original melodies emerge in no time!


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## Kevin Fortin (Jun 24, 2018)

nilblo said:


> Vivid imagination... for me the most driving force. I have for as long as I can remember seen "movies" while listening to music. An example: The swan of Tuonela by Jean Sibelius. It is said to be about the barge called "The Swan" that ferries the dead over a river to the "other side" (like Charon, the man that ferries the dead on the river Styx..) in the Lemminkainen Suite.
> 
> Myself, I don´t see this barge or boat while I´m listening to this music. I see a small tarn in the forest with still water and water lilies. Willows are bowing their branches and touches the water, on which a swan slowly is "paddling" about..
> The string pizzicato sequence makes my imagination see a slow, drizzling summerrain on the water mirror and the scene changes - the swan is moving a little faster to get some shelter from the overhang of willows..
> ...


I really like what you wrote. Sometimes there's a little synaesthesia going on in my head between the music, kinetic sense, and visual imagination.

I like your idea of imagining oneself as the audience listening to an orchestra/ensemble and being more of a witness/listener and transcriber in the process, which probably gets the ego/editor out of the way.


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## nilblo (Jun 25, 2018)

When I was in my teens, I put together simple pieces of pianomusic in much the way of placing myself in the audience and start listening to what was being "performed". One summer I took a job at the local church that involved gardening and preparing for Sunday mass. My real purpose with the summer job was to get access to the organist who was a renowned composer. I began asking him for advice on composition and he was kind enough to answer all my questions.
Then we came to talk about inspiration and I told him about how I could "hear" the parts and write down part by part as if I was listening to a recording. He got very upset, gave me a scolding and told me "It doesn´t work that way!" I believed him and stifled my ambition to write music. The music in my "head" was still going on though. I just didn´t bother to write it down. 
Until some 30 years later when my wife and some colleagues of hers were supposed to perform a trio by a classical composer. They complained about the piece being boring and I said "I can put something together.." That is how I came to start writing music again. Now I´m in my late 60´s and really have the time and peace of mind to do whatever I please.

I remember something quite strange regarding how I´m imagining things..
Some 15 years ago, I had a Logitech steering wheel with force feedback. There was a cargame where you could drive a car of your choice, on the roads of the Alpes Maritime in France. I drove a Jaguar sportscar akin to XKR and I was going at good speed. Every turn the force feedback from the steering wheel made the experience quite authentic and I was really enjoying my ride. Suddenly there came a steep, downhill run that lasted for ever.
I was picking up speed when suddenly - airplane ears!
I had to test that again and again. Same result every time. How´s that for being influencable?


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## joyneski (Jun 25, 2018)

TIM_STEVE_97 said:


> This may sound weird but, I can jam with my teeth...


You are not alone. As soon as someone designs a MIDI tooth percussion controller interface, my dental rhythms will be tearing up the charts. No, really.


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## Will Blackburn (Jul 2, 2018)

Ear training will help. As will singing in the shower


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jul 2, 2018)

Years ago a guru - really a guru - named Phil Cohen suggested this technique to me:

1. Imagine an instrument, say a violin.

2. Now write down what you hear it playing.


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## Steve_Karl (Jul 2, 2018)

Nick Batzdorf said:


> Years ago a guru - really a guru - named Phil Cohen suggested this technique to me:
> 
> 1. Imagine an instrument, say a violin.
> 
> 2. Now write down what you hear it playing.



Good method ...yes.
And I'd add silently ... making no sounds.
If we want it "in our heads" then I'd see external sounds like singing or humming or anything else as taking away from the internal ear.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jul 2, 2018)

Whatever works for you.


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