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Sources of Ideas for Compositions Where do composers find
ideas for their music? Sometimes the
answer is easy, and the idea comes naturally when the writer sits |
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down at the piano or their
instrument. But when writer’s block
happens, or when the composer is not happy the themes he or she is writing,
the following exercises could help for finding useful sources of musical
ideas. 1. Always be aware of musical ideas around
you, wherever you are. The world and
the composer’s own life can provide much inspiration, whether you are at the
grocery store, dining with friends, or walking in the woods. As you encounter ideas in various places,
it can help to have a recording device or pen and paper available, the jot
down the thought and save it for later use. 2. Look to your own experience or observations
of thoughts and feelings. The emotions
you have had during a relationship, a difficult time, or a particular event
were probably similar to what others have experienced. Try to be genuine and express the things
you know from your experience, and this may help others to connect to your
songwriting. At the same time, the
flip side of this point is that it can be good to express things you have not
experienced, to create entirely fictional worlds—but the key is that you must
have a level of writing skill to make the worlds convincing to the listeners. 3. Look for ideas that have universal
appeal. Music that expresses ideas
that connect many people or that lots of people can relate to is often very
powerful. A good example is love, such
as the joy of finding new love, or the fear of losing love, or the hope of
encountering love in the future.
Another example is spirituality, religion, or the divine—the concept
of peacefulness and interconnection that is available to all, not just a few. 4. Place yourself in musical environments
where you hear what other musicians are doing with composition and
improvisation. Attend jam sessions and
pick up different styles and techniques.
Go to concerts, talk to musicians, listen to new music, or take a
music class at a university. 5. Experience foreign cultures. While music is a “universal language,” the
variety and diversity found by traveling to another country can be striking
and provide many new ideas. The sounds
of African choral singing or folk melodies, sung as a natural part of
everyday life during chores or rituals, may contrast greatly with what you
are used to in concert halls. Or the
scales and harmonies of Indian or middle Eastern music can open up new worlds
and possibilities. The ostinato patterns of Latin American music, used so
pervasively throughout the music in villages and cities, keyboards hammering
away at octave and third patterns, show further ideas. Virtually any exposure to musical thought
that is foreign to you can help your own writing evolve. 6. Find poetry, paintings, or other art that
you like and set music to it. Try
setting a poem to music, writing melodies that express the lines. Or write pieces about pieces of artwork,
like Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an
Exhibition (which Ravel famously orchestrated—see Famous CD’s). 7. Changing pieces between styles can in turn
generate more ideas. For example, you could
play a Bach piece in the jazz idiom, improvise over a chord progression from Telemann, or reharmonize a
melody. This can lead to new thoughts,
possibly a fusion of the ideas, interesting ideas in the new context, etc. 8. Find phrases or patterns on your instrument
that you just enjoy. As Leonard Bernstein
stated, “The meaning of music is in the music, and nowhere else.” Sometimes it is good to just improvise on
your instrument and find patterns of notes that appeal to you—any phrases, or
scales, harmonies, anything that interests you. |
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This
article was adapted in part from: Swados, Elizabeth. Listening
Out Loud Blume, Jason. 6
Steps to Songwriting Success. Watson,
C.J. The Everything Songwriting Book. Bernstein,
Leonard. Young
People's Concerts |
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All articles (c) 1999-2006 by LIFTOFF! |