Music Composition For Dummies

by Scott Jarrett, Holly Day

Want to turn that haunting tune in your head into an awesome sound in your ear? You can! Music Composition For Dummies demystifies the process of composing music and writing songs. It guides you through every step of writing your own music, from choosing the right rhythm and tempo to creating melodies and chord progressions and working with instruments and voices. In this fun and practical guide, you’ll learn how to match keys and chords to the mood you want to convey, work a form without limiting your creativity, and hammer out a musical idea, even when your mind is drawing a blank. You’ll find out how to create popular songs, classically structured pieces, and even film, TV, and video game soundtracks. And, you’ll learn what you need to know about music composition software, including Finale, Sebelius, Pro Tools, and more. Discover how Filled with creative exercises to build your composing skills, Music Composition for Dummies is the resource you need to get that melody out of your head and into the world.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Reference

368 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 2008

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for some handy music ideas. Recommended for any musician

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been wanting to gain a better understanding of the thought/creative process behind making music, so I gave this book a go. I'm not really the appropriate audience for this book since I can't play an instrument and the book does list being able to read music as a prerequisite. However, I would imagine that someone with a better knowledge of music theory may still find this book simply okay. It has information on chord progressions and scales which would be useful, but then has a lot of descriptions on topics that would be interesting rather than helpful, such as different genres and famous composers etc. I felt there was a large emphasis on what to bear in mind when writing classical music, rather than any other genre.

[Naji Tawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Biggest Oak began as a tiny ACORN.
This inspirational volume helped me exorcize a lot of pseudo-musician teachers' thoughts out of my head.
For fewest are born absolute pitch. The rest are somewhere in between. Surprisingly, you don't have to have an absolute pitch in order to compose, yet many times it's been the opposite round.
Very informative, conveyed with plain clarity yet with so much eloquence.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This covered most of the material I would have expected, in the familiar 'Dummies' format. It was interesting and helpful, especially the stuff about chords. Its now on my bookshelf above where I compose, along with my growing library of books about music.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the section of the book that talked about ten composers I should know. Learning about certain composing techniques such as front phrasing and back phrasing was interesting.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started trying to write music; this was a helpful intro.

[Mikołaj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book for some general ideas about composition.

[Adam Tessier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great intro to music composition. I especially like the parts where it went over all the different types of chords and the different types of emotions or moves that they evoke.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction/overview/refresher for someone who had lessons twenty years ago and has largely neglected playing since.

[Mandy Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful guide to creating music from scratch and enhancing it to meet your vision! Also great breakdown on understanding various instruments’ strengths/limits and feasible job opportunities in the music field.

[Rudy Hykl · Rating 2 out of 5]

A simple yet comprehensive overview of all things music related for idiots with dreams of composition! I skimmed through a lot of the sections on inspiration and creativity, yet the there are some novel ideas about effort curves (thinking about music in variables fluidity, weight, length, volume) and making melodies based on horizons and walking of cats...The main strength of the book is its ability to outline broad areas of music in a simple and concise way. Relating to musical forms you are shown the sonata, rondo, symphony with four movements allegro, adagio, minuet, rondo or sonata, blues and there is a brief history of musical movements with a focus on 20th century (minimalism,jazz, and even Tenacious D gets a mention). The section on harmony and chords is also basic, in a good way, subdividing all types of chords into minor, Major, seventh, ninth, augmented, and diminished, subject to inversions and given with tips on chord progressions. The part on cadences also works, with four main types being shown - the authentic cadence of moving from the fifth to the tonic, the plagal cadence of moving from the fourth to the tonic, the deceptive cadence of moving from the V to the VI (or V to vi or v to VI or v to vi!!), and a half cadence (ending on the V). For melody, there are some practical tips on counterpoint (don't cross ranges, don't use more than 3 voices at the same time, make use of unisons and octaves, the contrasting melodies should not be exactly the same) and you are told the "Bachian" origins of the technique related to the fugue in the 1700s. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to get a practical mental framework about music. However, expect to visit other literature if you want to want to learn music theory, notation, and composition at a deeper yet pragmatic level (ie. Edly's Book of Music Theory for Pragmatic People!!).

[Dimitris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely helpful, this book provides insight as well as tips on certain parts of music composition that are essential to the aspiring composer, namely the basic know-how's and where-to's that I, for instance, pretty much ignored. This is a good introduction and its effect is very much augmented if one would combine this with basic music theory knowledge. In fact, I suppose that this book is, precisely as the author points out, meant to be read after some basic theory reading. Having done that, I find it a nice interesting read with the necessary humor to break the ice once in a while and look forward to more in the area of composition. Also, some lists and guides may be useful after reading (if not pretty much meant as references during the composing process) Recommended!

[Eatyourburger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book with lots of important information about writing, theory, and careers. It’s nothing crazy, though, and a lot of it could be found in the internet. Still, it’s nice to have it all in one place simply and professionally explained.

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love It!

[LadyS · Rating 3 out of 5]

lots of information

[Loretta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this to make sure I am not a dummy.