When did you start composing?

[Rozovian]

I was about 11.

Aren't you still about 11?

I started some time in my mid teens, but didn't get any proper software for it until a few years later. I think I can say I've been doing more than just screwing with it for the past 10 years, though I should have accomplished more imo.

It takes about 2 years going from total newb to making some pretty decent stuff. You're not done just because you're past that little threshold though, you have to learn something, make something every day. Anyone with that level of dedication will get some great stuff done. I'm not there yet.

[Bejack]

A friend introduced me to FL Studio some 10 years ago, i was about 19 or 20 years old. I then composed for a few years on and off to have some fun and compare with my friend what we had made.

I also remember when i was like 9 years old my parents bought me a mini keyboard i used to play all the time in the car when going from one place to another.

[Flexstyle]

Guess I was about...I dunno, 13 or so when I really started writing my own songs on the piano. My teacher introduced me to digital music composition at the age of about 15, and of course I've been ruined for life ever since.

[SenPi]

Took piano lessons as a wee lad (don't remember the exact age), and then quit at some point. Got really into DDR and Bemani games, and I wanted to make songs for stepmania and stuff. Started messing with composing/production in 2005 or so. Didn't really get serious until 2009ish and I can't see myself ever stopping

[Salluz]

Musicomaniac. I have nearly no control of the musical nature. I'm Eddie Brock and the music is Venom.

[Ayotom]

I decided to teach myself music production in late 2005. I was about maybe 10 years old at the time. My love for music first started when I was a little kid. I've been playing piano/keyboard since I was 2-3 years old.

[Salluz]

Whoops, failed to answer the main question. Humming tunes from the womb. You might as well ask a piano how long have people been playing it. I stated already that I am musicomaniacal by nature, not choice. If it's a Brock/Venom complex, then the relationship isn't always pleasant, pretty, nor sane.

Sometimes the uncontrollable mental songwriting drives me really fackin' crazy.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Salluz

[DarkeSword]

Whoops, failed to answer the main question. Humming tunes from the womb. You might as well ask a piano how long have people been playing it. I stated already that I am musicomaniacal by nature, not choice. If it's a Brock/Venom complex, then the relationship isn't always pleasant, pretty, nor sane.

Sometimes the uncontrollable mental songwriting drives me really fackin' crazy.

You still failed to answer the question. Humming tunes in the womb isn't composition. Just sitting around all the time and having musical ideas forming in your head isn't composition. Composition isn't just having ideas, it's transferring those ideas into a medium that can be communicated and shared with other people, whether you're writing sheet music or guitar tabs, or making a recording of your ideas, or simply performing those ideas consistently over and over again.

You're throwing down more melodramatic silliness like "musicomania" and Spider-Man characters when the question can easily be answered with something like "I was in high school when I wrote my first piece for solo piano."

Anyway, to answer the question, I got my start with composition in high school. I used it as a way to try to understand music theory more in an effort to improve my skills as a trumpet player, and ended up switching entirely over to composition after I left high school.

[Meteo Xavier]

You're throwing down more melodramatic silliness like "musicomania" and Spider-Man characters when the question can easily be answered with something like "I was in high school when I wrote my first piece for solo piano."

Because the topic is pretty serious business in the first place, right? What is wrong with a (thankfully) creative answer to an otherwise dull question?

[DarkeSword]

Because the topic is pretty serious business in the first place, right? What is wrong with a (thankfully) creative answer to an otherwise dull question?

He said he didn't actually answer the question. Then he proceeded to say more things without actually answering the question. Asking someone when they started composing is not the same as asking "a piano how long have people been playing it." That's not creative, that's ridiculous.

The question isn't all that dull either. It's a prompt for artists to share how they got their start in putting music together—the actual act of putting music together, i.e. composition. Having music just running through your head all the time isn't composition. Organizing those ideas and presenting them in some way, either by scoring a piece on paper, producing it electronically, performing it in a consistent way, or any other similar manner; that's composition.

[Garrett Williamson]

Making up tunes in your head and humming them is entirely composing music. You're just not writing it down.

[timaeus222]

Making up tunes in your head and humming them is entirely composing music. You're just not writing it down.

I'd actually say that humming ideas is just brewing ideas. You have the compositional idea in your head, but it's not a composition yet.

[Chimpazilla]

I actually did my first "composition" on a little Nintendo DS program called Rytmik. I downloaded it for my son, thinking he could make some music. This was in February 2011, and at that time I had absolutely NO thoughts about making music myself. Tom showed no interest in this program, so one day I sat down with it myself and slammed out a fairly complete mix of "Saria's song" within an hour. I showed it to my husband and he said "how did you do that?" I said "I have no idea." So he went to the computer, did a little bit of research, and bought me FL Studio for my birthday (April 2011).

[Garrett Williamson]

I'd actually say that humming ideas is just brewing ideas. You have the compositional idea in your head, but it's not a composition yet.

Eh. That's one theory, I guess.

Michael Jackson constantly just sang tunes to people and they would eventually put music to it. But Michael potentially wrote the main idea of the song.

[DrumJ8]

I've had a musical background since I was young, continued it through high school and college, (I'm pretty sure I forgot ALL OF IT though). I started composing in 2009, when I kind of randomly decided I wanted to get my masters in music composition after seeing a Distant Worlds concert. I understandably didn't get accepted, and have been struggling ever since. It boggles my mind how young some of you are and how fast ya'llz progress, but despite my severe low self-esteem and ever persisting pessimism, ultimately my stubbornness won't let me quit

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Making up tunes in your head and humming them is entirely composing music. You're just not writing it down.

I know people who will hum or sing a melody they heard into their phones and then when the get home they'll write it down or record it into a DAW or something.

[Argle]

I know people who will hum or sing a melody they heard into their phones and then when the get home they'll write it down or record it into a DAW or something.

I did that for years with a voice recorder, only to accumulate hundreds of vocal snippets that I never did anything with.

[Frederic Petitpas]

When I was 16 or 17. So it's been 12-13 years now.

[Ryan Jobson]

Hard to say... I dabbled with Reason and Ableton back in 2008, but I didn't complete a full song until december 2010. I would just fiddle around and make a few loops a couple times a month for during those years... so I don't know if that should be included... I've really been more serious about music in just the last 2 years I guess.

[Yami]

Well, I started playing Keyboard when I was 6 and did this till I was 11. I forgot a lot about musical theory in those years. Now I'm 28 and started making music 2 years ago, but due to my long pause I'm not really good yet.

But I always have some kind of melodies in my head, I had this for most of my life, but I never managed to make them to an actual musical piece

[derako]

I started arranging Final Fantasy music back in 1994 when I was 14. I used MIDI Orchestrator Plus which came with my Creative AWE32 sound card with an awesome 8MB soundbank.

-Derek-

[AngelCityOutlaw]

I started arranging Final Fantasy music back in 1994 when I was 14. I used MIDI Orchestrator Plus which came with my Creative AWE32 sound card with an awesome 8MB soundbank.

-Derek-

Hardcore...