How do I write music?

Question

I play the trumpet, but don't want to play the music that my teacher gives me the whole time. What programs can I use that'll teach me how to write music? I want to write Jazz, more like Chris Botti kind of music.

Answer 1

ofcourse.

Answer 2

Well first of all - Good for you!  That is a really great mindset to want to write your own music.

BUT

Stay away from Chris Botti, you should not listen to him.  No disrespect to you for listening to him, and I'm sure he is a fine human being - but his music is "smooth" jazz and is made for commercial purposes only, not artistic ones.  If you want to hear an exceptional modern jazz trumpet player, listen to Dave Douglas.  

In order to write music, you should first learn to do so by hand.  That is the only way you'll get a good understanding of writing music.  Buy some staff paper and some good pencils.  Then write out treble and bass clefs, and all the notes in the chromatic scale.  Write out every  pitch in every duration.  Copy a few pieces of music by hand - after that you'll have it down.  Always look at published music as an example to see if your writing it correctly.

The software that is used to write music is called Finale.  It is rather expensive ($500).

You should also be listening to these trumpet players and studying their music, NO trumpet player would even exist without what these guys accomplished:

King Oliver

Louis Armstrong

Roy Eldridge

Dizzy Gillespie

Miles Davis

Clifford Brown

Lee Morgan

Freddie Hubbard

Woody Shaw