I want to become a composer.Help?

Question

I love music and i want to be a composer. Do i need a degree? What requirements do i need to get in that program? Do i need to learn to play a lot of instruments? I've had some experiences in music. I play the piano and i used to play trombone at my school band.

Can you explain what i should do to become a composer?

Answer 1

You don't exactly have to know how to play every instrument, Just learn how to Conduct them, and it be good if you did get a degree, and go to college to get  it!

Answer 2

Heed the advice about education, and the dark Salieri, was spot on, in a very jealous sense.

   To COMPOSE, I offer you an example.

   EVEN if you got to a point of being able to read music, and hear it in your head as you wrote it, knowing it as well as you know your own name, you'd better know how it might be applied to multiples, in the sense of instrumentation, even to the timing of that one guy in the back who hits the Triangle ONCE with a "hammer."

   Certainly some level can be LEARNED, but if your mind, body, passion isn't a tuning fork, you might accept just the education for its own sake.

   A BFA in Music might be a place to begin.

   "LOVE" music? Hmmm,,, curious. LOVE in the most strict sense can only be applied to another, living, breathing, species, and even then, same species is more accurate.

   I'll give you a minor concession, for a moment.

   Consider that you play Piano, WELL, read music as if it was as easy as your given language, could you compose a piece built only around a Piano and trombone with any success? If so, or not, could you then add 40 plus/minus other instruments that might have to accompany the two, and make it viable?

Answer 3

You only need to know how to read and write music.  Knowing how to play an instrument as versitile as a piano helps hear, via the air, what you "hear" in your head as you compose.

So, an good understanding of music theory is also helpful, as you would be expected to transcibe your music onto paper.  Some creativity, is also pretty important if you wish to compose more thane simple tunes.

But in short, all you need to be a music composer is to compose music.  No degree is "required" but, the better a person's musical background, the better chance at that composer's success.

Answer 4

better go to college and major in music.  also read Salieri's opening speech in Amadeus about how he became a composer. The point is, that it takes in born talent to do it.