Learn more about Music Composition

Composing music requires a feel for rhythm, melody, tone, texture, and musical form. These elements can be woven together in an endless variety of musical genres and forms, and that’s what music composition is all about.

Frequently asked questions
Music composition is the process of taking the core of a song — its melody, chords, and/or rhythm — and translating it to a finalized, performable state. In more simple terms, it's the method of writing a new piece of music. Musicians typically treat music composition as an additional skill set to songwriting, as they usually apply compositions to music written out in formal notation and for several different parts. This music can be of any type, including classical, jazz, popular music, musical theater, and more. A composer writes melodies, harmonies, and rhythmic parts fine-tuned for different instruments and/or vocalists. Composing music for an orchestra, for instance, requires an understanding of the ranges, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses of all the different instruments in an orchestra.