How do you improve your composition/arrangement skill?

[mingguan]

All SOFTies,
Just wondering,
What you do to improve your composition/arrangement skill?

Hm...
For me,
I will try to listen all genre of music to get more exposure to it.

Also,
I will buy some songwriting/arrangement book to read to enrich my knowledge.

When I completed a song,
I will email it to all my friends for comment & feedback.

How about you?

 

[BlackMoo]

I will make more songs. And apply ideas which come to my head, develop them into songs and melodies. U can always steal a melody and make it into your own...

 

[sofyan]

i would sleep

 

[mingguan]

...U can always steal a melody and make it into your own...

Copyright!!!

 

[BlackMoo]

Nono, I meant , use it as a base, turn it into something better.

 

[Cheez]

More than listening - analyse other's composition. That means going into more detail than just listen.

And keep writing and composing. Experiment. Don't be afraid of comments or criticisms from others.

 

[DoubleBlade]

Trial and error method for me....

Sometimes I would just try my best to analyse the rhythemic pattern of songs that I listen to and apply it to my playing....

 

[iansoh]

listen to many arrangements of the same song. e.g, studio album and live album. and covers by other artistes.

 

[teraslasch]

hmm.. i would listen to the genre of music i am currently doing and try to get inspiration.. i just get the feel and write better stuff haha..

 

[lppier]

Arrangment i steal :lol:
Composition I listen to songs that I really like and analyze them.

Pier.

 

[mingguan]

Arrangment i steal .

you should use the word "reference" instead.

 

[DoubleBlade]

Sometimes you watch/read an inspirational movie or book or maybe experienced some form of events whether good or bad which took place in your life and you just want to sit down and compose a song based on it.

That's another form of inspiration

 

[mingguan]

Same to me when getting inspiration...

 

[mingguan]

listen to many arrangements of the same song. e.g, studio album and live album. and covers by other artistes.

This is useful for arrangement...
That's why I always collect all the aveilable versions for a song which I like.

http://soft.com.sg/new/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=6970

 

[Scream_ed]

Work it

Get music theory into as far as one possibly can. Not that it'll turn you into a super composer, but your choices and decisions will be more informed, and you can ferret out problem parts and improve on them faster and better.

All the methods mentioned so far are very much valid. I guess different things work for different pple.

Jamming also triggers a lot of ideas cos you can 'steal' from others without them knowing, write a song, and u get the credit. HAHA

Another way is to compare your own stuff with the recorded stuff that are out there and see how it matches up, what makes yours so lor sor and theirs to the point, blah blah blah... Same principle as singing along to a karaoke track with the singer on to see how u can work on your singing to measure up. That way, u'll be more realistic, and not become one of those comics that turn up for the SG idol contest and think they're up there with Zhang Huimei.

And keep working at it.