How to Compose Classical Music
Writing classical music from the baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary eras are both fun and easy. You don’t have to have an expensive musical education to do so either. This is great as it means that anyone who is interested can actually enjoy this very fulfilling hobby.
- Find some inspiration whether it is a bird you saw, cars on a highway or anything else that sets you off.
- Create a motif (a.k.a. key idea or musical phrase) to build on. This will serve as a great starting point. Form counterpoint melodies and rhythms around this that creates a type of conversation between the instruments within your piece.
- Decide where you want to go. Otherwise, your piece will be dull and boring.
- Use a lot of tension and release to build up to a climax before dropping back down again. Make sure that you don’t get too complicated though. Only use complex chords when they sound good.
- Create many separate motifs. Make sure to also reference former motifs throughout the piece. You may even want to end with the same motif but make it louder and more dramatic.
Additional Tips for Writing Classical Music
- You will need some basic musical knowledge and be able to play an instrument. Otherwise, you will grow discouraged because your music won’t sound very good.
- Keep the style of classical music in mind. This is not loud, noisy music. There are no words. For this reason you will not want to write rhythms that have syncopation.
- Make sure that you use simple patterns that repeat themselves frequently.
- Create a main theme for your composition. Now add variations to it.
- Create additional parts of the music that will correspond to the rest of your piece.