Here's Why You Should Write Your Own Music

Since you're reading this post, I believe you are a musician or you've had a lot of experience with music. I know for a fact that most of the avid readers on this blog are musicians themselves.

Many of you have tried to have a band at some point in your life. Many of you have tried to compose your own music at some point, and yet there are many others, and here I'm talking about the majority of people, who haven't ever tried composing anything.

This post tells you why it's important to compose and write your own music.

But I'm not good at composing!

That, right there, is most common response I've received when I've told people that they should compose their own music.

So, before we begin talking about writing your own pieces, let me clarify that I'm asking you to write, not publish your own music. I'm not asking you to compose music for the purpose of spreading it across your friends and family and to the general public. You need to compose this music for yourself, for your own ears. If after that you like what you composed, you're free to try and spread the word about it. 

What's the use of composing if you don't want us to publish it?

The primary reason why composing your own music is important is because it helps you explore your instrument. I cannot stress on how many times I've tried to go ahead and compose something, which didn't turn out to be very good, but I've learnt something new about my instrument,  be it a chord pattern, a new progression, what sounds good with what, and the list goes on.

A number of things that I've learnt about the guitar and the piano have all come from trying to compose my own music. Once my teacher told me about a theory in music. I didn't quite understand it, but a week later when I lay my hands on the piano to try and write something new, it clicked. 

The second reason I say that composing your own music is important is because it lets your creative juices flow. When you ask most people why they quit playing an instrument, they're most likely going to tell you that they got bored of it. Well, anyone can play an instrument. Anyone can learn how to read a piece off the paper and play it on the instrument. While that's fun for a while, you will truly enjoy your instrument when you feel it, when you play what your mind tells you to, when you don't worry about which note is right and which is wrong. The moment you do that, you're  going to fall in love with your instrument. 

The third reason is that you might just come across something on your instrument that you connect with. You might stumble upon a new lick or a new progression that you think you can work on. Maybe you will end up creating something beautiful after all. Just because your composition didn't turn out well once doesn't mean you're never going to compose something beautiful.

It also helps with your improvisation skills.

What is the most effective way of going about it?

There are a number of ways you can go about composing music. However, one of the most important thing that I've noticed with personal experience is, that in every method of composing your music, what really matters is that you don't have company. Personally, I compose best when I'm alone. Being alone will allow your mind to work without disturbance.

Some examples of ways to compose are:

1. Sitting in a quiet room with a piece of paper in front of you, on your desk, and thinking about lyrics, rhythm or a melody in your head and jotting down some more details which will help you recollect it when you're with your instrument later.

2. Going outside, to a silent place, say a park, or by a lake, sitting down and admiring what's around you, and noting down on paper what comes to your mind at that point in time, be it lyrics or a melody.

3. Going to a busy area, say a coffee shop, a bus, a busy street. Watch, notice, try getting your creative juices to flow based on what you see or feel.

4. Sitting with your instrument, picking a scale, trying to compose something using certain chords or a melody or a combination of the two, with or without lyrics.

Hope this helped, have a nice day!