From my experience teaching music theory and composition, some students can sit down and start composing while others stare at a blank page, not knowing where to start. At some point or another, we all have stared at that blank page, wondering when inspiration would strike. So how can you get started if no ideas […]
Trevor Baron Music
Let’s talk about transposing instruments.
A common area of confusion for students revolves around non-transposing and transposing instruments. I wanted to write a quick post on the topic to clear things up. First, we have to understand what non-transposing and transposing instruments are. In the case of non-transposing instruments, the notes written on the page are the actual notes being […]
Ways to start composing your music
There are many ways for composers to write music. Which method or methods you choose, of course, is up to you. The best strategy for me is one that inspires and excites me, allowing me to capture ideas quickly and enabling me to hear back what I’ve composed. If you haven’t yet developed your plan […]
The study of harmony and music notation software
If you’re a student studying four-part harmony or music theory, using music notation software to help your studies may be a good idea. When I started studying music theory decades ago, music notation software was still in its infancy compared to today’s standards. A student would have to write their chord progressions and melodies and […]
Options for selling music as an amateur composer
I’m a private online music instructor; that’s been my full-time job for twenty-five years and counting; I’m not a professional composer, and my primary income is not from composing. That’s the beauty of it; it doesn’t matter if I call this my profession, my scores are published and available for purchase, and even if they […]
The language of music theory
If I had one suggestion for anyone wanting to learn to write music, it would be to learn the fundamentals of music theory. The Royal Conservatory of Music used to refer to these course levels as elementary, grade one, and grade two rudiments. They’ve renamed these levels and spread the material out over eight books. […]
Song structure as a template for composing music
When I think of a music template, I often think of an orchestral template in DAW with tracks ready for recording or a scoring template in a music notation program with the staves prepared for writing notes. I never thought of a template as something used for structuring a written composition. As silly as it […]
Developing your process
I’ve always admired people with a process who can craft a workflow for themselves. These people on videos say, “when I start a project, the first thing I do is…”. My process when composing is not that organized. That’s not to say, with every project; I’m running around like my trousers are on fire. I […]