In this introductory lecture, J. Anthony Allen outlines the purpose and mindset needed for learning music composition. He debunks the myth that composers are innate geniuses, emphasizing that composition is a learnable skill that improves with practice. Allen acknowledges students' fear of starting and encourages a low‑stakes, fun approach, reminding learners that early works need not be grand orchestral pieces. He shares his own experience of gradual improvement leading to awards, reinforcing that progress comes from consistent effort. The class’s primary goal is to move students from theory to actually writing music, with additional detailed courses available for deeper technical instruction.
Chapters
Okay, so let's talk about music composition for a minute before we get into the kind of main sections of this class, which is going to be the kind of what you need to know to get into composition. A couple misconceptions, and then we're going to go through a whole bunch of kind of where to start things. My goal for you is to at the end of this class be actually writing some music. Now I have a whole bunch of classes around on this platform and others on how to write music and going into a lot of detail about that. And you should check out those classes because they get into a lot more of the kind of technical things. But what I wanted to do in this class is really just kind of walk us through what are some of the things that you should know before you get started. What are some of the things that are maybe scaring you? Maybe that's a weird word, but I've hear from a lot of students that want to write music and want to get into compet composition, but they're, but they're, they're a little scared to touch their toe into the water. So there's a lot of misconceptions about this. A lot of people think that we are composers, are, you know, these super geniuses, you know, and as much as I'd love for that to be true, it's not. It's a skill. Like other skills, it does require some talent, but it can be learned. And it doesn't need to be a big scary thing. You can do this just because you want to have fun with it. You know, it's not that you have to worry about every piece you write being this big orchestra thing or this big thing for a big movie. You can write music just for fun, just because you want to. And I think in the music composition world, we lose sight of that a lot. So I want to just be sure that's in your head, like, this can be fun. This doesn't need to be this big, serious scary thing. Have fun with it, play around. And also keep in mind that as you start to learn how to write music, you will get better at it. The more you do it, the better you get at it. It's not that music composition is just a skill that some people have and are geniuses and some people don't. You know, when I started, I wasn't very good at it, but the more I did it, the better I got at it. And then I started winning some awards and doing some impressive things, I guess. But right away nobody's good at it right away. Even, you know, Beethoven's early pieces weren't right away great. Maybe that's a bad example, because they probably were kind of great. But he's one of those super geniuses. Don't think of yourself like that. You are a human, and practice makes perfect. So don't worry that the first things you will write or you have written already don't sound amazing. My goal with this class and the other classes I have here is to help you get better at it. But it's not going to happen right away. It takes practice. So take these classes, learn how to do it, and, you know, we'll get good at it together. So with that said, let's move on, and let's get into some of the. Some of the details, and let's talk about what you need to know in order to be a successful composer.
