J. Anthony Allen says imagination is all you need to start writing music, not formal theory training. He recommends learning specific concepts like chord construction and harmonic tension rather than mastering entire textbooks, and offers a twelve-class series designed to help composers apply theory to real tasks like harmonizing melodies and choosing progressions.
Okay, what skills do we need to know in order to start writing music? First of all, I would say in order to start writing music, the only skill you need is imagination. You don't need to know music theory, music history, music notation, any of that. Just start writing. Just use what you need. Just use what you know. I recently found some music I had written way back before I even knew anything about music. But I had some ideas for some melody. And I, as a little kid, like invented this weird notation that I didn't know. You know, it's not standard notation and I can't figure it out for the life of me now. I don't know how to read it, what I was trying to write down. But somehow I was correlating notes on a keyboard to these shapes or something. But I was writing, you know, I was. I was trying to teach myself how to do it. So you don't really need to know anything. Just relax, start writing music now. If you want to write music really well, that's kind of what we're talking about here. Do you need to know music theory? Yeah, kinda. Music theory is a huge topic. There's tons and tons of things you could know in music theory. You could get a PhD in music theory, and a lot of people have. So do you need to know music theory up to the PhD level? No. Do you need to know a bit of music theory? Yeah, it definitely helps. I studied music theory in college. I didn't really know much before that. Although as a guitarist, you know, you kind of learn a handful of stuff just by playing, especially if you're playing jazz. But it's all things you can learn. I have at the moment 12 Music theory classes here up on this website that you could jump into to get started on music theory. The way I teach music theory is always from the perspective of the composer. So these will help you a lot if you're really interested in getting into music composition. When it comes to music theory, I mean, you definitely need to know how to make chords. That's the most, probably most important thing. How to make chords and how to find all the chords in a key, how to use those chords, what chords want to go where. Something we call tension and release, and then also how to write a good melody. Now, writing a good melody isn't something that's really naturally taught in music theory. Music theory is really about the chords. But there is some. It is probably the best place to learn how to write a good melody because there's a lot of that tension and release found in A melody. However, we'll talk a lot about writing a good melody in my composition courses, and this one included, later on. So there's a lot to know in music theory, but I wouldn't get stressed out about knowing every single thing that there is to know in music theory. Don't just go buy a music theory textbook and try to read it from beginning to end and understand all of it. That's going to be a waste of your time. Learn how to take advantage of the ideas that you already have. And that would be things like finding a harmony for a melody that you've already figured out. Maybe you're at a piano and you've plunked out a melody, right? You've found a melody on the keyboard and you're thinking, how can I come up with chords that will fit with this melody? That's where music theory will help you out. Another big spot that music theory helps you out in is to think, okay, I have this section of music. What comes next with that? Music theory can really eliminate some possibilities that just won't work for you. So you can think, okay, I know I'm in C major and I've done this kind of a thing. Where else can I go with it? If you don't know any music theory, then you could literally go anywhere. But if you know music theory, then you can say, well, the best places for me to go easily will be something like G major, maybe F major, maybe A minor. Those are the really obvious places to go. Those are the things you can do quickly and easily. So it helps you in that respect also. So if you don't know any music theory, I would jump into some music theory classes. I'm partial to mine. I'm not trying to sell you other classes when you're in one of mine, but I have some really highly rated classes here in music theory. They've done really well, and people seem to be quite happy with them. So I would encourage you to check those out and get started on music theory. Again, don't stress out about knowing everything there is to know about music theory. Just be sure you understand harmony, melody, chord progressions, keys, things like that. That's all kind of freshman music theory. The kind of. The first level, which I think in my classes is up to course number five or six. I can't remember which one. So know some music theory, but don't worry about knowing everything in music theory.
