This is a Piece of Music i wrote im new to the whole composing thing, this work is titled the Mysterious Cannon , i named it this because i used the Left hand of Cannon in C and Some parts of the mysterious Barricades. This would be my first time ever posting my works on here, Tell me what you think and please give me idea's so that i can Transform my work in the future. - Anthony Frankino

Hi Anthony,
Would you mind telling us where you are located in the world and how old you are and what musical background you have?
Eddy

Sure thing, Well my name is Anthony, I'm From the United States, New York, Angola 14047, i'm 18 currently and i will be 19 in February, My Musical Background isn't much, I grew up playing piano, Never took classes, Know very little about Notes and how to write music, I can play almost anything by ear if i hear it a few times, i Started playing piano when i was 7 years of age at first i took lessons but they didn't work for me. at the age of 13 i started to mess around with my Piano my parents had in are basement and from there on i picked up some skill, when i was 15 i learned about Bach and Haydn and i really liked the way baroque music sounded so i kinda adapted to it., Most of my work ( 3 Compositions ) Are based off the style of Baroque music, I Really want to Strive for a More classical Approach

Anthony, If you haven't already, you need to learn the "stuff" of music. In fact, you have to know it like an expert. Knowing the theory of music (symbols, meter, scales, chords, harmonic progressions, rhythms, devices of all sorts, etc.), Form, Analytic techniques, 18th century counterpoint (a la Bach), orchestration, all of this is just the starting place for someone wishing to be a composer of art music. Have you thought of enrolling in music classes at a college to start? Some few have learned these things on their own, but it would be even more difficult that way. Even Mozart and Mendelssohn (probably the most prodigious musicians) had teachers. Some great composers started much older than you are so you still have plenty of time to get your skills developed. Do you know anything about Elgar's Enigma Variations?

Well i took classes for Music Theory and Music in are lives ( General Music ), classes, they talked about each period of Music, So far he just finished the romantic Period, but i do know scales and things like that im just slow when it comes to reading music and writing it down, and I have no clue what that is, that you mentioned

This sounds too much like a copy of Pachelbel's Canon. Sorry, Anthony, but Eddy is right. You need more formal training in music, more classes, lessons, etc..
However, you have a love for piano music, so the seed is planted. Now it just needs nourishment.

Thanks a lot. I'm unsure where to start however. My first goal is to be able to read music, i think i understand music not to a Standard like you all have., I look at music for its meaning, not so much its Structure, I want to be able to play from the Heart not playing from a Sheet of music, I know it is essential to Learn the basics and how things work but i lack that kind of skill, If you know of anyway i could improve on what I'm doing wrong or right or put me in the right direction that would be very helpful

and if this sounds more like canon ( I tried to make it NOT sound like canon) would changing the left hand around a bit make it sound more Non cannon, the right hand is based off the mysterious Barricades by François Couperin, , i took that and the left hand for cannon and improvised the two because they are one of the first Baroque pieces i ever heard and i really liked both of them.

It's good that you want to look for the meaning in music, but you should first know its structure. I think you need a floor-plan, a blue-print, structure in mind before you start composing. Many kinds of classical music follow a certain form. I'm not qualified to offer any advice on composing, though. You are about college-age, so maybe you can take some classes on music composition? That's what I would do.

It always amazes me how many young people aspire to composing but have no clue what to do or where to start. I cannot advise either but I strongly believe it can't be done without a formal training/education. Except maybe if you are insanely talented and original. I can not judge from this loose cannon (pardon the pun ) if you are in that league. Anybody can doodle something on paper, in MIDI, or in Sibelius, and it may even sound nice. But to create compositions, i.e. pieces of music that educated people will appreciate and want to hear more often, is a different ballgame. I would suggest (since you mentioned that yourself) that learning to read music is a very first step. Don't try to write before you can read. Then study the works of the great masters, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms.

Being also a bass player, my opinion of the Pachebel Canon (which is in D, by the way) can be summed up by the following video on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

I am a little baffled by the thought that someone, even if only 18, would take a bass line from one piece and a melody from another and call it composition. Maybe in this post-modern world of sampling, file sharing, clip art, and other forms of digital instant gratification, it becomes the case that one person's creativity is everybody's creativity. I must sound hopelessly archaic when I say that I believe that composition is when someone writes his or her own music. Even in cases where composers are quoting other music, or, as in Berio's Sinfonia for example, where he is constructing a collage, there is a meaningful purpose for doing so. Another example is Saint Saens' Carnival of the Animals, where he quotes to be funny. These composers, however, are being deliberately exceptional, and certainly can and do write music on their own. Even if you are writing music in a Baroque style, you will derive more benefit from writing your own music than by copying and recycling the music of others. But even if you do, for the sanity of all bass players, please use something other than Pachebel's Canon!

Despite all of the aforementioned feigned alarm, if you are drawn to writing your own music, by all means follow your urge with a passion. It is one of the more gratifying activities you can pursue!

Best of luck,
Glenn Stallcop

I don't know, I am very picky when it comes to composers, i hate change i like to experiment with canon a lot because its easy on the left hand, i really never intended it to sound like canon, I just thought of another song in my head while i was reading your post, this sounds nothing like cannon i will upload it later, and i Understand i need to learn how to read music and to study it, i already study music a lot more than most people, each day every day for 30 minutes i listen to Mozart's K.448, its one of my favourites, i also listen to his first symphony molto , andante and Presto , those three, i like his early and late works the most, the first time i head the Requiem i cried and to this day i still don't know why, but i felt sad and upset then angry after. if anything Mozart is who i want to learn from, This might sound crazy but when i sleep i dream of composing and writing music, every night i wake up and then play my piano as soon as things pop in my dreams i think i have a Gift but im not sure, i can almost play anything by only hearing it a few times, and its not just classical and Baroque music, i can play ragtime like there is no tomorrow. But i hate rag time, Im very un-sure when im going in life, My family and my friends don't support me, thats why i came here.

Anthony, you must find someone to teach you music: its science, its art, its history. The truth is that you cannot learn from Mozart until you have learned the language of music, with all its grammar, lexicon, syntax, styles and genres. (One cannot begin high school without having first finished their primary education.) If Mozat were to tell you, "Ok, for your first lesson, write me a double-period in the relative minor of E major using only secondary dominants as the extent of your chromaticism. Then we will discuss it." Would you even know how to begin? It is not too late for you to learn, but you can't skip learning. Plus if you want to be really good, your learning will be comprehensive and systematic. When I was a senior in high school I composed a work for 8-part chorus and piano that won the state composition contest and was then performed at all-state. Send me a private message (PM) with your e-mail and I will link the score to you and you can explore some juvinalia for comparisson sake. You've got to know music before you can pretend to try to say something. You can do this! But you must be prepared first with a ton of work. It really isn't fair to the purpose of this site to try to gain basic music instruction, and I for one will not be sampling your music just to tell you again that you have to pay the price that all composers (of art music) pay. The simplest thing that you could do first and foremost, is to study piano with a well-rounded teacher, not for the purpose of becoming a performer but for the purpose of learning music.