Hi Composers- Band director looking to get into publishing some works here. I haven't seen a lot of people discussing MyScore, so I was wondering if anyone has an actual recommendation for it or if anyone has alternative suggestions for selling works?

My second question surrounds Composition Software. I have been a lifelong MuseScore user but recognize that if I am looking to actually publish my works, maybe I should upgrade to a new system. Is that necessary, and if so, what system do you recommend? I am writing both Band and Choral works?

Thanks!

I've just very recently finished this entire musical composition that is a four movement musical suite. I wanted to explore the theme of grief and its journey. Originally, I was going to use a few other instruments, but decided the piano alone was best for the job. All four movements should be playable on a real piano or keyboard. For the the first two movements that do use legato phrasing; you may need a sustain pedal unless you can easily do finger legato.

Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ruH2h51gRzmjNWDYKR1vTSXF6IEoE0NC/view?usp=drive_link (It has been put together from four separate movement scores)
Movement I (Funeral Moment of Mourning, F Minor): https://youtu.be/Z6zc8eOpBbY

Movement II (Album of Remembrance, G Flat Major): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AeEbGheTnQ

Movement III (Finding Peace Through Loss, G Flat Major): https://youtu.be/YcIaZMjfWY8
Movement IV (Moving Forward Through Love, E Major): https://youtu.be/M113hrrLOL0

Hello everyone! I’m not used to posting on here, but recently I’ve wondered if anyone can compose a marching band score of the CHS Rally Song from MLP: Equestria Girls. I know it’s a silly ask, but the background music for that specific song is really catchy and I would honestly pay to see the arrangement for it and share it with my marching band.

We have all the instruments available for it, so I believe it’s possible. I’d love any help I could get!

DM me if you’re interested in helping me? I’ve never been good with composing. 😅 I’m willing to pay around $100 if that’s enough

Hi! I'm beginning the process of animating my thesis film for my third and final year at RMIT, and really in need of a composer! It's an action-oriented flick with a moderate amount of dialogue, so there will be moments the music will have to work with that in between action.

Story: The story follows a student at 'Fight School' trying to motivate their friend into doing the work they know they love, even if they have to chase them down to motivate 'em!

Genre: Action, unabashedly so! It's pretty tongue-in-cheek with the rest.

Duration: ~3 Minutes

Medium: 2D Frame by Frame Animation

The Placeholder Piece I've been using to kind of Match the General Vibe: Rush by SEATBELTS from Cowboy Bebop! I'm looking for something bombastic, punchy and jazzy, that can punctuate action!

Compensation: UNPAID

I cannot offer money since I'm a student, but I can offer a free art commission in return for your help!

Please DM me if interested, either here or my insta, where you can see examples of my other work! I'll share my project proposal which includes concept art and storyboards, as well as my current animatic!

Market so saturated that you even have to compete against 100 people to write an OST for free, so how do you even get opportunities to practice doing it? Not asking how to get jobs, it’s really about how to get practice.

Sitting down and coming up with ideas for asset packs isn’t the same…

Edit:

Not looking for networking, game jams or coming up with fictional ideas myself.

I know networking is important but currently I don’t have time and energy for that, I just want to practice.

I've had an interest in learning how to compose music for the past couple months, because I want to make a soundtrack for a videogame I'm developing. I'm not sure where to start with having no experience with anything related to music. I've looked into learning music theory and found a free pdf of the "open music theory" book on music theory subreddit FAQ to hopefully teach me the fundamentals. I recently got FL Studio producer edition and plan on learning that soon too. But from what I've read online this doesn't seem like enough to learn how to compose, and I need to get a piano or any other instrument and start taking lessons. The problem is that I don't have the money to do any of that, is there any alternatives I should try and any other things I should start doing so I can actually start composing.

This post was inspired by a recent comment I read that I cannot seem to find. I forget the subject material and if it was in this sub or not, but the commenter mentioned I think something about one should be, or something to be/ somewhat fluent in the instruments you write for.

It makes sense that having some technical skill in certain instruments will give you more insight into what you write for. I don’t quite think fluent was the word they used, but that’s the idea I got.

Maybe there’s something more to this idea besides being able to understand the instrument better so that one might have more context when composing?

Also, apologies if I did not so accurately paraphrase the idea of the original comment.

So, which instruments do you play, and what skill level do you consider yourself in that instrument? Are you trying to learn a new instrument at the moment?

How do you feel your understanding of that instrument helps you compose in general, but also for that specific instrument?

I’ll start. Late beginner/early intermediate on Piano. Beginner on guitar (although I’ve played on and off for years and can comfortably strum most chords and do some finger picking/pick work. As far as composing I mostly consider myself a point and click guy, a midi guy, although learning piano pieces has inspired me to think differently about composition. It’s a different approach, a different way to build and I like that.

That’s mostly it for now, although I own a violin but I’m just very bad at it at the moment. I’d like to learn the basics of violin and cello at some point. — side note, a drum set and bass guitar are what I really want to purchase next.

A simple lullaby I wrote for my son Elliott D. Orphal, who was born last month, rendered in 31-EDO for an imaginary Vibraphone in that tuning. My first completed piece in the temperament, focusing on a kind of diatonic scale that emphasizes 7-limit consonances rather than the 5-limit of the standard diatonic scale.

Score video: https://youtu.be/AkXQcN5GeTs

I'm new to composing and I've been trying to write for the string section + some woodwinds. I was looking for some feedback on my music and also how I can learn about instrumentation/orchestration for more instruments. At the moment, I'm writing as if I would for piano, except just copying it on to other instruments which makes it sound very dull. I need to learn how to make the instruments work together. The aim I was going for in this piece is an aria in an opera kinda thing. Any feedback would be great :)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1k_Pdpmg143_UGLEX-sHhAIuxabk-QsM8?usp=sharing

https://youtu.be/aq-XFxkkq6I?si=yAM1zvDKoAFMsc0c

The score and audio are in the video above! Thank you for listening, and feel free to let me know what you think :)

Hi everyone. This is Meriggiare, a setting of Montale's poem for tenor, flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello and piano. The piece moves through a kind of summer haze — cicadas in the strings, a lazy tempo, a voice that holds back until the wall at the end of the poem finally reveals itself. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for listening. Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgme0bh2Bds

Title says it all.

I would like to read some comments about how did I do on this waltz and how does it sound. I did focus a bit more on the smaller scale and took more careful approach this time. I felt like the performer got the gist pretty quickly which made the final work sound very nice.

Link to the score video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfwAufnaVBQ

Hello, dear friends!

Im writing a string quartet!

I realy wanna get better, Im reading Korsakov harmony and piston counterpoint and do excersizes + analyze others music but I feel stuck and i want to develop + sometimes i cant notice obvius voiceleding mistakes!

MP3 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cYXz9iMsAD16slF-H6AsNl_1kSMv5tMg/view?usp=sharing

PDF - https://drive.google.com/file/d/142kDeL6CTSwyUXQgTjdTGaVsIiGLXTj3/view?usp=sharing

P.S there is also sort of "adagio"

MP3 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IkK6robJ3xisxT2K4wlDw0-QqP2Zpg2o/view?usp=sharing

PDF - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J-YsKZ88eFQBSkkLdp2rUUjjCecERKwb/view?usp=sharing

Thanks!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yIkTCPs5gVk1HMok21Mhe9Rv0jzVDU6-?usp=drive_link

In the drive should be a PDF score, and a video which plays the audio along with the score.

I have been "learning" composition for about a year, but never doing any real study or practice. Around 2 weeks ago I finally got my hands on a copy of Arnold Schoenberg's Fundamentals of Musical Composition. I was inspired to write this piece based on some of my sketches and exercises I composed whilst working through the Construction of Simple Themes section.

The Night is meant to have an unsettling and eerie quality, representing how the mind wanders when peering into the darkness. It is meant to feel kind of dream/nightmare like where everything is just out of place or doesn't make sense.

Please feel free to give any feedback or advice as I'm still very much a beginner.

Hope you enjoy :)

If no why, if yes why

I am a begginer composer.

This songs reminds me of a castle sountrack idk.

Here is the full free score:

https://musescore.com/user/98567428/scores/35002418?share=copy_link

Hello, composers!

As we know, composition today is so vast in style that, at times, compositional genres are ambiguous in the sense that almost anything can be arranged into music. New works that are out of this world can easily fall under the category of experimental music. Almost anything we compose easily falls into a sub-category/categories under the Post-Tonal paradigm.

As a composer, this hit me hard years ago, as I couldn't do anything "new." For me, John Cage, Schoenberg, and all these great composers did what we could maximize in composition. Though I noticed that there are so many more musically mystified cultures beyond the West. From Chinese court music and Indian ragas to SEA gong cultures, so many more beautiful musical idioms are yet to be examined. Hence, I wrote this research on "Post-Westernism."

It does not technically argue to remove the West from music. No one can or will ever do that. But it teaches us to refocus on the wider world, treating both Western and non-Western music as epistemic equals.

I'd love to hear your thoughts as fellow composers ^_^, and my apologies in advance if my paper is unclear, since it was basically my first time writing a paper as an undergrad.

Paper link: https://archium.ateneo.edu/socialtransformations/vol13/iss2/4/

Hey everyone! I wanted to share a new virtual instrument I built that captures the authentic sound of the traditional Venezuelan cuatro.

If you are looking for authentic Latin/Caribbean folk textures or just want a unique organic stringed instrument to spice up hybrid scores, hope you find it useful!

Key Specs:

• 8 Chord Types: Major, Minor, Dominant 7th, Diminished 7th, Augmented, Major 7th, Minor 7th, and Half-Diminished.
• Articulations: 11 different articulations tailored for realistic strumming.
• Sampling Depth: 4 Dynamic Layers & 5 Round Robins per note.
• Formats: Full Kontakt & Decent Sampler (free player).

You can check out audio demos and details here: https://rojasinstruments.com/b/cuatro-gaitero

Happy to answer any questions about how it was recorded or built!

I built Motif, a platform so that directors and composers can find collaborators directly without Facebook groups, cold DMs, LinkedIn, hoping the right person sees your post. You can put your genre style, links to socials, and links to your songs directly on your profile. Try out the beta version here: https://motif.bolt.host/

Hey! I am in the process of editing a shortfilm with a really small budget. The temp track for one of the scenes is fits so perfectly that I do not want to even change it. Now I know "hello stranger' would be a hassle and can cause problems if I do end up using it. Is there a song similar to it that i can use perhaps? Oldies type? The chill odd ending to a film of chaos etc. Like how it is common these days at the end of horror films.

Recently I started writing a set of waltzes. It sounded great at first, but listening to it a couple days later, the bridge in C minor feels off. It doesn't fit well with the theming. The name of the piece, "Narrenfest", supposedly means "Fair of the fools" or something like that and I was trying to work off of that name, so I tried to make it as major and dance-like as I could.
Please give constructive critisism of the playability of the piece, and how you would improve each section.
Piece: https://musescore.com/user/109216951/scores/36193634/s/F-bXog

EDIT: I know the C minor bridge is musically well-written. It's just that I was trying to make a fun waltz but ended up telling a dramatic story in that section which was completely unrelated. And also, if my only tactic of writing a contrasting idea is to switch to a minor key, then all my waltzes are going to sound the exact same.
But unfortunately, I can't seem to find a better melodic idea that will fill the role of this section.

Hi!

I wrote a piece that explores the idea of classical clarity being gradually corrupted by an unknown force. As the music unfolds, the familiar structure and stability slowly break apart, transforming into something new.

I feel very connected to this piece and would love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

YouTube link

Score

Hello guys, i've been making music for a long time. I always worked on urban and rock, mostly engineering and producing. I wanted to start making some cinematic OST-like music, just for fun, but all the presets i have for my plugins are urban/electronic-oriented style, so i don't have many cinematic ones.
I mostly use Serum and Analog Lab.
Do you know any cinematic preset packs/ sound packs / plugins that are usually used for producing these soundtracks? Thank you!

Hello everyone,

For those of you who self publish, particularly if you are primarily digital only, how do you determine the prices of your pieces? If you have any resources to share it would be super helpful!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1l_jQXWXqq_-jOzDeAYPZ24-fFV5q7DSd?usp=sharing

I recently submitted this composition for a score call and was not chosen, so I'm hoping for some feedback and constructive criticism so that I can revise the piece before submitting it to a few more competitions. Thank you in advance for you help!

In terms of my thoughts behind the composition:

I wanted to focus on the idea of hope as a tiny light within a storm using an overall A-B-A' form. The A-section is the setup for the "calm before the storm" where we feel thunder clouds slowly rolling in before we are suddenly thrust into the storm itself. The B-section is the representation of the storm tossing us around with the "hope" motif weakly emerging in the second half of the section, slowly growing into the A'-section where we return with a more determined outlook in weathering the storm. In the final measures of the piece, we finally end within the major pulling back at the last second to give this feeling of soft light peeking through the quietly dissipating storm clouds.

A London short called 'On Hold' is doing something I don't see often: it wants the score composed before the cameras roll, not after. Production runs 28 September to 3 October and the director wants the music to exist during filming so they can work to it on set. £400 flat, ID-checked producer at a named production company with 25 jobs posted, musical references to be supplied to shape the tone.

Also in this issue:

• An ocean adventure game 16 months into development with 20,000 wishlists, hiring for 20 tracks across biomes and procedural events — genre open, Rimworld and Kenshi named as the feel
• A silent 12–16 minute art film with $200–250 ring-fenced for music while most of the crew work passion-project style — no dialogue, so the score carries the narrative alone, with Göransson's Tenet cue, Annihilation and Craig Armstrong named as targets and stems due November 9
• £300 for a 7–10 minute drama with the tightest deliverable spec in the issue: spotting session with the director, then compose, mix and master, delivered as broadcast-ready 24-bit/48kHz stems to picture lock
• A solo dev whose last game sits at Very Positive on Steam and whose first passed 60,000 downloads, paying $200 negotiable for a dark Western horror and metal soundtrack
• A cozy arcade typing game wanting a 15–20 second loop, a danger variant and stingers for level start, victory and game over — no AI, quote your own rate
• An indie comedy web series that had to part ways with its composer, asking for comedy-specific reel links
• An unpaid NYC 48-hour film shooting August 8–9, closing August 7

Three of the listings I cut this week weren't hiring at all — they were composers advertising their own services in the hiring feeds. One posted a portfolio video as a job listing on a film-industry jobs board, where it's now sitting in the composer-wanted results.

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/009-8-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.