r/Composition

was originally planning to do music transcription as a side hustle on Fiverr, but marketplace sites are probably off limits for me right now.

I still want to improve my transcription skills and maybe eventually find work through communities instead. I have almost a decade of musical experience, strong ear training/perfect pitch, and I can already transcribe music very accurately into sheet music & MIDI

Where do people usually find transcription work outside of Fiverr/Upwork/etc? Are there specific communities where this kind of thing is actually in demand?

I’m especially interested in the VGM/anime/piano music transcription niche right now.

A little sentimental waltz I composed recently. I am fond of this work. I'd appreciate your feedback on what I can improve and your overall thoughts. Thanks!

I’ve played music for a long time but never got around to composing a song, which is my current aim.

I have plenty of whistle recordings made on the spot as I tend to pick up the music while I’m outside, though in reality the issue comes up all the same when I’m around my guitar.

I assume that a musician who’s familiar with associating sounds with chord shapes, if not chord denominations altogether, would be able to lay out the chord progressions relatively easily.

I would like to know what learning pathways there are in order to reach that stage, especially the first steps since I’m pretty much clueless beside standard major and minor chords.

Hello Composers of Reddit!

I'm very interested in hearing about other writers approach writing their music. I know this sort of thing must be different according to what instrument/ensemble one is writing for.

In my experience it is very time consuming to write at a piano. I find that I waste too much time banging out a sketch over and over without really making critical decisions about it. For choral works, I write the melody humming to myself, find the chord progression that I like. I admit that this part is done at the piano, but it is very purposeful and doesn't take as much time. I write the other voice lines at a desk since counterpoint can be written as a work of the intellect.

I've heard the stories of famous composers who would write straight through without instruments as a reference (Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, and more I'm sure). Does anyone here work like this? how do you do this?

Excited to hear your thoughts!