Composing Tips

If you are interested in composing, this page is for you! While I don't have formal training in music (besides 10 years of piano lessons), here are a few things that help me when I get stuck or a few things I've picked up from people who know a lot more about music than I do!

Look at the Lyrics

When arranging music, I look at the lyrics and make the piano sound like them. Here are some examples.

From my version of “If You Could Hie to Kolob“:

Measure 21-22, “Or see the grand beginning…” : These lyrics are the beginning of the second verse. The measures mentioned are the transition measures. I build here–make the sound get bigger since it is a “grand beginning.”

Measure 32, “Methinks the Spirit whispers…”: For this phrase I slow down and where the word “whispers” is I decrease the volume.

From my choir version of “Behold! A Royal Army“:

Measure 54, “They see his signal flashing…”: Flashing is the word I’m focusing on here. I wanted to make a sound of flashing. If you play it, you will see how the eighth notes in the right hand sound like the word “flashing.”

From my arrangement of “Nearer, My God to Thee“:

Measure 24, “The sun gone down”: Right after this phrase is over I do a little trill-like phrase with descending noes, since the sun is going “down”.

Measure 28, “Thy rest a stone”: This measure ends with a half note while the right hand is holding out the whole note. I like that the notes are held out, “resting.” I also dropped the half note to be played really deep, that is the image I had in my mind of a stone.

Measure 29-32,”Yet in my dreams I’d be, nearer, my God to thee”: In contrast to the lyrics right before with a deep sounding “stone,” I felt like dreams lift us higher. So I raised the melody an octave higher and tried to make it sound dream-like, beautiful.

Measure 42-43, “Steps unto heaven”: I tried to make the piano sound like steps going upward so, in verse 43 you will see 3 chords getting higher each time.

Stop Playing, Listen in Your Head

I was trying to find a transition between two verses and what I was coming up with was pretty boring and frankly, not fitting right. So I played the arrangement up to that point and stopped as soon as the verse was over. I closed my eyes and started singing in my head what would sound good. I was able to come up with a beautiful sound the first time I tried this.

I’ve definitely heard music in my head before but this time it helped to stop at a part I was stuck on and try to get my brain instead of my fingers to figure it out.

Print Out the Standard Version

When arranging songs, I’ll take the hymn or Children’s Songbook song I want to arrange and print it out in the key or keys I want it to be in. Since lds.org does the key changes for you, it makes it so much easier!

So, here’s what I do. I print it out and put it on the keyboard in front of me before I pull out my composing music paper. I play it through a few times adlibbing an arrangement. If I come up with a different melody for a phrase or chord to accompany the melody that sounds interesting, I write it on the sheet music I printed out. This gives me a few ideas for when I start to write it out.

Sometimes you’ll think of good ideas before you are writing out your music so this makes sure you get some of them down before you forget it. I have done this and it is a sad thing! It can be messy and crowded to do it this way but it has helped me

Play it Backwards

When I was writing music in high school my piano made a suggestion to me when I got stuck with what to write next. She told me to try taking some melody I already have and play the notes backwards to see if anything interesting comes of it.

For a decade I tried this tip and nothing really came of it. However, once when I was trying to come up with an intro to my arrangement of "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" I played the last line of the song backwards and wah lah! It was perfect! I was so excited that after trying it many times it finally worked and it worked really well.

So, try it and maybe you’ll get something from playing a melody backwards!

Finish off the Sound

When writing “An Honest Tithing” my reviewer noticed that some of the sounds weren't complete. If you look in measure 12 you will see I finished off the verse by going down to the C in the treble clef. I didn’t have that at first and it just wasn’t quite right. So, between phrases look to see if you need to finish off the chord by adding a note.

Change Octaves for One Note

When arranging music I feel intros can be tricky to come up with. I don’t just want to play the last line of the song as an intro. That can be boring, and coming up with something new can sometimes sound out of place for the song.

One thing I have done to change up an intro is change octaves on the last note of a line. Take “I Feel My Savior’s Love” for example. Instead of playing the normal F on “love” you play it an octave higher. Can you hear playing that higher note while your left hand is playing ascending notes leading you into the song?

I’ve found this technique useful for changing up intros, but it could very well be useful at other points of an arrangement too. Try it out!

6/8 Notation

When writing out music in this time signature, think about which notes are often being emphasized: 1 and 4. It has a feeling of 2 sets of triplets. So when notating, a half note is never used. If you did have 4 beats for one note you divide it by having a dotted quarter note tied to an eighth note if it is at the beginning of the measure, or an eighth note tied to a dotted quarter note if it was the last 4 beats of the measure–breaking it up 3 eighth notes by 3 eighth notes.

Here is an example from my “Have I Done Any Good?/Love One Another Medley”:

This is done for reading the music and counting out the rhythm. Think about counting: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. You pause a little after the 3.

Syncopation

I have found when right and left hands are moving back and forth, it helps to give more variety to a piece. If my arrangements are ever sounding the same I’ll try to add some different syncopation.

For example, if you are in 3/4 time and there are 3 quarter notes in the melody, add 2 dotted quarter notes to the left hand. Now, that is a very simple example but hopefully you get what I mean.

So, if your songs are in need of some variation, play around with syncopation. You might find a fun sound!

Music by Danielle Isaacson