/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Your heart. Listen to your heart.

A lot of his early music wasn't spectacular, but look where he is after 14 years of composing regularly. Try stuff out. And continue until you've gotten somewhere.

>>6526203
eh?! Only 14 years?!
I thought he was composing since he was very young, since his parents bought him an electone in his youth and he joined the ""wind club" (I guess it explains his fondness and nostalgia for trumpets).

>>6526210
Yeah, he's been composing for over 14 years, but I don't know how regular it was before he released anything.

>>6526177
Assuming you're good on keyboard-
download touhou sheet music, youtube has a lot of good sheets from japanese users. DMBN is one of my favorite users- he not only makes fantastic sheets, but he has different versions with different difficulties. Really nice.

Play a few of these songs- several- just to get the feel of the music. Do this until you can just naturally play the melodies- without thinking.

Now, strike random chords from the songs, play triads- what sounds nice, what sounds like it would fit in touhou. Certain notes remind you of certain songs, & certain themes.

Mix these notes together. You'll notice that a lot of touhou songs have those "generic asian-y chords". Don't let your song become a generic asian melody- touhou is more than that, in fact its far from it. So, merge the melodies from various touhou songs, until you find something that's original, and fits your standards.

Note- this is just a starting point, with practice you can start building from scratch instead of merging melodies.


tl;dr learn the "touhou chords" of a piano. Mix & match these notes until you have something desirable.

>>6526225
much appreciated.
Unfortionately, I cannot read sheet music. Everything I learned was self-taught. Can you give me some more info about these "generic asian-y chords"?

>>6526236
Learn to read sheet music. It's not that hard.

>>6526236
>"generic-asian-y" chords
Mess around with the black keys, see what you get.

I've noticed that a huge majority- if not every- touhou song has a foundation that rests on the flats & sharps- the black keys. Once you play around with those notes, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Since you can't read sheet music- maybe go to youtube & watch other people play? You might be able to get the notes that way. Look around for both advanced & amateur players, hopefully some will have a video view where it's easy to see & identify the keys.

>>6526177
Trial.
Error.
Figure out what sounds right, and then PUNCH IT.

...and don't immediately compare yourself to ZUN's more recent stuff, that's gonna set yourself for unfair "I'LL NEVER BE THAT GOOD" disappointment. Seriously, even he had some wonky shit early on.

The road to quality is lined with QUALITY...

If you want to learn how to compose like someone, then transcribe their music. Do an accurate cover/arrangement/etc of a Touhou song.

>>6526447
>ZUN!bar

>>6526447
>ZUN!bar

>>6526236
Music isn't that hard to read. Bass B is the first line from the bottom, Treble, D is the first line from the bottom. Other small signs you can look up. Crescendo, decrescendo, easy. If you can't learn the basics in about 3 days, then kill yourself, seriously. It's really easy. Now tempo, good luck with that, I can't even get that right, I need someone to lay it out for me before I can play sometimes.

>>6526312
I think the term you're trying to find is pentatonic scale.
If you play all (and only) the black notes, you have a pentatonic scale.
It's pretty much impossible to write a bad melody using just a pentatonic scale, but it's hard to write something particularly interesting.
I reccomend OP learns to read sheet music. Even if you can't read nearly as fast as you play, it's very useful to at least be able to figure out the notes. It shouldn't take more than 20 minutes to learn bass and treble cleff, if you use methods like FACE (the notes in the spaces in the treble cleff) and All Cows Eat Grass (or a similar pnemonic for remembering the notes in the spaces for the bass cleff)
If you really want to commit, look up some music theory online or in books. When you understand how the notes fit together, you can write better music.
Or plan B: pick a scale. Play notes. Fit chords to the notes by ear. It probably won't sound as good, but it won't take nearly as much effort in the short-term.

How would you even compose if you can't read sheet music?

>>6526500
A lot of famous composers couldn't read sheet music. They had a guy to write the music down as they said the names of notes, or played them on a piano for example.
That's like saying "how can you form sentences if you don't know how to write?"

>>6526511
Yeah, but I don't think he has someone available to write his music down for him. I'm asking him specifically.

>>6526500
It seems that you don't know much about classical music. Ironically enough many composers didn't know how to read a sheet.

That's also valid for a lot of famous bands and very skilled people.

>>6526526
I know, I'm more just asking how he would store his music.

>>6526544
He could record it into a midi sequencer. A lot of those have tools to turn midi files into sheet music, and being the keyboard expert he claims to be he shouldn't have too much of an issue.

>>6526560
Wouldn't a DAW work?

OK, I'm shit with the terminology, but you know stuff like FruityLoops/LMMS and whatnot?

You could plug notes into there...

>>6526560
>>6526579
Yes, it's called a DAW.
And yeah that'd work too. But it's still recommended to learn sheet music if he wants to play piano. Most music comes in sheet form, and without knowing to read you're fucked.

>>6526177
Why hello deh. Axide frum being a freeloadin ol fool i also does composes me some musics. Why dats what i spend most o my money on. I got moar synthesizers than yo mammy got grits. I get more funky den a bucket o pigs feet. Lawdy i loves me some composin'

Go on an get yo self a book on music theory. I reccomends 'Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory: A Complete Self-Study Course for All Musicians'.

Sho nuff most musicians dun know how to read music. Still its an invaluable skill and cuts out a lott-o guessin wurk. Good luck ya lil cracker!

>>6526695
Please I've been loking for the source of this pic for years...can you tell me please?

>>6528610

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_the_South

>>6528615
Oh God...thank you so much!

Like ZUN!bar said, start with covers.

After a while of doing covers, pull the sounds from your heart and let loose your emotion into an emotional twister of music. This is how the Hardcoexperfessionals do it.

>>6528646
Sup zunbar?

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