Studies & Degrees in Music Composition

Choose where you would like to study Music Composition:

Music composition is undertaken by people, called composers, who normally create various pieces of music for films, plays, television, concerts, and operas. Composers develop in-depth knowledge of classical, ballet, and opera repertoire in order to be able to develop their own pieces.

Usually people associate composers with names like Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Wagner, and many others. In present times, although composer names are not so famous, the need for music composition has been growing. Composers can create music for symphonies, bands, jazz ensembles, classical chores, on top of the already mentioned TV and other media. Often composers are sought after to create a piece for a specific purpose, but they can also develop a portfolio and seek to make it accessible to a wider range of prospective listeners.

Personal Qualities

In general, people who compose music are naturally gifted individuals, who have shown talent and love of music from an early age. Other personal qualities are:

• Motivated, highly committed personality
• Patience, discipline, and determination
• Self confidence
• Creativity
• Ability to concentrate for long periods of time
• Good knowledge of various musical instruments

Study Options

Although composing music involves a great deal of talent, some form of formal training is always a good choice. People involved with music composition, or music overall, start their training from a very early age. If you are interested in this profession, you are most likely to be playing one or more music instruments, undertake music classes, or participate in school bands, orchestras, or chores. If you continue your education by strictly specializing in this field, you should always seek for the practical aspect of your education, too.

An ideal case scenario would be for you to get noticed earlier in your career, which would open opportunities for the future. Your time at university should be smartly spent at developing your network and making the right connections to enhance future career prospects.

Career Options

In today’s world, career prospects in this profession are highly dependent on luck, talent, and other subjective matters. The easiest choice would be to go into teaching – you can do this either for a school, or on a private basis. You can also open your own academy for instructing students, hiring other professionals, organizing child chores, and so on.

If you aim to become a film composer, work for TV, or other major productions, you will have to explore different options for reaching this goal. As already discussed earlier, you can participate in or form your own band, look for employment in symphonies, orchestras, and so on. It highly depends on the type of music you wish to compose and perform, but the general view of music and composition graduates is that it is a challenging area to be involved in.