As a request from a member of this forum, that shall go unnamed, I have been assign to teach how to compose music. So why not create a blog entry for that?

I am a music composer, whatever that means? It means I am an artist, but with music instead of art, because those are kinda similar, but not.

If you are a music composer yourself, or someone who can play music from reading sheet music, you won't be impressed. If you have never before heard music, you might be a little impressed, but most likely, you won't be.

So where do I start? Where does the music come from? Usually, nothing comes from the void, but is rather pieces of other things I have heard under a very long time, that somehow got merged together and became something new (like when you dream). Usually it is a melody stuck in my head, that I try (emphasis on try) to remember so that I can do something with it in the future. If you can whistle, then you pretty much know what a melody is, because it is that part you usually sing to (when it is a song), or whistle.

Let's start with a simple melody (an annoying one):

So where do we go from here? Well, usually we want the roots of the chords, so we will know where the melody is heading (or staying at, or whatever). That will lead to creating the bass line. However, for the fun of it, I am waiting with the roots, and giving you the harmony instead. That is because the harmony has its own roots, kinda, to be confusing. When composing music, try to be as confusing as possible to the ear. But also, when we add the bass, we want it to have its own melody (eh, confusing, that's what we are aiming for!).
So here are the harmonies:

If you can count to 4 within the first Major 7th chord, then, be prepared when the bass has been added, as 2 of those beats will be its own chord, and the other 2 will be a sus chord. That stands for suspended. There are many kinds of suspended chords, and some of them are nameless. While many of you know of the sus2 and sus4 chords (which are blah), most pop songs uses the bass + 1 for the suspended effect, and we will too! By playing a Major chord and move the bass from the root by + 1 (not semitones, but on the major scale), the chord's harmony changes into a Dominant sus. You have the Dominant 7th and 9th as part of the previous chord, but the bass which must be the root forces the 9th and the broken 11th into a sus chord, which melts most people's ears (including mine). Any 11th chord are broken, and shouldn't be used.

So here are the chords you here in the harmony, in the order you hear them (I only care about the harmony, not the base chord because this music is transposed by a few seminotes):
Maj7
Maj7
Maj7
Major
Min7#5
Min7
Major
Dominant9sus
sus4
sus4
Major6
Min7#5
Min7
Major9
Major
Dominant13add2

I could go on about these chords forever. Though, even if they have a meaning by themselves, they will not mean the same when we add the bass to the mix.

Time for the bass. Well, just have a listen:

So with the highest part of the music being defined to be the melody, and the lowest part of the music being the bass, let's listen to them together (the rhythm between them might be the thing you have to be born with to be a truly good composer. Sadly, I am not):

Now, to combine the bass and the harmony, to create those sus chords and complex ear bleeding stuff. There is one thing I haven't talked about, and it is the horrible Major 6th chords in there. The melody might force this to be music in mostly Major 6th, but any Major 6th chords should be banned because they are manipulative. Thankfully I only have a split second of the music actually playing the Major 6th. I could make a whole blog post just about why Major 6th is evil, but for now, let's concentrate on this d*mn thing:

And to complete the different variations, here is the melody and harmony together (the music is pretty much completed when the drums kicks in):

And to finalize this thing, the final music (all combined, good riddance!):

Now if I managed to be a good teacher, all of you will compose great music in the future. But from experience, I am not a good teacher. Also, I will take questions if there are any?