Online Music Composition Lessons
Write Better Music With One-on-One Guidance From a Professional Composition Teacher
You have musical ideas. Our job is to help you develop them into music that works.
Sage Music offers private online music composition lessons for beginners, experienced composers, songwriters, and advanced musicians. Your lessons are personalized around the music you want to create, whether you're learning how to write your first piece or working on form, harmony, orchestration, pacing, motivic development, or a portfolio.
And composition may be one of the easiest music subjects to study online.
Unlike an instrumental lesson, where a teacher may need to closely observe and hear the details of a live physical performance, composition lessons are centered on your music and your ideas. You and your teacher can look at a score, listen to your work, discuss what is and isn't working, and develop your composition together.
That makes online composition lessons a natural fit for students almost anywhere.
Get in touch today to learn how we can help you reach your goals.
We'll email you more about Sage Music® and a member of our team will personally contact you when you send this form. We'll never share your information with anyone else.
Composition Lessons Built Around the Music You Want to Write
There isn't one correct way to become a composer.
A beginning student trying to write a first piece needs something very different from an advanced composer preparing a portfolio. That's why our composition lessons are private and personalized.
Before you begin, we'll learn about your experience, musical interests, goals, and learning preferences. Your teacher can then build your lessons around the skills you actually need.
Rather than simply telling you what to change in a piece, our goal is to help you understand why a musical choice works and give you techniques you can apply to your next composition.
Over time, you'll develop both your craft and your own musical voice.
What Can You Learn in Online Composition Lessons?
Your lessons will depend on your goals and current level, but composition study may include:
Musical Ideas and the Larger Form
Learn how to take a small musical idea and develop it into something larger. Explore ways composers create coherence. For example, Alban Berg's work as the master of the smallest link, or Beethoven's projection of small motives into large scale forms.
Musical Development
There are many ways that music can develop. Whether that is the contrapuntal recombination of Bach, or the developing variation of Mozart, or Schoenberg's pantonal system combining the two, you'll learn how to develop your musical ideas organically.
Pacing and Dramatic Shape
Good composition isn't only about what happens—it's also about when it happens. Learn to control tension, release, contrast, arrival points, transitions, and the overall dramatic arc of a piece. Learn how to find the climactic moment, and compose backward to the beginning and forward to the end as a compositional strategy.
Instrumentation and Orchestration
Learn the characteristics, ranges, and possibilities of instruments and how to write effectively for individual players, ensembles, or larger groups. While the use of modern notation and playback can be helpful, it is disconnected from what music actually sounds like in a player's hands. Study and learn the nuances of each instrument for organic sounding music.
Developing Your Individual Voice
Studying technique doesn't mean making your music sound like everyone else's. Technique gives you more ways to express what you want to say.
Your teacher will help you strengthen your craft while developing the musical ideas and styles that interest you.
After all, both Mozart and Beethoven studied with Papa Haydn, and they could not be more different.
Types of Composition Lessons
Studying composition is about learning to develop your own musical voice, regardless of style. As Berg famously said to George Gershwin, "Music is music, Mr. Gershwin".
Classical Composition Lessons
If you're interested in concert music, your lessons can explore the techniques and traditions relevant to the music you want to write.
That may include harmony, counterpoint, form, motivic development, instrumentation, orchestration, score study, and contemporary compositional approaches, with a healthy dose of the past masters.
The objective isn't to make you imitate another composer. Studying how music works gives you more tools for creating music that sounds like you.
Jazz Composition Lessons
Depending on your goals, jazz composition lessons can address harmony, form, changes, melodic writing, arranging, improvisation, and writing in a way that makes musical sense for the performers who will play and improvise over the heads and changes that you create.
Songwriting
Songwriting is composition with its own particular set of challenges.
Songwriters may focus more heavily on lyrics, melody, harmony, song form, vocal writing, and arranging for piano, guitar, band, or other combinations.
Classical and jazz composition often focus on musical development and progression. Songwriting and popular music often rely on the opposite: avoiding strict key references and modulation. It relies on other techniques to prolong the music that must be mastered.
If your goal is primarily songwriting, tell us. We'll help determine the kind of instruction that best fits what you want to create.
How Much Do Online Composition Lessons Cost?
Because Sage Music lessons are personalized around the individual student, program options and pricing vary.
Your enrollment includes more than your private lesson. Sage Music students also receive access to our student platform, lesson recordings, community, events, and other resources included with their program.
In general, pricing ranges from $103 to $548 per month, but we do have a range of plans to suit every schedule and every budget.
Contact our team and we'll explain the available options and help you determine which program makes sense for your goals.
What times are available?
Check below to see what lesson times are available for you.