Getting into composition can be daunting. Firstly, it can be a pretty big investment but even just figuring out what you need and where your money is best spent can be difficult.

Here we will be looking at the top 5 things every composer needs to get up and running. This is somewhat focused on orchestral composition, but the vast majority of this applies to any musician in any genre.

This industry is highly technical and having a computer powerful enough to handle the demands of the work is important.

We often recommend to students that a quad-core machine with 16GB of RAM is the absolute minimum you'll need to start digging in to orchestral writing, although realistically this won't get you too far. Getting a computer with a 6-8 core CPU and 32GB of RAM wouldn't cost a great deal more, and you'll be thanking yourself later.

Other than that, you'll need fast storage. Solid State Drives (SSDs) are absolutely key to loading your sample libraries quickly.

This is an endless topic, so I'll stop here.

We recommend starting with one comprehensive pack - something like Spitfires BBC Symphony Orchestra (CORE Edition) or Albion ONE. Another great option would be East West's 'Composer Cloud' subscription. Any of those options would be more than enough to get you up and running without too much of a financial commitment in comparison to other libraries.

Once you have experience with these libraries, you'll have a much stronger idea of where their flaws lie and what you need in your arsenal to write the music you want.

That's really all you'll need to get up and running. You may want to invest in some more hybrid composition tools, like Damage by Heavyocity or synths and patches for VSTs like Maschine, but if your goal is to write orchestral music then start with the fundamentals - the orchestra!

Plenty of musicians get by without a MIDI keyboard, and decide to use mouse and keyboard exclusively, however there's no denying the benefits of being able to play something in live with a MIDI keyboard.

Primarily, you get the live performance baked into the recording. A half-decent pianist playing in their piano line will sound like a real piano because...well, it is. If you're playing solo lines for strings, winds, or brass, you still get the live performance of being able to build velocities as you go without having to add the automation in later.

If you're starting out, you don't need anything too fancy. A keyboard with a few octaves, a Modulation wheel, and a single fader will do just fine. Once you dig into it more, then having a piece of kit with more faders, dials, gizmos and Johnsons (all technical terms, I assure you) will go a long way to improving your workflow.

Headphones are essential. You will often come across the "studio monitors vs headphones" debate but, whilst there's definite pros and cons to both, headphones are an easier and more cost-effective option for most home musicians.

The reality is that you will spend a lot of money on a great pair of studio monitors, only for the room they're in to affect the sound. The room has a significant impact on the colour of the sound before it reaches your ears, and if your room isn't acoustically treated, you will never be able to hear an accurate representation of the music you're writing.

A pair of headphones like the Beyerdynamic DT990 Pros or Sennheiser HD 660S will be fine - there's plenty of options, but these are two that I've recommended to our degree course applicants in the past.

This may seem like an obvious one, but too often as composers we try to replace getting better at our craft with shiny new tech. If this is you, just know you are not alone in doing this! Knowing how to utilise your resources is one of the most important bits of advice we can give you.

Typically, composers who are still in the process of building their skills at a beginner/intermediate level fit into two categories - those who are good at tech, and those who are good at composition.

Someone who is good at the tech might have a really well balanced mix. The panning will be spot on, and their use of automation data and effects will be pretty decent. However, their melodies and harmonies will be somewhat basic, and they struggle to develop their composition beyond 16 bars.

Those who are good at music have great control of harmonies, and can implement extensions and non-diatonic harmony to great effect. Their melodies are original and creatively integrated with the arrangement as a whole. However, they might be composing directly into a score editor like Sibelius/Finale/Dorico, or perhaps they are working in the DAW but, frankly, their use of samples is terrible.

Our Short Courses address all of these issues, and whilst online study isn't for everyone, it may be what you need to get yourself out of a rut and back into composing the music that inspired you to start learning in the first place. If you're interested, feel free to drop us an email.