Beginning composer wanting to know where to start?

Question

I'm a seventeen-year-old aspiring film composer. I have twelve years of piano and theory experience, but beyond that, I have no experience with anything else musicwise. I am homeschooled with no easy access to an orchestra or other music program. I also want to learn to compose using a DAW but I don't have a synthesizer use with one. Where would you suggest I start when trying to learn how to write for other instruments? It seems I really need to learn to orchestrate, but I don't know where to start.

Answer 1

Hi, it is great you have 12 years of piano and music theory background. It is a must to know a DAW and typically we would need to know more than one. I would suggest to get into it by a simple program like Garage Band, if you have a Mac computer. You would not need to have a MIDI keyboard or synth to start with. You could learn all basics of the program and will help you understanding the future DAW. I also recommend to take a look of several great Orchestration books and notation software, like Sibelius as it is widely used.