Expert: David Froom - 10/28/2004

Question
I am interested in composing my own short operetta, and I would like  to know if you have any helpful hints for starting your first composition. If you don't compose for the voice, I am also interested in tips for composing orchestral music or something of the sort. Any information would be very helpful! Thank You!

Answer
I would not start by writing an operetta.  Even a short one is a huge undertaking. You might start by writing a song.  Then another.  Maybe after you have a bunch of songs, you could string them together into an operetta.

Composing for orchestra is like everything else -- except you need to understand all of the instruments.  There is something called the study of orchestration.  People teach classes in this, write books about this.  if you are interested in beginning to know about this, you might try to find a good orchestration book.  Some good ones were written by Blatter and by Adler.

Good luck with your pursuits.

David Froom