Career Details :: Composers
Description
Compose music for orchestra, choral group, or band.
Experience
Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.
Education
A bachelor's degree is the minimum formal education required for these occupations. However, many also require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
Training
Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.
Tasks
- Creates original musical form or writes within circumscribed musical form, such as sonata, symphony, or opera.
- Transcribes or records musical ideas into notes on scored music paper.
- Develops pattern of harmony, applying knowledge of music theory.
- Creates musical and tonal structure, applying elements of music theory, such as instrumental and vocal capabilities.
- Determines basic pattern of melody, applying knowledge of music theory.
- Synthesizes ideas for melody of musical scores for choral group or band.
Related Careers
- Actors
- Art Directors
- Film and Video Editors
- Music Arrangers and Orchestrators
- Music Directors
- Poets and Lyricists
- Singers
- Sketch Artists
- Stringed Instrument Repairers and Tuners
- Talent Directors
Important Abilities
General Work Activities
- Thinking Creatively
- Implementing Ideas, Programs, etc.
- Documenting/Recording Information
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems
- Getting Information Needed to Do the Job
Important Skills
- Idea Generation
- Idea Evaluation
- Synthesis/Reorganization
- Implementation Planning
- Information Organization
Frequent Work Context
- Objective or Subjective Information
- Indoors
- Sitting
- Job-Required Social Interaction
- Importance of Being Sure All Is Done
Related Majors
| Major | Add to XapPack |
|---|---|
| Church Music |  [ add ] |
| Composition | [ add ] |
| Composition/Film Scoring | [ add ] |
| Composition/Theory | [ add ] |
| Contemporary Writing/Production | [ add ] |
| Dance Accompanying | [ add ] |
| Euphonium | [ add ] |
| Film Scoring | [ add ] |
| General Music | [ add ] |
| Instrumental Music | [ add ] |
| Jazz Composition | [ add ] |
| Music | [ add ] |
| Music Composition | [ add ] |
| Music History/Theory | [ add ] |
| Music Synthesis | [ add ] |
| Music Technology | [ add ] |
| Music Theatre | [ add ] |
| Music Theory | [ add ] |
| Music Theory/Composition | [ add ] |
| Music Theory/History | [ add ] |
| Music/Applied Music Education | [ add ] |
| Music/Business | [ add ] |
| Music/Elective Studies in Business | [ add ] |
| Music/Instrumental | [ add ] |
| Music/Keyboard | [ add ] |
| Music/Language | [ add ] |
| Music/Sound Recording | [ add ] |
| Music/Technology | [ add ] |
| Music/Theatre | [ add ] |
| Music/Voice | [ add ] |
| Musical Arts | [ add ] |
| Musical Studies | [ add ] |
| Musical Theatre | [ add ] |
| Orchestral Music | [ add ] |
| Piano Accompanying | [ add ] |
| Professional Music | [ add ] |
| Songwriting | [ add ] |
| Theatre/Music | [ add ] |
| Theoretical Studies | [ add ] |
| Theory | [ add ] |
| Theory/Composition | [ add ] |
| Traditional Composition | [ add ] |
Institutions Offering Related Majors
No institutions found.