Earlier this week I mentioned I would talk about the 2nd best thing to do to become a better composer. The first is (surprise, surprise) compose. The second (a distant second) is to listen to as much music as possible, ideally with music in front of you. It is best to listen to a variety of styles as well. It is much easier these days to listen to a variety of styles than it was in the old days ( say, 50 years ago). Nowadays all you have to do is visit youtube and you can watch a video of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie perform together followed by a video of a John Cage performance followed by Horowitz playing Chopin. I really wish youtube was around in my teenage years when I first started playing the guitar. Back then (not that it is far back) I had MTV, the radio, and CD collections. Of the three I didn't have control over what MTV and the radio played and if you want an extensive CD collection it cost some serious bucks.
Of course they did have libraries and these can also be hit and miss. Most large colleges and universities have decent music libraries. Sometimes non-students are allowed to check items out.
As far as what to listen to, there is a lot of music. I would recommend talking with somebody knowledgeable about music to see where you could start. At the very least you should listen to Classical, Jazz, Blues, Gospel, and Rock. Of course, there is a ton of music composed in all of those styles. If you look up classical music in wikipedia it should throw out some of the big composers (Mozart, Beethoven, etc.) that you can start with.
To recap, if you want to be a better composer you must first, compose a lot of music. Second, you must listen to a lot of music. Composers don't tend to work in a vacuum. Most composers are aware of what came before them as well as what is going on now.
Rob
scores, tabs, and mp3s available at http://www.robertlunncomposer.com
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