Hello, I’m Jon Brantingham, a composer, performer, and teacher. I’ve been pursuing the art of composing music my entire life, and I’m passionate about helping others find their own unique voice and style in their music.
My journey to becoming a composer and composition teacher has been a unique one.
Listen to my music while you read…
I grew up playing music.
From age twelve and on, I had one question driving me, “What makes music work?” I would spend hours listening, playing, and composing. Always searching.
I went to college for music, but as with many others of my generation, the events of September 11th, 2001 sent me on a different path. I ended up becoming a U.S. Army Officer, and helicopter pilot.
During that time, music was still a part of my life, but not the main part. But around 2010, I began composing again. It felt great to express myself in music again.
After spending seven years in the Army, I started Art of Composing in 2011 as a way to collect everything I was learning and blog about it. At the time, I was particularly excited about musical form and harmony.
My Composition and Teaching Philosophy
Since 2014, I’ve pursued composition as a career and have now scored a soap opera, short films, commercials, and other composing work. However, my true passion lies in uncovering the mysteries of music, teaching composition, and helping others tap into their creativity and find their own unique voice.
As a teacher, I believe that composition is a mix of your own unique voice, the music that you’ve been exposed to, and the technical knowledge that you have. I encourage my students to find their own voice by sharing the music that they are writing and passionate about, and having a conversation with them about what it means, how they feel about it, and what they believe needs to change.
I take a non-judgmental approach to what my students write, because we all want to express ourselves uniquely. I inspire creativity by giving my students clear compositional goals, and not overwhelming them with having to create large scale works that may be beyond their capabilities. My goal is to provide my students with the tools and guidance they need to open up their creativity, learn to surrender to the muses, and express their true inner music.
If you’re interested in learning more about composition or taking your skills to the next level, I invite you to join me here at Art of Composing. Together, we can explore the world of composition and unleash your full potential as a composer.
I can relate to your story, raising a family and I spent 12 yrs in the Air Force. I had to put my love and ambitions in music aside. Now, that my kids are grown and on their own I’m ready to pursue music again. I’m stuck in beginner mode again, and hope that through your lessons that I can breakout of beginner status and progress further into writing and composing music.
Thanks,
Iggie D.
Good luck Iggie. I believe Veterans are persistent. You can make it, but it will take time.
JE VAI BIEN
COMMENT TU VAS
Wow, Jon. I read your story and listened to every music piece on this page. I like your first piano jazz tune. How amazing? I have learned playing piano for 7 years but still had a little difficult to play jazz. I can see your music talents when you were 12 years old. The short film score is so cute and well done. Your orchestra piece is also excellent. Your story and music talent really inspired me. I will sign up your membership soon. Thank you again for sharing your story with us.
Lei
Happy to share it.
Hi
I have listened to your first few lessons, although they are not for me I can see how they would be useful for starters. They are easy to understand if you have a basic grasp of some theory.
Thanks.
You are Jon Brantingham?
Yes.
You changed my ‘hsm’ – I was alerting you to the fact that you spelt your name wrong at the beginning of this post.
Greets.
Lol, I didn’t realize. Thanks for pointing it out.
Hi Jon, thanks for sharing your story and i am amazed that you started composing at such a young age. I wrote my first song when i was 26 (having never taken any music lessons and being unable to play a musical instrument at that time). The song was kinda crappy, but a few months later i managed to compose a better song which was performed at 2 churches. Three years later i started to learn to play the piano by myself, and this year i am so lucky to find great resources on the Web- including yours.
My hubby just started composing last year, and he has composed a song with this kind of chord progression… Bb -E dim – Am- D-Gm-C-C7-F. That’s despite not being able to read music 🙂 probably sounds too good to be true, but when i tried it on my keyboard, that was the case 🙂
……just started your composition program; we have a lot in common; I started paying trumpet at age 14………all self taught and I could read music even then; grew up in Canada but my mother was English, so I moved there after high school. Played in bands in England and Sweden; then lived in Kenya for awhile; returned to Canada and USA. I never learned to “ad lib”-playing without music;am hoping I will learn how with your course; I have just finished a univ. course on intro to composition; I stated to my instructor that I had over 1000 lyrics in my head and wanted to put them to music; in the last 30 days I have written 30 songs which I must now put to music. Your course is easy to understand-thanks and do appreciate that its its free as I am on a limited income at age 80. JAY JAMES -CANADA
Glad to find a kindred spirit Jay.
Holy cow! I was looking for a good music theory book on Amazon and there you were! Howdy old neighbor! It’s pretty cool to see that you’ve written a book on something that’s always been close to my heart…. music composition! I’ve become a chiropractor like your dad and now my sights have turned to the creating and playing of music. It’s good to see you’re doing well Jon. I live and have my practice here in the Netherlands for over 10 years now. Must say, I’m proud to see what you’ve become.
Your old next door neighbor,
Rob (or was it Robby to you?)
Hey! That’s great. My family (wife and son) actually moved back to the street. Your mom’s took us on a tour of her house just a few months ago. I hadn’t been in there since we moved to Africa, so it was pretty cool. I still remember playing Prince of Persia in your living room. Who would have thought two houses on the same block would end up with both chiros and composers.
Jon (or was it Jonny to you?)
interesting, thank you for your videos and lessons, I am v interested in the book too
Jon
I love your story about composition and music. It is a hard path and has some of the solitary time and discipline you’d find in the military – that is IF you want to excel at music performance and/or composition. I am surprised you never thought of going into the United States Band Corp (I believe that is the area where they hire musicians). They accept people until the age of 39 and I know of a conductor of a community orchestra where I live in Queens who got into that division of the armed serves to continue as a conductor.
Appreciate your comment on my blog about Bach. You are correct that one of my points was that every composer is a beginner at some point. But also t we stand upon the shoulders of many , many fine musicians and composers too who should be acknowledged and celebrated for their own contributions – not everyone can be a Bach, but Bach needed Bohms and Buxtehude to achieve as high as he did. What can make our music stand out is how we assimilate the past with our own life – both in and outside music.
Keep at it and find good composition mentors to listen to your music. Feel free to email me one of your finished pieces once in awhile.
Chris Sahar
Chris
I appreciate the comment. When I was in high school in England, I actually thought about going into the Army as a conducter. That was also my plan when I started college. But the Army has a way of “changing” your plans.
I am in the process of relearning things, and I am up for any critiques of my work. You can take a listen on musescore.com, the username is artofcomposing. I’ll put up a page with all of my compositions soon, so they are easy to get to and leave comments.
I relate to your story for I too have always loved music. I am a retired teacher of 20+ years, I served in the US Army during the Vietnam era, and before that I was a laborer with no future. I started writing and saw the need to study music, but being a poor kid, I was not able to get any music lessons. However, when I picked up the guitar, it came with a little instruction book which helped me to learn music.
Then, I taught myself piano. However, I have never been able to increase my musicianship beyond beginner. Still, that did not stop me from writing simple songs. The Army changed my musical plans, too, because I did not have time to write or submit the songs I had written to music publishers. So, I put my dream aside.
When I found your website through Noteflight, the online music program, I began looking into copyrighting more of my songs and focusing on arranging them. Your website has been a great help and inspiration. Thanks for serving our country faithfully, and being an inspiration for the young talents out there who will benefit from your knowledge. As for me, I hope to improve my musical abilities as I continue to write. Thanks again,
Val
Awesome. Always glad to help and inspire a fellow vet.