I was just wondering if anyone is composing their own music and how they approach it? I was thinking of picking out general chord progressions first and then trying to write the melody on top of the chords? I just donāt know if thatās how most people compose?
No expert but I tend to just noodle until I get something that I like and expand it from there using my meager understanding and fumblingsā¦
Generally its a bit of lead or some chord progression Iāll enhance
@RobDickinson Thank you! I donāt know how much musical theory I can understand on my own but Iām trying. 
I kind of need people to dumb things down for me because if I donāt understand it then I get frustrated.
I dont really apply much at the moment either!
I guess stick to the key notes 1/3/4/5ās and the key for scales for whatever goes, but if it sounds good it is good.
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Same as Rob, I just play around until I come up with something I like the sound of. Usually start with the rhythm, then use a looper to noodle over the top. Certainly not the most efficient method and one that doesnāt really apply much theory (since I havenāt learnt much yet), but itās fun and it works for me. 
I also have a nasty habit of not writing down or recording what I come up with quickly. I leave it too long because thatās the āboringā bit, then by the next day Iāve forgotten it. Oops. 
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@RobDickinson Iām trying to figure out whether itās the chicken or the egg when it comes to lyrics and the music. How they combine is mysterious to me right now. 
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It works for pretty much every decent well known guitarist too! Theres certainly levels to noodling (see Guthrie Govan etc) and skill at developing ideas
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@Goffik Yeah I could probably figure out how to use a looper pedal but I wouldnāt know how to write out what I put into the looper!
@RobDickinson yeah Guthrie makes a lot of sense when he talks. He reminds me that you really do better when you can feel the music with your heart and not just understand it on a cerebral level. 
Have a look at MuseScore, which is notation software that is free to download. No idea if itās any good for experts, but itās good enough for a novice like me to write down the occasional masterpiece. 
Isnāt too hard to get the basics down, though I donāt understand half of it.
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I do a bit of songwriting. Not sure if youād call it composing. Different chord progressions and rhythms and a couple of riffs. Donāt really know enough music theory to compose proper melodies.
When I write them down itās just words, chords and some description of what Iām doing. It would have to be a pretty special song to spend the time writing down tab & score in guitar pro!
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Yeah I guess everyone has different things that work for their process. I would love to read a book all about peopleās methods. I watched a YouTube saying āYesterdayā by the Beatles started out as Paul singing āScrambled eggsā!
The Get Back doco has a bit of an insight into the way the Beatles wrote songs if youāve seen that? I think a lot of different bands & artists are different. Pretty sure I read that in RHCP Anthony Kiedis would write a lot of the lyrics first, and then sing them, and Frusciante would work out the music to go with it.
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I remember once hearing an interview with Paul McCartney where he said they never had a way of writing down the tunes they came up with, they just had to remember them, and that he thought that they probably ended up with better songs as a result because the tunes had to be memorable.
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Do whatever you find works for you and is the most enjoyable.
The only important thing is to actually DO IT! Youāll improve with time
Iām not very good on guitar or music theory, so I try to find and interesting topic or funny observation and write the lyrics, then steal a tune.
Iām unlikely to come up with something that has never been done before, so I might as well borrow something I like and maybe alter it to suit 
If you enjoy writing lyrics, it can be fun just changing the lyrics of an existing song too.
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Haha, so that must mean all of my compositions are rubbish since I canāt remember them a day later! 
Seriously though, I can see his point.
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I have only written one song, so I donāt exactly have a āmethodā. I came up with a lyric one day while in the car with my wife Jen. She really liked it and I worked on it for a while. Finally I set it aside in frustration. Almost a year later I was noodling around with some chords and enjoying using sus chord based fills. Suddenly I could hear the lyrics I had fit in, which then made it easier to finish the lyrics.
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@jkahn That makes sense with RHCP. It amazes me how musicians can just pick up and play but then if you understand chord progressions it seems it would really help break things down into manageable bits.