>>121104826I made music for art therapy after an injury.
Basically what I studied is:
>octaves and what piano keys mean>consonance and dissonance>rhythm and accents>melodies, harmonies, countermelodies, texture>scales, modes, circle of fifths>chord progressions>melodic motion>sound design, harmonics/timbre/ASDR>song structure>mixing and masteringThen I just consciously listened to as much different music as possible and learned different musical techniques and ethnomusicology. Listening to the instrumentals of popular R&B or hip hop songs, listening to slavic folk music, european classical, jazz, irish jigs, african drums, japanese koto solos, harsh genres like drone or noise, ambient, videogame soundtracks, EDM, early 20th century electronic music, etc. always paying attention to the song structure. I avoided trap because it feels like everyone is using hi-hats.
My actual music creation process usually involves either experimenting with a single sonic idea
>make a track that uses bells and chimes>make a microtonal track that isn't ambient >make a track with no chorus>make a foley only track >make a track with drums onlyNot restraining myself too much because I don't know how it will finish
...or I just think of an emotional or visual theme like "dark sea" and make a theme around that. Sampling the ocean and adding abrasive effects, giving it an industrial but slow beat over the top to represent a ship, having pendulum undulating notes to represent seagulls and a bright sweep to represent a lighthouse etc.