I have to write a song composition. I am given the words and need to put them to music.

As singers can you please tell me if you have a preferable key, I was thinking d major with a modulation to its dominant.

And what about time signature, is there a preferable time signature or one to avoid? Or is it jyst what fits with the words?

Many thanks.

Time signature doesn't matter mostly but key is dependent on the singer. Range wise my female adult contemporary choir singers prefer not to go lower than G3 (G below middle C) and not above C5 (C above middle C) so a key of C or D would work well. Most Xmas carols work well in A.

Girls don't go so low, Bb below middle C as lowest.

Of course trained singers will be able to go higher depending on age, voice type, experience etc

I've got a similar thing to do for A224 with the OU. I suspect I'll just use a range I can sing.

I seem to remember you have a daughter - could you get her to sing her range to give you an idea of what might be comfortable and go from their?

Mine is for A224 too, but I am quite behind. I thought why it was difficult to get study in, I would start preparing what key and time signature.

I do have a daughter but she doesn't sing, my son thought like me, d major. My mum used to be a professional singer, but alas can't sing any more. Of course she can probably tell me what tine signature she preferred. It could be that once I look at the words, this just springs out at me.

Good luck with yours, are you enjoying A224? I am and I am finding it much lighter than AA317, although shocked to say that I am actually missing the intense research and academic essays I have become used to doing.

I think that your time signature will be dictated by the text itself - sometimes it's worth looking at the text and working out which words will be stressed and where there'll be gaps if you read it out loud. For example, if you have a stressed syllable every 3 words, then it's more likely to be a triple time signature (try saying the words to 'Twinkle Twinkle' with a stress on every other syllable, then every third one).

As for the key, I'm not sure this is important - as ExpressYourself has said, it's the range which is probably more of a consideration. I think you will need to either choose a voice type (sop, tenor etc.) and write to its range or stick with a reasonably neutral range - if I'm not writing for any particular voice type, I usually stick to a range from around A below middle C, to the D or E in the next octave - this is usually reasonably 'safe'.

When I compose songs, I tend to sit with the words in front of me and play around until I get a bit of tune I like. I then usually work out what key it's likely to be in, and also what time signature it is. My feeling is that if you do it the other way round, in some ways, you're ignoring the natural time/rhythms of the text itself...but...I don't know exactly the task you've been set so I'm not sure any of what I've said helps

Thanks Seer

That really helps. Hopefully I can get cracking on it by Thursday, once everyone is back at work and school.

Choosing a key and time signature is a bit like a marathon runner choosing a pair of trainers. Whilst it no doubt helps a lot to select a suitable pair, it's really a very small part of the effort required to complete the task.

Cheers, I wont worry about it then until I can sit down at tackle the task, which will hopefully be sometime next week. Got a lot of reading and online activites in Sibelius to catch up on first. Then hopefully I will know exactly what I want to do.

Have you ever tried the word-setting option in the middle grade theory exams? if so you will have a starting point. If not, I will give you a couple of pointers.