I'm thinking about changing my major to music composition. Any advice/warnings/proclamations of terror?
Um. Hmm.
As far as I know, music composition programs vary from school to school. I've heard about ones that will try to steer you away from some sorts of composition, or teachers that might try to get you to compose in their fashion. This is just all sort of speculation, though, I don't really know too much about that. My school has more of a free approach to composition, in that all I can really remember from it was a lot of encouragement to "find your own voice" or whatever that meant. I kind of alternated between buying into that phrase and not. I wouldn't be surprised if you ran into a lot of "deep" statements like that along the way.
I guess it would probably be good to attend some composer concerts, if your school has them, just to get a feel for the sort of stuff that people make, or if something is expected, or perhaps the performance practice that the school has. I don't know why they wouldn't have composer concerts, those sorts of things are so you can have your music performed, which seems to at least be the focus of my school. Plus, I've heard from friends about other schools in which performance majors actually have to play in a certain amount of those composer concerts throughout the year, otherwise they can't move on. So at least look into that, see if there's any free concerts you can attend, perhaps.
As far as actual composition goes, I can't really give you too much advice on the content of what you make. Just try to remember that you're in a safe environment for wild experimentation. By that, I mean, you want to use your years in college to gain experience in your field so you do well later on, right? It's the same sort of thing with music composition. Your professors will probably tell you this too; experimentation is highly encouraged. They'll most likely push you to write for instruments and ensembles you've never tried out before, do wild and weird stuff that will probably fail. And failing is the point, although I still don't seem to realize that. If they're anything like my school is, their approach will be a lot like "just jump in and flail about until you learn how to float".
Of course, that still depends on your schooling.
Another thing you'll probably start to do is look critically at your own work. One of the things that my professors haven't really done before, but I've thought they should, would be to ask me -why- I did certain things in my music. Not to say that you should look critically at everything you do, but it's still a good thing to do no matter what degree or line of music you follow. Recognizing the things you do all the time allows you to push the envelope and move past that. Hopefully. At least recognizing stereotypes of your own music is a good thing.
For example, I routinely repeat something and add one layer. Why? I don't know. I really shouldn't at this point. Or how I usually just have one or two moving melody lines, and the rest are stagnant chords/padding. The second one I've at least been working on.
One thing that would probably be good to at least slightly mention would be the fact that you're probably going to hear a lot of music from other composition students. And some of it might be god-awful. Just remember that they're probably trying out stuff too, and just give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to that. I mean geez, one time, this one guy made a string quartet, and for about 5 minutes they just played high alternating scratchy tones. In unison. It actually made me physically want to leave the concert. Not saying you'll run into that all the time, but still, you might have a moment like that. You also might run into some incredible music or composers, though. I can definitely think of one or two people on my campus that I definitely admire. Just, sheez.
Proclamations of terror, can't really think of any. Nothing in my music composition times have been truly horrific, aside from that string quartet maybe. Of course, I never really put as much work into composition as I should, but still. It's just sort of a whole new world to jump into and work with, so have at it.
Hopefully something in this ramble answers your question, heh.
