Hello all!
So i love to play the piano, I took lessons for 6 years as a kid, stopped playing in college, im 25 and just picked up playing again last summer with a newly found interest in improvisation. i love colorful sounds that the emotion just overtakes me. I'm am recently getting into jazz. I got a Duke Ellington book and learned to sophisticated lady and in a sentimental tone, and theres riffs during those songs that just make me melt!! I'll hear piano songs of different genres and it just sounds so beautiful. I'm so passionate about understanding the why of it (theory). My goal is to be able to understand these sounds (BUT THERES SO MANY I CANT WRAP MY MIND AROUND IT) it almost feels infinite! take the D7th chord. there are so many ways to voice it. I am new to composing. I know , the basic idea of tension and release, my scales, and common chords to each scale, and i'll see them over and over in songs. But when it comes to trying to compose a riff that i feel deep, i draw a blank. I looked to jazz because of its depth and comlexity and i ended up really enjoying it. I just wnat to know, what do yo think are the "prerequisites" to being able to compose? Im thinking about taking lessons again but this time with a jazz teacher. I dont think im knowledgeable enough yet. What do you think?

Piano is a big mountain. A person can spend years and years, and only make it up to the first plateau in one genre. I suggest starting where you are, with what you can wrap your mind around.

Some instructors have low level novices trying their hand at composition, so certainly you can write music given what you wrote. The music may not be as complex and as interesting as your end goal, but if you don't start, you won't get anywhere, and it will remain a dream. I suggest that you keep learning, but go ahead and start composing.

An exercise that I have used and suggest to others is to take music that I heard in passing, perhaps in a TV commercial or movie trailer, or on the radio. Then try and capture the same tempo and mood, without necessarily trying to get the same melody or harmony. By focusing on mood and tempo, a person that is stuck, has something to aim for.

Poke at the piano, playing what you can play, until something interesting sounding comes out. Again, it doesn't have to match, better if it doesn't for the purposes of this exercise. Record any interesting snippets and start the next day from those recordings. Do this for many days, and the result is often an interesting piece of music. If it isn't going anywhere, junk it, and find something else to try and emulate. One key is to spend time on the project every day.

thanks for the reply, im going to try that excercise.

You're quite right. You have a LOT more work to do before qualifing for your Composers' Licence.

Hold on...but there ISN'T a Composer's Licence! Guess you'd better just get started then. I hereby give you permission. Yes, continue to study everything you can.

I think there are only two prerequisites:

1. Paper
2. Pen